In order to achieve the targeted growth rate of 9 per cent for the 11th Five Year Plan, country requires enormous investment in physical infrastructure. At 2006-07 prices, infrastructure investment requirement has been estimated at over 20,60,000 crores (about US $ 515.5 billion). This amount cannot be met by public sector alone. Moreover, investment in the social sectors is the priority charge on the Government’s own resources as they are not amenable to private investment in a big way.
Therefore, it is necessary to explore avenues for increasing investment in infrastructure through a combination of public investment, Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and also, exclusive private investments wherever feasible. PPPs offer a number of advantages in terms of leveraging public capital to attract private capital and undertake a larger number of infrastructure projects, introducing private sector expertise and cost reducing technologies and bringing efficiency in operations and maintenance.
Constraints
While encouraging PPPs main constraints identified are policy and regulatory gaps; inadequate availability of long term finance; inadequate capacity in public institutions and public officials to manage PPP processes; inadequate capacity in the private sector – both in the form of developer/investor and technical manpower; inadequate shelf of bankable infrastructure projects & inadequate advocacy to create greater acceptance of PPPs by the public.
Initiatives to promote PPPs
The Government has taken several initiatives to create an enabling framework for PPPs by addressing issues relating to policy and regulatory environment. Progressively more sectors have been opened to private and foreign investment, levy of user charges is being promoted, regulatory institutions are being set up and strengthened and fiscal incentives are given to infrastructure projects. Approval mechanism for PPPs in the central sector has been streamlined through setting up of Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee (PPPAC) in the Ministry of Finance headed by Finance Secretary. An Online database on PPP projects in the country is being developed to provide comprehensive information on the status of infrastructure sector PPPs.
Funding of PPP Projects
The Government has taken various steps to address the financing needs of these projects. India Infrastructure Finance Company Limited has been set up to provide long tenor debt to infrastructure projects and a scheme for Financial support to PPPs in infrastructure has been launched to provide Viability Gap Funding to PPP projects. Multilateral agencies such as Asian Development Bank have been permitted to raise Rupee bonds and carry out currency swaps to provide long term debt to PPP projects. Setting up of dedicated infrastructure funds are also being encouraged to increase the flow of equity investments.
The ‘India Infrastructure Finance Initiative’ facilitated by the Ministry of Finance, is one such collaborative effort to deploy approximately US$ 5 billion in capital for infrastructure projects in India. The Fund is structured as a Venture Capital Fund, with about US$ 2 billion in equity capital and US$ 3 billion in long term debt financing with maturities exceeding ten years. Initial steps have been taken to use Foreign Exchange Reserves for building Infrastructure. The Reserve Bank of India has given ‘in principle” approval to invest upto US $ 5 billion in the securities of the SPV and these would be fully guaranteed by the Government.
PPP Projects in India
Analysis based on study of 221 PPP projects in the country reveal that development and use of PPPs for delivering infrastructure services has now at least 10 years of precedence in India, with the majority of projects coming in line in the last five years. Participation as well as innovation with different structures have met with varying degrees of success.
Some sectors like telecommunications, power, ports and roads, have done very good progress compared to limited success in other sectors. Some states have undertaken far more PPPs than others, and a much heavier use of PPPs in some sectors than others. As per the survey of the 221 PPP projects in the main sectors of focus, undertaken at the instance of Department of Economic Affairs for preparation of the Online Database on PPPs, - where a contract has been awarded and projects are underway - the total project cost is estimated to be about Rs. 1,29,575 Crore.
The road projects account for 78 percent of the total number of projects (36 percent by total value) because of the small average size of projects. Ports, with a much larger average size of project, account for 17 percent of the total number of projects (47 percent by total value). It is noteworthy that if ports and central road projects are excluded from the total, there is a relatively small value of deal flow, in basic infrastructure PPPs to-date, suggesting a significant potential upside for PPP projects across sectors where states and municipalities have primary responsibility.
The potential use of PPPs in e-governance, health and education sectors remains largely untapped across India as a whole, though of late there have been some activities shaping in these sectors. Almost all contracts have been of the BOT/BOOT type or close variants. Since its constitution in January 2006, PPPAC has granted approval to 65 projects, with an estimated cost of Rs. 53,284.95 crore. These includes Highways (Fifty-six projects), Ports (six projects), Airports (two projects) and Tourism Infrastructure (one project).
Outlook
The Central Government is working with the State Governments and all other stakeholders to expand the horizon of PPPs in infrastructure development in the country. It has created a favourable atmosphere, provided fiscal incentives and facilitated funding of PPP projects. The Government now allows FDI in most infrastructure sectors to the extent of 100 percent. The time is ripe for the foreign strategic investors for taking greater interest in PPP Projects for infrastructure development.
Posted by Career Quest Education, India
Saturday, August 22, 2009
PANCHAYATI RAJ- POWER TO THE GRASS-ROOTS
Village communities in the Indian sub-continent have been self-governing over the centuries. The earlier councils or assemblies called Sabhas had a position of considerable authority and slowly they assumed the form of the Panchayats. These Panchayats became the pivot of administration and the principal forum for the dispensation of justice and resolution of local disputes. The British Colonial Administration referred to these village communities as “little republics”. The Indian constitution adopted w.e.f. 26th January 1950 included Article 40 that read : “The state shall take steps to organize village Panchayats and endow them with such power and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government”.
In 1957, a historic breakthrough in establishing Panchayati Raj came about through the report of the Team for the Study of Community Development Projects and National Extension Service headed by Shri Balwantrai Mehta which recommended that “public participation in community works should be organized through statutory representative bodies”. The Team was of the view that without an agency at the village level that could represent the entire community, assume responsibility and provide the necessary leadership for implementing development progammes, real progress in rural development could not come about. Further discourse on this matter saw the term “Panchayati Raj” gaining currency as a process of governance organically linking the will of the people from the Gram Sabha to the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Nehru inaugurated Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan on 2nd October, 1959 at Nagaur.
From 1959 to the eighties, Panchayati Raj made sporadic progress in different parts of the country. While it took root in States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, in many States elections to the Panchayats were not held regularly and long periods went by when there was no effective representation of people at the grassroots nor was the participation of representative institutions at the grassroots in development programmes and local governance visible. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was driven by a vision to provide the people with a “representative administration”.
He also observed that there were weaknesses in the structure of Indian democracy since although the superstructure was strong, the foundation was weak. Putting together both Houses of Parliament and the State Legislatures, there were only 5-6 thousand persons representing nearly 80 crore Indians. Panchayati Raj finally got the constitutional mandate through the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Bill, which was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 1992. The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force on 24th April, 1993. The 73rd Amendment provides for the constitution of the Panchayats at the village, block and district levels. Elections at five years intervals are also mandated. Reservation of at least one third of seats for women is provided for. Disadvantaged sections of society such as SCs, STs and OBCs (in some states) get representation in proportion of their population.
The establishment of State Election Commissions and State Finance Commissions is mandatory. Provision has also been made through Article 243ZD introduced through the 74th Amendment to the Constitution for constitution of District Planning Committees. The 73rd Amendment is applicable in 24 States and five Union Territories.
Today, when most States and Union Territories have had three rounds of elections, there are more than 28 lakh elected representations at the 3 levels of Panchayats. Of these over 10 lakh are women, 5.2 lakh belong to the Scheduled Castes and 3.3 lakh to the Scheduled Tribes. The last fifteen years have seen a silent revolution in the rural areas as political representation available to women and marginalized groups has empowered them and improved their social and economic situation very significantly.
