Given his inept handling of COVID-19, both his coalition allies and the BJP are keen to make him the fall guy
True leadership is tested when a crisis such as the one caused by the COVID-19 pandemic leaves you desperately looking for answers and clutching at any straw in the wind. Except in politics, it is not about finding answers but asking questions of those who can be blamed. And so it is that the Uddhav Thackeray-led coalition Government in Maharashtra is in trouble as it seems to be fast losing its grip on containing the viral spike, which is the highest in the country and amounts to 30 per cent cases nationwide. With a monolithic leader, there is at least a semblance of a man/woman being in charge and good or bad, he/she mostly manages to override scrutiny. But when you have somebody as vulnerable as Uddhav Thackeray, then the barbs keep flying thick and fast. Needless to say that the Shiv Sena chief got the Chief Minister’s chair with zero administrative or grassroots experience by parting ways with a bossy State BJP and choosing the ideologically divergent National Congress Party (NCP) and the Congress. He did get to form a coalition Government but the wily Maratha warrior and NCP chief Sharad Pawar ensured that he cornered key Ministries and called the shots in the alliance, being its architect. The Congress, too, got some but as a C-team was never interested in making itself felt in governance. Battling such internecine pressures and keeping his numbers, with an unforgiving BJP smelling the slightest opportunity to topple him, Thackeray Junior may have fulfilled his father’s dream of a Shiv Sainik being the Chief Minister but has been nothing more than a paper tiger. Yet, by virtue of being the face of a Government, he also has exposed himself to being the fall guy. And now that Maharashtra emerges as a COVID hotspot that seems to be spiralling out of control, he is desperately mobilising resources to manage the public health crisis while the BJP keeps on pointing out his flaws daily. In fact, the Shiv Sena may have historically controlled the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) but has nothing to show for its clout there in times of COVID-19. If anything, the BMC is struggling to contain the virus and the Sena itself is hopelessly out of depth as numbers of the sick keep increasing by the hour. This has partly got to do with the Sena’s inexperience in governance. It has always been the “remote control” of power and with the BJP taking the lead in its earlier coalitions, has never had to bear the brunt of decision-making. Neither has it tapped into the administrative depth of Pawar or the Congress. And realising that this bad PR could backflush on them, his ruling allies are not too happy either, with Uddhav desperately reassuring them. So much so that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi intemperately forced a crisis, saying while the party could speak for COVID management in States ruled by it, in Maharashtra it was not a party to decision-making. Though Pawar stepped in to dispel fears of serious dissension within the coalition Government, the fact is some Ministers and legislators have been deeply disapproving of Uddhav’s functioning and reliance on fossilised bureaucrats. He doesn’t have the aura of his father, Bal Thackeray. Besides, Thackeray senior didn’t have to combat a crisis such as this. So Uddhav is not only expected to deliver but come up with a practical and implementable plan in the current context. For years, the public health infrastructure in Mumbai has been neglected to accommodate private players, which aren’t willing to lead the fight against the dreaded disease, leaving it to the already crumbling Government hospitals. The Sena has promoted many of these private facilities but they are not delivering for Uddhav. Besides, the Chief Minister has badly bungled the migrant exodus compared to his counterparts in other States. In fact most returnees from Mumbai have unanimously said that the Maharashtra Government didn’t care about their food and shelter and had just let them loose without any compassion. And to complicate matters, now that the Sena’s old and nativist constituencies like the Dharavi slums, whose dwellers service the economy of Mumbai, are under a viral siege, Uddhav has no manas left to back him up. With such a hydra-headed attack, he naturally seems the easiest man to take the fall.
So what’s in it for the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis? For a leader of the single largest party, who has some confidence of the people on the basis of his past performance, this is the most opportune moment to reclaim his relevance. And now that he has former Shiv Sena Chief Minister Narayan Rane with him in the party, he met Governor BS Koshyari and sought President’s rule in the State on the pretext of ensuring better COVID management. Rane, who accompanied him, sought Army intervention to arrest the slide in Mumbai. Besides, Fadnavis is projecting himself as a BJP leader who can renegotiate Centre-State relations better and get things moving for an aggressive containment strategy with Central resources. He is leveraging the “one party in State and Centre” logic to wangle a better relief package for the State. The only question is the morality of Operation Lotus as the city heaps its dead.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The bottomline is that while the BJP has chalked out its agenda, the Opposition is still stumbling about
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be completing the first year of his second term in office on May 30. While critics are discussing the Modi Government’s report card, it makes one think about the Opposition’s performance in the last one year. Has it played its role as the watchdog of democracy effectively? The answer is a resounding “no.” Its performance has been lacklustre by and large, though to its credit some non-BJP parties did form the Government in Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand in the last one year.
Even the main Opposition party, the Congress, has been ineffective in challenging the Modi Government because the grand old party itself is going through a leadership crisis. It is still groping in the dark for an effective political narrative and is facing an acute dearth of ideas. The Congress is in the process of rediscovering its identity and political relevance in the country.
