The government has started the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. I'd like to point out a couple of instances where i saw what was really happening:
- Near Pilani in a village called Garinda, people were paid to dig pits and then fill them back again
- On the way to Delhi, in Haryana we stopped somewhere and saw people sweeping the highway. When i asked them why they were doing this they said it was a part of the NREG scheme.
| Employment provided to households: | 3.51 Crore |
| Persondays [in Crore]: | |
| Total: | 138.76 |
| SCs: | 42.95 [30.96%] |
| STs: | 33.42 [24.08%] |
| Women: | 67.68 [48.77%] |
| Others: | 62.39 [44.96%] |
| Total works taken up: | 20.68 Lakhs. |
| Works completed: | 7.38 Lakhs. |
| Works in progress: | 13.3 Lakhs. |
The NREG was alloted 16000 crores to implement the plan and promised greater funds if and when required. Firstly, the productivity of the scheme is under question and I won't spend much time arguing that. But i do question how much of it actually trickles down to the bottom of the pyramid. There were places where people were promised 100 bucks a day and other places where they were paid only INR 7 a day.
Now looking at it from a different angle, talking about teaching the fellow how to fish rather than giving him the fish, India figures the lowest in terms of public spending in Education. Is it time to learn fishing rather than distribute the fish?
I am quoting a news report:
'In spite of a booming economy, India's public spending on higher education per student is the lowest among developing and developed countries.
Though the Central Government has announced an expected 150 percent increase in central spending on higher education in 2007-08 (at Rs. 6,354 crore over Rs. 2,550.50 crore this year), the fact remains that India will continue to lag behind, compared to its asian counterparts.'
(Please note the difference wrt the NREG budget allotment. Education spending lags by 10000 crore or almost 150% of the educational budget)
'At the moment, public spending on higher education per student in India stands at US$ 400 (Rs. 18,000) and this is expected to improve to around US$ 1,000 (Rs. 45,000)'
it goes on to say:
'Even among the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries, India is at the bottom of the pile. While China, Russia and Brazil spend US$ 2,728, US$ 1,024 and US$ 3,986 respectively on higher education per student, another developing country Malayasia's expenditure under the same head is quite high at US$ 11,790.'
Is it time to pay teachers more to get better people to join the profession and spend on a better tomorrow rather than just a better today?
Time to rethink spending or are we stuck in a time warp election after election?
5 comments:
nice article ,dude...nice thing to point out? But then ,politicians want to show results(like NREG provides) and spending on education has a significant gestation period before any significant gains are made. So, I dont think much improvements can be expected in the public spending on education.
sorry,the ? is a typo error :P
hmm.. But maybe there needs to be a right balance between the long term and the short term and in the case of our country I think it needs to be tipped more towards the longer term. Look at the viability of this scheme. I really think if we continue with the present trends in population and education something like this won't be viable in the next few decades. Time to plan for our future I say.
yeah..Public spending is another thing ..Govt has to make sure that the spendings done are properly utilized and not only word shown on paper.
Completely agreeing with you...Education needs to be our top priority...coming to the long term/short term debate I would like to comment We strictly need to focus on the long term..look at the last 50 years post independence...wonder if the country has achieved what it should have...no where even close to it...the question is "Do we want our next 50 years to be like the last 50 years?"..
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