One of the first actions of the Government, when it took office in May 2004, was to set up a separate Ministry of Panchayati Raj to provide focused and dedicated attention to operationalizing the constitutional mandate on Panchayati Raj. It was decided to evolve a national consensus regarding the roadmap for Panchayati Raj through consultations between the Centre and the States.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj organized Seven Round Tables which the State Ministers of Panchayati Raj joined. Within a period of 150 days, from 23rd July 2004 to 19th December, 2004, 18 dimensions of Panchayati Raj ranging from the effective devolution of the 3Fs – functions, finances and functionaries – to district planning, training, capacity building and IT enabled e-governance were discussed. At the conclusion of all the Round Tables the totality of nearly 150 action points were unanimously adopted by all Panchayati Raj Ministers. The priority areas identified for concerted action were Activity Mapping, Panchayat Sector Windows in State budgets based on the Activity Maps and the assignment of functionaries in conformity with the pattern of devolution of functions and finances
Local self-government is a State subject. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment makes it mandatory for all States to hold regular elections to the three tiers of the Panchayati Raj system. Panchayat Raj has thus brought in a third stratum of government to supplement the Union Government at the Centre and the State Government to reinforce the federal characteristics of our Constitution. At an operational level the largest inflow of resources to State Governments is through Centrally Sponsored Schemes that cover sectors like primary education, public health, drinking water, sanitation, etc. identified in the 11th Schedule for devolution to the Panchayats.
Key Objectives
One of the key objectives of Panchayati Raj is to ensure that the process of planning for development in the country follows a bottom-up approach and commences at the grassroots level. The core approach is that the village Panchayat plans prepared with people’s participation are joined by plans prepared by the Intermediate and District Panchayats and these are then consolidated by the District Planning Committees with the Municipal plans into the draft district development plan.
Till now, 18 States in the country have constituted District Planning Committees while the process is underway in the remaining ones where Part IX of the Constitution is applicable. In order to guide the process of grassroots planning an Expert Group was constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri V. Ramachandran and the recommendations of the Group have been accepted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Planning Commission for guiding the process of district planning. Decentralization and planning from the below have also been recognized in the 11th Plan document endorsed by the National Development Council. This document also recognizes the centrality of the role to be played by the Panchayats in the planning and development process.
Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme
The BRGF is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. The fund provides financial resources in supplementing and converging existing development inflows into the identified 250 districts with a view to bridging critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows. It is expected that the fund will help strengthen panchayat and municipal level governance with appropriate capacity building, facilitation of participatory planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring to reflect the local felt needs.
Through the Fund, professional support can be provided to local bodies and it is hoped that this will help improve the performance and delivery of critical functions assigned to Panchayats. The substantially untied grant is distributed among the districts with each district receiving a fixed minimum amount of Rs.10 crore per annum. 250 crore is reserved for capacity building while 50% of the balance under this Scheme is released on the basis of population and 50% on the basis of physical area of the district.
It may be mentioned also that Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) has been subsumed in the BRGF and balance allocations to districts that have not completed implementation of their plans approved under the RSVY are funded from BRGF. In 2007-08 an amount of Rs.3599 crore was released to the districts under RSVY and BRGF. This year the allocation for the programme is Rs.4670 crore.
Empowerment of Women
Indeed, the proportion of women getting elected tends to be significantly higher than the reserved quota, with women from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes often securing election to a higher proportion of seats and chairpersonships than women from the socially and economically better off classes. The political and social empowerment of women on this scale is without parallel in the world and without precedent in the history. There are more elected women in India than in the rest of the world put together. Combined with the economic empowerment fostered by the enormously successful women’s self-help group movement, what we are witnessing in the Indian countryside is a gender revolution of a magnitude never before seen.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has launched the Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan (PMSA) in collaboration with the National Commission for Women’s “Chalo Gaon ki ore Programme” that aims at consolidating the collective strength of elected women representatives. Each time a PMSA is convened, elected women representatives in a State get together in a conference where experiences sharing and discussion of common problems is facilitated.
In November 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj published the first comprehensive baseline report on the state of Panchayat across the rural India. In March 2008, the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim, Manipur, Goa and Haryana were awarded in recognition of their efforts in empowering the Panchayats.
Rural Business Hubs
The idea of setting up rural businesses through facilitation by Panchayats originated from the Prime Minister’s address to the Conference of Chief Ministers on 29th June, 2004, where he stressed the importance of decentralized economic development in rural areas. In November 2004, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Confederation of Indian Industry jointly organized a national presentation on Rural Business Hubs. This was followed up with identification of champion products in block Panchayats, developing linkages with industry and promoting training of artisans and marketing of agri and handicrafts items.
Removing poverty and ensuring that the “Aam Admi” gets the services from the State that he/she is entitled to is the avowed goal of the Government. Satisfactory development of outcomes cannot be ensured without the participation of grassroots institutions of local governance. While much progress has been made over the last 15 years, much more still remains to be done before we can have a true participatory democracy functioning from the grassroots level upwards where every Indian has a voice and every Indian gets his entitlements.
In 1957, a historic breakthrough in establishing Panchayati Raj came about through the report of the Team for the Study of Community Development Projects and National Extension Service headed by Shri Balwantrai Mehta which recommended that “public participation in community works should be organized through statutory representative bodies”. The Team was of the view that without an agency at the village level that could represent the entire community, assume responsibility and provide the necessary leadership for implementing development progammes, real progress in rural development could not come about. Further discourse on this matter saw the term “Panchayati Raj” gaining currency as a process of governance organically linking the will of the people from the Gram Sabha to the Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Nehru inaugurated Panchayati Raj in Rajasthan on 2nd October, 1959 at Nagaur.
From 1959 to the eighties, Panchayati Raj made sporadic progress in different parts of the country. While it took root in States such as Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, in many States elections to the Panchayats were not held regularly and long periods went by when there was no effective representation of people at the grassroots nor was the participation of representative institutions at the grassroots in development programmes and local governance visible. Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was driven by a vision to provide the people with a “representative administration”.
He also observed that there were weaknesses in the structure of Indian democracy since although the superstructure was strong, the foundation was weak. Putting together both Houses of Parliament and the State Legislatures, there were only 5-6 thousand persons representing nearly 80 crore Indians. Panchayati Raj finally got the constitutional mandate through the Constitution (73rd Amendment) Bill, which was passed by both Houses of Parliament in December 1992. The Constitution (73rd Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force on 24th April, 1993. The 73rd Amendment provides for the constitution of the Panchayats at the village, block and district levels. Elections at five years intervals are also mandated. Reservation of at least one third of seats for women is provided for. Disadvantaged sections of society such as SCs, STs and OBCs (in some states) get representation in proportion of their population.
The establishment of State Election Commissions and State Finance Commissions is mandatory. Provision has also been made through Article 243ZD introduced through the 74th Amendment to the Constitution for constitution of District Planning Committees. The 73rd Amendment is applicable in 24 States and five Union Territories.
Today, when most States and Union Territories have had three rounds of elections, there are more than 28 lakh elected representations at the 3 levels of Panchayats. Of these over 10 lakh are women, 5.2 lakh belong to the Scheduled Castes and 3.3 lakh to the Scheduled Tribes. The last fifteen years have seen a silent revolution in the rural areas as political representation available to women and marginalized groups has empowered them and improved their social and economic situation very significantly.
One of the first actions of the Government, when it took office in May 2004, was to set up a separate Ministry of Panchayati Raj to provide focused and dedicated attention to operationalizing the constitutional mandate on Panchayati Raj. It was decided to evolve a national consensus regarding the roadmap for Panchayati Raj through consultations between the Centre and the States.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj organized Seven Round Tables which the State Ministers of Panchayati Raj joined. Within a period of 150 days, from 23rd July 2004 to 19th December, 2004, 18 dimensions of Panchayati Raj ranging from the effective devolution of the 3Fs – functions, finances and functionaries – to district planning, training, capacity building and IT enabled e-governance were discussed. At the conclusion of all the Round Tables the totality of nearly 150 action points were unanimously adopted by all Panchayati Raj Ministers. The priority areas identified for concerted action were Activity Mapping, Panchayat Sector Windows in State budgets based on the Activity Maps and the assignment of functionaries in conformity with the pattern of devolution of functions and finances
Local self-government is a State subject. The 73rd Constitutional Amendment makes it mandatory for all States to hold regular elections to the three tiers of the Panchayati Raj system. Panchayat Raj has thus brought in a third stratum of government to supplement the Union Government at the Centre and the State Government to reinforce the federal characteristics of our Constitution. At an operational level the largest inflow of resources to State Governments is through Centrally Sponsored Schemes that cover sectors like primary education, public health, drinking water, sanitation, etc. identified in the 11th Schedule for devolution to the Panchayats.