There are various reasons for the Opposition’s ineffectiveness right now. The first is that the people gave Modi a huge mandate in 2019, even bigger than the one in 2014, when he came to power, ending 30 years of coalition politics in the country. But that should not be an excuse because the Opposition managed to bring down the Rajiv Gandhi Government in 1989 due to the Bofors imbroglio. In fact, Rajiv had come to power on a much more massive mandate — a whopping 415 seats out of 542 in 1984 while Modi’s BJP got only 303 seats in 2019. But there were many Opposition stalwarts like Indrajit Gupta, Somnath Chatterjee, AB Vajpayee, LK Advani and a few others who were able to hold the House to ransom on the Bofors issue and brought down the Rajiv Government. So the number game doesn’t apply to the present crisis in the Opposition. The issues and opportunities to hit the Modi Government were abundant in the last one year but the attacks by the Opposition were weak. For instance, many controversial laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act and the repeal of Article 370 and so on were pushed through by the Government despite Opposition protests inside Parliament and out of it. To make things easier for the Government, the Coronavirus outbreak pushed all other important issues, including the plight of the Indian economy, to the background. For the last five months nothing other than the pandemic is being discussed in the nation. Unfortunately, without the Parliament, the Opposition has lost the opportunity to effectively highlight the plight of stranded migrant labourers in the country, though each party had raised the issue individually.
However, the most important factor weakening the Opposition is the lack of unity among the various parties. They failed to unite even on important issues like the CAA though some parties took to the streets. A shrewd politician like Modi was able to use this division successfully to get the controversial laws passed even in the House of Elders where the Government is still in a minority. Despite all these setbacks, the Opposition is not able to sustain its efforts at unity. Nearly 22 Opposition parties attended the virtual meeting called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi last week. There were many such meetings in the past, too, but all efforts to unite the divided Opposition have failed so far because regional satraps have big egos and they are unwilling to set them aside.
Hence, the Opposition is divided and leaderless as the Congress, despite being the major national party, has not been able to take the lead. They are not able to agree on one leader with the stature to lead the Opposition. Stalwarts like Deve Gowda, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad have taken a back seat now and though many senior regional leaders are amenable to attending meetings called by Sonia, they are reluctant to accept Gandhi’s leadership. Most importantly, the new generation of Opposition leaders has little or no connection with the people as the family fiefdom concept works only at the regional level. Plus, the Opposition does not have a single leader who can match the oratorical and persuasive skills of Modi, who continues to be popular because he has no opponent.
The bottomline is that while the BJP has chalked out its agenda, the Opposition is still stumbling about. It is high time it develops an effective strategy to challenge the Government. This is good for democracy.
(Writer: Kalyani Shankar; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The first day of domestic flights showed that there is no drop in demand and a willing adherence to norms
Two months after India resumed domestic air travel, nobody had expected a resumption of efficiencies in a new world order. But what happened on Monday belied all expectations. Harrowing scenes of chaos and panic among the passengers were reported from airports across the country. Thousands of intending air travellers, desperately waiting as they were for a chance to return to their hometowns, were all armoured with masks, gloves and other protective equipment to risk a trip in the middle of a pandemic. But after paying through their noses for a cab ride to the airport, in the absence of a public transport system, they found that their flights had been cancelled as various State Governments changed receiving protocols at their airports to contain their respective disease spirals. If this wasn’t enough, even those who were lucky enough to be airborne, were unaware of what lay ahead. For example, in Bengaluru, transit passengers, who were supposed to take another flight after a layover of a few hours, remained anxious amid reports that they would have to quarantine themselves for a week before they undertook their onward journey. There was no clarity if this rule applied to all arriving passengers or only those who would be checking out of the terminal. Clearly, all such goof-ups could have been avoided had a full-proof system been rehearsed in consultation with State Governments and the aviation majors. It is true that we needed to open up the skies or see the sector go bankrupt completely, throwing an entire workforce out of jobs. But a little bit of caution, perhaps a couple of days of dry run, would not have harmed anyone.
The Government’s hasty decision came even as the country’s red zones are on the ascendant and the busiest terminals are located in cities worst-hit by the pandemic. State Governments rightly assessed the need for careful regulation, swamped as they are with mushrooming cases and the tendency of Indians to be silent, asymptomatic carriers. So they limited flight operations and conceived of differing quarantine protocols. But there is good news. The Supreme Court has disallowed occupancy of middle seats as they would defeat the purpose of social distancing on-board for an average two-hour flight. And though Government has fixed fare brackets, this will undoubtedly push up costs. The fact that airlines flew 58,318 passengers to their destination on the first day is proof that demand has not dropped. People are willing to fly even in not-so-ideal conditions and internalise protocols of social engagement in a post-pandemic world. At least, the fear of flying again has been overcome. But there’s need for tautness and caution, we cannot drop guard.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Thankfully, all the casualties that the world has been witnessing have not permeated the defence community in a major way so far. But, what if the defence community is targetted by an enemy country? Or if the virus falls into the hands of terrorists?
