Baroque

We are moving towards a brief hiatus. Our recall of the kaam versus shram debate, which would begin a long silence on the issue of child labour, is a good place to mark a pause on this journey. 

Will be back soon....

Making the argument, that children out of school are working, required the presentation of information to back the claim. These statistics, use a range of definitions, some more liberal than others. Reason and evidence, are used to support a claim. Reason and evidence can also be used to challenge an argument presented. When argument is challenged, not through evidence, but by the questioning of intention, a new battleground is created. The backstory of advocacy statistics. 

When writing the story of education, it becomes impossible, to not address the issue of child labour. Just as when telling the story of child labour, it is not feasible, to not engage with the education system. The two tales are linked, one blends into the other, measuring one, provides the framework for success on another. This insight, would lead to the framing of the important public argument, All Children out of school are child labourers. 

August 24, is one of those days, when the world changes, quietly. 

In 1789, the French Assembly, proclaimed freedom of speech on August 24th.  And three days later on August 27th, the Assembly, finally accepted, the Lafayette version of the Rights of Man and Citizens.  

In 1985, Gorbachev, began the process of recognizing the market as a civilisational entity. A shift from the Soviet understanding of the market as an invention of capitalism. On August 24, 1991, Gorbachev, after surviving a failed coup and spending two days under house arrest, resigned as General Secretary of the Party, and by the end of the year the USSR ceased to exist. 

For teachers the vanguard of the education process, teaching from pages that were different from the world changing was a challenge, then as it is now. 

The replacement of the democratically elected government with a faith-led autocracy, in Afghanistan has been met with shock and awe. Mainstream media conversations have raised the possibility of the return to the dark days of the 20th century, when girls were denied access to education. 

The reality is likely to be an expansion of what has been happening in the provinces, during the past decade, where the Taliban has been de facto control. In these places, the official educators, administrators and providers, have negotiated on ground compromises. What this has meant, is the giving up, of final decision-making power, in key areas, recruitment, and curriculum. In turn, the Taliban have provided support in on-ground monitoring of teachers, assuring lowering of absenteeism. And when faced with determination, they have shown to have been willing to compromise. So co-education has been allowed to continue, albeit with a curtain separating girls and boys. It is this restricted future that awaits children going forward. 

Further Readings

1. Allen, John R and Felbab-Brown, Vanda (2020) The Fate of Women's Rights in Afghanistan https://www.brookings.edu/essay/the-fate-of-womens-rights-in-afghanistan/

2. Afghanistan Study Group (2021) Afghanistan Study Group Final Report https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/2021-02/afghanistan_study_group_final_report_a_pathway_for_peace_in_afghanistan.pdf

3. Rubin, Barnett and Rudeforth, Clancy (2016) Enhancing Access to Education: Challenges and Opportunities in Afghanistan https://cic.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/enhancing_access_education_may23_final.pdf

Here, we take a look at the last years of educational financing, with the integration of new private sector sources, through the lens of State responsibility. 

Further Reading 

Convergence Blog Post: Unlocking Financing for Investment into Education https://www.convergence.finance/news-and-events/news/2j6ZqZWOFCdDRLyI2bfOQm/view

Arvind Panagriya (2004): India in the 1980s and 1990s: A triumph of Reforms. IMF Working Paper https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2004/wp0443.pdf (last accessed August 10, 2021)

Vijay Joshi (2017), India's Economic Reforms: Reflections on the Unfinished Agenda, 15th L.K.Jha Memorial Lecture., December 11, 2017

https://rbidocs.rbi.org.in/rdocs/Publications/PDFs/LKJHA235F92F8EBFB4E119129D18BA579628C.PDF (last accessed August 10, 2021)

Context is a powerful predictor of State Behaviour. What Context does not do however, is help us identify which areas, will receive more state attention. 

Further Readings

Keynes, J.M. (1919) The Economic Consequences of the Peace https://openlibrary.org/works/OL35914W (last accessed August 1, 2022)

Thucydides History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War_done_into_English_by_Richard_Crawley (1914) http://openlibrary.org/books/OL22889422M/ (last accessed August 1, 2022)

https://www.policycircle.org/life/off-the-yellow-brick-road-the-five-futures-that-the-new-education-policy-promises/ (last accessed, August 2, 2021).

The National Family Health Survey began life in 1991. It would soon gain credibility and acceptance. What makes the NFHS particularly valuable, has been its ability to shed light on difficult to measure facets of state-society-family-individual interaction. One such area, is child labour. 

Click on the chart below to get a better understanding of the narrative of progress.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/incidence-of-child-labour-in-india

In 2000, the NSSO survey, had already shown that 5.2 per cent of children were working.

That there were reasons, why the government was reluctant to collect disaggregated information on child labour would emerge when the National Family Health Survey, in 2005 would show that the child labour figure, was 15.2 per cent. This was substantially higher than the NSSO figure, which had just a year, earlier shown, that there had been a drop in the percentage of child labour, from 5.2 per cent to 4.2 per cent. This fall is a figure that the government could use to claim success in the struggle to end child labour. 

Data collection and analysis, present facets of realities. Those facets, have the potential to spotlight both the success and the failures. They thus have the potential to hold accountable the powerful. On April 10th 2003, in their response to a starred question, government would attempt to duck accountability. It would be a hairpin bend, in the long road to achieve education for all.   

Further Reading

RS Starred Question No. 417, answered on April 10, 2003

https://rsdebate.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/97196/2/IQ_198_10042003_S417_p54_p61.pdf

The Census and NSSO are pillars of the Indian Statistical system. Though the system has colonial roots, the establishment of the National Sample Survey Organisation, in 1950 with strategic autonomy, coded into its DNA gave the professionals, the ability to develop and share with the public analytical reports without fear. In 1953, with the passing of the Indian Statistical Act, the process of democratisation, the importance of accountability to the people, was built into the system. Willingness to share information was kept voluntary, which meant the refusal to share information, was lower than 10 per cent giving the system's data gathering ability, much heft.

This strategic autonomy, and the related valuation of the statistical system, would be important to lend credibility to the 2001 census, which reported, that for the first time, in recorded history, the number of total illiterates, had declined. Statement 25, of the census, was closely scrutinised. Statement 25 gives the number of literates and illiterates among the population aged seven years and above in absolute figures for India for the 1991 and 2001 Censuses. The significant milestone reached in Census of India, 2001, is that the total number of illiterates has come down from 328,167,288 in 1991 to 296,208,952. With that, Borrowing a few words from Nehru, the reason for the struggle for freedom, had been achieved, not wholly but in some measure.  

Decisions taken in this millennium, have eroded that strategic autonomy, that story will be taken up in the next episode.

Further Reading 

1. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319292092_ORIGIN_AND_ACTIVITIES_OF_NSSO_GOVERNMENT_OF_INDIA (accessed on july 7, 2021)

2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/what-does-the-merger-of-national-sample-survey-office-and-central-statistics-office-entail/article27401039.ece

3. (https://censusindia.gov.in/Data_Products/Library/Provisional_Population_Total_link/PDF_Links/chapter7.pdf)