Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016, Hyderabad; Contribution: Rs 30/- RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation

An organ in support of free and equitable education from KG to PG and in resistance to all forms of trade in education Quarterly publication of All India Forum for Right to Education (www.aifrte.in)

Contents

Editorial ...2

PERSPECTIVE ‘Skill India’ or Deskilling India - An Agenda of Exclusion... 3 AIFRTE critique of MHRD's Inputs Document... 8 A Critical Analysis of MHRD’s Document... 14 Flawed and Inegalitarian Framework - School Education in Draft NEP... 18 When ‘Training’ Replaces ‘Education’... 19 AIFRTE CALL: Expose NEP... 20

System, Tamil Nadu... 22 AllahabadComplaint Declaration...filed by State 24Platform for Common School

VOICES AGAINST NEP... 26

ISSUES Letter to the President on Teachers Day... 31 No Campus is an Island... 32

ADeifying Brahmin’s People Cow with Tales... Disabilities: 37 � �ruel �oke... 33 DalitShyamaprosad protest in Mukherjee:Gujarat... 39 How ‘selfless’ was this ‘patriot’?... 34 Pattern of impunity in cases of crimes against Dalit... 41 Changes to India’s child labour law... 43 How Gujarat wants to shackle its universities... 43 The Potato Song... 45 Supreme Court ruling against AFSPA... 46

PRESS-STATEMENTS... 49

REPORTS... 52

EDITORIAL BOARD Executive Editor: Madhu Prasad • Associate Editor: Vikas Gupta Members: Sarwat Ali, Surjit S. Thokchom & Lokesh Malti Prakash Editorial Contact: [email protected] RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 1 EDITORIAL

The proposed New Education Policy (NEP 2016) has MHRD appears tricky. There is no analysis of previous policies, hovered like a threatening cloud over the entire education no assessment of the consequences of putting into practice system for the past year. the changes introduced by the National Policy on Education It was claimed that the Modi government’s NEP was going (NPE) 1986 with its companion Programme of Action, and to be the unique result of more than 2.6 lakh consultations around 13 themes earmarked for School Education and 20 democratic goals and guiding principles of equality and social themes selected for Higher Education, to be held at Gram justicetheir final articulated modified duringversions the (1992). freedom Prior struggleto the NPE informed 86-92, Panchayat, block, district, state, groups of states and national policies, although successive governments failed to meet their levels. MHRD supplied a list of questions to prompt feedback Constitutional obligations. The changes introduced by the NPE for each of the themes for the Draft NEP document. The 86-92 coincided with the adoption of the economic reforms document would not be the work of experts, we were told, but program by the Narsimha Rao government in 1991 and so of the people themselves. The T.S.R. Subramanium Committee the NEP 2016 has to be assessed in relation to the reforms set up to formulate these responses into a Draft document programme to which the present regime is strongly committed. was headed by an ex-Cabinet Secretary, included three retired As with the earlier minister, the recently appointed government Secretaries and had only one former Director of NCERT, Prof J.S. Rajput, whose academic credentials have closed door meeting with RSS and its organizations including been severely compromised by his role in the project for ABVPminister to Javdekar’sget their advice. first major This process action hasof saffronization been a six-hour of `saffronization’ of textbooks during Murli Manohar Joshi’s education represents a real threat to the democratization of tenure as MHRD minister in the previous NDA government. the education system in the interests of the people. In this However, it appears that meetings orchestrated at higher background, the current issue carries several papers and levels were used to legitimatize claims that recommendations articles which critically analyze the proposed NEP 2016. In sharp contrast to these developments, AIFRTE organized a National Assembly at Allahabad to focus on the principles schoolrepresented principals, “the teachers, voice of government the people”, invitees and officials and some and projected in the High Court’s judgement (August 2015) Schooleducation Management officers dominated Committee proceedings members at meetings were herded where demanding common neighbourhood schools. The report of together. This is why MHRD has failed to make the content the Assembly proceedings is projected as an important step of the `peoples’ recommendations publicly available. The towards a people’s alternative to current Government policy. national and regional debates said to have been held by UGC, The Hindutva organizations of the Sangh Parivar continue NCERT, NUEPA and other national-level institutions show to attack the minorities and Dalits in the name of Gau Raksha. a similar lack of transparency. Finally the MHRD’s failure The Central and State governments run by the RSS leaders to acknowledge the Subramanium Committee’s report and and cadre are encouraging and facilitating these lynch mobs produce its own 43-page document “Some Inputs for Draft leading to a sharp polarization among the different sections NEP 2016” further obscures the process. of the population. This constitutes a grave danger to the unity Not just the behavior but also the methodology adopted by of India as a composite and pluralistic society and the very concept of the nation. We carry an interview with eminent historian Prof. D.N. Jha that reveals the prejudices on which

The powerful and united struggle of Dalit youth against suchthis falsificationpolitics of oppression of history across for political the nation gains is is analysed being done. and reported here.

Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) who inaugurated AIFRTE’s All IndiaIrom Sharmila,Shiksha Sangharsh the indomitable Yatra 2014, fighter called against off herthe fastArmed on 9th August 2016. We are carrying an article on the AFSPA in this issue as her struggle and ours continues against this draconian Act. Reports of actions from different states are also included in the issue. The education system and Indian society are faced with grave dangers in the present situation but the community

democraticof students rightand teachersto education are andcourageously the composite, fighting plural back nature and ofresisting Indian thesociety threats. and Thispolitical is the democracy most significant in India defence today. of the

2 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad PERSPECTIVE ‘Skill India’ or Deskilling India An Agenda of Exclusion

ANIL SADGOPAL

The defining purpose of education is not to train students productive manual work but also lack the necessary skills to take their place in either the corporate order or the existing for the same ... [S]uch a notion of education has come society, but to encourage human agency as an act of social to be embedded in the knowledge system, representing intervention. the dominant classes/castes/cultures/languages ... The Henry Giroux (2003: 16) education system has tended to ‘certify’ this form of knowledge as being the only ‘valid’ form ... [T]he knowledge The Ministry of Human Resource Development inherent among the vast productive forces along with the (MHRD) has a contrary neo-liberal agenda for the nation’s related values and skills has been excluded from the school “demographic dividend.” curriculum ... [C]olonial education was built upon precisely India is one of the youngest nations in the world with more than 54% of its total population below 25 years of age. that is alienated from productive work and its social ethos. This necessitates that the youth in the country are equipped (NCERTsuch a Brahminical 2007: iii)1 concept of ‘certified’ or ‘valid’ knowledge with the skills and knowledge to enter the workforce Gandhi sought passionately to undo this colonial-cum- through education and training ... A large proportion of Brahminical hegemony through Nai Taleem (Sadgopal 2013: the products of the education system are found to lack 170–72, 173–74). employable skills. (MHRD 2016b: 8–9) Jyotirao Phule, in his memorandum to the Education Productive Work in Education Commission (Hunter Commission) on 19 October 1882, This is partly the reason why the various policy-related questioned the sociopolitical character of knowledge documents have attempted to incrementally reduce the imparted in the schools. He proposed that the primary Phule–Gandhian transformative conception of education to schoolteachers should be those “who will not feel ashamed to (i) delinking skills from knowledge and values; (ii) merely hold the handle of a plough or the carpenter’s adze” (emphasis vocational education or skilling; and (iii) limiting it for the mine). In order to make education in village schools “of the oppressed classes and castes, namely, Scheduled Castes greatest good to the country,” Phule recommended that, (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs)/Other Backward Classes apart from reading, writing, accounts, history, geography (OBCs)/Muslims, with a view to condemn them to their and grammar, “lessons on technical education and morality, caste-based and patriarchal destiny. Thus, it was reduced sanitation and agriculture, and some useful arts, should to “learning through activity” (Bureau of Education 1944), be interspersed among them in progressive series” (Phule “work-experience” (Education Commission 1964–1966; 2002: 107–08). In Phule’s vision of education, there was no National Policy on Education [NPE] 1968), “Socially Useful thought of delinking productive skills from the intellectual, cultural and humane pursuits. vocational and vocational education as parallel streams at At the Wardha Education Conference (1937), Gandhi secondaryProductive and Work” senior (MESW secondary 1977, stages, 1978), respectively, and finally to in pre- the put forth an agenda of educational transformation, Nai Taleem, which was primarily inspired by the need to liberate 1992 (Sadgopal 2008). The 1986–1992 policy even proposed India’s education from the colonial framework (Sadgopal thatNational 25% Policyof the children on Education at the senior (NPE), secondary 1986, as modifiedstage, if not in 2013). Like Phule, Gandhi was also concerned about even earlier at the secondary stage, be shifted to a parallel colonial education being intrinsically incapable of educating vocational mainstream and denied further education. India’s masses. He proposed that the productive work of While Phule’s appeal to the Hunter Commission the oppressed classes and castes should be brought to the for assigning a central place to productive work in the centre of school curriculum, which pedagogically can be the curriculum was organically part of the then emerging anti- source of knowledge acquisition, value development and caste consciousness, the Gandhian Nai Taleem was part skill formation. The essence of the Gandhian proposal was of the anti-colonial struggle. The successive dilution and to pedagogically interweave the “world of work” with the distortion of the Phule–Gandhi conception underlines the “world of knowledge” in order to break the increasing reluctance by the upper-caste ruling classes to assign a pivotal pedagogic role to the manual skill-based knowledge … Those who work with their hands and produce productive work in the curriculum. This essentially divested wealthartificially are denied instituted access to dichotomy formal education between while work those and education of its agency of transformation and liberation of who have access to formal education not only denigrate Indian society from its historical prejudices rooted in the

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 3 “Manuwadi” framework. The phenomenon of delinking the children of the impoverished and oppressed castes are skills from education now threatens to reach its peak as we destined to study (Sadgopal 2010b, 2011). Through its “25% approach NPE 2016. quota” provision, the state has also attempted to diffuse the emergent movement for a state-funded, entirely free and Neo-liberal-cum-Manuwadi Assault mother tongue-based common school system founded on The 43-page document posted by the MHRD on its Neighbourhood Schools concept from “KG to Class XII,” as website as “Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, conceived by the Education Commission, 1964–1966. 2016” (henceforth termed Draft NEP 2016; MHRD 2016b) Neither the Report of the Committee for Evolution of proposes to replace education with “employable skills” the New Education Policy (MHRD 2016a), chaired by T S R tailored for the global market.2 The overarching framework Subramanian, nor the Draft NEP 2016 cared to even refer to the well-documented history of the state’s abdication of “Make in India,” in order to facilitate investment by global its constitutional obligation towards providing equitable capital.will be of This Skill policy India, whosewill be camouflaged aggressively agenda pursued is toto promote exclude more than 80% of the Indian population comprising SCs, STs, prevailing neo-liberal-cum-Manuwadi policy framework it OBCs and Muslims from education, and push them into skill inheritededucation. from On thethe contrary,previous theygovernments, find nothing except wrong lamenting in the shops, with women in each of these social categories facing that it was not properly implemented.3 The education data much greater exclusion. Since the 1986 policy, successive governments have children admitted in Class 1, only about 6% of STs, 8% of SCs, incrementally kowtowed to the globalisation agenda of 9%reported of Muslims in these and documents 10% of OBCs camouflage are able theto cross truth: the out crucial of the the International Monetary Fund–World Bank dictated barrier of Class 12. This means that less than 10% of the Structural Adjustment, resulting in steady withdrawal of oppressed classes and castes have ever become eligible for public funding from education, from pre-primary to higher higher education and reservations. More than 90% of these education. Budget cuts leading to substantial vacancies sections of society stand denied any social mobility, thereby of teachers’ posts, massive contractualisation of teachers, tending to return to the caste-based and patriarchal parental withdrawal of non-teaching staff, dilution of infrastructural occupations. It is against this background that the Skill India and teacher-related norms and standards, multilayering to agenda along with its linkage to Make in India has become adjust/exclude various social strata, and deliberate erosion the focus of the Draft NEP 2016. of holistic curricular vision became the order of the day for the past three decades since 1986. Such neo-liberal UPA Policy Framework policies led to the dismantling of state-funded educational institutions, accompanied by the opening up of an ever- the second United Progressive Alliance government, rooted in theThe global National market Skills paradigm Qualifications (MoF 2013), Framework is now (NSQF) proposed of commercialised education from “KG to PG” (kindergarten to be incorporated by the second National Democratic toexpanding postgraduation). market forThis profit-hungry, was precisely corporate-controlled, the objective of the Alliance government in education along with its National World Bank’s intervention in elementary education under Policy on Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 its Education for All (EFA) agenda in the 1990s and beyond (MSDE 2015). Both the Subramanian committee report (Sadgopal 2010a). and the Draft NEP 2016 are replete with references to skill In the case of higher education, the government development for employability of its “products” (that is, “offered” the entire sector for market access to World students) to such an extent that the very aim of education Trade Organization (WTO)–General Agreement for Trade appears to be restricted to employability. They propose to in Services (GATS) in 2005. Given the manipulations by integrate NSQF-compliant skill training in 25% of schools rich nations at the WTO ministerial conference held in and colleges/universities and also push “skilling” of tribal Nairobi (December 2015), the Indian “offer” of higher students in a big way.4 This “extremist” focus on employability education as per the GATS framework has now essentially hardly makes sense against the background of the “jobless become an irrevocable “commitment” (Prasad 2016). Thus, economic growth” model pursued since globalisation. India’s children, adolescents, and youth have no option but This is why the skills to be given are primarily driven by to be the victims of the anti-constitutional multilayered the skill framework of the global market, as there is not education system, embedded in increasing inequality and much employment to offer within the country. Expectedly, discrimination. the twin documents are steeped in the market-oriented Few realise that the Constitution (86th Amendment) Act paradigm of behaviourism, thereby undermining the crucial 2002 and the consequent Right to Education (RtE) Act, 2009 role of cognition and consciousness in building democratic were designed to legitimise the aforesaid neo-liberal agenda. citizenship. The much-hyped “25% quota” for the weaker sections and the disadvantaged in the enrolment of private unaided Low Wage-earning Workforce schools amounts to the provision of a farcical space for no The Draft NEP 2016 aims at excluding the “demographic more than 3%–4% of the deprived classes and castes. For dividend” from education as early as possible under its this façade, the government shifts public funds to private agenda of equipping them with low wage-earning skills that schools under public–private partnership (PPP). For the will make them either “exportable products” to the global rest, the acts promise an inferior quality, ill-managed and market or cheap labour for Make in India. discrimination-based government school system, where only

