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On 'Empowerment through Education - Impact on Strengthening of Democracy', Delivered at University of Calcutta, January 20th, 2007 Professor Asis Kumar Banerjee, distinguished Vice-Chancellor, Calcutta University, Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee; Dr. Arati Bhattacharji; Learned Members of Faculties; Distinguished Guests; Dear Students; Ladies and Gentlemen: I feel greatly honoured and privileged to have been invited to deliver the Special Lecture in memory of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, one of the most illustrious founding Fathers of independent India, an eminent educationist, a parliamentarian par excellence, an acclaimed statesman, a great humanist and, above all, an ardent advocate of national unity and integrity. The Lecture, I am given to understand, has been instituted by Dr. Arati Bhattacharjee, in memory of her most illustrious Father in a befitting manner. I compliment her for her initiative. Friends, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee inherited a rich tradition of scholarship and fearlessness from his Father, the illustrious Sir Asutosh Mookerjee and himself was a man of profound convictions who left an indelible imprint on our national fabric. His brilliant academic record earned him fame far and wide and subsequently the honour of becoming the youngest Vice-Chancellor of this prestigious University. In this capacity, Dr. Mookerjee strove ceaselessly to put his innovative ideas on education into practice. Delivering his second Convocation Address at the University on 12 February, 1936, he explained his vision of education. I quote: Our ideal is to provide extensive facilities for education from the lowest grade to the highest, to mould our 'educationalist' purpose and to draw out the best qualities that be hidden in our youth and to train them intellectually, physically for devoted service in all spheres of national activity, in villages, in towns and cities. He went on to add: Our ideal is to link up education with the best elements of our culture and civilization drawing strength, wherever necessary, from the fountain of Western skill and knowledge. Our ideal is to make our universities and educational institutions the home of liberty and sane and progressive thought - generously assisted by the State and the public - where teachers and students will meet and work in an atmosphere of harmony and mutual understanding, where none will suffer on grounds of caste, sex, creed and religious or political belief. With these objectives in view, Dr. Mookerjee endeavoured to reorganize the University syllabus and the examination system. Special emphasis was laid on teachers' training, giving Bengali and the vernacular languages their due status in the curricula, and thrust to technical and scientific disciplines. His many-splendour contributions were acknowledged by the Calcutta University when it conferred the Honorary Doctor of Laws on him at a Special Convocation in November 1938. In the years that followed, Dr. Mookerjee devoted himself wholeheartedly to the task of nation building. As a Minister in the Bengal Cabinet, he worked tirelessly to uplift the poor and the weaker sections. His perceptive understanding of complex economic issues enabled him to discharge his duties as the Minister of Industry and Supply in the first National Government very successfully. He laid a firm foundation for the industrial development of the country. His constructive and enlightened approach and determined resistance to policies, which he regarded as inimical to national interests, made him a bulwark of freedom and democracy. As a distinguished member of the Constituent Assembly, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee made sterling contributions to the drafting of the Constitution. In one of his many memorable presentations, while speaking on the Objectives Resolutions, he outlined his vision thus: We shall go ahead with our work in spite of all difficulties and obstacles and help to create that great India, united and strong, which will be the motherland of not this community or that, not this class or that, but of every person, man, woman and child, inhabiting this great land, irrespective of race, caste, creed and community, where everyone will have an equal opportunity, an equal freedom, an equal status so that he or she could develop himself or herself to the best of his or her talents and serve faithfully and fearlessly this beloved common motherland of ours. After his election to the first Lok Sabha, Dr. Mookerjee's stature and acumen as a statesman, his parliamentary skill, eloquence and deep understanding of the problems facing the country, made him a towering leader of the Opposition. The Treasury Benches always respected him for his contributions on the floor of the House and this earned him the sobriquet, 'The Lion of Parliament'. Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee enriched our national life in innumerable ways, more particularly as a tireless defender of fundamental freedoms and democracy and as a visionary educationist. As a tribute to this great educationist and outstanding parliamentarian, I have today chosen to speak on the theme of 'Empowerment through Education - Impact on Strengthening of Democracy', a subject I consider befitting his lofty ideals. We are legitimately proud of being the largest functioning democracy. Our parliamentary polity has taken the best from other established democracies, but has a unique Indian imprint. It is aimed at providing an all-inclusive and participatory system of government for the people. It calls for a shared vision for the future, as well as dedicated devotion to realizing the noble principles enshrined in the Constitution. Today we find ourselves faced with a complex, yet compelling challenge of enhancing the quality of our democratic systems and structure. There is expectedly no ready formula available in this situation, which many delineate in shades of despair and cynicism, with only faint rays of hope and optimism. The approach and strategy will necessarily have to cover a broad spectrum of initiatives in as many spheres, and will need to be Designed & Developed by a firm resolve to make India the premier democracy which will be acknowledged, respected and honoured by all. It will bring the goal significantly closer and make it a realistic, deliverable one. I state, with some anguish, that after nearly six decades of Independence, it is a tragic commentary on the nature of our development that one billion citizens of the country live in different centuries. We have islands of affluence. Alongside, we have the scourge of poverty, backwardness, unemployment, illiteracy, lack of healthcare and basic infrastructure. Not surprisingly, yet disappointingly, the UNDP's Human Development Report 2006, ranks India, a dismal 96, out of 177 countries. Certainly I do not belittle our achievements so far, but, as I see it, the unfortunate developmental deficit is a potential threat to our democratic structure. Taken in conjunction with the imperfections that have beset our polity, for a variety of reasons, we can ignore the writing on the wall only at our peril. All of you I am sure will endorse my firm belief that there is no known, acceptable alternative to democracy and that too based on parliamentary system. The question is how to address the glaring deficiencies which one can identify. As I envision it, an empowered India, epitomizing true democratic values, is one where every citizen will be a proactive