Dr. Devendra K. Kothari
Population and Development Analyst,
Forum for Population Action
Wishing you a New
Year filled with New Hope and New Beginnings!
No doubt, the
people of India are angry. As 2012 made its exit, tens of thousands of ordinary
people, mostly young girls and boys, converged around India Gate not only to
protest on behalf of a 23-year-old student who was brutally gang rapped and
assaulted by a group of men in a moving bus in the heart of the capital of
India – New Delhi but also to shake the political class out of its deep slumber
to draw attention towards harsh reality of emerging India – extreme poverty,
low status of women, poor quality of education and pathetic governance and low
and order.
In fact, things are
going from bad to worse. India’s rank in the latest UN’s Human Development
Report has fallen from 123 in 2001 to 134 out of 187 countries and territories
in 2011. Further, India is simply not
doing enough for its women either. The Global Gender Gap Report 2011, released
by the World Economic Forum, reveals a stark and deep rooted gender gap in
India. The country has fallen from 96th rank in 2006 to 113th
in the last 6 years.
In addition, recent studies paint a grim picture of education, posing the risk
of eroding the long-term competitiveness of World’s fourth largest economy. A
study by the Programme for International Student Assessment found that out of
74 countries, Indian school students at the higher secondary level ranked
almost at the bottom, with only Kyrgyzstan faring worse than India. In yet
another wake-up call for policymakers, the 2011 Annual
Status of Education Report of
Pratham recoded sharp decline in reading and mathematical abilities of children
in the 6 to 14 years age category studying in rural India. Today, more children
are going to school but what they are learning is not clear. Can they get any
job in the market if they continue such education? Can industry get the
professionals it is looking for?
All this
is a rather shameful reflection of the
prevailing conditions in a country that is said to be on a growth song, and
indicate that India is heading towards an unstable situation of extreme danger
or difficulty that could lead to despair, social instability, political strife,
policymaking paralysis and capital flight as well as a rapid collapse in growth
rates. It appears that efforts made over the years to improve the quality of
life have partially been neutralized by neglecting some basic issues. The next
General Election is around the corner and our political parties are organizing
or will organize some sort of 'Chintan Shivirs’ or brain storming sessions
to work on a roadmap to win the election. In the changed situation, the measures like MGNREGA, the Food Security Bill or Direct Benefit Transfer
scheme, Free
Medicine, Free Electricity for Farmers, etc. will not provide balm.
In fact they are hurting development. All these, to a greater or lesser extent, are examples of outdated
populist measures to win the elections. The political class has to accept the
fact that things have changed especially the voter profile and requirements. As such, the political class has to keep pace
with the changed situation and focus on
real issues[1].
One has to recognize that population is an important
factor in development, especially when it is growing seemingly out of control
since it leads to a significant diversion of national investable resources to
consumption which could otherwise be used for increasing investment and
productivity and for improving the quality of public services. India’s population
has grown from 361 million in 1951 to 1210 million in 2011, and is still growing by around 17 to 18
million every year. India’s population is projected
to peak at 1700 million in 2060. The galloping population growth is
mainly fueled by unwanted fertility.
More than four in ten pregnancies are unintended/unplanned or unwanted by the women who experience them and half or
more of these pregnancies result in births that spur continued population
growth. Around 26.5 million children are born in India
every year and out of this about 6 million births have been classified as
unwanted. It is estimated that around 450 million people out of 1200 million in
India who are product of unwanted pregnancies, and most of them are from the
lower economic strata. The consequences of unintended pregnancy are serious,
slowing down the process of socio-economic development as well as process of
change, and is being reflected in widespread hunger, poverty,
unemployment, regressing governance as well as increasing scarcity of basic
resources like food, water and space despite concerted developmental efforts
since 1991.
Now
question arises why unwanted childbearing? While India is witnessing
galloping population growth, 15 million
currently married women in the reproductive ages in 2011, mostly in poor
performing States, seek to postpone childbearing, space births, or stop having
children, but are not using a modern method of contraception (that is having
unmet need for modern contraception).