4 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad No Detention’ in RtE Act: Probably the only progressive medium and nothing else (MHRD 2016b: 31). The denial provision in the otherwise neo-liberal RtE Act 2009 is its of mother tongue as a medium after Class 5 will place the Section 16, which states that no child shall be held back in children belonging to the oppressed classes and castes at any class till the completion of elementary education, that a tremendous disadvantage, thereby exacerbating their is, up to Class 8. Ironically, it is this provision (nicknamed No exclusion and leaving no option for them but to join NSQF- Detention) that has come to be falsely blamed for children’s compliant skill shops. low academic levels. The Draft NEP 2016 states that the “no detention policy will be limited up to class V and the system Multilayering of examination system: The Draft NEP 2016 of detention will be restored at the upper primary stage” states, (MHRD 2016b: 19). The Subramanian committee reveals the ‘In order to reduce the failure rates, class X examination intention behind this misconceived proposal. In the case that in Mathematics, Science and English will be at two levels: the student fails to clear the “bar” twice despite “CCE as well Part-A at a higher level and Part-B at a lower level. Students as an end of term examination, … he should be either detained who intend to join courses/programmes for which science, in the same class or given other alternative opportunities of mathematics or English is not a pre-requisite or wish to pursuing different options, including the vocational stream” shift to vocational stream after class-X will be able to opt for (emphasis mine; MHRD 2016a: 186). Part-B level examination.’ (emphasis mine; MHRD 2016b: This implies exclusion of at least 20% of the children up 22) to Class 5 (the dropout rate), when they are 11-year-olds, The “products” of the Part-B stream would, thus, be made or even earlier. A similar policy of exclusion is indicated by to quit further schooling and shift to NSQF-compliant skill the Subramanian committee for upper-primary children shops. as well. The proportion of the excluded children could be Amendments in Child Labour Act: The Child Labour dropout rates, as the proportion of those who “fail” to clear (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2016 has thesignificantly aforesaid higher“bar” is (two-thirds bound to exceed or more) that thanof the the dropouts official legitimised a child (that is, up to the age of 14 years) working (more correctly, pushed-outs). The children thus pushed out to “help his family or family enterprise ... after his school in proportions higher than ever before up to Class 5/8 will be hours or during vacations” or “as an artist in an audio–visual diverted to NSQF-compliant skill shops. The children of the entertainment industry” provided it does not affect the child’s SCs/STs/OBCs/Muslims will be “pushed out” at still higher education. This amendment has alarming implications for rates, with the girls in each social category being victimised elementary education since (i) several family occupations in even greater proportions. involve hazardous processes, especially when the corporate houses are increasingly outsourcing their tasks in order to ‘Alternate Schools’ in RtE Act: The RTE Act has provided cut down on labour costs; and (ii) the face-saving feature of for substantially inferior infrastructural and teacher- “after his school hours or during vacations” will invariably related norms and standards (Sadgopal 2010b). Both the mean long hours put in by the child in order to meet the Subramanian committee report and the Draft NEP 2016 contract deadlines, thereby losing on their childhood. propose to further dilute them. Being unable to cope with studies, such children will be Local norms, appropriate for local conditions, will be pushed out before or after Class 5. They, too, will have little evolved ... for ‘alternate schools’ which offer educational option other than returning to the parental occupations, reinforcing caste, creed and patriarchy. Similarly, adolescents (14–18 years) will be persuaded to work in hazardous circumstances.interventions for(MHRD specific 2016b: categories 19) of very deprived industries due to low wages of their parents. This will mean andWe are migrating back to children, the “non-formal and those centres” living inof difficultthe 1986 an increased probability that they would quit school as their policy, the World Bank-sponsored District Primary Education health deteriorates, pushing them into NSQF-compliant skill Programme (DPEP) of the 1990s, and the Sarva Shiksha shops. Abhiyan (SSA) of the 2000s, which promoted Education Guarantee Centres and Back to School Camps as parallel Deskilling India streams. Being ill-conceived, all of these collapsed. Similarly, Possibly the most alarming concept in the NSQF is the “alternate schools” proposal will increase the pace of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), which is basically exclusion of the deprived children after or even before Class 5, under the amended No Detention provision. of the people in the unorganised sector, constituting almost 93%concerned of the with employment certification in the of skillscountry and (MoF related 2013: knowledge Section Denial of mother tongue as medium of education:The 12). The people in this sector have not received any formal Subramanian committee report and the Draft NEP 2016 also training, but are among the most skilled, knowledgeable, and undermine the universally acknowledged role of mother creative citizens in their own respective areas of expertise. tongue as the most potent medium of education to acquire The unorganised sector comprises a formidable spectrum of knowledge as well as to learn any other language (including skills emerging from diverse epistemic frameworks. English) at all stages of education. This is evident from their The NSQF–RPL proposes to use National Occupational proposal that up to Class 5, it may be the mother tongue, but Standards (NOS) as per global parameters for measuring from upper primary onwards to higher education they leave the “performance outcomes” of skilled workers in the it to the market to determine that it would be the English

unorganised sector so that each worker may be certified RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 5 for her/his existing corresponding skill (MoF 2013: Section the knowledge acquired by crores of “Eklavyas” in order to 7). The “performance outcomes” will be formulated by the advance the interests of the ruling classes and castes. It will corporate-controlled Sector Skill Councils (SSCs). The NSQF also ensure that the middle- and upper-class and upper- implies that no informally trained worker will be engaged by caste youth—acquiring commoditised knowledge and either the public or the private sector, directly or indirectly through a contractor, or be eligible for bank loans unless educational institutions—will be moulded to serve global capitalhigh-profile as pliant skills bonded in elite, labour politically with seven- sanitised, or eight-digit corporate These NOS will be uniform across the country, even pay packages. This is how the proposed NPE 2016 shall thoughcertified skillsunder andthe RPL.the related knowledge are diverse— incorporate the patriarchal caste system legitimised by culturally, geographically and epistemically. The 2015 Manusmriti into the neo-liberal avatar of a Brahminical– policy slogan of One India, One Standard is like a “war cry” against the unorganised sector. A substantial majority of the skilled and knowledgeable workers are likely to “fail” the corporateNotes order legitimised by finance capital. 1 Excerpt from the Executive Summary of the Position Paper partly because these standards are formulated as per global of the National Focus Group on “Work and Education” (chaired by parameters,certification test,which partly are becauseirrelevant of tothe their uniformity livelihood of NOS needs. and this author), constituted by NCERT with a view to provide essential This is how the Skill India mission will lead to deskilling India inputs for the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005. The position paper (NCERT 2007) elaborates on how to transform the on a massive scale, making crores of skilled workers in the school system in order to institutionalise the curricular vision of Nai Taleem in a Common School System based on the Neighbourhood who will be compelled to work for even lower wages than at Schools concept for the entire country and for all sections of society, present!unorganised sector essentially “illegal” uncertified workers, as resolved by the Haripura Congress (1938). Unfortunately, even the otherwise progressive NCF National Steering Committee did Hidden Links with Make in India not accept the agenda of radical transformation of India’s school Why is the Indian state pushing the Skill India mission system for engaging with inequality and discrimination rooted in when the jobless economic growth model is public the patriarchal caste system and other historical prejudices. Hence, the NCF 2005 continues without the Phule–Gandhi conception of is desperate for pushing the Make in India brand, which can education. succeedknowledge? in attracting However, thereglobal is capital logic in only this madness.if the labour The statelaws 2 In view of the neo-liberal model of “jobless economic growth” for the past 25 years, the ruling class is left with no option other than are diluted and, at the same time, if labour costs are reduced converting education into employable skills tailored for the global through lower wages. This article shows how the education market, mostly for the tiny organised sector (7%), and deskilling system is being manipulated in order to cause massive labour to cut labour costs in the vast unorganised sector (93%). exclusion either before or after Class 5/8. While the exclusion 3 On the contrary, the exclusionary character of the present will lead to lowering of wages, particularly due to deskilling education system, rooted in inequality and discrimination, is the of labour through the NSQF–RPL, it will also make a major consequence of “successful” implementation of the neo-liberal- withdrawal of public funding from education possible. Thus, cum-Manuwadi policies in force since the 1980s. the agenda of abdication by the state of its constitutional 4 The special focus on skilling of tribals remains to be decoded. obligations towards education is further hastened. If the Make in India mission is still unable to provide low-wage References employment to all, the remaining workforce will be exported Bureau of Education (1944): “Post-War Educational Development in India: Report by the Central Advisory Board of to the global market. Education,” Government of India, New Delhi, http://dspace.gipe. ac.in/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10973/GIPE-034814.pdf.se.... Slavish Workforce Giroux, Henry (2003): Public Space, Private Lives: Beyond the The low wage-earning, semi-skilled workforce, whether for Make in India or for export to the global market under MESW (1977): “Report of the Review Committee on ‘The Skill India, necessarily has to be slavish or pliant, since a CurriculumCulture of Cynicism, for the Ten-Year Lanham, School’” MD: Rowman (Ishwarbhai and Littlefield. Patel Committee), worker with critical thinking is utterly unacceptable. The Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India, proposed NPE 2016, therefore, will ensure that the teachers, New Delhi. curriculum, assessment, and the institutional culture leave no (1978): “Report of the National Review Committee on Higher space for students to develop their critical faculties. In higher Secondary Education with Special Reference to Vocationalisation” education, the NPE framework insists upon depoliticisation (Adiseshiah Committee), Ministry of Education and Social Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi. of the campuses. If “Rohith Vemulas” or “Kanhaiya Kumars” do come up despite such abundant precaution, they are Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government unlikely to get even a teacher’s job as they will be rejected by of India,MoF (2013): New Delhi, “National http://msde.gov.in/assets/images/Gazette_ Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF),” the NOS under the NSQF due to their critical thinking! EO_NSQF.pdf. MSDE (2015): “National Policy on Skill Development and Epilogue Entrepreneurship, 2015,” Ministry of Skill Development and In NPE 2016, linked to Make in India through Skill Entrepreneurship, Government of India, New Delhi, http://www. India, we have the insidious design with which today’s skilldevelopment.gov.in/National-Policy-2015.html. “Dronacharyas” in the much eulogised “guru–shishya MHRD (2016a): “National Policy on Education, 2016: Report of parampara” will appropriate, dilute, or distort the skills and the Committee for Evolution of the New Education Policy,” Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New

6 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad and Development: Revisiting Education Commission and After, Committee%20for%20Evo.... Ved Prakash and K Biswal (eds), New Delhi: NUEPA and Shipra Delhi,— http://www.epw.in/system/files/Report%20of%20the%20(2016b): “Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, Publications, pp 323–42. 2016,” Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of — (2010a): “The Neo-liberal Assault on India’s Education System,” The World Bank in India: Undermining Sovereignty, Distorting Development, Michele Kelley and Deepika D’Souza (eds), India,NCERT New (2007): Delhi, “National http://mhrd.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/ Focus Group on Work and Education,” New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp 296–313. Positionfiles/Inputs_Draft_NEP_2016.pdf. Paper 3.7, January, National Council of Educational — (2010b): “Right to Education vs Right to Education Act,” Research and Training, New Delhi, http://www.ncert.nic.in/new_ Social Scientist, Vol 38, Nos 9–12, pp 17–50. ncert/ncert/rightside/links/pdf/focus_group/.... — (2011): “Neoliberal Act,” Frontline, 15 July, http://www. Phule, Jyotirao Govindrao (2002): “A Memorial Addressed to the Education Commission,” Selected Writings of Jotirao Phule, G P htm. Deshpande (ed), New Delhi: LeftWord, pp 101–12. frontline.in/static/html/fl2814/stories/20110715281400400.— (2013): “The Pedagogic Essence of Nai Taleem: Reconstructing Prasad, Madhu (2016): “Nairobi and After,” https:// Its Role in Contemporary Curriculum,” The Living Gandhi: Lessons sabrangindia.in/column/nairobi-and-after. for Our Time, Tara Sethia and Anjana Narayan (eds), New Delhi: Sadgopal, Anil (2008): “Deciphering Policy Discourse on Penguin Books, pp 163–79. the Place of Work in Curriculum,” Perspectives on Education (Coutesy: EPW, August 27, 2016)