A pandemic like COVID-19 can be a threat to the national security of a country which is not prepared to tackle such a disaster. The impact of the pandemic can be even more severe if such a virus is not natural but biologically altered by a country for its personal gains. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 is a result of the increasing conspicuous consumption in society. The ever-increasing need in almost every field of human consumption has given birth to a situation where the definition of a new-normal never stops.
The greed of individuals is reflected in the proliferation of new products to be marketed with great conviction that inadvertently control the behavioural pattern of the majority of the consumers of the globe. One principal reason for this are the global commodity chains that have fostered greater movement of goods and people across continents. The impact of the contagion on the world economy is huge because the global North often seeks to subsidise its commodity consumption by outsourcing it to countries with weak labour laws and economies of scale with low manufacturing costs. Hence, China’s crisis became the world’s crisis even before the disease hit Europe and America. The present pandemic has proved that every human effort is defeated when it is a question of how to balance between natural and artificial eco-systems, given the increasing fluctuations in the climatic disorder.
One of the possible answers can be reducing the ever-increasing need, consumerism and production and the establishment of sustainable infrastructure where humans and nature can complement each other. For the last four decades the whole world was on the path of globalisation, where every country understood the needs of the other and a symbiotic trade system was established. This resulted in alleviation of poverty, betterment of healthcare facilities and better lifestyles globally, to a certain degree. However, these developmental indices have been realised at the expense of natural resources. The increasing demand for foodgrain invited abundant use of pesticides that finally permeated into the human body, causing fatal diseases.
Similarly, the demands for security and defence-related products have further harmed nature, impacting the air, water and soil. However, the massive production lines in China have not only impacted the global community but the country itself has faced the negative impact of global greed and consumerism. A World Bank and Scottish Environment Protection Agency report says that around 7,60,000 people die prematurely each year in China because of air and water pollution.
This increasing imbalance in nature has been reflected in such catastrophes and the possibility of their recurrence cannot be denied if the global community does not wake up. No one can deny the fact that the COVID-19 virus originated from Wuhan province of China and the Wuhan Institute of Virology does research on most dangerous pathogens. There is a huge wet market for animals and seafood located in Wuhan. The bush meat, which may be termed as a cultural preference, may be detrimental for humans and is often a source of such pandemics.
No one can also deny that China hid the initial outbreak and failed to warn the world community of the severity of the virus, despite the fact that it knew how contagious it was and Wuhan is well-connected with the capitals of many countries around the globe.
As a result, the pandemic has affected 53,32,323 people and there have been 3,40,590 casualties till now, globally. However big this count may be, the economic and emotional implications of the outbreak are unfathomable. There is a global lockdown amid chaos and fear and there is a threat to the current world order. At times like this, the question of national security becomes very important.
Thankfully, all the casualties that the world has been witnessing have not permeated the defence community in a major way so far. But, what if the defence community is targetted by an enemy country? Or if the virus falls into the hands of terrorists? The 9/11 attack on US soil 20 years ago redefined the security infrastructure of the global community and so far, more or less every country’s security design has been impacted by terrorism.
The spread of the Coronavirus has raised a big question on global security and now every nation has to redefine its security. The search for biological weapons by the US in Iraq in 2002 and further consequences were based upon the programme of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction from 1962 to 1991, aimed at attacking Iran, the Kurds and other purposes. There has been biological espionage between the West and the Soviet Union and so on.
In this manner, as confronted by the outcomes of the Coronavirus on most of the world networks, there is a need to again restore an elective power which might resemble the NAM, reboot the United Nations Organisation and reclassify worldwide security.
(Writer: Gautam Kumar Jha; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Desperation drove 15-year-old Jyoti Kumari to pedal 1,200 km to Bihar with her father. She is now up for cycling trials
If the pandemic has shown our ugly side, with a rampant class divide apparent in decisions taken by the Government vis-à-vis the lesser privileged, namely migrants, it has also revealed the true grit of survivors. People are walking thousands of kilometres in their long march home, helping and supporting each other along the way. One among them is a young girl, Jyoti Kumari, who set out on a 1,200-km journey back to Bihar on her second-hand bicycle with a single mission: Bring her injured, out-of-work migrant father home. With no money and little food and thanks to generous Samaritans along the way, she pedalled on with her father on the pillion. For eight days, the father-daughter duo moved down long roads under a scathing sun and some undesirable comments by passersby. Yet undeterred, she reached her home in Bihar and has now quarantined herself. With the media hailing her as the “lionhearted” girl, the reports did not fail to draw the attention of the Cycling Federation of India. Having noticing her immense talent, it has invited her to New Delhi for a tryout with the national team. There’s much more. Her amazing journey has also grabbed the attention of Ivanka Trump, US President Donald Trump’s daughter, who took to the social media to salute what she called a “beautiful feat of endurance.” But Jyoti must not make the same mistake as Srinivas Gowda, the “kambala jockey” or Karnataka’s Usain Bolt, who, too, was invited by the Sports Authority of India to take part in a track and field trial after his record-setting performance in a traditional foot race but failed to seize the moment. Nor should she be like Rameshwar Gurjar, a farmer from Madhya Pradesh, whose fame was short-lived because he failed to prove his mettle on the ground. If passion and desperation drove her, she must keep that hunger alive for a sportswoman’s career if she indeed wants one badly enough.
