The movement of Students along with other Universities and Institutes of Excellence in the country do raise questions on the importance of Public Education. Education in India has always received a low priority with only about 3% of the National Budget spent on Education. Even within this, there is a lot of inequity with IITs, IIMs receiving the larger share among educational Institutions and Central Universities receiving more share in relation to State Universities. Overall, however the spending on education by the State has been low.

Despite the miniscule investment on Education by the State, the Public Education has played an important role in creating opportunities for Social Mobility. Those belonging to the poor, marginalised and vulnerable sections of Society through benefiting from subsidised education have witnessed inter-generational mobility. Many of them have risen to become Civil Servants, Officials, Social Work professionals, Media personal and Academics.

The changing priorities of the State which tends to move towards privatisation and commercialisation of education has attempted at increasing fee driven by the logic of reducing subsidies towards the same. While the fee raise has been successful with many of the IITs and Universities in the recent past, it has received resistance at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Many IITs and Universities too have started mobilizing students and providing resistance.

With the arrival of BJP at the Centre, JNU has been subject to a defamation drive. The fake news and media affiliated to saffron wing, while on the one hand intends defame the University in the name of propagating that it is the ground for anti-national activities, on the other hand it also tries to argue of  the irrelevance of higher education. Pursuing of higher education is depicted as a wastage of public and tax payer’s money.

A modern society intending to create social and economic equity cannot do away with public education. While education plays an important role in creating social mobility and gaining access to employment, vocations and occupations – its role is much beyond that. Education creates an enlightened citizenry. The more the opportunities available for those from poor & marginalized sections, those in remote areas, women, Dalits, Adivasis to gain access to higher education – the better the movement it creates towards social progress.

Along with a commercial agenda, the communal agenda of the present regime also adds to its present drive. University is seen as a place where ideas and ideologies are discussed, debated, critiqued, intellectualised, written, argued and spoken. University provides spaces where not one but several ideologies may find a fertile ground. There could be Liberals, Marxists, Ambedkarites, Gandhians, Feminists, Environmentalists, Right leaning, Left learning or Centrists. Prevalence of followers of multiple ideological viewpoints can only strengthen the intellectual environment in a University. This needs to be enriched and celebrated.

However, a regime which is intolerant of other ideological viewpoints and sees other than itself as anti-nationals, University and in particular higher education is seen as spaces which corrupts. It is seen as places which creates anti-nationals who do not turn into Saffron Bhakts but become critics of the same. The strongest critics of the current regime in the recent past from the younger generation are the ones who have come from the most marginal sections of society. The current regime looks at this as a threat to its agenda of Hindu Rashtra. The lesser they get exposed to universal values and ideas, the lesser the blocks towards creating a theocratic state.

Due to its proximity with Ambanis, the current regime also intends to promote private universities such as Jio Institute, which has received the tag of Institute of excellence even before its start.

The misadventures by the current regime due to both commercial and communal agenda is leading to the current student unrest.

Public Education cannot be done away with without giving up on the need for Social Progress and Social Equity.

Author: T Navin is a Researcher and works with an NGO

Courtesy:countercurrents.org

The post Student Movement and Public Education appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The resistance of the people that is taking place during Assembly election campaign of party in power does point to something that has changed in the political landscape in Gujarat. The resentment of the people is becoming more open. ‘Vikas’ is being ridiculed through pointing instances such as potholes on roads and essential commodities becoming more expensive. ‘Vikas Gando Thayo Che’ (Vikas has gone crazy) has spread in cyberspace. People have started questioning the popularized term ‘Vikas’ or ‘Gujarat model’. A consensus that has been reached by all sections of people is that ‘Gujarat Model’ is something that has failed to benefit them despite all the hype that was created around it.

Recently ASHA workers gathered in a meeting in Kapurai village of Vadodara district and pledged to campaign against “the anti-women, oppressive, Hitler-shahi and tyrannical State Government”. In a meeting organized by Jignesh Mevani, the villagers of Gujarat pledged not to vote for BJP. In a meeting on 2nd October, Patidar youth shouted “General Dyer Go back” during the inauguration of the Gaurav Yatra. Residents of two villagers in Valsad district put up banners saying that they would boycott elections as a company is contaminating waterbed in the area.

The boasting which was taking place in the name of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas’ has only turned out to be ‘Sabka Doka, Sab Barbaadh’. It is not surprising that people across all castes Jignesh Mevani representing Dalits, Alpesh Thakor representing other backward castes and Hardik Patel representing Patidars have come together to overthrow the present regime. This only shows that the poor from all the communities have been left out in this development model. While the three may represent their own social constituencies, but the broader issues of employment and development benefits not reaching them have brought them together. They only point to the vanishing job market. Coming together of Jignesh, Thakor and Hardik, also represent the unrest and resentment of youth in their own social constituencies. While the voices of minorities and adivasis may not be heard in this resistance, it also points to the level of political marginalization they have been through.

Growth of disillusionment could also be seen from among the traders, who formed a major support base of the party in power. Haphazard implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST) had an effect on their business. The double stroke of demonetization and GST hit the textile industry in Gujarat. Production in Surat dropped by half and sales during Diwali drastically declined leading to losses. 90,000 looms were shut and 50,000 laborers lost their jobs.

According to the former chief minister of Gujarat Suresh Mehta, “Gujarat Model is nothing but a jugglery of words”. In this model, Gujarat’s debt has increased drastically to Rs. 1, 98,000 crore. While agricultural subsidies to farmers have declined by 80% i.e., from Rs. 408 crores to about Rs. 80 crores, on the other hand subsidies to corporates namely Adanis and Ambanis in petrochemical and energy sector has increased to Rs. 4,471 crores. Food subsidies have reduced by 60% from Rs. 130 crores to Rs. 52 crores. Industrial growth was hardly able to generate jobs. TATA Nano project did not create enough jobs.

Gujarat model points to the missing human dimension and inclusiveness. It is based on higher emphasis on accelerated infrastructure development of roads, highways, dams and a spike in foreign investment. Focus on human development continued to be the least. While the corporate and the rich classes benefitted, the poor were hardly beneficiaries of this model. While Gujarat continues to be among the high performing states in terms of growth rates, it stands low in relation to inclusiveness and human development. Among states ranked from lowest to highest rates of poverty, Gujarat ranks 10th among 20 major states. In terms of mortality it is ranked 11th. In life expectancy, it is ranked 10th. In overall Human Development Index (HDI), Gujarat is ranked 10th.

The growing resentment among people of Gujarat only point to the failure of the much hyped ‘Gujarat model’ or the slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’. It is true that ‘Vikas’ has gone crazy, but it is for the Corporates at the cost of the large majority of the Gujaratis. It is a “Development model for the 1% at the cost of the 99%’. Has Gujarat’s moment of a different version of Occupy movement arrived?

The post Growing resentment among people of Gujarat points to failure of much hyped slogan ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.