Kaushal to Kushal seems to be faltering at the last mile ... While the government claimed to have trained twenty lakh people under its flagship Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), which works out to an average of about 6,600 persons trained or upskilled every single day over last ten months, peeling off the layers of this success story reveals a less compelling narrative. Only 81,978 of these trained candidates have managed to secure placements since the launch of the scheme in July 2015, ac- cording to official data updated till April 25, 2016. The placement to skilling ratio works out to less than 0.5 per cent. . . . The certification figures are also dismal, with only 5.77 lakh candidates being certified as on April 25, 2016. Under the scheme, which aims to mobilise a large number of youth to take up outcome-based skill training and make them employable, a total of 17.58 lakh candidates or about 6,279 candidates per day were trained till April 25, as per official esti- mates of the Ministry of Skill Development that were submitted before a parliamentary panel. Responding to a query by The Indian Express on these numbers, the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship said the number of certified can- didates as of June 7 was recorded at 11.2 lakh. That translates into an average certification of 12,628 candidates per day be- tween April 26 and June 7, as against an average of 2,060 workers being certified per day since the launch of the scheme on July 15, 2015 till April 25, 2016. The ministry did not provide specific details regarding the number of those who have found placement under the scheme, while citing “incomplete data” as the primary reason for the low reported placement numbers. According to the ministry, the total enrollment under PMKVY as of June 7 stood at “19.7 lakh (rounded off to 20 lakh)”, includ- ing short-term training imparted to 17.94 lakh persons and those trained under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) at 1.79 lakh persons. State-wise data, which is available till April 25, 2016, shows a distribution skew in the nationwide distribution of skill training, with six states — Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan — accounting for over 50 per cent of those trained. The data shows that UP leads with 2,52,304 trainees, followed by 1,56,096 in MP. Tamil Nadu comes a close third with 1,50,244 trainees, followed by 1,22,866 in Andhra Pradesh, 1,13,397 in West Bengal and 1,11,235 in Rajasthan. The state-wise figures reflect poor performance of trainees getting certified. Around 78,189 candidates were certified in UP, accounting for only 31 per cent of the total trained people in the state under the scheme. The same dismal performance is seen in Madhya Pradesh with only 47,831 people being certified under the scheme. Despite the financial incentive, workers leaving the skilling programme midway is one of the biggest problems faced by the government, in part responsible for the fact that just about a third of those trained ultimately end up being certified. After a 15-month rollout across five states, the RPL scheme — a sub-component of the PMKVY project that aims to certify the skills acquired by workers in the unorganised sectors through traditional, non-formal learning channels — has run into head- winds, with a number of selected trainees leaving midway through the certification process. The trend in lower number of certified candidates is a big concern for policy makers. “The experience during the course of the pilot showed that a large number of construction workers invariably left the desig- nated work site for other sites, mostly for better wages or personal problems, thereby leaving the certification process half- way. We are now tweaking the programme to address,” an official said. On the low placements under the scheme, government officials said that such schemes are not employment generating schemes and an assured placement is never promised under such schemes. “These are skill imparting schemes which increase the employability prospects of a candidate. Under the scheme, the government imparts four types of skills–skilling, reskilling, upskilling and RPL, but a placement is not guaranteed,” a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.

(Courtesy: Indian Express June 27, 2016)

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 7 ‘Some Inputs for Draft NEP 2016’ A Critical Response by AIFRTE

Introduction is narrow, restrictive and misleading. In its preamble it A response to the MHRD document “Some inputs says “the NEP 2016 envisions a credible Education system for Draft Education Policy 2016” (MHRD Inputs) raises some capable of ensuring inclusive quality education and lifelong questions: learning opportunities for all and producing students / • Does it have a comprehensive, coherent, democratic graduates equipped with knowledge, skills, attitudes and values… to lead a productive life, participate in the country’s • Is it in conformity with our constitutional vision, goals development process, respond to the requirements of the perspective and approach? fast-changing, ever-globalizing, knowledge-based societies, • Can it achieve a humane, democratic, secular education and developing responsible citizens who respect the Indian and principles? tradition of acceptance of diversity of Indian heritage, culture • Can it strengthen and develop our public education and history and promote social cohesion and religious based on the principles of equality and social justice? amity”. • Can it provide free and quality public education to all This is full of neoliberal and Hindutva ideological childrensystem and up stopto 18 its years deterioration? till they complete higher secondary jargons and concepts, both of which are regressive and anti- education and equal and increasing opportunities to go to people. The concept ‘inclusive’ is used as a substitute for ‘common’ or ‘equal’, lifelong learning implies adult, open and • Can it help abolish privatization, commercialization, online education, ‘productive life’ is used in the economic globalizationhigher education? and communalization of education and sense, ‘development process’ and ‘ever globalizing’ in the achieve a free, quality common school system based on neoliberal sense, and ‘Indian heritage, culture and history, social cohesion and religious amity’ are conceived of within it address the rural-urban, caste-class, gender, religious, the communal Hindutva framework. neighborhood schools fully funded by the government? Can In fact education as a social-historical process plays • Will it pave the way for social transformation towards an enlightening, transformative and emancipative role. adisability humane, inequalities, genuinely democratic, discrimination secular, and egalitariandeprivation? society Education should lead to the enlightenment of individual and progress of society. Through its humanizing, civilizing and rationalizing role, it inculcates in the individual and society withPolicy human Framing-Approach security, dignity and good human relations? The MHRD document shows a lack of deeper to a society with freedom, justice, equality, fraternity and humana spirit ofdignity, enquiry democracy, and scientific plurality, temperament federalism, and secularism also leads system. It is more akin to a project feasibility report and and socialism. isunderstanding devoid of insights of the into problems the socio-political afflicting ourprocesses education and causalities. The language and style of presentation shows Socio-Economic Milieu a techno-economic and bureaucratic approach, without a The context in which a new education policy democratic and social commitment and involvement. has to be discussed is the socio-economic milieu of our The way the T. S. R. Subramaniam Committee was society. Socio-economic systems of Varna-Caste, feudal constituted with four bureaucrats and only one academic, and neoliberal capitalism, and patriarchy are marked inviting and receiving opinions and feedback (with a by hierarchy, hegemony, subordination, alienation, preconceived agenda and methodology) from a large marginalization, exclusion and deprivation. Severe caste- number of organizations and individuals which have not class-gender inequalities, prejudices and discrimination are all-pervading. Social injustices against SC, ST, OBC, been submitted, keeping it in cold-storage, neither accepting, religious and linguistic minorities, the disabled, women, norbeen rejecting made public nor andputting finally it whenin the the public committee domain, report shows has trans-genders and children are rampant. Engaged in caste- the lack of sincerity and commitment. Is there a dearth of based occupations or in the unorganized sector with low earnings, they suffer from poverty, social and educational Does it not indicate a sinister motive behind not involving backwardness and the cruelty of social practices and stigmas educationists, academics and intellectuals in our country? like untouchability and alienation. The NEP does not address The MHRD document lack coherence, consistency or a them. holisticthem? Is approach. it not contrary There to are good clear democratic contradictions practice? between the avowed goals and objectives and the policy framework The Constitutional Framework and the strategies discussed. Absence of the required priority to education and political commitment and will is apparent. sovereign, democratic, secular, socialist republic with justice, liberty, Theequality Indian and Constitution fraternity. Building affirms thatan egalitarian, ours is a The Conception of Education welfare state is the essence of its vision. Ensuring free and The conception of education in the MHRD document compulsory elementary education to all children and equal

8 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad and equitable opportunities for higher education for all system of education’ and ‘the Gurukul system’ (Preamble of youth is its mandate. MHRD document) and in its mission of achieving ‘cultural The policy framework of the MHRD Document: unity of the country’ through the ‘teaching of Sanskrit By advocating privatization of education, at the school and university stages’ because of ‘special withdrawal of the state and assigning a pro-active role to importance of Sanskrit to the growth and development of the corporate sector, turning education into a private good Indian languages’. In this context, it needs to be recalled that and a tradable service, the NEP is in clear contravention of throughout its long history spanning over several millennia, the constitutional vision of a common education system. Sanskrit always remained a language of the ruling and social Objectives like equality, equitable education, social justice, elite. secularism are repeatedly mentioned (chapter 3 of inputs Again, the inputs document leaves no one in doubt document) in a formal and perfunctory manner and they are that all non-Sanskritik traditions – right from the Charvakas, not supported by necessary policy initiatives. the Buddha and Mahavir to Nanak, Kabir, Ramdas and more With education shifted from the State List to recently, up to Phule, the Periyar and Ambedkar (most the Concurrent List in the Constitution, there is a heavy of these were using people’s languages) – essentially, all centralization of decision-making power with the Centre and thought currents that questioned the ‘Vedic’ tradition and ‘Vedic system of education’ (read Brahmanical tradition) resources. This needs to be changed. The states which are have been completely blacked out. By questioning this ‘Vedic’ the statesmajor areproviders made to of depend education on it should for policies be provided and financial with tradition, they were all contesting its inherent opposition to any social change and its predilection to be status-quoist. Professor Amartya Sen, the Nobel Laureate, once said: Remarkably, all these were voices of reason and rooted in ‘weadequate cannot powers live without and financial the past resources. but cannot live within it either’. All varieties of history of humanity show that once their own and question everything. While the Buddha wanted humans started living a sedentary life and acquired the sense everyscientific individual temper, voicesto ‘be thata lamp encouraged unto himself’ people (atta to think deepo on bhava), the Jainas through their accent on the multi-faceted with a handful of privileged segments controlling all kinds truth created phenomenal spaces for alternative and even of privateresources property, and a great societies mass evolved of people along engaged stratified in primary classes dissenting voices. The Jainas debated incessantly for over two tasks of production of wealth being subjected to all kinds thousand years about the rights and potentialities of women of indignities and disabilities. Until the advent of modern to achieve nirvana (salvation). They also went on to discuss democratic establishments rooted in universal suffrage, all such manifestations of identities of women and womanhood societies of the world preserved the vested interests of select that would perhaps put even the most modern feminist to shame! Notwithstanding the initial reluctance of the Buddha notwithstanding these fragmenting forces, is the demolition to admit women into the sangha (monastic establishment, offew the classes. twin myths Equally of ‘purity significant of race’ feature and ‘purity of human of language’. history, that later grew as big educational centers), women were And with the all-pervasive eternally migrant character of subsequently encouraged to develop their educational skills. humans, all societies of the world have perennially been Many of them went on to become renowned poets. Both pluralistic – socially and culturally. the Jainas and the Buddhist sanghas allowed their women The MHRD document invokes history in a somewhat members to retain their property rights, which enabled them to give big donations for the building and embellishment of of the ‘Preamble’ makes it amply clear that the whole stupas such as Sanchi, Bharhut and Nagarjunakonda. These approachqueer manner. is not The only very ahistorical first sentence but is and completely the first paragraphmotivated non-sanskritik voices provided roots for and nurtured by the interests of what has come to be seen as ‘imagined the ‘Argumentative Indian’. The Document, on the other community’. When even in today’s democratic India, post- hand, wants a regimented system. No wonder, the ‘Gurukul Independence seven decades have never seen more than system’ is understood as ‘a teacher centric system in which the pupil was subjected to a rigid discipline and was under education, the claim that ‘India has always accorded high certain obligations towards his/her teacher’ (pg.1 of MHRD importance1/25th of the to nationaleducation’ financial can at best resources be seen being as laughable spent on document). The inquisitive Gargi, during a philosophic and an exercise in self-delusion. Further, it is contradicted by discussion in one of the Upanishads, was brazenly asked by the document’s admission a few pages later, ‘India currently the sage Yagyavalkya to ‘shut up lest her head was chopped has the largest non-literate population in the world’ (p.7) off’. The NEP Document just does not have any space for At couple of places, the ‘Inputs document’ harps on disseminating ‘India’s rich heritage, glorious past, great The richness of non-Sanskritik thought currents can also traditions’ and the need to provide adequate space for be‘reason’ seen inand the ‘scientific earliest Tamil temper’. literature. It is quite a revelation ‘Indian culture, local and traditional knowledge’. Legitimate that more than two millennia ago, these texts developed a concept of eco-cultural zones within ancient Tamilnadu. These zones sustained inhabitants of multiple identities. answersquestions toin thisthese context questions would are be: whoseforthcoming, heritage? its Whichstray One can see a generic link between such exposition and the allusionsheritage? toWhich ‘linguistic past? andWhich cultural tradition? diversity’, While ‘heterogeneous no categorical culture’ are more in the nature of mere lip service than voices by the Anthropological Survey of India’s People of India emerging out of any serious conviction. On the other hand, Projectidentification of the of1980s. more than ninety eco-cultural zones in India the real intent can be easily deciphered in its eulogy of ‘Vedic That India’s long pluralistic and non-Sanskritik