Key Objectives
One of the key objectives of Panchayati Raj is to ensure that the process of planning for development in the country follows a bottom-up approach and commences at the grassroots level. The core approach is that the village Panchayat plans prepared with people’s participation are joined by plans prepared by the Intermediate and District Panchayats and these are then consolidated by the District Planning Committees with the Municipal plans into the draft district development plan.
Till now, 18 States in the country have constituted District Planning Committees while the process is underway in the remaining ones where Part IX of the Constitution is applicable. In order to guide the process of grassroots planning an Expert Group was constituted under the Chairmanship of Shri V. Ramachandran and the recommendations of the Group have been accepted by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and Planning Commission for guiding the process of district planning. Decentralization and planning from the below have also been recognized in the 11th Plan document endorsed by the National Development Council. This document also recognizes the centrality of the role to be played by the Panchayats in the planning and development process.
Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) Programme
The BRGF is designed to redress regional imbalances in development. The fund provides financial resources in supplementing and converging existing development inflows into the identified 250 districts with a view to bridging critical gaps in local infrastructure and other development requirements that are not being adequately met through existing inflows. It is expected that the fund will help strengthen panchayat and municipal level governance with appropriate capacity building, facilitation of participatory planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring to reflect the local felt needs.
Through the Fund, professional support can be provided to local bodies and it is hoped that this will help improve the performance and delivery of critical functions assigned to Panchayats. The substantially untied grant is distributed among the districts with each district receiving a fixed minimum amount of Rs.10 crore per annum. 250 crore is reserved for capacity building while 50% of the balance under this Scheme is released on the basis of population and 50% on the basis of physical area of the district.
It may be mentioned also that Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana (RSVY) has been subsumed in the BRGF and balance allocations to districts that have not completed implementation of their plans approved under the RSVY are funded from BRGF. In 2007-08 an amount of Rs.3599 crore was released to the districts under RSVY and BRGF. This year the allocation for the programme is Rs.4670 crore.
Empowerment of Women
Indeed, the proportion of women getting elected tends to be significantly higher than the reserved quota, with women from the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes often securing election to a higher proportion of seats and chairpersonships than women from the socially and economically better off classes. The political and social empowerment of women on this scale is without parallel in the world and without precedent in the history. There are more elected women in India than in the rest of the world put together. Combined with the economic empowerment fostered by the enormously successful women’s self-help group movement, what we are witnessing in the Indian countryside is a gender revolution of a magnitude never before seen.
The Ministry of Panchayati Raj has launched the Panchayat Mahila Shakti Abhiyan (PMSA) in collaboration with the National Commission for Women’s “Chalo Gaon ki ore Programme” that aims at consolidating the collective strength of elected women representatives. Each time a PMSA is convened, elected women representatives in a State get together in a conference where experiences sharing and discussion of common problems is facilitated.
In November 2006, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj published the first comprehensive baseline report on the state of Panchayat across the rural India. In March 2008, the States of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Sikkim, Manipur, Goa and Haryana were awarded in recognition of their efforts in empowering the Panchayats.
Rural Business Hubs
The idea of setting up rural businesses through facilitation by Panchayats originated from the Prime Minister’s address to the Conference of Chief Ministers on 29th June, 2004, where he stressed the importance of decentralized economic development in rural areas. In November 2004, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the Confederation of Indian Industry jointly organized a national presentation on Rural Business Hubs. This was followed up with identification of champion products in block Panchayats, developing linkages with industry and promoting training of artisans and marketing of agri and handicrafts items.
Removing poverty and ensuring that the “Aam Admi” gets the services from the State that he/she is entitled to is the avowed goal of the Government. Satisfactory development of outcomes cannot be ensured without the participation of grassroots institutions of local governance. While much progress has been made over the last 15 years, much more still remains to be done before we can have a true participatory democracy functioning from the grassroots level upwards where every Indian has a voice and every Indian gets his entitlements.
UNIVERSALIZING SECONDARY EDUCATION
Secondary Education occupies a crucial stage in the educational hierarchy as it prepares the students for higher education and also to face the challenges of life at large. Besides moulding the personality traits, this stage of education also enhances individual level of productivity.
The remarkable growth of enrolment in elementary education and improvement in retention rate over the past few years, particularly among more disadvantageous sections of society, have dramatically shifted the focus to the Secondary Education sector in the country.
Increased Demand For Secondary And Higher Education
While pressure on Secondary Education is already being felt due to the success of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universalisation of Elementary Education ), India’s impressive and sustained economic growth has worked as an impetus for increased demand for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
Added to this is the increased awareness about the role of Secondary Education, in particular for the girl child, in reinforcing positive social outcomes. There is a growing realization of the desirability to universalize access to secondary education leading to greater opportunity for participation to all. In other words, the challenge today is how to drastically improve the reach and quality of Secondary Education.
Keeping in view the rapid growth of Indian economy, the demographic advantage that India enjoys, the centrality of education in social and economic development, and the role of education in poverty reduction, an all out emphasis on education is visible in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) which has an allocation of Rs. 2,89,000 crore for Education constituting 19.4% of the total plan size. This is a steep increase from the share of 7.7% in the 10th Plan. With a view to achieve the goal of universalisation of access to secondary education while improving quality in a phased and sustained manner, the allocation for the Secondary Education sector for the 11th five year plan has been pegged at Rs. 53,550 crore, which reflects a quantum jump from the 10th Five year plan allocation of Rs. 4, 325 crore. This twelve fold increase brings within its fold a series of new schemes besides revising existing schemes making their design, intervention and coverage wider and more focused.
The importance accorded to secondary education can be gauged from the fact that it occupies a share of 19.9% of the total Central Plan allocation to the education sector in the 11th Plan as compared to only 9.9% in the 10th Plan.
The Most Active, Dynamic And Happening Sector
In all, there are eight important schemes being rolled out in the Secondary Education sector alone, during the 11th Plan, making it one of the most active, dynamic and happening sectors. The new schemes that have already been rolled out, or in the pipeline are:
(1) Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan,
(2) Model Schools,
(3) National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship,
(4) Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education,
(5) Girls’ Hostel
(6) ICT in Schools,
(7) Inclusive Education for the Disabled Children and
(8) Vocationalization of Secondary Education.
These schemes, individually as well as collectively, address issues connected with access, equity and quality in the entire gamut of Secondary Education sector.
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) or SUCCESS (Scheme of Universalization of Access to and Improvement of Quality at Secondary Stage) , as the scheme is alternatively called, will be a centrally sponsored scheme for universalizing access to secondary level through substantial enhancement of access so that by the end of 12th Five Year Plan, there would generally be a high school within 5 kms of any habitation. The main objectives include improvement of the gross enrolment ratio for classes IX-X to 75% by 2012 from 52.26% in 2005-06 and to provide facilities for estimated additional enrolment of 63 lakh by 2011-12 through strengthening of 44,000 existing Government high schools and opening of nearly 12, 000 new high schools, through upgradation of higher primary schools, appointment of 2.50 lakh additional teachers and construction of 1.33 lakh additional classrooms.
The scheme envisages development of State-specific norms. The general strategies are to provide required infrastructure and teaching-learning resources, including laboratories, libraries , computer rooms, toilets and qualified teachers. The scheme also envisages in-service training of teachers, capacity building of Headmasters and broad-based curricular, examination and educational governance reforms. National Curriculum Framework 2005 is already a right step in the direction of desirable curricular reforms.
As a basic requirement in planning the entire activity, complete mapping of secondary schools for developing a comprehensive Secondary Education Information and Management System (SEMIS) is being undertaken by the States.
Rs. 20,120 crore has been allocated for this scheme during the 11th Five year Plan, with a budget provision of Rs. 2185 crore during 2008-09. The ultimate aim is to universalize secondary education by achieving full enrolment by the end of the XIIth Plan, i.e., 2017, and to attain full retention by 2020.
6000 Model Schools at Block Level
Pursuant to the announcement of the Prime Minister, during his address to the nation on the Independence Day last year, the scheme of model school supports 6,000 new high quality schools – one in every block of the country. These schools will play a pace-setting role for other schools in the Block. The schools would have quality infrastructure, innovative curriculum, pedagogy and assessment system, effective and innovative use of educational technologies including ICT and a superior system of school management and governance. 3500 of these schools will be set up in the Government sector whereas 2500 will be set up under public-private partnership.
