Entrepreneur | Posted on
As relevant as this question is for a country of 100+ billion population, it’s also incredibly cliched. Such discussions usually point out the problems and then go on have a diverse range of solutions, pouring in from every side.
The socialists and liberals jargon the conversation with unemployment, inflation, and political error; the pseudo-intellects complicate things further tossing in phrases like CPI, deficit, Keynesianism, modeling, stagnation and what not.
(Courtesy: Dawn)
In fact, in 2015, James Gingell penned an interesting article in The Guardian titled “Economic Jargon Promotes A Deficit in Understanding”. You can read the article here.
So, the common people who genuinely want to understand the issue and amp to help in this direction, they eventually go “what the f$$k”, eventually going back to watching the shi$ served to them on the news channels.
(Now note: Don’t expect my take on the issue as something untouchable and much better. I am the part of the same game after all!)
When talking about economic growth and why India fails to keep on the right track, I try to take a rather holistic view. I personally believe one of the biggest problems in our country that literally curbs our growth, development, and sustainability in the long-run is the poor literacy rate.
And I am NOT talking about the regular statistics on illiteracy here—like how many people are getting the primary and secondary education. I am talking the general intellect and intelligence here.
But first, let’s really see the numbers here… Did you know:
· India has 35 percent of the world’s illiterate: to put this in a different way…
· India homes one-third of the world’s illiterate people. (There are 195 countries in the world btw!)
· India ranks at 123 out of 135 countries in female literacy rate.
(Sad that even when with free primary and secondary education – and when some of our state governments have ensured that no students fail up to class 8 – the literacy picture in the country is so horrendous!! This alone tells you why keeping aside the numbers, we are truly failing on the ground.)
(Courtesy: Rediff)
Now, before moving ahead, I should categorically mention that I DO NOT believe education is the solution to all problem.
I mean, you would think an educated person wouldn’t rape someone or, for that matter, wouldn’t partake in public *****, which has apparently become a national sport in India. BUT NO!
Certainly, education does not solve all the problems; not the socials and cultural ones at least. But since talking about the economic growth here, I think education is the single most important factor here.
Coming to what I meant when I said “low literacy rate” above—I meant ‘common sense and basic societal understanding’ that doesn’t necessarily spurs from education. Emerging from empathy and thoughts, they are the basic form of human gifts bestowed on us.
For example, do we really need the education to understand to keep our localities clean? Or do we need to read books to learn to not impregnate someone when you can’t bear the cost of another child?
Or, or, or, do we really need to spend 12 years of our lives in schools to know that one must wash their hand before eating?
Here’s why I am talking about cleanliness, family planning, and washing hand:
· Almost 5000 children die in India every day. A large part of these deaths comes from preventable diseases, which usually branches from the uncleaned environment. (Source)
· Use of contraceptive has declined in India by 3 percent in the last 10 years. (Source)
· Two most common global causes of child death are diarrhea and pneumonia; uncleaned hands before eating is the major reason behind these deadly diseases. (Source)
These are general knowledge that isn’t conferred on those privileged with education.
(Courtesy: Indian National Interest)
On many fronts, they are common—at least for people in the urban and suburban areas. And with all that the government is spending these days, it’s more common than ever!
If people adopt such general habits of hygiene, we can literally save millions of lives in this country. And when the country is healthy, it can make the biggest impact on the nation’s growth.
There’s a reason why the latest government has been stressing plenty in healthcare and overall cleanliness with schemes after schemes. (Although the framework and effectiveness of these schemes are highly debatable!)
From Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna to Swacch Bharat Mission—we have seen a lot of hustle in the country in recent times to ensure good health of the masses.
After all, what good the largest population of youths does if people are falling sick every other day!
Sadly, the large part of India is illiterate even to this basic form of knowledge. And this is deadly to the country’s overall growth.
People are not educated. They don’t know how to be in better health. General un-healthiness of the population reduces the work efficiency, which lowers a country’s productivity.
Production falls, income slows down, expenditure takes a backseat and the economic struggles with a constant slowdown.
Also, poor education entraps the mind of orthodoxy and conventions, which limits us from many progressive steps like an opening to new ideas of entrepreneurship and welcoming women in the leadership roles.
Do you really think it’s a coincidence that the countries that are experiencing high growth rate are also those who are the healthiest?
Look north, look at Europe, look at Australia… And then see the African, Asian and Middle-East countries.
(NOTE: when I am talking about ‘unhealthy’, I am not solely talking about obesity. I am focusing more on diarrhea, lung problems, infections, TB, and other neonatal conditions.)
In short, poor literacy level is the biggest roadblock between India and economic growth.
It is something that we must fix to bring India on track to the unmatched growth rate in the next 20-30 years. Yes, this is the ONLY long-term solution out there.
Were you looking for general reasons why India can’t achieve greater economic growth in the SHORT-RUN, here are some of the reasons:
· Highly reliance on oil export
· High reliance of agriculture sector
· Poor infrastructure
· Corruption and red-taping on every level
· Crumbling education standards
· Scrappy labor laws
· Inequalities in terms of class, caste, and income
These are basic reasons that are standing between Indian and higher economic growth.
These are also something that ministers and policymakers work to improve to get short-run outcomes. And if the numbers tell us anything, this approach never really delivered sustainable rewards.
So, it’s time that we fix our approach and focus on the long-term game.
If we start fixing the education infrastructure and work to improve literacy level – by not really teaching students Chemistry and History but informing them about health care and social values – India can achieve higher economic growth from 2 to 3 decades from now.
This basic idea might seem like a far-fetched and indirect solution here, but you would be baffled to know that campaigners reduced poverty and improved lifestyle in countries in Africa by just distributing free bed nets.
Yes, really! They didn’t spend millions in building schools and industries. They just invested the money in bed nets. And this made all the difference in the world for native people there.
We need to take the same simplified approach. ***** the process of all the complexities and focus entirely on the very basic thing. Education can help India achieve high economic growth in the long-run. Period.
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