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 9 cultural traditions are not even on the radar of the policy by narrow domestic walls;… Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sands of dead habit;… contributionsframework envisioned to the world in the of documentknowledge. is Italso is well-knownreflected in Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country the identification of markers who contributed to seminal awake. and Persian. Not a single allusion to authors of such writings Further, when this MHRD document mentions achieving that very significant scientific treatises were written in Arabic ‘cultural unity of the country through teaching of Sanskrit’, are mentioned. The Madrasa of Mahmud Gawan at Bidar (in one can be sure of its determined pursuance of the goal of Karnatakafigures in thebuilt list, in wherelate 15th Charaka, century) Sushruta, focused Aryabhata, not just on etcits ‘One People, One Culture, One Nation’, which would obviously ecclesiastical interest of propagating Shiaism but also invited destroy the millennia old ‘Idea of India’ rooted in its multi- reputed faculty from outside India to teach science and faceted pluralities. mathematics. It is also recorded that free boarding, lodging and education to over 500 students from the world over was Social Justice Ignored provided at any given time. The founder had established a There is a vague and token reference to social justice library of 3000 volumes in this university before his death. in the MHRD document. The marginalized sections like SC, ST, OBC, Minorities, Women, Children and Disabled face Don’t Akbar, Dara Shukoh and Shah Jahan deserve a place social handicap in addition to poverty and resourcelessness. Regrettably, it does not figure anywhere in the Document. The social justice and equity demands they are provided Recent studies have shown that contrary to commonly held viewfor patronising of decline and of nurturingSanskrit, differentmore than linguistic 250 years traditions? of the over and above the provision for general population. There Mughal rule (16th-18th centuries) constituted a very rich iswith a dire extra need support to enlarge (both thefinancial prevailing as well system as non-financial) of providing and creative phase of Sanskrit writings in varied genres. them, nutritious mid-day meal, clothing free medical care, Akbar’s patronage of Persian translations of the Epics and text books, scholarships and hostel facilities along with free Dara Shukoh’s monumental translations (from Sanskrit to education. There is need for continue the quota system for Persian) of numerous Upanishads stand out as remarkable these category students in public educational institutions examples. While Takshila (Taxila) is merely history now, and government jobs in suitably extending them to private the building of Dara Shukoh’s library (in Kashmiri Gate, sector. But the document does not make any commitment Delhi) still exists and is housing the Bharat Ratna Bhimrao Ambedkar University and even Guru Gobind Singh measures for them. Least does it commit for extension of Indraprastha University functioned from this building until to continue with reservations and existing affirmative recently. scholarships for so-called ‘meritorious’ and this needs to be Singing paeans of the selected past (read questionedaffirmative on measures. the ground It mentions that ‘merit’ about in our providing socio-economic 10 lacs ancient ‘Hindu’ / brahmanical past of the Pre-Turkish system is a privilege of the few. Any opportunity crated by times as delineated by Brahmanical lawmakers and social government should be equitably distributed. There is a thinkers), without making its critical evaluation, and in the further apprehension that the newly proposed scholarships process, deliberately ignoring its extremely dehumanizing could be intended to siphon funds to private agencies inegalitarian patriarchal caste-system and divisive socio- under reimbursement schemes. There should be a rule cultural dimensions (anti-women, anti-lower social orders that the public money should be spent only through public and against the people following occupations that were institutions. The emphasis in the document on “pre- vocational the Manusmriti) is only aiming at the perpetuation of similar oriented activities” and “skilling of students in tribal areas” divideshated by in the modern brahmanical democratic thinkers India. – all Wezealously can do codified without in alludes to a vision of making the children of these social recalling the ‘Sudarshan Chakra’ of ‘Mohan’ (Lord Krishna) categories “skilled laborers” while structurally reserving the quality education for the students of upper caste and upper of humanity (wheel of the potter, whose religious identity class there by reverting to the Manu-Ordained paradigm. canbut wenever must be not established), be oblivious which of the not chaak only of honed the first her/his kumhaar skill Pre-School Education of creating varied pots and pans but more importantly, is the It is stated in chapter IV that “as a priority, a greatest testimony of her/his inventive mind that made such programme of pre-school education for the children in the a phenomenal technological breakthrough. We do not need age group of 4 to 5 years will be implemented. The state Dronacharyas of the ‘Gurukul system’ but an educational governments will prepare cadres of pre-primary teachers, apparatus that does not produce Ekalavyas and Shambooks. by training Anganwadi workers in due course all primary While Gurudeva Rabindranath Tagore was inspired by the schools will cover pre-primary education… Anganwadis ashramas in establishing his Santiniketan, one would look in will be located either in the school premises or close to them. Appropriate regulatory and monitoring rules and venturing to realise Gurudeva’s ideals of a Knowledge Centre mechanism will be designed for private pre-schools.” embodiedvain to find in evidence his famous of those lines ancient learning establishments The development of pre-primary education for Where the mind is without fear and the head is held children of 3-5 years age is very crucial for strengthening high; and developing the government primary, upper primary Where knowledge is free; and secondary schools. But the policy document states that Where the world has not been broken up into fragments only 4-5 year olds will be covered and private pre-schools

10 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad on commercial lines will be permitted. Anganwadis are not principle should be developed. This will be the solution for proper place for pre-school education. Pre-school education the low enrolments, high dropouts and poor learning. The shall be provided in for 3-5 year olds in primary schools. policy document does not recognize this. timeframe is proposed for bringing pre-primary education Curriculum and Examination Reform inThere all primary shall be schools. a full-fledged Adequate preparation budgetary for allocation this. But, and no The document says “there is a need to renew infrastructure should be provided for pre-schools and proper curricula at all levels of education, for science, mathematics curriculum should be evolved. The pre-schools should be and English subjects, a common national curriculum will be brought under the school education department. designed and for other subjects such as social sciences, a To improve learning by the children, it is stated part of the curricula will be common across the country and that the ‘no detention policy’ will be followed only in the rest will be at the discretion of the states”. Why there lower primary stage. Detention at the upper primary and should be common national curricula the above mentioned secondary level is proposed instead of providing quality subjects, and how will it address the deteriorating quality education at the primary level to improve learning. It will have an adverse effect on the children of the poor, rural and Mathematics should also be developed in each state on tribal and other marginalized sections. It is the system that theof school basis education?of local geographic, The curricula ecological for English, and Sciencesociological and fails and not the child. It is the education system that should be transformed and developed. If adequate class- rooms, examination in mathematics, science and English at two teachers, infrastructure facilities and student support levelsspecificities. - Part A Again, at a higher the documentlevel and Part proposes B at a tolower conduct level measures for quality education are provided, the students - ostensibly to reduce failure rates in class X examination. will learn well. The provision in the document is that the students who wish to shift to vocational stream could opt for part-B level School Education examination. Two levels of education at school level are but The document pronounces (Ch.4) that “with a gross injustice and are aimed at denying quality education Universal Elementary Education becoming a reality, to the disadvantaged. This is a very unjust and irrational expansion of secondary education is inevitable”. This claim proposition. It will further accentuate inequalities in our is far from reality. The major problem lies at the Elementary education system. stage itself. In spite of higher enrolments, high dropout rates in the Government Primary Schools, lack of adequate Undue emphasis on skills and employability teachers, classrooms and other infrastructure facilities, The document lays undue emphasis on skill lack of proper supervision and monitoring and therefore development, use of information and communication technology with a view to enhance employability of the schools. Hence the number of out of school children and of youth. There is, undoubtedly need for creating more jobs childpoor qualitylaborers of is education increasing. are Hence the problems the statement afflicting that these the for the growing numbers of the youth. But the present Universal Elementary Education has become a reality is not development model with undue emphasis on high true at all. technology, mechanization and automation, indiscriminate Instead of taking remedial measures by providing the use of labour-displacing and capital-intensive methods and required teachers, infrastructure and taking student support techniques of production is leading to jobless growth. When measures to for 100% retention, merger, consolidation, not many jobs are created in the industrial and services composite schools and closure of a large number of schools sectors, how can skill-imparting and vocationalization help is proposed as a policy, to ostensibly achieve one class – one teacher norm. This goes against even the provisions of of skill development programmes in 25% of the schools and higherthe youth education in getting institutions jobs? To what and extent creation will of the skill integration schools schools have been closed in the country during last 5 will help. There is a clear contradiction between the neo- years,the flawed doing RTE immense Act. Already harm tomore the thanchildren one oflac the government poor and liberal development model and creation of mass employment marginalized sections. opportunities. In this situation, reduction of education to The Pupil Teacher Ratio should be developed skill development will seriously harm the future prospects minimum to 20:1 to achieve one class-one class-room-one of economically and socially disadvantaged children who teacher norm in all elementary schools. The RTE Act which depend on state- funded schools. covers elementary education, failed on all counts – universal Reduction of education to “skills” for global market enrolment, retention, equal standard of infrastructure and and using this agenda to exclude children after Class V, teaching and providing quality education. Extending this ill- adolescents after Class VIII and youth after Class XII (and conceived Act to secondary education will be a futile exercise. during higher education as well) will make them a “low- Closing down a large number of schools on the one side and wage earning semi-skilled slavish work–force” for the proposing expansion of the KVs, JNVs and the KGBVs on the global market, rather than developing them as democratic other is a highly lopsided and elitist approach. In fact, all citizens committed to social transformation. For this, government schools should be developed on a par with the the entire Skill Development program is designed to be KVs. The multi-layered system of schools with differential as stated in the MHRD document. Indeed, it will function as a common-school system based on neighborhood school compliant to National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) infrastructure and staffing patterns should be abolished and a camouflage for Deskilling India i.e. deskilling more than RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 11 80% of Indian population comprising SCs, STs, OBCs and • The proposal for the creation of an Indian Education Muslims, and especially women in each of these categories. Service with an All India cadre under MHRD will centralize decision-making and introduce bureaucratic practices, labor to both domestic and global capital. This is where the hierarchy and authority in Higher Education, where NSQFAll this provision fits into forthe ‘RecognitionMake in India of agendaPrior Learning’ to provide becomes cheap democratic functioning, autonomy, academic freedom, an alarming agenda of massive deskilling of the 93% people openness and critical study are important. in the unorganized sector. And when it is linked to the recent • Establishing separate educational tribunals with amendment to the Child Labor Act by pushing children power to follow summary procedures for educational below 14 years to family based occupations and enterprises institutions would not be an adequate alternative to higher (basically embedded in caste and gender) and those in the courts of judicature like High Courts and Supreme Court. It 14-18 years to hazardous occupations, we have a complete is to be noted that this tribunalisation of justice is proposed prescription for converting the “patriarchal caste-system in line with possible multi- lateral or plurilateral global legitimized by Manusmriti into the neoliberal avatar of agreements in ‘trade in education services’ • Although the document says that “the Government capital”. [Source for this paragraph: Economic and Political recognizes and will encourage the positive role of students’ Weekly,a Brahmanical 27th August – corporate 2016, p. 36] order legitimized by finance unions” it observes that “most of the disruptive activities The ‘inputs’ are totally at peace with the RTE Act and disharmony in a campus are led by outsiders and 2009 which is designed to demolish the government school unauthorized students. A study will be conducted to prevent system, and to promote privatization and commercialization outsiders and those who ceased to be students from playing of education and the Public Private Partnership (PPP) an active role in student-politics and disrupting academic programme of reimbursement of 25% EWS quota in private activities.” This is a very dangerous and unwarranted move schools intended to siphon public funds to private agencies. to penalize students and faculty members. Recently many However, the only progressive provision in the RTE Act of Dalit, leftist, independent-minded and Muslim students have ‘No Detention’ in elementary school has been deliberately been harassed by the authorities of FTII, HCU, JNU, Jadavpur removed from the upper primary stage in order to exclude University, IIT Chennai, Allahabad University and other HEIs children from 11-14 years and shift them to Skill Shops. branding them anti-national, casteist, anti-social, extremist Distorted view of language and culture: and terrorist-connected. Many were arrested even under The document says “students learn most effectively charges of sedition by the Police. This happened because when taught through their mother tongue”. But immediately ABVP, the RSS students’ wing is sought to be made dominant thereafter it refers to the growing demand for… schools with on the campuses and the BJP leaders and Ministers intervene English as medium of instruction and concludes that all states with full support from the authorities and government. and UTs, if they so desire, may provide education in schools • In the name of ‘achieving enhanced access’, skill up to class V in mother tongue, local or regional language development, capacity building, training, employability and as medium of instruction. Countries imparting education lifelong learning, the document resorts to vocational courses, in their mother tongue are making great strides in overall open and distance learning courses and massive open online courses (MOOCs). This will create a subordinated stream tongue is always desirable as the medium of education from of students with limited opportunities open to them when Pre-schooldevelopment. to higher Why shouldeducation. India In beaddition, an exception? mother-tongue Mother compared with students of the regular stream of schools and is a symbol of freedom, identity, self-esteem, equality and colleges. This will lead to inequality and discrimination among social pride. The advantage of learning other languages like students. English, Hindi etc., is not denied but like all learning this too Internationalization of Education The Inputs document states that “Internationalization is facilitatedReforms ifin the Higher student Education is proficient in the mother tongue. is an inevitable dimension of higher education in this era The document states that a set of policy initiatives will be of globalization, and generation of new knowledge and its taken for ensuring effective governance of higher education. application. Internationalization comprises of mobility of students, scholars and faculty; export / import of academic years to assist the MHRD in identifying new knowledge areas systems and cultures; research co-operation; knowledge transfer / disciplines• “An Education / domains commission… as well as pedagogic, will be setup curricular every andfive and capacity building; internationalization of curriculum and assessment reforms”… The MHRD arrogating to itself such learning outcomes; and cross-border delivery of programmes an interventionist role will be dangerous and harmful to the and includes virtual mobility and digital learning”. Higher Education System. Universities and Higher Education The policy initiatives proposed will encourage selected Institutions (HEIs should have full autonomy to perform foreign universities from the top 200 in the world to establish these functions. their campuses in India through collaboration with Indian • The proposed representation on the governing universities, to make legislation / regulations to allow them to bodies of HEIs from other social sectors should not be offer their own degrees which will be valid in their countries, to restricted to Industry but must include trade unions, internationalize the curricula, encourage more foreign faculties teacher and students organizations and unions, and civil to join Indian HEIs and to move from years-based to credit- society representatives otherwise it will be likely to induct undesirable corporate and commercial practices into them. This policy perspective of the BJP-led NDA Government based recognition of qualifications.