Often, these women travel far from their communities to reach a government
health facility, only to return home “empty handed” due to shortages, stock
outs, and/or non availability of doctors and paramedical staff. When women are
thus turned away, they are unable to protect themselves from unwanted/unplanned
pregnancies. Thus, there is an
urgent need to revamp reproductive
heath services.
India
is simply not doing enough for its women to improve access to resources and
freedom of movement as well as improving decision making power. There is an urgent need to rethink as how to
expedite the process of women empowerment in a patriarchal and traditional
society with innumerable obstacles. After the Delhi gang rape murder, crimes
against women are engaging national attention like never before, and there is
greater demand for effective crime prevention, strict implementation of law and
expeditious justice delivery. But this alone is not going to help. Let us not construe the problem so narrowly. To deal with a problem that has roots in social behavior and
prejudice, mere legislation is not enough. To achieve the long-term vision,
however, one has to create an environment where sons and daughters are equally
valued.
For this,
women must have access to education and training along with economic
empowerment through property rights, favorable credit and entrepreneurial
support as well as opportunity in paid employment. Insuring reproductive rights[2] and better living
conditions could be another effective way to empower women in India.
Available
data indicate that sub-human living
conditions haunt people[3]. Only 47% of
households have source of water within the premises while 53% of households travel more than
half-a-km in rural areas and more than 100 meters in urban areas to fetch their
supplies in 2011. This problem is further compounded by lack of access to
sanitation. About half of total households in India
still defecate in open. This situation is particularly piquant for women and girls. It is estimated that around 290 million women in India
in 2011, the worst sufferers of open defecation, continue with the age-old
practice even after 20 years of economic reforms.
In addition, only
28% of the households use LPG as a cooing fuel, and around two-thirds of total households have electricity as the main
source of lightening in the country. This is a very sorry state of affairs for
the country, which basks in its success as a
growing business and technological mecca.
Another issue which
needs equal attention is quality of education.Many Indians including policy makers believe
that India has an inevitable advantage in its young “human capital”. Can
India take advantage of this demographic window in the next couple of decades
and garner its benefits? Unless education is rescued from
quagmire of mediocrity, all talk about developing a skilled human resource pool
and realizing the country`s demographic dividend will be without substance; and
the country would be inching closer to demographic disaster. Many schools,
especially government schools do not have enough classrooms, teachers and basic
facilities such as toilets and water. As
such, investment in education has to be increased to improve the quality
especially at the government schools and colleges where most of the students
are from poor and rural families.
The political class
is facing a very perplexing dilemma. It has arrived at a decisive movement of
history where it must choose between the antiquated and dynamic options
available to it. It is time that
we take cognizance of the fact that antiquated measures does not help anyone. As the country’s voter profile increasingly
turns young, the political class has to focus on real issues to satisfy the
interest of women and youth. And
that would definitely be a rallying point to win the confidence of growing
young population. As such, the political class or parties must adopt
gender-sensitive and youth-driven agendas to spread reproductive health,
education, infrastructure and economic opportunities to equip ever-larger
numbers of youth not only for gainful employment and grassroots
entrepreneurship but also deepen the democracy via inclusive growth, other wise
India may soon witness the Tahrir Square like
protests[4]. Hope the political class is listening!
[1]
In this
connection, see newspaper article by Jug Suraiya “For a Change”, Times of
India, January 16, 2013. Also see post by author: “To beat the gloom, India needs to focus on
real issues” at link: kotharionindia.blogspot.com, dated January31, 2012
[2] For details, see Kothari, Devendra. 2012. “Empowering Women in India through better
Reproductive Healthcare”, in Sheel Sharma and Angella Atwaru Ateri (eds.)
Empowering Women through Better HealthCare and Nutrition in Developing
Countries, New Delhi: Regency Publications, 2012, pp 68-86.
[3] See post on: “Quality of life and living environment in India”
dated September 30, 2012 by the author at the link: kotharionindia@blogspot.com. Also see article
by the author “West Bengal:
Household amenities with special reference to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and their implications”, UNICEF
West Bengal, Kolkata, 2012.
[4] The Tahrir Squar was the focal point of the
2011 Egyptian Revolution against
former president Hosni Mubarak.