She must possess the same zeal as that of sprinter Dutee Chand, boxer Mary Kom and archer Deepika Kumari among others, who, coming from tribal and marginalised backgrounds, were less magnificent than they are today. Standalone feats like that of Jyoti’s from the hinterland are also proof of talent, stamina and determination that we are somehow not able to tap into and develop as Olympic medallists. We need to put in place quality and effective grassroots rural sports development programmes uniformly across States and ensure sports nurseries are set up at the school level along with nutrition packages for the young. Imagine what Jyoti could do with a little bit of encouragement and support.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Experience shows that we cannot bring the economy on track if our working classes are unhappy. It is the Government’s greater responsibility to make them feel at home
A pandemic invariably leads to a health crisis, which has an economic fallout, too. This has been the trend in almost all countries that are reeling under the impact of Coronavirus. The additional crisis posed by the mass exodus of the migrant labourers is more or less specific to our country and is bound to have some far-reaching consequences.
For a long time to come, heart-rending images of the migratory efflux will be the defining moment of the Corona-inspired lockdown. Having lost their livelihood, without any savings and no hope for the future, lakhs of workers left for their hometowns and villages. In the absence of any transportation during the first month-and-a-half, out of sheer desperation, they set out with meagre belongings on roads and highways. Some even covered more than a thousand kilometres on foot. Though their decision must have been voluntary, the fact is the prevailing circumstances left them with little option.
The present crisis is a multi-dimensional one but for now, the focus has shifted almost entirely to the economy and less on health. In the long run, this may also emerge as a major social issue. The migratory process, its effects and the growth of slums in urban areas have been studied comprehensively but the instant case is that of reverse migration. Earlier, this phenomenon was attributable to individual behaviour and decisions but in the present context, it has assumed the shape of a mass efflux. Individuals and families, who are suffering, having been uprooted physically for no fault of theirs, are not only bound to be unhappy but also bitter. Given the present situation, this bitterness does not appear to be disappearing anytime soon. The reason as to why these people were forced to leave their villages in the first place might, perhaps, confront them in a more aggravated form now as they get back to their home States.
Under the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, the Government had ordered on March 24 that all employees — be it industry, shops or commercial establishments — will have to pay wages to their employees even when they are not in operation during the lockdown. Landlords, too, were asked not to charge rent or get the premises vacated from their worker-tenants. Pursuant to a judgment from the Supreme Court, this order was withdrawn on May 18, without any alternative arrangement, thus leaving the migrants high and dry. The Supreme Court ruled that the Ministry of Home Affairs’ order was violative of Article 19 (1)(g) of the Constitution with respect to the rights of private firms. It’s another matter that prior to its withdrawal, the order was being observed more in violation. Perhaps the case for the migrant workers could have been presented more effectively.
More glaring is the non-implementation of the Interstate Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act 1979. Known as ISMW, rules under the said Act were framed and notified in 1980. The implementing authorities for this Act are the respective chief labour commissioners. Perhaps they could not foresee the enormity of the situation and, thus, could not react in time. Also, the efflux of the workers was only initially prevented.
In fact, some action was taken against erring officers, who tried to facilitate their movement but after some time, the decision was reversed, leading to confusion in making arrangements for their safe transportation. The registration for workers wanting to migrate has begun only now and that, too, at selective places. The ISMW has specific provisions for such registrations in the normal course of working of the labour department, which, perhaps, was being neglected.
It is true that in its original form, the Act applied to migrants of only certain classes. With a small amendment, it could have been extended to all categories. Complete neglect on the part of the ISMW appears to be one of the factors that may have widened the difference between the workers, labour, migrants and the administration.
Ever since the liberalisation of the economy and pro-labour legislations coming into force, unrest among the wagers had become a thing of past. The well-known trickle-down effect came into full play and a record number of people could move away from poverty. Some of these pro-labour legislations are now in the process of being abandoned with States like Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan undertaking major changes in them to woo investment. In fact, the higher judiciary has already taken cognisance of this and has asked some pertinent questions on behalf of the workers and their rights.
Experience shows that bringing the economy back on the rails cannot be achieved if our working classes are unhappy. The role of the trade unions will have to be considered afresh in the changed circumstances. Unions have more or less remained dormant during the last two decades and are now coming back with a cause, which may not augur well for the industry as a whole.
An extremely important question that has not been debated so far is: What next? For how long will the migrant workers stay on and whether this efflux is for good. Whatever be the status of a worker in society, he/she did have access to a certain level of facility in urban areas. All of them became used to their lives and would certainly miss them badly back home. So does this mean that this efflux is a temporary phenomenon and that things will normalise in due course?