12 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad is in total conformity with the neo-liberal capitalist model Financing Education of development and its basic tenets of globalization and Education being the basic necessity for the people privatization. The World Trade Organization and General and for the overall development of society and the country, Agreement on Trade in Services (WTO-GATS) which is it should be given priority with adequate public funding. the initiator of this model envisages the globalization and But so far, no government has assigned such a priority to internationalization of education as part of the trade in education. services to be regulated by GATS. This perspective assumes The document says “Education, in Indian context that education is a commodity to be sold and purchased in the should be considered a public good and there is a need for greater public investment in the sector. There are evidences service that can be imported and exported across the countries. to show that countries which have heavily privatized Evenmarket-place before the for ‘offer’ profit for and market it is aaccess commercial to GATS and approval tradable is education systems could not economically and socially progress and hence there is a value loss rather than gain. of the provisions of GATS and policies on the people of India. On the other hand countries which consider education Infinalized, fact, education the GOI is isenthusiastically a public good pushing and a forsocial the impositionand merit good. And it cannot be a commodity or tradable service. It basis. The earlier national policies of 1968 and 1986/92 had is a necessity, vital for the existence, survival and progress of recommendeda public good 6% reap of greaterGDP as the social norm benefits for the onnational a sustained outlay human beings. It is a fundamental right of the citizens and it on education. However, the actual expenditure on education is the duty and responsibility of a democratic government to has remained consistently below this level and in recent provide free, equitable and quality education to all. Shirking years it has hovered around 3.5%”. this responsibility and handing over education to domestic and The policy initiatives proposed include “taking steps, for reaching the long pending goal of raising the democratic and anti-people policy. investment in education sector to at least 6% of GDP as a foreignNobody capital oppose for doing openness business of mindand making to ideas profit and is thoughts an anti- priority, to supplement the government effort, investment from all sides. Our university system functions with this by private providers through philanthropy and corporate perspective. But every system or a segment of knowledge needs sector responsibility will be encouraged through incentives such critical scrutiny before accepting ideas. Otherwise, the danger of colonization of minds through indoctrination, conditioning infrastructure, private funding and FDI for R&D will be pursued and subordination to the hegemonistic and exploiting forces of as an tax important benefits andstrategy, including HEI’s educationfunded by within governments the definition need to… of imperialism, caste, class, gender, religion and regionalism. increase their revenues… through alumni funding, endowment We need to distinguish between MHRD’s neo-liberal funding, tuition fee enhancement… and private investment .. and ‘internationalization’ of education for the global market and ‘internationalism’ in education as advocated by Bhagat Singh, Is there any consistency and clear approach in this policy Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar and Zakir Hussain. modified education loans schemes etc.’’ There is a need for an independent, national, democratic education policy to provide democratic, free, secular public investment-orientedstatement? On the one funding, hand fee it sayshikes there and FDI will will be be greater pursued social as education to all citizens to achieve the constitutional goals of an anbenefits important with educationstrategy. It as says a public allocation good, toon education the other itwill says be private raised independent sovereign, democratic, secular, socialist republic to 6.0% of GDP, but it does not specify when and how. with social, economic and political justice, liberty, equality and In fact, the talk of allocation of 6% of GDP to education fraternity and equal fundamental rights. at this time does not make any sense. Kothari Commission had In the National Education Policy now proposed recommended reaching this level by 1986. Since that has never by the NDA Government, there is neither an independent, been reached at any time, the huge short fall every year cannot nor a national, nor a democratic perspective of education. be made good even if 10-15% of GDP is allocated and spent on By a total opening up and by allowing uncritical import / education from now onwards for many years to come. And it should export of academic systems and cultures they are denying be clear that this expenditure must be incurred by the Central and the possibility of an independent knowledge and education state governments only and should not include private investment. system, by making our cultures and language policies subservient to global capital and imperialist powers. By implementing the neoliberal, imperialist development model Does the State lack financial resources for education? The they are making our economic policies and the economy resources,justification which for raising is not privatetrue at all.funds In fact, and thisFDI hasfor educationbeen the standard is based subservient to them. And by internationalizing knowledge positionon the plea taken that by theall governments governments before do not and have after enough independence. financial and education according to neoliberal interests, they are Since 1947, GDP and government revenues have increased many making our country itself subservient to those powers. Does folds. Our rulers claim that ours is the fastest growing emerging this not expose the bankruptcy of the ruling BJP which day- economy which is the tenth largest in the world. The bogey of in and day-out keeps on repeating platitudes and sermons lack of funds is raised only to cover up their regressive low about nationalism, patriotism, Indian culture and heritage, priority for education. The GOI expenditure on education is far lower than the 4.7% of GDP spent by Nepal, 5% by Rwanda and 6.3% by Vietnam which are all poor countries. Regarding budgetary economicswadeshi etc?and Areeducation these notpolicies, empty can slogans our country without survive any real as allocation and expenditure on education, which is the mode of import being used for hoodwinking the people? With these actualizing the required GDP percentage, the Kothari Commission and many others suggested a 30% of each state’s expenditure as an independent, sovereign country?

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 13 desirable, keeping 6% of GDP in view. But the states never reached equality, social justice, secularism and diversity in education on the this level. The budgetary allocation for education for 2016-17 one hand and emphasizes on the other hand an important role for ranged between 9% in Telangana to 23% in Delhi. In view of the private, national and foreign corporates and agencies. Through its cumulative short fall in the expenditure on education, the 30% unbridled ‘internationalization’ agenda, it poses a grievous threat norm has no meaning and it should be much higher. What is now and hindrance to an independent democratic education policy. required is a fully state-funded free education covering all children The agenda and strategy of indiscriminate and at the elementary, secondary and higher secondary levels. The unprecedented privatization, corporatization, commercialization, Government should also provide equal opportunities for higher globalization and communalization of education is against our education to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio from the present constitutional vision, goals and policy directives and against 23% to at least 30% by 2017 and 60% by year 2022. peoples’ interests. It cannot bring all our children – particularly the poor, rural, the socially marginalized SC, ST, OBC, religious Implementation and Monitoring and linguistic minorities, the disabled and girl children -to school It is said that the NEP will be followed by a detailed and retain them up to the secondary and higher secondary levels. implementation strategy which will lay down the framework for It cannot provide equal and equitable opportunities for higher action at the State / UT, district and block level and by preparing education. It cannot stop the present disruption and deterioration a micro-level operational plan of action for every educational of public education. It cannot stop the closure of large numbers of government schools across the country. It cannot strengthen targets. and develop the public education system. With the RTE institution “Appropriate with clear performancemonitoring methods, indicators mechanisms and quantifiable and Act already sanctifying privatization of education and PPP, systems will be devised from the micro to macro level for periodic reimbursements etc, the NEP will become a further obstacle assessment and evaluation of the progress made in achieving the to the achievement of a common school system based on neighborhood schools. Without looking into the causes for the failures in the past, In view of the above realities, the AIFRTE rejects withoutoutcomes a andproper a five-year conceptual review framework of the policy.” and without a concrete the MHRD Inputs document on NEP in toto. The AIFRTE road-map, the implementation strategy envisaged in the NEP will demands an independent, truly national, democratic, secular, only increase bureaucratic control and interference but not be equal and humane education policy with completely free and likely to achieve the desirable goals in our education system. common public education system of quality for all from pre- Conclusion school to P.G and Research level fully funded by the central The MHRD document has a narrow technocratic and state governments. AIFRTE is committed to building conception of education, which cannot provide an independent a countrywide movement for the achievement of such a democratic, secular and humane education system for our people. It system of education. is dubious in its intensions when it repeatedly mentions the goals of

‘Some Inputs for Draft NEP 2016’ A Critical Analysis of MHRD’s Document

MADHU PRASAD

The most striking feature of “Some Inputs for Draft NEP 2016” (MHRDInputs) is that it apparently provides no coherent conception of the education system that it wants to preferences,positively with international the local community?financial institutions Or on professional, and trade create. Pushing the doubtful claim of lakhs of consultations so-called `independent’ advisors? Will investors, market with the `people’, the MHRD typically asked for specific • Where will the substantial funding required come solutions to choices that appeared to have been made already regimes for services regulate the system? but did not call for inputs on fundamental, core issues. allocation, as a given percentage of GDP, or as the necessary • Will the education system cater to all India’s children requirementfrom? From for public achieving funds a -clearly as an defined allowable and articulated budgetary as a common system? Or to different sections through goal? Will private, corporate investors be expected to invest Willdifferent governments means and withand distinctthe bureaucracy outcomes? democratically – what• percentage,Who will andbe inaccountable what form? Asfor investment, its functioning as tax rely• on academicsWho will be and responsible teachers for and its structurestudents andinter-acting content? liability, as corporate responsibility, or as philanthropy?

effectively? Will the system be self-regulating and 14 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad sections. These failures have been compounded by successive requiredaccountable to generate to the academicfinancial surplus community? and adopt Or willcorporate it be governments pursuing the neoliberal model of development subjected to monitoring by `external’ agencies? Will it be since it was first adopted in 1991. The change in education • Will diversity with equity and social justice policy (NPE 86/92) itself was necessitated by the need to notions of cost efficiency? accommodate goals and practices that were required by IMF/ WB `reforms’ to shift public funds from sectors like education characterizeThese questions its goals? demand Or will consistent it only `serve’ and rational those answerswho are and health. The `reforms’ ran counter to the constitutional ifcapable the education of paying system for its is services? to prove capable of providing for a directive principle and to the recommendations of the universal right which must be commonly accessible to all as Kothari Commission and the provision to universalize a public good. education was restricted step by step leading to a denial Historical developments make particular options of comparable education to segment after segment of the possible and desirable as choices. For example, although relevant population – alternative/non-formal education some opinions currently attach much ideological `merit’ (NFE) for children `unable’ to attend a full day at school; to the guru-shishya model as an `ancient’ and therefore cutting costs in `non-special’ govt. schools that catered to `desirable’ ideal, it is singularly unsuited to a modern context. the deprived sections by reducing infrastructural inputs and An elite system of training in unchanging upper-caste duties replacing permanent faculty with contractual and untrained and responsibilities, it would be utterly dysfunctional in a `teachers’. Forced by the Supreme Court judgement of 1993 modern society where equality and widespread access to (Unnikrishnan vs. State of Andhra Pradesh) which made the knowledge are advocated. Right to Education a justiciable fundamental right linked to Rising capitalism broke through ancient and mediaeval the Right to Life, the 86th Amendment to the Constitution barriers to learning and mobilized the `lower orders’ through (2002) restricted the right only to children from 6 to 14 years, a gradually evolving democratization of power to dispossess and qualified its provision by the clause “as the State may by and unseat the feudal nobility because it needed the freedom law determine”. The RTE Act 2009 followed, its applicability to manufacture and trade without `traditional’ restrictions. limited only to `non-special’ government schools from Class Modern education, universal and commonly available, was 1 to 8. The Act leaves private unaided schools completely an important component for meeting the social, political and unregulated. economic requirement of a skilled workforce. That is why This background allows one to understand the direction it was successfully implemented by industrializing nation- and intent of MHRDInputs. states during the 19th & 20th centuries and remained an 1. Frequent references to “national concerns of equity and integral part of the development model until the 1970’s. inclusion” and claims of “unprecedented focus” on quality However, since the 1970’s `neoliberalism’ is the preferred and access to education for all do not translate into any solution of international finance capital. Production and program of action. MHRDInputs identifies the disadvantaged consumption by the masses are both kept under tight control (class, caste, ST, religious minorities, gender, disabled, etc) through what are called “austerity measures” which depress as lacking access, having the highest out-of-school numbers, the working people’s employment possibilities and their and lowest retention rates, and recognizes that barely 6% living conditions. Under such conditions the `welfare’ state complete higher secondary education. It sees that children of the rising phase of capitalism is transformed. Education, from remote regions, nomadic tribes, migrant children, rural health and other social services which were once provided and urban working children, girls from all these categories for society at large are increasingly privatized as sources have not been benefitted by existing strategies or RTE. of profit. To control the resistance of the people against the These are chronic failings of a system afflicted with loss of these essential benefits and rights, the neoliberal deeply entrenched inequalities that has been unable to reach regime becomes increasingly anti-democratic and we see the out to those who are most vulnerable. Yet only “interventions rise of strong fascistic tendencies within governments that currently being made” are to be stepped up (p11). The aggressively advocate neoliberal economic policies. objective is “. . .broadening the scope of education to facilitate In India, the failure to implement the Constitutional various paths to learning depending on the learner’s choice Directive Principle 45 which obliged the State to provide and potential. . .while ensuring recognition and certification free and compulsory education up to 14 years for all of learning outcomes acquired by learners through formal children by 1960, even after independent India’s first and non-formal learning modalities, including open and Education Commission, the Kothari Commission (1964-66) distance modes.” (p16) For facilitating this, “local norms, had recommended Common Neighbourhood Schools as the appropriate for local conditions, will be evolved if necessary, means to achieve this, was not coincidental. In sharp contrast through amendment of RTE Act, for `alternate schools’ which to countries like China, South Korea, Malaysia, Egypt, Jordan, offer educational interventions for specific categories of very Iraq, Syria etc., which gained independence roughly around deprived and migrating children, and those living in difficult the same time as India, India’s failure at the educational circumstances.” (p19) level was linked to the failure to implement land reforms, The discriminatory route opened by the NPE 86/92 which would have freed resources for the state to fulfill its will be significantly expanded. RTE 2009 had restricted democratic `welfare’ tasks, and to annihilate the system of its mandatory norms for infrastructural, faculty and caste discrimination and oppression that continued the pedagogical inputs only to `non-special’ government funded fragmentation of the newly independent nation into unequal and aided schools. Now even this would be amended to