An amount of Rs. 12,750 crore has been earmarked for the scheme in the 11th five year plan and the budget allocation for 2008-09 is Rs. 650 crore. It is expected that these schools, spread over the entire country, will act as live demonstration of what a good school should be, and will act as nuclei for a positive qualitative shift in the schools of the neighbouring area, and will thus lead to a quality revolution in the secondary education sector.
National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme
While access to secondary education needs to be substantially improved, the issue of equity is equally important to achieve our ultimate aim of inclusiveness in the society. To bring meritorious students belonging to dis-advantageous and socially and economically backward section of the society to the secondary schools, the Central Government has launched a scheme to award one lakh new scholarships every year to students of class IX. Each selected student will be given Rs. 500 per month for study in classes IX upto XII. This is intended to arrest the drop-out at class VIII and to encourage the students to continue upto the end of the higher secondary stage.
Selection test for the first batch of students is being conducted by most State Governments on 16th or 17th August, 2008. It is hoped that the drop-outing of many bright students at the end of upper primary level would be checked because of this scheme, which will motivate them to continue to excel.
Incentive Scheme for SC/ST Girls
Gender disparity in secondary education is a cause of concern. In 2005-06, the enrolment ratio for girls in the secondary stage was 46.23% as against the figure of 57.72% for boys. Similarly, the drop-out rate for girls from class I to X was 73.7% as against 68% for boys. The disparity in case of SC/ST girls is even more alarming with the enrolment for ST girls at a lowly 32.6% and drop-out rate at a high of 79.8%.
In this background, the Central Government has launched a centrally sponsored scheme to encourage higher participation of girls. Under the scheme, a sum of Rs. 3000 will be deposited in the names of all SC/ST girls and also all girls who have studied in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, who pass class VIII and enrol for class IX in Government and Government-aided schools. The amount with interest will be payable to the girls after they reach the age of 18 provided they complete at least class X successfully.
Girls’ Hostel Scheme
Another scheme specially aimed at enhancement of participation of girl students, is to provide hostel facility so that they don’t discontinue secondary education due to distance from home to school. The scheme will assist the State Governments for construction of one 100-seater hostel in each of about 3500 identified educationally backward blocks in the country. The target group would be the girls studying in classes IX to XII, with special focus on SC, ST, OBC, minority and families below poverty line. The Central Government will also assist the States in meeting a major part of the recurring cost for running the hostels during the 11th Plan. An allocation of Rs. 2000 crore has been made in the 11th Plan for this purpose.
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in School” was launched in December 2004, for imparting ICT literacy to high school students and also to use ICT in an effective way to enhance the quality of teaching. The Scheme is a major catalyst to bridge the digital divide amongst students of various socio economic and other geographical barriers. The Scheme provides support to States/UTs to establish ICT infrastructure on a sustainable basis and to provide internet connectivity.
The Scheme currently covers both Government and Government aided secondary and higher secondary schools.
Support is provided for procurement of computers and peripherals, educational software, training of teachers and internet connectivity.
A computer lab having at least 10 working stations is envisaged in each school. For Smart Schools the lab may have at least 40 work stations.
The project cost is shared in the ratio of : 75:25 between Centre and General Category States and 90:10 between Centre and Special Category States. During 2007-08, assistance was provided for 22,833 schools.
Allocation for the scheme for the 11th Five Year Plan is Rs. 6000 crore. It is proposed to ICT-enable all the government and government aided schools in the country by the end of the 11th Plan, so as to bring about a major qualitative improvement in teaching-learning process in these schools.
Inclusive Education for Disabled Children
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children was launched in 1974 with a view to provide educational opportunities to children with mild to moderate disability in common schools and facilitate their retention in the school system.
Under the scheme, disabled children receive allowances for books & stationery, uniform, equipment (assistive aids), transport, readers, escorts, and boarding and lodging. The scheme also provides for appointment of special teachers, attendants for severely orthopaedically handicapped children, removal of architectural barriers and production of relevant instructional material. 2.84 lakh disabled children were covered under this scheme in 28 States/UTs during the Xth Plan. Over 200 NGOs were engaged in implementing the scheme. At the end of the 2007-08, 3.6 lakh disabled children were covered in 31 States/UTs with an expenditure of Rs.76.11 crore in 2007-08.
Steps have been initiated for launching a new scheme of “Inclusive Education of the Disabled at Secondary Stage” so as to shift the focus from integration to inclusion, and a no rejection policy in the schools.
Vocationalisation of Secondary Education
The existing Centrally Sponsored scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education was launched in 1988 and has already covered 10,000 schools with 25,000 vocational sections through establishment of capacity for an annual intake of 10 lakh students. Presently 150 vocational courses are being offered. The scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education is under revamp to make it more need-based and to reduce the demand and supply gap in the economy.
Besides introducing new skill-based courses at the higher secondary level with appropriate curriculum, 10,000 new vocational schools are proposed to be opened so as to enroll about 25 lakh students in these courses. Linkage with industry, scope for horizontal and vertical mobility, training of vocational teachers, modularity of courses with multiple entry and exit facilities, career guidance and counseling, apprenticeship etc., will be insisted upon so as to ensure that the courses practically benefit the students in choosing the career and in specialization in higher education.
Other Schemes
The Central Government also runs Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas through autonomous organizations to provide quality education. These are pace setting schools for the entire country. There are 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas as of now. 50 of these were opened in educationally backward special focus districts during the last two years.
Navodaya Vidyalayas are residential schools meant to provide quality education to talented rural children. There are 554 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in as many districts and these help fulfilling the aspiration of a large number of bright rural children and their parents. All expenses on boarding and lodging of students of JNVs as well as expenses on their uniform, stationery etc. are borne through support from the Central Government. It has been decided to open 20 new Vidyalayas in districts having large concentration of SC and ST population so as to give a boost to education of meritorious SC/ST children.
National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), another autonomous organization under the Ministry of HRD provides opportunity to those outside the formal school system to learn through distance education mode. The Central Government also encourages State Governments to open their own State Open Schools. Besides conventional curriculum for various stages of school education till higher secondary level, the National Open School also offers a variety of vocational courses of practical utility. With the advent of knowledge economy and its attendant requirement of skill and attitude, the importance of secondary education can not be over stressed. The Central Government, in partnership with State Governments has chalked out a blue print to enhance access to quality secondary education while ensuring equity.
The remarkable growth of enrolment in elementary education and improvement in retention rate over the past few years, particularly among more disadvantageous sections of society, have dramatically shifted the focus to the Secondary Education sector in the country.
Increased Demand For Secondary And Higher Education
While pressure on Secondary Education is already being felt due to the success of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Universalisation of Elementary Education ), India’s impressive and sustained economic growth has worked as an impetus for increased demand for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
Added to this is the increased awareness about the role of Secondary Education, in particular for the girl child, in reinforcing positive social outcomes. There is a growing realization of the desirability to universalize access to secondary education leading to greater opportunity for participation to all. In other words, the challenge today is how to drastically improve the reach and quality of Secondary Education.
Keeping in view the rapid growth of Indian economy, the demographic advantage that India enjoys, the centrality of education in social and economic development, and the role of education in poverty reduction, an all out emphasis on education is visible in the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12) which has an allocation of Rs. 2,89,000 crore for Education constituting 19.4% of the total plan size. This is a steep increase from the share of 7.7% in the 10th Plan. With a view to achieve the goal of universalisation of access to secondary education while improving quality in a phased and sustained manner, the allocation for the Secondary Education sector for the 11th five year plan has been pegged at Rs. 53,550 crore, which reflects a quantum jump from the 10th Five year plan allocation of Rs. 4, 325 crore. This twelve fold increase brings within its fold a series of new schemes besides revising existing schemes making their design, intervention and coverage wider and more focused.
The importance accorded to secondary education can be gauged from the fact that it occupies a share of 19.9% of the total Central Plan allocation to the education sector in the 11th Plan as compared to only 9.9% in the 10th Plan.