Considering the alienation that they have undergone, it does not appear that the workers would be coming back too soon unless some confidence-building measures are taken. This should entail a review of some of the regressive laws that work against the interests of the labourers. Alienation of the workforce has several manifestations but one of the worst forms is estrangement of man from man. It would have pained them where it hurts the most to see a complete lack of empathy among sections of society who could have helped them tide the crisis. Only a handful of NGOs stepped in to help. Generally, Government agencies were a big letdown. This may have further aggravated the situation.
The Government’s decision to increase the allocation for MGNREGA up to Rs 40,000 crore is a step in the right direction. Though in a limited manner, this can certainly help the migrants tide over the immediate crisis when they reach their home States. Our MPs and MLAs, who could have undertaken immediate relief measures, are handicapped in the absence of funds that have been already diverted.
Additionally, existing resources of the State Governments have come under severe stress. Their borrowing capacity needs to be enhanced further. In the event where a bulk of the migrants would not want to go back to their original workplaces, focus will have to be on the creation of appropriate levels of employment opportunities in the vicinity. Obviously, investment in the area of rural development and employment would have to be increased in affected districts where there has been a sudden influx of population. The Providing Urban Facilities in Rural Areas (PURA) model, as suggested by former President Abdul Kalam, can also be taken into consideration.
Today, a much greater responsibility lies with the State Governments, who have to not only provide the arriving migrant force with medical care but also treat them with empathy and help absorb them in the existing social milieu, physically, psychologically and economically.
(Writer: KK Paul; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
A roadmap to improve teacher quality should include transparent and merit-based recruitment policies to ensure that only the most-deserving individuals get selected. Training should be rigorous and customised as opposed to standardised modules
With COVID-19 bringing the shutters down on schools and colleges in the country, over one crore teachers are adapting to new ways of instruction to ensure minimal disruptions to education. Schools are finding innovative ways to impart lessons, right from getting their teachers to use WhatsApp to correct assessments, recording classes or live-streaming lectures.
In every effort, be it home visits to check on students, travelling miles in search of internet connectivity to access online training material or contributions from retired faculty, the teachers truly remain the frontline warriors of education. Yet they are undervalued and unappreciated. The typical job description of a teacher involves expectations around strong content knowledge, 21st-century learning experiences, effective learning environment as well as the need to be life-long learners, growing and evolving in their professions.
But beyond what meets the eye, teachers also have to be passionate and thoughtful, encouraging student engagement. They have to be responsive and empathetic to the needs of students from myriad backgrounds; promote collaborative learning and teamwork; inculcate strong values and social cohesion; conduct assessments and continuously use insights to drive, modify and bolster instruction. Educators must collaborate and consistently engage with parents and the larger community; be role models, holding themselves to the highest professional standards and serve as mentors, bringing out the best in each student, facilitating their transition to higher levels of education or work. While expectations are galore, teachers function in a system that is crippled with challenges, including poor training and inadequate resources. Teachers in India are often burdened with administrative responsibilities — election duties, maintaining multiple student rosters and so on. Teacher distribution is also poor and consequently, a single teacher could be teaching students from different classes or at various learning levels, at the same time. Despite overarching challenges and constrained work environment, teachers are disproportionately faulted for poor learning outcomes and painted as culprits.
As standardised tests outweigh a teacher’s personal observation of a student’s progress; as people outside of education are more prized as teachers than those who have honed the craft; as technology threatens to replace teachers; or as policies are set without factoring in the opinions of teachers, we witness a collective failure — a massive undermining of the profession. It marks a systemic failure to recognise and value teachers as experts in the field.
Standardised models of practice and training, evidence-based strategies that advocate a one-size-fits-all approach tend to overshadow the unimaginable unpredictability and ingenuity of working with and shaping young individuals. What makes a teacher’s work unique is that at the heart of it is emotional labour. It requires establishing connections with students first and teaching, after. For a teacher, the most joyous memories stem from seemingly little moments like a restless child settling down in the classroom, a slow-learner inculcating strong foundational skills, watching students embody values of sharing and kindness, witnessing the shy student ask questions or listening to first-generation school-goers teach their parents the alphabet. This kind of work seldom gets accurately captured in productivity or efficiency metrics.
Though the metrics can’t possibly account for it all, they do offer interesting insights. Today, with an increasing body of research, there is greater clarity and evidence on key drivers of learning. Teachers are paramount. No other initiative — such as reducing class size, revamping curriculum, investing in technology and building better infrastructure comes close to having as much of an impact as a good teacher.
Drawing from a Harvard-Columbia Study, which tracked 2.5 million students over two decades, one can safely conclude that elementary and middle school teachers have a lasting impact beyond academics, including greater matriculation and higher adult earnings. Even students with good kindergarten teachers end up making more money in the long run. Another study from Stanford shows that an effective teacher can raise learning levels each year. These impacts attenuate over time and with 70 per cent of these gains retained in the long run, a student with a learning achievement, that is one standard deviation above average, can expect 10-15 per cent higher earnings each year. There is symmetry in these estimates, too. The impact, as multiplied by the number of students taught, means that the economic value of a good teacher grows with larger classes.