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 15 allow for “alternative” low-cost options. School mapping at Present skill based programmes at secondary, higher and state levels would identify schools with low enrolment and technical education will be integrated through the National poor infrastructure and, on the basis of common guidelines Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) with mainstream for “merger and consolidation”, government schools would education. Within a year, a mechanism will be created to be closed and reduced in number to achieve “well-targeted “assess and certify” skills through multiple entry and exit financing”. options, through credit banks and transfers, and also skills 2. Early Childhood Care & Education (ECCE) is said to acquired by those with no access to formal education and be given “high priority” as children from disadvantaged training at all. (p26-27). sections lack access to pre-school and even those who The entire terminology of the MHRDInputs is devised complete pre-schooling lack “competencies in cognitive and within this framework of skill acquisition. `Competencies’ and language domains” as “majority of pre-school educators `outcomes’ are the units to be monitored, measured, graded are inadequately trained” and curricula “continue to be a and readied for market forces. The purpose of “education” downward extension” of primary curriculum. The resultant is to be the grooming of the “human resource” according to poor quality escalates at primary, secondary and higher the requirements of `national’ and `multi-national’ corporate education levels. interests. The Skill Development initiative will create a However, MHRDInputs wants to change the previous “work-force” to enter the market-place as and when supply government’s policy commitment to the international and demand movements are favourable. When they are norm of ECCE from age 3, by raising it to age 4, and turning unfavourable, during periods of recession and slow growth anganwadi workers (whose work under the Integrated Child as they are now, this work-force will become Capital’s Development Services (ICDS) program of Ministry of Women “reserve army of labour”. This reserve keeps wages low, jobs & Child Development is defined as maternal and infant health contractual, and `unemployable’ workers (unemployable care and nutrition) into `cadres’ of pre-primary teachers! because jobs are shrinking) in completely insecure and State governments would determine the time frame to ensure fragile living conditions so they are afraid to unionize and this “gradual and seamless” transition. All primary schools fight for their legitimate democratic rights. would eventually include pre-primary, i.e. anganwadi’s, as The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna’s (PMKVY) well but the bureaucratic distance in operating under two official data till April 2016 only serves to highlight this fact. separate ministries is not even mentioned. Out of 17.58 lakh persons “skilled” over the previous ten 3. The perceived failure of quality in government months, only 5.77 lakh could be certified and only 81,978 schools, states MHRDInputs, has “triggered the entry of have managed to secure placements since the start of the a large number of private schools” (p8), many lacking scheme in July 2015. The placement to skilling ratio thus infrastructure, learning environment and competent works out to less than 0.5%. [Indian Express. 27 June 2016]. teachers. “Commercialization is rampant in both school and Education reduced to `grooming human resource’ for higher education” and sub-standard institutions have led to greater economic and social efficiency, contrasts sharply the “diminished credibility of the educational system” (p12). with the pedagogical principle of learning through work This comprehensive approach to the crisis of the education processes for all children. This encourages self-reliance, system appears constructive and one anticipates far reaching inspires dignity of labour and places a value on both the correctives in the proposed policy. However, once again, we practical and conceptual aspects of knowledge. But, if it is are disappointed. used to discriminate between `achievers’ and slow learners Although “ensuring completion of elementary, secondary or non-achievers through academic aptitude tests (rejected in and higher education . . . emerges to be high priority task” many countries as pedagogically unsound) at various stages for MHRD Inputs (p12), this is only for “all enrolled pupils”. with professional counselors directing students to skill- There is a huge problem of drop-out even at lower primary. based programs, as proposed in MHRDInputs, it denigrates XII Plan had sought to restrict it to 42% at elementary level; the labour-process and also the individuals/ classes/ castes MHRDInputs claims it is presently at 67%, but no changes that are associated with it. Given the stubborn continuity are proposed for `improving’ this. This is a formidable in India of caste hierarchies and hatred associated with barrier to making secondary and postsecondary education manual labour, the Skill Development program in its present accessible to all children. Alternative, Open Schooling for form and intent will have extremely negative consequences “drop-outs and working children” and NFE programs are not socially and educationally. a solution; they are the admission of failure to find one. 5. A related feature of MHRDInputs is the recommended 4. This brings us to the actual centerpiece of the proposed decision to stop the RTE’s “no-detention policy” at Class V NEP 2016 – the Skill Development Program. NEP 2016 itself instead of Class VIII. It is claimed that “learning outcomes” reduces “education” from its supposedly `Vedic’ goal of have rapidly declined because of this policy, and that `teachers “realization of the self”(p3) to “the development of human don’t teach’ and `students don’t concentrate’ because there skills, including life skills, that meet the demands of the is no fear of impending examinations. No-detention is emerging knowledge economy and society” (p4). strongly recommended for elementary education when it Skill Development programs will be reoriented and is implemented with a well-developed process of constant integrated in the curricula of 25% schools and higher and continuous evaluation (CCE) by sensitized and trained education institutions particularly in “special focus districts”. faculty that is available in full strength. Now, however, the Skilling of students in tribal areas will be encouraged Class V exam will separate the wheat from the chaff as early through courses in schools after regular hours. (p24) as age 10 years at the lower primary level itself. CCE, which

16 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad was not developed for implementation after the RTE 2009, Commission’s policy recommendation. When budgetary allocations will now be brought in to assess which students should be have actually fallen by Rs. 11,000 crores over the last two years, this failed. could be mistaken for a monetary gain! Those who are detained or pushed out in Class V will be MHRDInputs conception of NEP 2016 is fully committed diverted to centres for skill development. It is significant to pursuing a comprehensive policy of privatization, complete that changes have been made in the child labour law to allow with corporate investment, FDI, incentive schemes, tax rebates, children below 14 years of age to work in “family enterprises”. setting up a National Fellowship Fund “designed to support the This cover-up for hereditary, caste-based trades will ensure tuition fees, learning materials and living expenses of about 10 that a majority of children from deprived, marginalized and lakh (EWS) students” and a Separate National Talent Scholarship minority sections will be shunted out of their dysfunctional scheme, covering all subjects, for “meritorious students of all `non-special’ government schools and into a `childhood’ of categories” through national test after Class X, transfer of public labour. assets to private agencies through PPP schemes, out-sourcing 6. Proposing the introduction of “value-education”, a measures (e.g. Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Although teachers will not thinly disguised form of religious instruction, in schools and be required to supervise, cook or serve meals, no separate cadre higher educational institutions is highly problematic. All is to be created for implementing a complete nutritional program. knowledge generates values of honesty, criticality, rigor and Even local community initiatives are not proposed. Private “reputed adherence to truth. Hence the pursuit of knowledge itself has always been held to be a civilizing, self-developmental to be cooked and distributed from centralized kitchens). and humanizing process. The rise of modern consciousness communityCommercialization organizations” and (RSS/VHP?)marketization will will get also contracts get a free for handfood has been marked by the prominence of this approach so that as fees can now be unilaterally hiked as and when private investors religion itself is seen as a proper object of rational, intellectual choose. This has already happened post-RTE 2009 for the Act by scrutiny. Many significant changes have been brought about superseding existing state laws, has left private unaided schools over the past two centuries as a result of this critical scrutiny, completely unregulated. e.g. abolition of sati, widow remarriage, changes in personal laws of most religions, etc. education is far less than the 4.7% spent by Nepal, 5% by Rwanda Does the State lack funds? Although GOI expenditure on To return to the pre-modern, socio-religious conception of and 6.3% by Vietnam (all poor countries), budget estimates of value, morality and ethic as being imposed by a communitarian revenues foregone in tax concessions over the past two years is authority rather than being personally upheld as a conviction, pegged at 4.5% of GDP! Losses due to corporate tax incentives would not only be regressive but could also prove to be socially increased from Rs. 65,067 crore in 2014-15 to Rs. 68,711 crore disruptive and divisive. Since the present ruling party and regime in 2015-16. Direct tax concessions to rich individuals and to are ideologically committed to the exclusivist idea of Hindutva companies amounted to 1,28,639 crore in 2015-16. Yet MNREGA supremacy, (e.g. Gita to be introduced in Haryana as “the most received only Rs. 35,754 crore, ICDS was given only Rs. 15,394 crore superior moral text”; M.P. govt. bringing in 1000 teachers from and school education received only Rs. 42,187 crore. RSS-run Saraswati Shishu Mandirs and Sanskar Kendras to teach The GOI’s political choices are clear. To reverse the process of pro bono in government schools as a trial, following which it will dismantling state-funded education and facilitating the plunder expand and include the `cultural activities’ common to shakhas), of its physical assets by local and multi-national capital, it is not this presents a grave threat to the education system and to society. enough to demand 6%, 10% or even 15% of GDP for education. MHRDInputs even defines “responsible” citizens as “global Our demand must be for the urgent provision by Central and State citizens with their roots deeply embedded in Indian culture and governments of free and compulsory quality education for traditions” who promote “social cohesion and religious amity”. It all India’s children through properly functioning common is worth emphasizing that equality, social justice, secularism and neighbourhood schools up to Class XII. Whatever funding is plurality are our Constitutional values because they are not bound required for reaching this goal should be made available on by religious identity or by not accepting any religion at all. a priority basis. 8. Funding is crucial to any educational policy. It indicates the 10. We must reject the MHRDInputs Draft NEP because seriousness of the projections and plans. If the NEP 2016 genuinely when it talks of intends to universalize elementary and secondary education, then • equity, it has already converted this to “certified its financial commitment must be clear. MHRDInputs does note equivalence”; that though the Kothari Commission had recommended that 6% • education, it has already reduced this to acquisition of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) be spent on education of skills for earning and living; by 1986, actual allocation has stayed around 3.5%. Therefore it • self-realization, it has already cheapened this to identifies this shortfall and GOI’s “present budgetary constraints” mean conformity of one’s talents and goals with conditions as a major factor in denying access and quality. But the real extent imposed by a given socio-economic environment; of the shortfall is disguised by never being recognized. Since then • innovative and independent individuality, it has year’s shortfall adds to the total, the percentage of GDP required already defined this as “responsible citizenship” within the each year is raised substantially e.g. if only 3.5% is invested in a confines of policies advocated by the existing nation-state given year, then 8.5% of GDP is required the next year and if then and government. too the investment is 3.5%, then 11% of GDP would be required to compensate the shortfall the following year. [Condensed from Presentation at the National Convention on The shortfall by 2016, a full 30 years after 1986, makes the “Evolving National Education Policy” organized by State Platform for current demand for spending 6% of GDP a mockery of the Kothari Common School System, Tamil Nadu. Chennai, July 14, 2016.]

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 17 Flawed and Inegalitarian Framework School Education in Draft NEP 2016

VIKAS GUPTA

The document released by MHRD for public inputs on The new ical indoctrination and communalization of education. Second, National Education Policy, (herein referred as the draft NEP it maintains culpable silence over various developments hap- 2016) first adopts a constricted Approach on Issues of access, pening in the states, such as the setting up of Common School participation and quality of school education within Govern- Commission in Bihar; adoption of mother tongue as medium of ment sector by pushing under the carpet structural factors elementary education in Tamil Nadu; movements for mother and then shrewdly uses the alleged deficit as the justification tongue medium education in Karnataka; High Court rulings in for its privatization. It provides escape Root for inferior institu- UP concerning appointment of teachers in Government Schools tions from prescribed minimum norms for schools. It promotes and directing mandatory admission of the children of Govern- closure of Government Schools through the device of ranking, ment employees, representatives and beneficiaries in Govern- further expansion of stratification amongst remaining schools ment Schools only. within Government System, and intensification of the NGOiza- The draft NEP 2016 intends to superimpose English and San- tion of school education. Instead of providing some fresh and skrit over multilinguality of Indian society. It further reduces concrete map for the provision of required budgetary support the scope for using mother tongues as the medium of education for school education by the Government, the draft NEP 2016 even as an option from class VIII to V. It does not discuss the devises more nuanced ways of better and illusory projection of need for making appropriate arrangements for the promotion total educational expenditure and skirting state’s obligation on of Urdu, neither as medium of education nor as a separate sub- other agencies through hints for calculating private investment ject of study, its literature and history. within total allocation for education. The draft NEP 2016 mounts an assault on the autonomy of the The conception of inclusive education as contained in the draft institutions of religious and linguistic minorities in a period NEP 2016 appears narrow and stale, as it has no new proposal, where it is not only retaining other layers and stratifications, and it does not equitably address the challenges of differently but also proposing to create new ones. If at all, discussion about marginalized communities. For instance, the proposals about the need to revisit the status of educational institutions of lin- tribals, Dalits and women are feeble, market driven and capable guistic and religious minorities could have made some sense of benefiting at best the creamy-layer through PPP, CSR, edu- only when nationalization of all institutions based on the prin- cational loans and some fellowships to the talented children, ciple of complete equality would have been adopted. ON the instead of committing to provide equitable quality directly contrary, the draft NEP 2016 constitutes an important historic public funded education at par with others. Disabled children departure in the policy framework of education in India, where are nowhere promised that all schools will be made accessible unlike previous policies, this one does not bother to do even a within a time-bound period. Their Sign Language will also con- lip-service to the vision of common education system. tinue to remain practically excluded from mainstream schools. It seems that the Rationale, Aims and Objectives of New Educa- The Draft NEP 2016 also does not propose any plan to meet the tion Policy are globalization, privatization and cultural nation- extreme shortage of trained resource persons for children with alism of a particularly narrow religious variety, not so much disabilities. Muslims are not considered discriminated at all and equity, social justice and even educational improvement. There- the recommendations of Sachchar Committee find no place in it. fore, if enacted, it might further augment inequalities already The RTE Act (2009) had already compromised the pre-school present within the system of education and the society at large education sector; the draft NEP 2016 seeks to further reduce by ensuring somewhat better educational facilities to some chil- state’s commitment on this front by focusing on the age group dren in each hitherto excluded communities and relegating the of 4-5, instead of 0-6, or 3-6. The draft NEP 2016 not only com- remaining bulk to substandard educational arrangements. The pletely overlooks very important issues affecting teaching prac- framework of draft NEP 2016 seems a perfect but sad legitimi- tice and profession, but also demonstrates hostile attitude to- zation of a paradoxical blending: one language, one curriculum, wards teachers, the most vital link of educational transaction, one textbook, one community, and many classes, fee structures, through its sole focus on supervision and control. and schools! The draft NEP 2016 intends to uproot not only the social di- Instead of relying upon some long-cherished and well accepted versity from curricular knowledge, it also attempts to override socio-historical, philosophical, and pedagogical perspectives politico-administrative structure of Federalism in at least two on education and social equality, the draft National Education important ways. First, it makes proposals for Curricular Homo- Policy (NEP) 2016 is embedded within a techno-managerial geneity at national level through the recommendation for uni- approach of Neoliberalism and its concomitant tendency of ta- form textbooks. Further, through the revival of the proposals for pered inclusionalism. Even its foundational stone, the preamble exclusive courses on ethics education, which have been debated is characterized by an anachronistic, exclusionary and commu- many times in past and have been always rejected owing to their nal Historical framework; prejudicial view of Indian society; undesirability and non-feasibility, the draft NEP 2016 seeks to and extremist but narrow canvas of nationalism. Such an ine- provide to the ruling establishment at the Center (led by Right galitarian foundation shadows the entire draft NEP 2016; and Wing Hindutva forces) another powerful instrument of ideolog- therefore belies all hopes of democratic transformation.