The Most Active, Dynamic And Happening Sector
In all, there are eight important schemes being rolled out in the Secondary Education sector alone, during the 11th Plan, making it one of the most active, dynamic and happening sectors. The new schemes that have already been rolled out, or in the pipeline are:
(1) Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan,
(2) Model Schools,
(3) National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship,
(4) Incentive to Girls for Secondary Education,
(5) Girls’ Hostel
(6) ICT in Schools,
(7) Inclusive Education for the Disabled Children and
(8) Vocationalization of Secondary Education.
These schemes, individually as well as collectively, address issues connected with access, equity and quality in the entire gamut of Secondary Education sector.
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan
Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) or SUCCESS (Scheme of Universalization of Access to and Improvement of Quality at Secondary Stage) , as the scheme is alternatively called, will be a centrally sponsored scheme for universalizing access to secondary level through substantial enhancement of access so that by the end of 12th Five Year Plan, there would generally be a high school within 5 kms of any habitation. The main objectives include improvement of the gross enrolment ratio for classes IX-X to 75% by 2012 from 52.26% in 2005-06 and to provide facilities for estimated additional enrolment of 63 lakh by 2011-12 through strengthening of 44,000 existing Government high schools and opening of nearly 12, 000 new high schools, through upgradation of higher primary schools, appointment of 2.50 lakh additional teachers and construction of 1.33 lakh additional classrooms.
The scheme envisages development of State-specific norms. The general strategies are to provide required infrastructure and teaching-learning resources, including laboratories, libraries , computer rooms, toilets and qualified teachers. The scheme also envisages in-service training of teachers, capacity building of Headmasters and broad-based curricular, examination and educational governance reforms. National Curriculum Framework 2005 is already a right step in the direction of desirable curricular reforms.
As a basic requirement in planning the entire activity, complete mapping of secondary schools for developing a comprehensive Secondary Education Information and Management System (SEMIS) is being undertaken by the States.
Rs. 20,120 crore has been allocated for this scheme during the 11th Five year Plan, with a budget provision of Rs. 2185 crore during 2008-09. The ultimate aim is to universalize secondary education by achieving full enrolment by the end of the XIIth Plan, i.e., 2017, and to attain full retention by 2020.
6000 Model Schools at Block Level
Pursuant to the announcement of the Prime Minister, during his address to the nation on the Independence Day last year, the scheme of model school supports 6,000 new high quality schools – one in every block of the country. These schools will play a pace-setting role for other schools in the Block. The schools would have quality infrastructure, innovative curriculum, pedagogy and assessment system, effective and innovative use of educational technologies including ICT and a superior system of school management and governance. 3500 of these schools will be set up in the Government sector whereas 2500 will be set up under public-private partnership.
An amount of Rs. 12,750 crore has been earmarked for the scheme in the 11th five year plan and the budget allocation for 2008-09 is Rs. 650 crore. It is expected that these schools, spread over the entire country, will act as live demonstration of what a good school should be, and will act as nuclei for a positive qualitative shift in the schools of the neighbouring area, and will thus lead to a quality revolution in the secondary education sector.
National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme
While access to secondary education needs to be substantially improved, the issue of equity is equally important to achieve our ultimate aim of inclusiveness in the society. To bring meritorious students belonging to dis-advantageous and socially and economically backward section of the society to the secondary schools, the Central Government has launched a scheme to award one lakh new scholarships every year to students of class IX. Each selected student will be given Rs. 500 per month for study in classes IX upto XII. This is intended to arrest the drop-out at class VIII and to encourage the students to continue upto the end of the higher secondary stage.
Selection test for the first batch of students is being conducted by most State Governments on 16th or 17th August, 2008. It is hoped that the drop-outing of many bright students at the end of upper primary level would be checked because of this scheme, which will motivate them to continue to excel.
Incentive Scheme for SC/ST Girls
Gender disparity in secondary education is a cause of concern. In 2005-06, the enrolment ratio for girls in the secondary stage was 46.23% as against the figure of 57.72% for boys. Similarly, the drop-out rate for girls from class I to X was 73.7% as against 68% for boys. The disparity in case of SC/ST girls is even more alarming with the enrolment for ST girls at a lowly 32.6% and drop-out rate at a high of 79.8%.
In this background, the Central Government has launched a centrally sponsored scheme to encourage higher participation of girls. Under the scheme, a sum of Rs. 3000 will be deposited in the names of all SC/ST girls and also all girls who have studied in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas, who pass class VIII and enrol for class IX in Government and Government-aided schools. The amount with interest will be payable to the girls after they reach the age of 18 provided they complete at least class X successfully.
Girls’ Hostel Scheme
Another scheme specially aimed at enhancement of participation of girl students, is to provide hostel facility so that they don’t discontinue secondary education due to distance from home to school. The scheme will assist the State Governments for construction of one 100-seater hostel in each of about 3500 identified educationally backward blocks in the country. The target group would be the girls studying in classes IX to XII, with special focus on SC, ST, OBC, minority and families below poverty line. The Central Government will also assist the States in meeting a major part of the recurring cost for running the hostels during the 11th Plan. An allocation of Rs. 2000 crore has been made in the 11th Plan for this purpose.
Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Schools
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme “Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in School” was launched in December 2004, for imparting ICT literacy to high school students and also to use ICT in an effective way to enhance the quality of teaching. The Scheme is a major catalyst to bridge the digital divide amongst students of various socio economic and other geographical barriers. The Scheme provides support to States/UTs to establish ICT infrastructure on a sustainable basis and to provide internet connectivity.
The Scheme currently covers both Government and Government aided secondary and higher secondary schools.
Support is provided for procurement of computers and peripherals, educational software, training of teachers and internet connectivity.
A computer lab having at least 10 working stations is envisaged in each school. For Smart Schools the lab may have at least 40 work stations.
The project cost is shared in the ratio of : 75:25 between Centre and General Category States and 90:10 between Centre and Special Category States. During 2007-08, assistance was provided for 22,833 schools.
Allocation for the scheme for the 11th Five Year Plan is Rs. 6000 crore. It is proposed to ICT-enable all the government and government aided schools in the country by the end of the 11th Plan, so as to bring about a major qualitative improvement in teaching-learning process in these schools.
Inclusive Education for Disabled Children
The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children was launched in 1974 with a view to provide educational opportunities to children with mild to moderate disability in common schools and facilitate their retention in the school system.
Under the scheme, disabled children receive allowances for books & stationery, uniform, equipment (assistive aids), transport, readers, escorts, and boarding and lodging. The scheme also provides for appointment of special teachers, attendants for severely orthopaedically handicapped children, removal of architectural barriers and production of relevant instructional material. 2.84 lakh disabled children were covered under this scheme in 28 States/UTs during the Xth Plan. Over 200 NGOs were engaged in implementing the scheme. At the end of the 2007-08, 3.6 lakh disabled children were covered in 31 States/UTs with an expenditure of Rs.76.11 crore in 2007-08.
Steps have been initiated for launching a new scheme of “Inclusive Education of the Disabled at Secondary Stage” so as to shift the focus from integration to inclusion, and a no rejection policy in the schools.
Vocationalisation of Secondary Education
The existing Centrally Sponsored scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education was launched in 1988 and has already covered 10,000 schools with 25,000 vocational sections through establishment of capacity for an annual intake of 10 lakh students. Presently 150 vocational courses are being offered. The scheme of Vocationalisation of Secondary Education is under revamp to make it more need-based and to reduce the demand and supply gap in the economy.
Besides introducing new skill-based courses at the higher secondary level with appropriate curriculum, 10,000 new vocational schools are proposed to be opened so as to enroll about 25 lakh students in these courses. Linkage with industry, scope for horizontal and vertical mobility, training of vocational teachers, modularity of courses with multiple entry and exit facilities, career guidance and counseling, apprenticeship etc., will be insisted upon so as to ensure that the courses practically benefit the students in choosing the career and in specialization in higher education.
Other Schemes
The Central Government also runs Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas through autonomous organizations to provide quality education. These are pace setting schools for the entire country. There are 981 Kendriya Vidyalayas as of now. 50 of these were opened in educationally backward special focus districts during the last two years.