While the majority of teachers may be effective and hard-working, the symmetry also suggests lower returns from ineffective or poor-quality teachers. Simply put, better teachers have greater potential.
A 2013 study estimated that replacing an ineffective teacher in the bottom five per cent with an average teacher could boost one student’s earnings in the US by $2,50,000. Extrapolating from this, a 2016 report from Washington anticipated an increase of more than $11 billion in earnings of students by improving teacher quality for a million public school students.
Implications for policy in the Indian context are clear — there must be concerted efforts to recognise the value of teachers and improve their quality/effectiveness. A roadmap to improve teacher quality should include transparent and merit-based recruitment policies to ensure that only the most-deserving individuals get selected. Training should be rigorous and customised, delivered to suit the needs of each teacher as opposed to cascaded standardised training workshops or modules. Performance-based evaluation and promotion mechanisms must be implemented to drive better learning outcomes. There must be a focus on reducing the administrative load on teachers; providing greater support and access to requisite resources; rationalising the distribution of teachers, and creating a fostering environment, which acknowledges their work and encourages professional growth.
It is time we valued teachers, perhaps as we did in the ancient days. So while we “reimagine” the education system post-COVID, let us begin by placing the teacher at the centre, for every child deserves a good educator.
(Writer: Sarah Iype; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
While this will increase employability, the question is about the quality of college courses and industry-ready orientation
In a move that will change the higher education scenario in India forever, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has green-lighted a proposal to allow students to take up two degree courses simultaneously. What is clear at the moment is that only one of the courses can be pursued in the regular format while the other can be followed online. A student can pursue two degrees in different streams as well as from different institutions. Though this move was being mulled for a long time, the UGC took it up seriously only last year. Dual degrees empower a student with a higher skill set and improve his/her job prospects, particularly relevant when the world is staring at a recessionary economy. In the West, universities routinely offer students double majors, which essentially come in the form of a single degree from a single university but with combined honours, such as a degree in two different streams like English Literature and Computing, giving graduates the option of pursuing a career in either.
As it is, the country’s unemployment rate at the moment is a scary 24 per cent. So the UGC’s decision will help urban job-seekers become more employable. Being flexible in a dismal job market will mean better chances of getting hired in a cut-throat economic environment. However, as we celebrate this move, we must not ignore some of the stark realities of the Indian education system. A whopping 47 per cent of the graduates being churned out by our universities and professional colleges are not employable for any industry role. A 2019 survey reveals that close to 90.92 per cent of graduating engineers lack the required programming and algorithm skills required to work in IT product companies. Software engineers have a very low employability rate, with only 16.25 per cent being employable in IT services and 3.4 per cent in IT product companies. So, if this is the level of our education and this is the kind of knowledge, or lack of it, that our students are imparted, then how does it matter if they can do one or more degrees? They will still be unemployable and feel the worse for it because they would have worked that much harder. It is better we overhaul the education system and make it more research-based with practical industry knowledge. We must encourage innovation, higher-order thinking and improve our youths’ cognitive skills. In short, we must adopt global standards of education so that when our students graduate, their degrees can be put to good use.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
With the face of Kolkata and Sundarbans changed forever by Amphan, the Centre vs State war should stop now
The trouble with facts and figures is that they are good enough for comparative data analysis, historicity and references but fall short of mapping the extent of human tragedy, the loss of human settlements and the death of man-made legacies. So though the super-cyclone of 1999 claimed over 10,000 lives, compared to the 80-odd caused by Amphan at a time when early warning systems and disaster preparedness have improved, the latter has left a rampaging trail of destruction unseen in the last two decades. Although 500,000 people had been evacuated, the wind speed of 185 kmph hammering in with brute and unsparing force from the Bay of Bengal meant that it disfigured the iconic face of Kolkata as we knew it. The city has lost over 9,000 big trees that lined its avenues and wrapped around its colonial splendour. The howling storm tore through the facades of a cultural entity called Park Street, crumbled heritage ruins down to their last bones and shattered the egoism of modern-day highrises which couldn’t hold their glass showcase as they splintered wildly. Even at the time of writing, cellphone towers and power supplies are out in many areas. Kolkata airport looked like a sea with untold damage to infrastructure. Mangled heaps of metal, cars that had turned turtle or telescoped into houses, debris and uprooted trees and poles have buried lives, livelihoods and identities. The official cost of destruction may be estimated to be at Rs 1 lakh crore but rebuilding an emotion and culture that had held out for hundreds of years is quite something else. For Kolkata has never been about inanimate structures, each of them had a life force of its own. That moral invincibility, a sense of being really, has taken a big hit. Not only that, Amphan’s rage has caused irreparable damage to the ecologically fragile Sundarbans region and its people. Mud embankments in the delta, a UNESCO site, were breached as the hungry tide whipped up by the churner flooded large swathes of the islands and submerged them into oblivion. With sea water entering agricultural land, officials now fear that more than two lakh rice farmers could be severely affected. Nobody knows if the tigers, numbering around 100, are safe or not. The marine ecosystem has also shape-shifted overnight, the mangroves reduced to clumps. Almost the same part of the Sundarbans was devastated last November by Cyclone Bulbul and the State Government had asked for a financial relief package worth Rs 23,000 crore from the Union Government. Political wrangling on the package was still going on when Amphan pummelled Bengal further. Besides the State makes up 15 per cent of India’s food supplies, so the nation has a broken conduit. That’s the reason why Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called for an end to politicisation and Prime Minister Narendra Modi rightly responded by doing an aerial tour besides announcing a Rs 1,000 crore package. And although media coverage of the crisis smelt of bias despite the scale of devastation, any kind of politicisation over relief and rehabilitation should be avoided by either side. For given the COVID-19 pandemic, nobody would want Bengal to become an uncontrollable hotspot with thousands displaced and forced to seek shelter in crowded camps.