18 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad When ‘Training’ Replaces ‘Education’

AYUSHI RAWAT

TSR Subramanian Committee’s Recommendations on the Following the adoption of neoliberal reforms by India, New Education Policy leaves us looking for the disappearing there have been many attempts by successive governments component of ‘Education’. to institutionalize privatization in education even though this Since the TSR Subramanian Committee has given its would lead to cementing of already existing inequalities. The recommendations on the New Education Policy, there have present recommendations for the NPE 2016 and the recent been many apprehensions articulated by activists and inputs submitted in the MHRD Draft visualize education in forums engaged with the issues of rights and education. accordance with the market logic of supply and demand. While the recommendations have much to be critical of, one The documents are constantly stressing on ‘training’ to the of the most endangering aspects is that if the Committee’s point that it seems to have replaced ‘education’. There is an recommendations on vocationalization of education and undue emphasis on ‘skilling’ with the project to be carried skill development are accommodated in the new policy, it out under a ‘mission mode’. The mission is to cater to the would refract even the limited scope for social justice and demands of the market and measuring and grading ‘skills’ empowerment envisioned in the sphere of education. It is according to market value. synchronized with the government’s agenda of cementing The primary role of education is seen as being input- the marketization and corporatization of education under based. The teacher provided inputs and the learner tries to the banner of the ‘National Skill Development Mission’. process those inputs to build knowledge. The goal of the new The first time that the term ‘vocational education’ was policy is also focussed on education that is ‘outcome’ oriented. used in our policies, was in the National Policy of Education This means that only the courses, ‘skills’ and ‘training’ which of 1968. The post-independence period reflected Nehru’s end in profitable `market’ outcomes will be encouraged – model of development – where the focus was particularly on this is the first step to the hidden agenda of exclusion and higher education institutions - and this was the first outlining corporatization. The policy aims to create out of individuals of education policy. It reflected the influence of Gandhi’s a ‘skilled workforce’ by the ‘incorporation of skilling in the ideas on relating education with work. Professing the school curriculum’, and proudly claiming multiple entry and importance of ‘self-reliance’, Gandhi spoke about integrating exit points would be provided in the education system itself. work with education to inculcate dignity of manual work. To put it simply, this means that those who cannot afford or These ideas were critically challenged by the Dr. Babasaheb manage to go through school can very well opt for vocational Ambedkar who dwelt on the occupational perpetuation as a training and walk out of formal schooling. pre-requisite of the caste system. The question is, who are these individuals who would not This was a time in India when the liberal discourse on be able to afford or manage to put themselves through school ‘education for all’ and ‘education for empowerment’, was a catch-word and the political acceptance of ‘education for of our society. By covering it up with the meek charade of all’ happened. How much was translated into social action ‘choice’and higher the education?policy further It is marginalizes the those who these are people at the marginswithout has been highly debated. However, the idea of a direct an ounce of accountability. The policy plans to do this by relationship between education and work or employment introducing a `credit based transfer system’ within the was setting in and public conscience was dominated by the vocational training system and the formal education system. notion that a `better education’ meant a `better future’. This is the second step of exclusion and corporatization. Interestingly, this was also the time when the origination By focussing on the ‘weaker and disadvantaged’ sections and diffusion of the human capital theory was taking place in of the society, the skill development component plans their the West and its resonance could be felt in the labour market targeted exclusion from the process or even the opportunity characterised by Post-Fordism. of a holistic and dignified education. They are seen invariably One of the major facets of this global development was the as a ‘workforce’. The document’s focus on particular districts formation of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and and ‘priority areas’ for inducting skill training will make Development (OECD), an organisation of developed countries it very easy for the government to deny its accountability to formulate policies for world trade and development. for providing equal opportunity for quality education, The parameters of investment in education and the rate of as they would have already pushed areas and sections of return of investment in education were being academically the people towards vocationalization leading to further discussed and politically implemented. Agencies like the marginalization. This is the third and major step of exclusion World Bank and the IMF were encouraging research in and corporatization. the economics of education and laying the grounds for the The policy document lists a major concern of the formal human capital theory to dominate educational thought. education system to be that it does not prepare students

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 19 for employment. However, it does not imply that the and hence jobless. All training institutions would have to be students are not prepared for employment solely because compulsorily NSQF compliant, or their training certificates formal education is useless. There are many factors for the will have no value. The recruitment rules of government jobs discordance between education and employment – in fact and public sector enterprises would also have to comply one of the major factors of unemployment is the current with the NSQF. developmental paradigm and the State’s neglect of the If this draft policy with its present propositions, gets education sector. implemented, it will not be long before private institutions Finally, the document introduces two very risky ideas: will flourish for the rich and the rest of the population the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and the National would have to send their children to ITI’s which would Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF). The RPL component have replaced schools! The British colonial government’s would measure the skills of a person already involved in an education policies wished to train an English-speaking class occupation, and have the prerogative to certify the person for of clerical servants for the Empire. Similarly, the NEP 2016 a particular skill/occupation in which they usually have been draft policy intends to create workers to be auctioned in traditionally involved. This would mean zero occupational global markets. mobility and cementing of the caste system. Now, more than ever, we need to call upon the The NSQF brings down the system of education to ‘quality emancipatory potential of Jyotiba and Savitribai Phule’s control’ arrangements. The NSQF would judge and certify a ideas of education, an alternative vision of education which person’s skills on a scale of ten at a particular level. If the levels grew out of a prominent social movement. That vision of are not complete, persons would require further training for education evolved so many years ago is extremely relevant certification and better opportunities. This means that if today because of the contemporary market-driven model of NSQF does not recognise an individual’s skill or is incapable of development prevalent in society. The agenda of Enslavement measuring it, then the person would be rendered `unskilled’ and Exclusion must be resisted.

AIFRTE CALL: Expose New Education Policy 2016

Continuing with the nefarious design of commercialising through Public-Private Partnership (PPP). and communalising education in line with brahminical- • Multi-standard institutions, in terms of hindutva agenda of the RSS, the BJP-led NDA government has infrastructure and teaching faculty, would continue both in released a document titled ‘Some Inputs for Draft National public and private sectors. Education Policy 2016’ purportedly seeking response from • It seeks to centralize curricula, bureaucratize the general public on or before 16th August. administration through the proposal to set up an Indian It should be noted that the MHRD did not officially release Educational Service (IES) cadre directly under the MHRD, the T.S.R. Subramanian Committee Report on Draft New corporatize accreditation and tribunalise justice to facilitate Education Policy (NEP 2016). Rather it brought out its own possible multi-lateral and ‘plurilateral’ agreements in document ‘Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy education either under World Trade Organization or outside 2016’. The government document if becomes a policy will it thus intensifying neo-liberal globalization in education. demolish not only every semblance of equality, social justice, • It seeks to promote PPP by instituting 10 lakh EWS scientific temperament, diversity and federalism in our and 10 lakh ‘open’ scholarships for reimbursement of costs education system that people of this country have struggled of private institutions. for, built and protected since the days of reformation • The document speaks in weak terms about movements but also the very possibility of realising the allocating 6% GDP for education. However, it does not even dreams of the founders of the constitution to establish a hint at the cumulative gap of financial resources accumulated nation on the basis of the values. If this document is not over the last decades. This huge gap can be bridged only exposed and the government designs are not thwarted, they by allocating at least 15% of GDP for education. Instead of could create a fertile ground for entrenchment of all out this, the government only indicates of further cutting public fascism. resources by promoting commercialization. Promoting rampant commercialisation of education • The democratic rights of students especially in • The document replicates the techno-corporate spirit higher education institutions have been attacked in favour of Ambani-Birla Report released during the NDA-I regime of corporatized model of management to curb any voice of advocating rampant privatisation and commercialisation protest in university campuses. It also opens door for intense

20 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad privatisation, FDI and fee hike in public institutions. Preamble of the government document. Attack on social justice agenda of the Constitution • The medieval period of Indian history (which RSS • Though the government document talks of social consider as Muslim period) is not even referred to in the justice, nowhere it talks about need of reservations, applying document and it makes a clear indication of the government reservations to all institutions and at all levels and applying approach to mitigate the contributions of the period in rule of reservation in private educational institutions. development of the civilization of this land. The communal • There is no mention of hostels and other affirmative approach which this government pursues leads to neglect or measures to bring the poor and socially disadvantaged to the playing down of contributions of all religious and linguistic schools, colleges and universities. minorities, tribes and suppressed casts and marginalized • The heavy dropout of the children before they sections. complete class X (All 47.4, SC 50.1 and ST 62.4) though is • Similarly there is no reference to the diverse noted but not addressed. The Gross Enrolment Ratio in struggles of national liberation leading to India’s freedom and Higher Education remains very low at 23.6 percent in 2014- the ideas of republican citizenship, democracy, secularism, 15 for all sections while the GER for SCs is 18.5% and STs is socialism and social justice that the struggle inspired. 13.3% again is simply noted without measures to address • Every child’s right to be taught in mother-tongue the problem. is finished. States will decide whether ‘regional’ language, • The government proceeds with its project of re- English, or ‘multi-lingual’ (only for tribal children) schooling establishing Manu Dharma not only by denying education to will be provided up to class V. There after the child has no the SCs, STs, and all disadvantaged sections and minorities – option for mother tongue or regional language religious and linguistic but also confining the sections to skill Now, it is high time to expose the government document training which would reproduce caste system. Dropouts will and intensify struggle for democratic, secular, egalitarian, be encouraged by rigorous screening akin to brahminical scientific and enlightened education system rooted in practices and the children, mostly from disadvantaged socio-cultural, religious and linguistic plurality of India, in sections, will be diverted for ‘skilling’. consonance with the values enshrined in the Preamble of the • Tests at upper primary and above with professional Constitution, and affirmed in the Fundamental Rights and counsellors to direct students to vocational/ skilling courses Fundamental Duties and especially for developing scientific will further ensure that disadvantaged will simply be unable temper, humanism and spirit of enquiry and reform to build to reach secondary and higher secondary therefore the claim a democratic and progressive society. We should fight for an that universalizing at this stage will mean only ‘completion’ egalitarian education system that is free and of equitable by ‘enrolled students’. quality for all from KG to PG – an education that stands Closing doors of education for the majority of people against all inequalities based on class, caste, religion, belief, • Open schools, open colleges and open educational language, culture, gender and normal body and consider facilities on one hand and skilling on the other hand will be diversity as the potentiality of the country. the main thrusts of the government and all disadvantaged will be pushed towards these thrust areas. • Increasing majority of the disadvantaged sections on all counts, caste, religion, region, gender and linguistic- cultural group will be denied formal, liberal and professional education and will be diverted to ‘skill education’ from class V itself permanently shutting doors of formal education for the vast majority. This is indicated clearly by intention to retain the ‘no-detention policy’ of RTE Act only till Class V after which children from targeted sections and areas will be sent for skill development. • Already the government has legitimized child labour by changing the law that will push children into caste-based, family based occupations at age 10 yrs - i.e. into a childhood of labour and ‘alternate schools’ • In fact, the document seeks to completely subvert ‘education’ in favour of ‘skill’ which is in consonance with the agenda of making India a hub of cheap and skilled labour which is a favourite ‘vision’ of the current PM. Imposition of brahminical Hindutva agenda of the RSS • The very Preamble of the document ignores the plural philosophical traditions of the country and presents a false Sanskritized brahminical history deliberately ignoring the rich diversity and history of languages of the people. Marginalisation of the non-brahminical cultures, languages, regions and knowledge systems is the ‘hallmark’ of the

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 21 Derogatory Observations against SC/ST and Deprivation of Equal Opportunities for SC/ST Children in ‘Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, 2016’ (Complaint filed by State Platform for Common School System, Tamil Nadu)

To The Chairman, National Commission for Scheduled Caste, New Delhi.