participant in the on going exciting and stupendous task of national development. One of the most promising and effective mechanisms to actualize this is quality education for all, as this will mandate and ensure transparency, efficiency, accountability and good governance. Democracy underpins the dignity of the individual and is based on the assumption of the infinite value and worth of human personality, irrespective of caste, creed, colour, race, gender or religion. Education, among others, inculcates those social and moral values among the citizens, provides exposure to new ideas, liberates individuals from mental traps and suggests new lines of thought, throws up innovative solutions to old problems, creates different levels of aspirations and helps establish world-class benchmarks of achievements. One of the major tasks that education performs in a democratic society is the preparation of young citizens for the roles and responsibilities they must be ready to take on in their years ahead, which is extremely crucial in a culturally, socially, linguistically and ethnically diverse society such as ours. Traditionally in India, education was monopolized along caste, as well as class lines. Realizing the importance of education, the concept of universal elementary education was incorporated in our Constitution. But despite the efforts made by successive Governments, the literacy level in our country still remains abysmally low. It is disheartening that 37 % of our population lacks literacy skills. There is not one modern economy in the world today that does not have a literacy rate of at least 80%. About 53% of our children drop out at the elementary stage itself. It is felt that our school system is characterized by an inflexibility that makes it resistant to change. Learning has tended to become an isolated activity which does not encourage linking knowledge with day-to-day life and its myriad facets in any organic or vital way. Very often, what is presented and transmitted in the name of learning in schools, bypasses vital dimensions of the human capacity to create new knowledge. It is evident that our socio-political system has failed to ensure that at least a majority of children between the ages of 6 and 14 are in school - instead of making up the world's largest child labour force. Around 53 % and 34 % of the children enrolled in Class I do not complete Class VIII and Class V respectively. Most of these are Dalits and Adivasis and remain labourers all their lives. The cess introduced to fund the 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan' is certainly a significant step forward. However, there needs to be a deeper conceptual appreciation of the imperative of compulsory and free school education, if the goal of universal elementary education is to be reached in the conceivable future. In his exhaustive work on child labour, literacy and school education in India, the Political Scientist, Myron Weiner, asserted the virtue of the State enforcing compulsory schooling by law and in a framework that rejects societal biases and hierarchical factors, which deprive large sections of classes and castes of the right to be educated. Among the different social groups, the estimated percentage of out-of-school children is 9.97% for Muslims, 9.54% for Scheduled Tribes (STs), 8.17% for Scheduled Castes (SCs), 6.9% for other backward classes (OBC) and 3.73% for others. At the national level, among the children who are out-of-school, 68.26% are those who never went to school and 31.74 % are those who dropped out from school after one or more years of schooling. Among the dropouts, the highest percentage is of those who dropped out after completing Class V and Class II (20.5% each). Next is the percentage of those who dropped out after class III (17.5%). According to a Planning Commission Report, a shocking 90% of Muslim students drop out by the time they reach high school. Only 1% of Muslim women and 3.4% of men in urban areas are graduates. In rural areas only 0.7% of Muslim men are graduates; there are too few women graduates to even register on a survey. While enrolment rates for primary education are high at almost 50% of the total age group, a large percentage of those enrolled drop out of school mid-way. Just a third of high school student's graduate. We have earned - what is at best - the dubious distinction of a nation of drop-outs. By 2015, 55% of our population will be under 20. But we may well squander our demographic edge. Further, without a much deeper reservoir of educated youth, India may see its gains in software and manufacturing evaporate. No country can survive if its young lose hope about their future. You may have heard of a private initiative, which (in 2004) implemented an incentive scheme, whereby State schools with the best students and teachers attendance and the biggest improvement in scores were awarded US $ 500. Some others have developed Village Parent-Teacher Associations to improve State schools. Without radical changes, India's greatest asset may be squandered. We must have the national sense to invest in people, upgrade their skills, so that they can achieve more for the country. How can we develop if we exclude one-fourth of our workforce from the system? It has been suggested by many competent people that Government funding on education should be raised from the current 0.9% of GDP to at least 2.5%, as recommended in the first Report of the National Knowledge Commission, released by the Hon'ble Prime Minister on 12 January 2007. You may know that China spends 8 % on education. Further, it is very uneven across urban and rural areas. When citizens are provided facilities unequally, a formula like the Gadgil Formula to allocate central funds to States may be worked out to allocate funds to students in Government schools in an equitable manner and ensure its better utilization. This will address the avoidable deterioration of public education facilities that has led to mounting concern about quality and increasing costs that have put it out of the ambit of wide sections of population. Thus, it is felt that future plans of the Government need to focus on both design and implementation in a manner that these loopholes are plugged. On another plane, gender disparity in education, as prevalent in our country, substantially weakens the democratic fabric of our country. According to the Planning Commission's National Human Development Report, 2001, the gender empowerment index was just 67.6% in the early 90s, implying that women trailed by a third in human development indicators. Not that we need data to bring home what is an everyday reality, but there are many States where gender indicators are worse than in Sub-Saharan Africa. Such gender disparity is directly linked with gender inequality at the level of family and society. No doubt, the educational empowerment of our female population finds expression in the legal as well as programmatic framework of our national endeavour. Our Constitution is committed to providing full and compulsory education to all up to the age of 14 years irrespective of gender. The 86th Constitution Amendment Act, 2002 has made elementary education a fundamental right for all children in the age-group of 6 to 14 years. This apart, the National Policy on Education, 1986 and the Programme of Action, 1992 are the other guiding documents that focus on various aspects of women’s educational empowerment. But unfortunately, the female literacy rate in our country is still strikingly lower than that of men.
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