Although the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had done mass evacuations in both Bengal and Odisha, its teams now have the dual task of rehabilitation and disease control. It is being helped by the State police and firemen but saving lives is still a humongous task. Lessons learnt from Fani have, however, helped NDRF deploy tree-pole cutters in the areas which were expected to be worst-hit. Which is why the State could resume some patchy bursts of power supply in 24 hours. But it is relocating the displaced and evacuees that is causing a bigger problem. Due to social distancing protocols in place, the cyclone rescue centres, which could hold about 1,000 people, can now shelter only 400-500 locals. With a lot of physical handling in relief and rescue efforts, teams also have an additional responsibility of ensuring that locals who moved into shelter homes do not contract the disease. Apart from routine medical assistance to the injured and hurt, there is a simultaneous need for testing given the high infectivity of the disease. Let us not forget that returnee migrants also form a part of the evacuees. Clearly, Amphan has been an epic humanitarian disaster for East India. And a precursor to what a rough monsoon could do to coastal states amid the pandemic. So for once, the Centre versus State war or ruling party versus Opposition won’t make sense to anybody, not even the politicians.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
The long march of migrant workers back to their home States took the Government by surprise. It is time we have a consistent policy on this diligent segment of society
Ignorance is like knowledge, it has no limits. The colossal movement of the blue-collar migrant workers back to their home districts has exposed our ignorance about this segment. How could the Centre not anticipate its possibility when it shut down everything on minimal notice, drawing a lakshman rekha around houses on March 25? A planned evacuation, like in the case of a natural calamity, would have helped. This could have also prevented many deaths that the migrant workers are facing almost on a daily basis on the highways and railway tracks.
However, we choose to be wise only when tragedy strikes. After beating around the bush initially, branding the upsurge in COVID-19 cases as a conspiracy by certain Chief Ministers or a political party, the Centre could no longer overlook the elephant in the drawing room. Commendably, the Ministry of Railways brought the wheels back on track. The Shramik special trains were started to ferry the stranded workers back to their home districts. Post this, the Union Government has been proactive in combating the COVID-19 pandemic and providing relief materials. However, it chose to be wise only in hindsight when it came to migrant workers.
In a recent article, Mark Tully attributed this crisis to the class divide. Since none of our policy-makers comes from the class of the migrant workers, the mandarins of Raisina Hill could not think about their fate. One would like to cite another factor that can be termed as “dereliction of political duty.” Problems of the agriculture sector and farmer suicides have rocked the Parliament many times. Some members have also called for convening a separate session to discuss agrarian issues and formulating a separate agriculture Budget. It is another thing that those suggestions have never been pursued.
However, this writer believes that the plight of the migrant workers in urban India, a bulk of whom belong to the unorganised sector, is actually grimmer. Agrarian suicides constitute seven to 12 per cent of all suicides in the country. Year-on-year figures are available in Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, an annual publication of the National Crime Records Bureau (Ministry of Home Affairs). The figures are low in percentage terms if one considers that close to half of India’s population remains dependent on primary sectors like agriculture and forestry among others. The law of probability entails that half of the suicides in India should come from that sector as well. However, mercifully, this is not the case. Agriculture is in the green zone as far as suicidal deaths are concerned. Which sector is in the red zone then?
To cite an example, in 2018, 22.4 per cent of those who committed suicide were daily wage earners; 9.8 per cent were self-employed; 9.6 per cent were unemployed; and other persons (a grey area) were 16.2 per cent. Comparatively, 7.7 per cent of the people engaged in the farming sector committed suicide. More people coming from the salaried and professional class (8.9 per cent) committed suicide in 2018 in the country than those engaged in the farming sector.
The exact situation of the migrant workers might fall through these statistics. However, a little application of the mind will reveal their plight. A person in the farm sector at least lives in his own home/native place. A migrant worker, however, is surrounded by professional uncertainties and mental insecurities. These gnaw him to the core.