Navodaya Vidyalayas are residential schools meant to provide quality education to talented rural children. There are 554 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in as many districts and these help fulfilling the aspiration of a large number of bright rural children and their parents. All expenses on boarding and lodging of students of JNVs as well as expenses on their uniform, stationery etc. are borne through support from the Central Government. It has been decided to open 20 new Vidyalayas in districts having large concentration of SC and ST population so as to give a boost to education of meritorious SC/ST children.
National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), another autonomous organization under the Ministry of HRD provides opportunity to those outside the formal school system to learn through distance education mode. The Central Government also encourages State Governments to open their own State Open Schools. Besides conventional curriculum for various stages of school education till higher secondary level, the National Open School also offers a variety of vocational courses of practical utility. With the advent of knowledge economy and its attendant requirement of skill and attitude, the importance of secondary education can not be over stressed. The Central Government, in partnership with State Governments has chalked out a blue print to enhance access to quality secondary education while ensuring equity.
EDUCATION AND 11TH PLAN
Literacy in India has made remarkable strides since Independence. This has been further confirmed by the results of the Census 2001. The literacy rate has increased from 18.33% in 1951 to 64.84% in 2001. This is despite the fact that during the major part of the last five decades there has been exponential growth of the population at nearly 2% per annum.
According to the Census 2001 the literacy rate in the country has increased to 64.84%, which reflects an overall increase of 12.63%, the fastest decadal growth ever. This is the highest rate since independence.The male literacy rate has increased to 75.26%, which shows an increase of 11.13%. On the other hand, the female literacy of 53.67% has increased at a much faster rate of 14.38%.The male-female literacy gap has reduced from 24.84% in 1991 to 21.59% in 2001. Mizoram has the smallest gap (3.97%) followed by Kerala (6.52%) and Meghalaya (5.82%). All States and Union Territories without exception have shown increase in literacy rates during 1991-2001.
In all the States and Union Territories the male literacy rate except Bihar (59.68%) is now over 60%. For the first time since independence there has been a decline in the absolute number of illiterates during the decade. In the previous decades, there has been a continuous increase in the number of illiterates, despite the increase in the literacy rates, but now for the first time the total number of illiterates has come down by 24.77 million. The number of literate persons has increased to 560.68 million in 2001 thus adding an additional 201.40 million literates in the country.
Illiteracy Size
In terms of the size of illiteracy, eight States, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharastra had more than 15 million illiterates each and accounted for 69.7 per cent of the illiterate population of the country.The first four of these states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are in Hindi belt and have 42.76% illiterates. Number of non-literates in these States - Uttar Pradesh (58.85 million), Bihar (35.08 million), Rajasthan (18.15 million) and Madhya Pradesh (17.97 million). In Bihar the number of illiterates increased from 31.98 million in 1991 to 35.08 million in 2001. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have 10.21 million and 6.10 million illiterates in 2001. It means that 48.12% of the non-literates reside in these six Hindi-speaking States. Other States having more than 10 million illiterates are: Orissa (11.61 million), Gujarat (13.31 million) and Tamil Nadu (14.65 million).
Female Literacy
The Census 2001 final report indicates that India has made significant progress in the field of literacy during the decade and since the 1991 census. The literacy rate as per 2001 census is 64.84% as against 52.21% in 1991, whereas the female literacy had increased by 14.4 percentage points i.e. from 39.3% in 1991 to 53.7% in 2001. Out of 864.79 million people in 7+ age group, 560.68 million are now literate out of which 224.15 million are women. Three-fourths of the male population and more than half of the female population are literate.
National Literacy Mission (NLM)
National Literacy Mission was launched on May 5, 1988 as a Technology Mission to impart functional literacy to non-literates in the country in the age group of 15-35 years in a time bound manner. This age group has been the focus of attention because they are in the productive and reproductive period of life. The National Education Policy - 1986, as modified in 1992, also has recognised National Literacy Mission as one of the three instruments to eradicate illiteracy from the country, the other two being Universalisation of Elementary Education and Non-formal Education.
The Mission objective was to impart functional literacy to 80 million illiterate persons in 15-35 age group - 30 million by 1990 and additional 50 million by 1995. However, now the goal of the Mission is to attain a sustainable threshold literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007.
The Mission also takes into its fold children in the age group of 9-14, in areas not covered by Non-formal Education programmes to reach the benefits of literacy to out–of-school children as well. The major thrust of these programmes is on the promotion of literacy among women, scheduled castes and tribes and backward classes.
National Literacy Mission eventually aims at ensuring that the Total Literacy Campaigns (TLC) and their sequel, the Post-Literacy Programme (PLP), successfully move on to Continuing Education (CE), which provides a life-long learning and is responsible for the creation of a learning society.
Functional Literacy
The adult literacy programme, defines literacy as the achievement of reading, writing and numeracy skills of a predetermined level. However, the goal goes beyond the simple achievement of self-reliance in the 3 R’s, to ‘Functional Literacy’, which is the ability to apply what one has learnt, to daily life. Functional Literacy one is capable of achieving self reliance in literacy and numeracy; becoming aware of the causes of their deprivation and moving towards amelioration of their condition through organisation, and participation in the process of development; acquiring skills to improve the economic status and general well-being; and imbibing the values of national integration, conservation of the environment, women's equality, observance of small family norms, etc.
The acquisition of ‘Functional Literacy’ results in empowerment, a definite improvement in the quality of life and helps ensure that the majority of India can be participants in, and recipients of, the benefits of the information era.
National Literacy Mission has succeeded in making 124.64 million persons literate. Of these 60% are female. It is also a great achievement that out of the total number of persons made literate 23% learners belong to SCs and 12% belong to STs. Under the Literacy programme 597 Districts have been covered whereas 95 Districts have been brought under Total Literacy Programme. Taking a step further 174 Districts are now under Post-Literacy Programme and 328 Districts are under Continuing Education Programme.
Total Literacy Campaigns
Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) has been the principal strategy of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) for eradication of illiteracy.The TLC has certain positive characteristics like being area-specific, time-bound, participative, delivery through voluntarism, cost effective and outcome oriented. Though the campaign emphasizes the achievement of predetermined levels of literacy and numeracy, there are other activities linked up with TLCs, such as campaigns for universal enrolment and retention in schools, immunization, conservation of environment, the small family norm, women’s empowerment, etc.
The TLC has an assumed duration of 12 to 18 months of which half is devoted to preparation and half to actual teaching/learning activity. In exceptionally difficult areas, the duration is suitably extended. Two activities, namely, environment building as well as monitoring and internal evaluation are continued throughout the campaign.
The initial activity of environment building is closely followed by a door-to-door survey to identify potential learners and volunteer instructors. Suitable primers (in 3 parts) are developed through the State Resource Centres for adult education in accordance with the new pedagogic technique of “Improved Pace and Content of Learning.”
The three-legged management structure of TLC consists of popular committees from district to village levels, the ZSS supported by the subject-specific sub-committees, and the officials of the district and block level administration.
Literacy campaigns are implemented by the Zilla Saksharata Samitis, usually headed by district collectors. Both the central and state governments participate in funding in the ratio of 2:1 for normal districts while the ratio of center and State share for districts under tribal sub-plan areas is 4:1. Presently, per learner cost for a TLC is between Rs.90 to 180.
Post-Literacy Programme
On the conclusion of Total Literacy Campaign (TLC), Post-Literacy Programme is implemented by the Zilla Saksharata Samiti for the period of one year.
One of the major objective of a PLP is to enable the neo-literates to learn the application of literacy skills as a problem solving tool, so that learning becomes relevant to living and working. In the limited time available during TLC, it is not possible to dwell adequately on the functionality and awareness components of the programme. Therefore, in PLP phase, these objectives take centre stage.
One of the first tasks in a PL programme is what is known as ‘mopping up’ operation. Those learners, who dropped out or could not achieve the NLM levels of literacy in the TLC phase, are enabled to achieve them through remediation or mopping up operation.
To ensure that there is no time lag between the conclusion of the basic literacy phase and the start of post literacy programme, which could result in a regression of neo-literates, NLM has laid a great deal of emphasis on the planning and launching of PLP well in time.