But why did the plight of the people in the urban unorganised sector, many of whom are migrant workers, never capture the attention of the political class? This is possibly because nobody is sure where they have their votes. In a lecture delivered by OP Rawat, IAS (Retd), the former Chief Election Commissioner, at Jigyasa Forum, New Delhi, earlier this year, he had said that nearly five crore of the migrant workers have never been registered as voters. The Election Commission of India might have bridged that gap lately. But with a registered electorate of 91 crore out of India’s estimated population of 137 core, the saturation limit of above 18 years voters seems to have been reached in 2019 (discounting for some duplication in electoral rolls, which is likely to be streamlined in near future).
While farmers are “settled” voters, migrant workers are often not. While some of them remain voters in their native place, others change their address to the place of usual residency. This often leads political parties, both in the home and resident State, to turn a blind eye to their condition. Thus, their fate is less likely to be discussed in the legislature. It is only in the wake of the lockdown that we have been reminded of a 40-year progressive piece of legislation (formulated by the then Janata Party Government) viz, the Inter-State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, which has been more honoured in breach than in observance.
A migrant worker doesn’t have the dignity associated with a farmer. As the share of agriculture contracted in the GDP basket of India, it implied more people had shifted out of that sector to become wage earners. Now, the COVID scourge has inflicted heavy damage upon the manufacturing and service sectors. It is anticipated that the unemployed migrant labour population will fall back upon agriculture for the time being. A situation close to that happened when following the destruction of industries, during the onset of the British rule, people fell back on agriculture, leading to overcrowding.
Apparently, this overcrowding was never fully outlived. Nearly a century of industrialisation failed to bring down India’s agricultural dependency in terms of employment substantially. Notwithstanding, the share of agriculture has been reduced drastically in the GDP basket.
It is a pity that States do not have approximate figures about the number of migrant workers. Since it is the fundamental right of any citizen to move and resettle in any part of the country, the State is not willing to intervene, despite the 1979 law. However, during a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha recently (Vide unstarred question 4747 dated March 23), figures (as of 2016) were estimated to be over 100 million (10 crore). Indian Post money orders booked in Karnataka (paradoxically India’s IT State) amounted to Rs 3,259 crore out of India’s total figure of Rs 5,065 crore for the year 2018-19. The other leading States are Kerala (Rs 900 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 198 crore) and Maharashtra (Rs 185 crore), referring to a strong element from the migrant worker community. A recent digital wallet ad on television (Phone Pe) chose to break away from elitism and featured a migrant worker. It is an indication that the digital wallet economy is now giving challenge to “money order economy” of the migrant workers.
Economies often demonstrate great resilience in the face of tough challenges. They often recover sooner than predicted by experts. As the economy settles down post-COVID, there will be fresh demands for migrant workers. It remains to be seen whether they retake the flight of fancy back to the same place or explore local options.
(Writer: Priyadarshi Dutta; Courtesy: The Pioneer)
Partial route opening and limited flights will infuse some life into the aviation industry but flyer discipline must be paramount
As India slowly eases itself out of the lockdown that began on March 25, the Government has opened up various modes of transport like buses, taxis and trains with a strict set of guidelines to follow, considering that we are seeing a spike in Coronavirus cases each day. Now, the Government, which is keen to see the economy of the country back on track, has announced that it will be opening up domestic air travel, too, from May 25, exactly two months after the country shut itself down. This is good news for the domestic aviation industry that was already distressed before the lockdown began and has now reached the brink of extinction. But how much of a relief it turns out to be for the beleaguered airlines remains to be seen as it is not yet clear which routes will be operational with this key decision being left to individual State Governments. So, as with trains and opening up of inter-State borders for buses, we might see some States balk at the idea of opening up their skies amid a pandemic that does not show any sign of abating. Besides, most metropolitan cities continue to be in red zones. However, the Government is taking all precautions to ensure the safety of airport staff, airline employees and flyers alike as it has issued a string of detailed disinfecting codes on how we can travel.
But what of vital social distancing norms? It seems to be something of a paradox right now. Because on one side people will have to get on and off aircraft sequentially and in batches, so as to maintain social distancing, and waiting areas will have taped off or marked seats that cannot be used, but on the other side there are no plans to leave the middle seat vacant in the aircraft. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri says prices won’t be “viable” and the Aarogya Setu app profiling would ensure that suspect passengers are anyway not on board. Perhaps we should follow the example of the US airlines that are spreading out their passengers by blocking the middle seat and capping the number of passengers. And when we are expected to maintain social distancing on buses and taxis then, why not on flights? As it is, with nearly all modes of travel opened up, the virus is bound to spread faster now, unless all movement out of red zones is banned. This is something that the Government has to consider seriously. Opening up the economy and the aviation sector is a good move but giving social distancing norms a go by in a closely-packed, compressed air cabin could be an invitation to trouble.
(Courtesy: The Pioneer)
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