Post literacy specifically aims at remediation, retention and consolidation of literacy skills in the first phase through guided learning. In the second phase, learners are provided with a variety of supplementary reading material and library services to help them continue learning through self-directed processes.
Scheme of Support to NGOs
The scheme of support or Assistance to Voluntary Agencies in the field of adult education was designated and started in the First Five Year Plan and was continued with the expanded scope in the subsequent plans. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 has stipulated that non-governmental and voluntary organizations, including social activist groups, would be encouraged and financial assistance provided to them subject to proper management. The Programme of Action (POA) to operationalise NPE, 1986, inter-alia, envisaged relationship of genuine partnership between the Government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and stipulated that Government would take positive steps to promote their wider involvement by providing facilities to them to participate for the selection of NGOs and grant of financial assistance to them.
In view of the widening horizon of association of NGOs with Adult Literacy Programmes over the period of time, the Scheme is now named ‘Scheme of Support to Non-Governmental Organisations/Institutions, State Resource Centres for Adult Education and Skill Development.The objective of the scheme is to secure extensive involvement of NGOs in National Literacy Mission. The approach and process of providing financial assistance to NGOs is based on the objectives and characteristics of NLM strategy.
State Resource Centres
In order to provide academic resource support to literacy and adult education programmes, State Resource Centres (SRCs) have been established throughout the country. Since the inception of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) in 1988, the number of SRCs has risen to 26. Most of the SRCs are run by Voluntary Agencies, while a few are functioning under the aegis of the Universities.
For administrative purposes, SRCs have been classified into two categories, namely, A & B. ‘A’ category SRCs get grants-in-aid with a ceiling of Rs.60 lakh per annum, ‘B’ category SRCs with a ceiling of Rs.40 lakh per annum. SRCs are graded on the basis of workload and number of years of functioning. In bigger States, such as UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, more than one SRC has been set up to facilitate literacy and adult education activities.
With the gradual expansion of Total Literacy, Post Literacy and Continuing Education Programmes, new resource centres will be opened keeping in view the need to provide adequate and good quality technical resource support to the field programmes. New resource centres will be opened under the aegis of NGOs. All the SRCs are directly registered bodies under the Societies Registration Act with their own Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations.
Jan Shikshan Sansthans
The scheme of Jan Shikshan Santhan (JSS) or Institute of People’s Education (IPE), previously known as Shramik Vidyapeeth was initially launched as a polyvalent or multi-faceted adult education programme aimed at improving the vocational skill and quality of life of workers and their family members. The programme was evolved to respond to the educational and vocational training needs of numerous groups of adult and young people living in urban and industrial areas and for persons who have been migrating from rural to urban settings. Now, with the emergence of millions of neo-literates, thanks to the total literacy campaigns launched across the length and breadth of the country and the transformation that has taken place in the economic and social set up over the years, the role and scope of these polyvalent educational institutes have widened manifold.
In the changed scenario, the focus of JSS is now shifting from industrial workers in urban areas to the numerous neo-literates and unskilled and unemployed youth throughout the country. Now, these Sansthans are to act as district level resource support agencies especially with the organization of vocational training and skill development programmes for the neo-literates and other target groups of the continuing education scheme. Hitherto, the JSS scheme was restricted to urban/semi-urban industrial areas. Now their area of operation has been extended to rural areas also. At least 25% of the beneficiaries of JSS should be neo-literates.
During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2002-07), 90 more Jan Shikshan Sansthans were sanctioned with the result that the total number has increased to 198. During 2007-08, 23 more JSSs were sanctioned, thus taking their total number to 221.
The performance of Jan Shikshan Sansthans is evaluated every three years by reputed evaluating agencies empanelled with National Literacy Mission. So far, 116 Jan Shikshan Sansthans have been evaluated.
Directorate of Adult Education
The Directorate of Adult Education, a subordinate office of the Department of Elementary Education & Literacy, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has been functioning as the National Resource Centre for Adult Education and Literacy Programmes in the country. It is the `functional arm' of the National Literacy Mission, which is responsible for monitoring, and evaluation of various schemes launched under the aegis of the Mission. The Directorate is also entrusted with the task of developing model teaching learning materials for the learners and neo-literates and harnessing all kinds of media facilities for furtherance of the objectives of the National Literacy Mission. It provides professional, academic and technical guidance for the effective functioning of the Jan Shikshan Sansthans (Previously known as Shramik Vidyapeeths). Selected Jan Shikshan Sansthans were also provided financial assistance for implementation of Population and Development Education activities.
With all these intense efforts at the Government level and the great strides already taken the target for 11the Five Year Plan is to achieve 80% literacy rate, reduction in gender gap in literacy to 10% and also a reduction in regional and social disparities.
According to the Census 2001 the literacy rate in the country has increased to 64.84%, which reflects an overall increase of 12.63%, the fastest decadal growth ever. This is the highest rate since independence.The male literacy rate has increased to 75.26%, which shows an increase of 11.13%. On the other hand, the female literacy of 53.67% has increased at a much faster rate of 14.38%.The male-female literacy gap has reduced from 24.84% in 1991 to 21.59% in 2001. Mizoram has the smallest gap (3.97%) followed by Kerala (6.52%) and Meghalaya (5.82%). All States and Union Territories without exception have shown increase in literacy rates during 1991-2001.
In all the States and Union Territories the male literacy rate except Bihar (59.68%) is now over 60%. For the first time since independence there has been a decline in the absolute number of illiterates during the decade. In the previous decades, there has been a continuous increase in the number of illiterates, despite the increase in the literacy rates, but now for the first time the total number of illiterates has come down by 24.77 million. The number of literate persons has increased to 560.68 million in 2001 thus adding an additional 201.40 million literates in the country.
Illiteracy Size
In terms of the size of illiteracy, eight States, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka and Maharastra had more than 15 million illiterates each and accounted for 69.7 per cent of the illiterate population of the country.The first four of these states - Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan are in Hindi belt and have 42.76% illiterates. Number of non-literates in these States - Uttar Pradesh (58.85 million), Bihar (35.08 million), Rajasthan (18.15 million) and Madhya Pradesh (17.97 million). In Bihar the number of illiterates increased from 31.98 million in 1991 to 35.08 million in 2001. Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have 10.21 million and 6.10 million illiterates in 2001. It means that 48.12% of the non-literates reside in these six Hindi-speaking States. Other States having more than 10 million illiterates are: Orissa (11.61 million), Gujarat (13.31 million) and Tamil Nadu (14.65 million).
Female Literacy
The Census 2001 final report indicates that India has made significant progress in the field of literacy during the decade and since the 1991 census. The literacy rate as per 2001 census is 64.84% as against 52.21% in 1991, whereas the female literacy had increased by 14.4 percentage points i.e. from 39.3% in 1991 to 53.7% in 2001. Out of 864.79 million people in 7+ age group, 560.68 million are now literate out of which 224.15 million are women. Three-fourths of the male population and more than half of the female population are literate.
National Literacy Mission (NLM)
National Literacy Mission was launched on May 5, 1988 as a Technology Mission to impart functional literacy to non-literates in the country in the age group of 15-35 years in a time bound manner. This age group has been the focus of attention because they are in the productive and reproductive period of life. The National Education Policy - 1986, as modified in 1992, also has recognised National Literacy Mission as one of the three instruments to eradicate illiteracy from the country, the other two being Universalisation of Elementary Education and Non-formal Education.
The Mission objective was to impart functional literacy to 80 million illiterate persons in 15-35 age group - 30 million by 1990 and additional 50 million by 1995. However, now the goal of the Mission is to attain a sustainable threshold literacy rate of 75 per cent by 2007.
The Mission also takes into its fold children in the age group of 9-14, in areas not covered by Non-formal Education programmes to reach the benefits of literacy to out–of-school children as well. The major thrust of these programmes is on the promotion of literacy among women, scheduled castes and tribes and backward classes.
National Literacy Mission eventually aims at ensuring that the Total Literacy Campaigns (TLC) and their sequel, the Post-Literacy Programme (PLP), successfully move on to Continuing Education (CE), which provides a life-long learning and is responsible for the creation of a learning society.
Functional Literacy
The adult literacy programme, defines literacy as the achievement of reading, writing and numeracy skills of a predetermined level. However, the goal goes beyond the simple achievement of self-reliance in the 3 R’s, to ‘Functional Literacy’, which is the ability to apply what one has learnt, to daily life. Functional Literacy one is capable of achieving self reliance in literacy and numeracy; becoming aware of the causes of their deprivation and moving towards amelioration of their condition through organisation, and participation in the process of development; acquiring skills to improve the economic status and general well-being; and imbibing the values of national integration, conservation of the environment, women's equality, observance of small family norms, etc.
The acquisition of ‘Functional Literacy’ results in empowerment, a definite improvement in the quality of life and helps ensure that the majority of India can be participants in, and recipients of, the benefits of the information era.
National Literacy Mission has succeeded in making 124.64 million persons literate. Of these 60% are female. It is also a great achievement that out of the total number of persons made literate 23% learners belong to SCs and 12% belong to STs. Under the Literacy programme 597 Districts have been covered whereas 95 Districts have been brought under Total Literacy Programme. Taking a step further 174 Districts are now under Post-Literacy Programme and 328 Districts are under Continuing Education Programme.
Total Literacy Campaigns
Total Literacy Campaign (TLC) has been the principal strategy of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) for eradication of illiteracy.The TLC has certain positive characteristics like being area-specific, time-bound, participative, delivery through voluntarism, cost effective and outcome oriented. Though the campaign emphasizes the achievement of predetermined levels of literacy and numeracy, there are other activities linked up with TLCs, such as campaigns for universal enrolment and retention in schools, immunization, conservation of environment, the small family norm, women’s empowerment, etc.
The TLC has an assumed duration of 12 to 18 months of which half is devoted to preparation and half to actual teaching/learning activity. In exceptionally difficult areas, the duration is suitably extended. Two activities, namely, environment building as well as monitoring and internal evaluation are continued throughout the campaign.
The initial activity of environment building is closely followed by a door-to-door survey to identify potential learners and volunteer instructors. Suitable primers (in 3 parts) are developed through the State Resource Centres for adult education in accordance with the new pedagogic technique of “Improved Pace and Content of Learning.”
The three-legged management structure of TLC consists of popular committees from district to village levels, the ZSS supported by the subject-specific sub-committees, and the officials of the district and block level administration.
Literacy campaigns are implemented by the Zilla Saksharata Samitis, usually headed by district collectors. Both the central and state governments participate in funding in the ratio of 2:1 for normal districts while the ratio of center and State share for districts under tribal sub-plan areas is 4:1. Presently, per learner cost for a TLC is between Rs.90 to 180.
Post-Literacy Programme
On the conclusion of Total Literacy Campaign (TLC), Post-Literacy Programme is implemented by the Zilla Saksharata Samiti for the period of one year.
One of the major objective of a PLP is to enable the neo-literates to learn the application of literacy skills as a problem solving tool, so that learning becomes relevant to living and working. In the limited time available during TLC, it is not possible to dwell adequately on the functionality and awareness components of the programme. Therefore, in PLP phase, these objectives take centre stage.
One of the first tasks in a PL programme is what is known as ‘mopping up’ operation. Those learners, who dropped out or could not achieve the NLM levels of literacy in the TLC phase, are enabled to achieve them through remediation or mopping up operation.
To ensure that there is no time lag between the conclusion of the basic literacy phase and the start of post literacy programme, which could result in a regression of neo-literates, NLM has laid a great deal of emphasis on the planning and launching of PLP well in time.
Post literacy specifically aims at remediation, retention and consolidation of literacy skills in the first phase through guided learning. In the second phase, learners are provided with a variety of supplementary reading material and library services to help them continue learning through self-directed processes.
Scheme of Support to NGOs
The scheme of support or Assistance to Voluntary Agencies in the field of adult education was designated and started in the First Five Year Plan and was continued with the expanded scope in the subsequent plans. The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 has stipulated that non-governmental and voluntary organizations, including social activist groups, would be encouraged and financial assistance provided to them subject to proper management. The Programme of Action (POA) to operationalise NPE, 1986, inter-alia, envisaged relationship of genuine partnership between the Government and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and stipulated that Government would take positive steps to promote their wider involvement by providing facilities to them to participate for the selection of NGOs and grant of financial assistance to them.
In view of the widening horizon of association of NGOs with Adult Literacy Programmes over the period of time, the Scheme is now named ‘Scheme of Support to Non-Governmental Organisations/Institutions, State Resource Centres for Adult Education and Skill Development.The objective of the scheme is to secure extensive involvement of NGOs in National Literacy Mission. The approach and process of providing financial assistance to NGOs is based on the objectives and characteristics of NLM strategy.
State Resource Centres
In order to provide academic resource support to literacy and adult education programmes, State Resource Centres (SRCs) have been established throughout the country. Since the inception of the National Literacy Mission (NLM) in 1988, the number of SRCs has risen to 26. Most of the SRCs are run by Voluntary Agencies, while a few are functioning under the aegis of the Universities.
For administrative purposes, SRCs have been classified into two categories, namely, A & B. ‘A’ category SRCs get grants-in-aid with a ceiling of Rs.60 lakh per annum, ‘B’ category SRCs with a ceiling of Rs.40 lakh per annum. SRCs are graded on the basis of workload and number of years of functioning. In bigger States, such as UP, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, more than one SRC has been set up to facilitate literacy and adult education activities.
With the gradual expansion of Total Literacy, Post Literacy and Continuing Education Programmes, new resource centres will be opened keeping in view the need to provide adequate and good quality technical resource support to the field programmes. New resource centres will be opened under the aegis of NGOs. All the SRCs are directly registered bodies under the Societies Registration Act with their own Memorandum of Association and Rules and Regulations.
Jan Shikshan Sansthans
The scheme of Jan Shikshan Santhan (JSS) or Institute of People’s Education (IPE), previously known as Shramik Vidyapeeth was initially launched as a polyvalent or multi-faceted adult education programme aimed at improving the vocational skill and quality of life of workers and their family members. The programme was evolved to respond to the educational and vocational training needs of numerous groups of adult and young people living in urban and industrial areas and for persons who have been migrating from rural to urban settings. Now, with the emergence of millions of neo-literates, thanks to the total literacy campaigns launched across the length and breadth of the country and the transformation that has taken place in the economic and social set up over the years, the role and scope of these polyvalent educational institutes have widened manifold.
In the changed scenario, the focus of JSS is now shifting from industrial workers in urban areas to the numerous neo-literates and unskilled and unemployed youth throughout the country. Now, these Sansthans are to act as district level resource support agencies especially with the organization of vocational training and skill development programmes for the neo-literates and other target groups of the continuing education scheme. Hitherto, the JSS scheme was restricted to urban/semi-urban industrial areas. Now their area of operation has been extended to rural areas also. At least 25% of the beneficiaries of JSS should be neo-literates.
During the 10th Five-Year Plan (2002-07), 90 more Jan Shikshan Sansthans were sanctioned with the result that the total number has increased to 198. During 2007-08, 23 more JSSs were sanctioned, thus taking their total number to 221.
The performance of Jan Shikshan Sansthans is evaluated every three years by reputed evaluating agencies empanelled with National Literacy Mission. So far, 116 Jan Shikshan Sansthans have been evaluated.
Directorate of Adult Education
The Directorate of Adult Education, a subordinate office of the Department of Elementary Education & Literacy, Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has been functioning as the National Resource Centre for Adult Education and Literacy Programmes in the country. It is the `functional arm' of the National Literacy Mission, which is responsible for monitoring, and evaluation of various schemes launched under the aegis of the Mission. The Directorate is also entrusted with the task of developing model teaching learning materials for the learners and neo-literates and harnessing all kinds of media facilities for furtherance of the objectives of the National Literacy Mission. It provides professional, academic and technical guidance for the effective functioning of the Jan Shikshan Sansthans (Previously known as Shramik Vidyapeeths). Selected Jan Shikshan Sansthans were also provided financial assistance for implementation of Population and Development Education activities.
With all these intense efforts at the Government level and the great strides already taken the target for 11the Five Year Plan is to achieve 80% literacy rate, reduction in gender gap in literacy to 10% and also a reduction in regional and social disparities.
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