Sir, Sub: Complaint Regarding Derogatory Observations made against SC/ST and deprivation of Equal opportunities for Chil- dren belonging SC/ST in the MHRD document “Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, 2016”.

Cause of action arose in New Delhi when MHRD, Government of India, Posted the document “Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, 2016” in its official website on June 30th, 2016 in English and in some 11 Indian Languages in the first week of August, 2016 http://mhrd.gov.in/nep-new and announced suggestion may be sent to [email protected].

1. State Platform for Common School System,Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN) is a body of educationists and educational activists campaigning for the establishment of fully state funded Common School System based on Neighbhourhood Schools. 2. We understand that Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Government of India is in the process of drafting a new National Education Policy. 3. As part of this effort the MHRD posted a document “Some Inputs for Draft National Education Policy, 2016”, herein after referred to as the document, in its official website and stated that the suggestions may be sent to the email address provided in its website. 4. The document has no introduction and doesn’t state the source and authority under which it was prepared. 5. SPCSS-TN carefully studied the document and found that certain observations are made against students belonging SC/ST community which are derogatory in nature totally unwarranted to the context. 6. SPCSS-TN had sent a detailed letter to the MHRD suggesting that the document may be withdrawn and if the Government of India is desirous of framing a new National Education Policy (NEP), it should constitute a Committee of Educationists representing the States with adequate representation for different Social groups viz. SC/ST, OBC, Minorities, Women, DAP & Transgender for preparing the Draft NEP. 7. The document, 43 pages in English, has 4 chapters. In the 2nd chapter “Key Challenges in Educational Sector” under the sub-heading “Equity Issues” following observation is made: “The findings of the National Learning Achievement Surveys reveal significant differences in the average achievement levels of students between States/UTs. They also indicate that urban students are performing significantly better than rural students; students in private unaided schools performed marginally better than government schools; students from the general category and OBC category performed better than the SC and ST students. These findings suggest a serious challenge to the goal of ‘equity in learning’. Children from historically disadvantaged and economically weaker sections of society and first generation learners exhibit significantly lower learning outcomes.” (Page 11 of the 43 page document in English)

- tion. Under this category students belonging to reserved or unreserved category will be selected based on their place in the selected8. The question list i.e., top is, what rankers is the find definition place in thefor General CategoryCategory? irrespective The General of Category their community according / class.to law The is the assertion Open Competi General Category and OBC performed better makes one understand that General Category is meant for unreserved category of stu- dents in other words for the forward communities or otherwise known as other communities. This raises a very serious legal question and needs careful scrutiny to study the intention of such assertion. 9. When the ‘General Category’ and OBC is kept on one side and Compared with SC/ST, why there is no comparison between minds of general public that in spite of providing all opportunities Children belonging to SC/ST exhibit poor learning out come.‘General Category’ and OBC? This is to single out SC/ST and show them in bad light. This observation plants an idea in the 10. When the opportunities are denied for thousands of years to the SC/ST the comparison of better and worse in the perfor- mance of education is unwarranted in this context. 11. Further it is stated “ Children from historically disadvantaged group and economically weaker sections of the soci- ety and first generation learners exhibit significantly lower learning out comes.” What is rationale behind such assertion? Who are Dr. B.R.Ambedkar and Mr. K.R. Narayanan? Are they not historically disadvantaged and economically poor and first 22 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad - vantaged community” i.e. SC/ST. This is most unscientific and highly derogatory statement. generation12. The attention learners? of the Did National they exhibit Commission “lower learning for Schedule outcomes”? Caste (NCSC)This is defamingis drawn tothe the children above bornobservations in “historically and remarks disad with a plea that the NCSC order a thorough enquiry to find out whom and on what basis such assertions are made and what

13. We humbly plead with the NCSC to initiate suitable action against people responsible for categorizing students on the basisdo they of theirtry to birth convey in aby particular making such community assertion? and declaring that such students “exhibit significantly lower learning outcome”. 14. In the 4th chapter “Policy Framework” under 21 headings the policy initiatives that will be undertaken is stated. 15. In 4.3 it is stated in Policy I initiatives No. 2 “……Local norms, appropriate for local conditions, will be evolved, if necessary through amendment in RTE Act, for ‘alternate schools’ which offer educational interventions for specific categories of very deprived and migrating children, and those living in difficult circumstances.”

Policy initiative states that the SC / ST will be offered only “educational intervention” that too through “alternative schools” and16. Who not Complete are the specific Education categories through of formal very deprived? schools. DenialCertainly of Fundamental the historically Rights disadvantaged guaranteed i.e. by thethe SC/ST.Constitution The proposed of India viz. Article 14, 15, 21, & 21A to the SC / ST by the State in a Proposed Policy Document is an atrocity committed by the State against the SC /ST. 17. The document in Page 11 observed that the historically disadvantaged “exhibit poor learning outcome”. Even after 70 years of Independence if that is the state of affairs concerning the historically disadvantaged then what is the reason. They have been denied access to quality Primary education. It is that specific categories of very deprived who need more care, better facilities, additional budgetary allocation so that they shall have easy accessibility to quality education which remains till date the privilege of Upper caste and Upper Class in Indian Society. But the policy proposed puts them again in a disad- vantaged position by offering educational intervention through alternative schools denying them the Right to get Educated in a full-fledged formal schools. It is an atrocity as defined in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989. 18. In 4.3 Policy Initiative No.3 states that “The present provisions of no-detention policy will be amended, as it has seriously affected the academic performance of students. The no detention policy will be limited up to class V and the system of deten- tion will be restored at the upper primary stage. Academically weak students will be identified, based on CCE conducted by schools, for providing remedial instructions.” (pg.No.19) - mance cannot be attributed as the failure of the child to learn. The reason for poor performance might be multiple, starting from19. After appointment attending of the teachers school for for concerned the whole subject,year, how allotment can the ofstudents non-teaching be identified work for as teachers,academically class weak? room environment, Poor perfor medium of education, socio – economic back ground etc. Instead of identifying the real issue and addressing those in right earnest the state cannot blame the student for poor performance in assessment. 20. Since, there is no congenial environment for the students who come from the socially and educationally backward classes, those students who are found to have performed poorly in evaluation need more care, compassion and better learn- ing facilities, they can never be certified as academically weak and sent for Vocational training to acquire employability skill. 21. Detention is to filter and eliminate the weaker section of the society from pursuing higher education. At a tender age of 11 to 14 no child can be made to understand what detention means. The child at this age cannot understand that he or she is to waste one more year. Detention at this age cannot even be considered as deterrent. 22. The first victim of detention will be the SC / ST and more particularly the girl child in SC / ST. The girl child detained for a year or two at the upper – primary classes will be made to sit at home and take care of the family. This is the age when the girl child attains puberty and forced to undergo various restrictions in her movements, at this age for the girl child detention is adding fuel to the fire. Especially the ‘children from historically disadvantaged families’ and who are the ‘first generation learners’ will be much affected by this policy of detention and certification as ‘academically weak’. No welfare state can do this. This should be construed as an atrocity as defined in the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocity Act, 1989. 23. Proposals in 4.4 Policy Initiative No. 1 & 6 (Page 19 & 21) and in 4.5 Policy initiative No. 8 (Page No. 22) are directly aimed at eliminating the historically disadvantaged from pursuing their mainstream School, College education especially in the field of Science and Technology. 24. This Policy Initiative proposal ( No. 8 in Page 22) is highly discriminative aimed at eliminating the ‘historically disadvan- taged’ and ‘first time learners’ from pursuing Science or Mathematics in Higher Education and denying them the opportunity to get employed in higher Science and Research field. The proposed policy initiative clearly negates the aspirations and needs of the historically disadvantaged and first generation learners i.e. the SC /ST and removes them from pursuing their educa- tion in advanced science and technology. 24. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, in his Memorandum of Grievances of the Scheduled Castes dated 29th October, 1942 states as fol- lows: “… What will help the Scheduled Castes is education of an advanced type in Science and Technology. But it is obvious that education in Science and Technology is beyond the means of the Scheduled castes and this is why many of them send their children to take up courses in Arts and Law. Without Government assistance the field of Advanced Education in Science and Technology, will never become open to Scheduled Castes, and it is only just and proper that Central Government should come forward to aid them in this connection.” 25. In 4.6 Policy initiative No. 3 (Page No.23). The assertion in this policy initiative is to provide fellowship/scholarship to the economically weaker section. The Proposals is against the Constitutional Guarantee for scholarship based on Social

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 23 and Educational backwardness. How can the document which asserts that “ historically disadvantaged and first generation learners exhibit lower learning out comes” propose to do away with scholarship scheme based on Social and Educational backwardness and replace the same with scholarship based on economical backwardness. The SC/ST students will be worst affected by this policy initiative. 26. Nowhere, in the document, the complaints of caste based campus discrimination are discussed. Nowhere in the docu- ment the assurance of continuation of Reservation Policy and Scholarship based on Social and Educational backwardness is discussed. On the contrary the document speaks only about merit and merit based scholarship for Economically Backward. Even for promotion from teacher to Head Master, the document Speaks of only Merit. Hence, it is apprehended that the Policy of Reservation based on Social and educational Backwardness will be given-up. 27. As for higher education, the Policy states no more investment in establishing State Funded Higher Education Institution. Existing State Funded Higher Education Institutions will mobilize their own resources through Tuition Fee enhancement and other means. These measures are to commercialise education. If Education is given in the hands of market forces the first casualty will be the Students from SC /ST. 28. For the reasons stated and in the best interest of the people belonging to the Scheduled Caste, we humbly pray that the National Commission for Scheduled Caste be pleased to look into the entire issue and initiate suitable action to protect the interest of Scheduled Caste while the new National Education Policy is drafted. 29. This representation may be treated as URGENT and the action initiated expeditiously as the Government of India is in the Process of drafting the New National Education Policy.

(P.B.Prince Gajendra Babu) General Secretary State Platform for Common School System, Tamil Nadu

Allahabad Declaration

Adopted at the National Assembly on Common School System and the Allahabad High Court Judgement held at Sadhana Sadan, Allahabad on 9th April 2016

We educationists, academics, teachers and students, system by seeing it only as a necessary requirement for and activists engaged in the struggle for a Common System maintaining a skilled work force in today’s market economy. of completely free and compulsory Education from K.G. to It emphasizes the democratic and educational importance P.G., welcome the landmark judgement delivered by Justice of shared schooling for children from all sections of society: Sudhir Aggarwal of the Allahabad High Court on 18th August “It will also boost social equation. It will give an opportunity 2015 on a series of petitions relating to teacher appointments to children of common men to interact and mix-up with in schools under the U.P. Board of Basic Education. In children of so-called high or semi high society. . . . and bring emphasizing the role of rational and transparent rules for revolution in changing Society from grass root level. The initial level mixing among all children will have a different a well-run system of state-funded schools, it brings to the consequences”. forefronttimely appointment important features of qualified of a national permanent system teachers of common for The judgement unambiguously records that the State has education. achieve the constitutional obligation before the Indian State withfailed the in fulfillingusual vague its constitutionalstatement about obligation the “lack for of 65 political years. to provide We applaud for free it as anda significant compulsory milestone elementary in the struggleeducation to It asks why this has happened, and refuses to be satisfied of quality for all. The Allahabad judgement bases its gap between the interests of the political, administrative conclusions on the constitutional principles of equality and andwill”. economicIt identifies elite the sourceand the of thelives problem and concernsas the increasing of the pluralism which are essential components for developing ordinary citizens of the country who send their children and safeguarding a truly democratic society and republican to the “common men’s” government schools. “There is no polity. It does not lower the importance of such an education real involvement of administration with these Schools. Any

24 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad driven rush for commercialized fee-charging private schools. his child/children in Elite and Semi-Elite Primary School. . . . It did not penalize any failure on the part of administration Theperson public who administration has some capacity therefore and adequate has no actual finances, indulgence sends or school managements to meet its goals. Three years after to see functioning and requirements of these schools.” the deadline for meeting requirements ended, less than 7% The judgement states that if this process is reversed and schools have even bothered to implement its stipulations. government schools are strengthened and properly run The RTE 2009 resulted in dismantling the very concept of a it is the private schools, which cater only to 10% students national system of equal education for which the state was leaving the vast majority with no opportunity to get quality constitutionally obliged and held responsible. education, which will become irrelevant. Hence it directs the A powerful lobby of Public Private Partnership (PPP) court to order that administration initiate within six months enthusiasts – corporates, NGO’s, religious organizations – an enforced integration by ensuring that all persons in and their academic and legal allies, have been persistently government or political positions and even private persons arguing in favour of PPP and marketization of elementary education, claiming that a poor state like India cannot afford grants or payment from the state treasury, admit their to educate all its children. They have received a fresh impetus childrenwho benefit in state-run in the slightest common degree schools. whether If they through fail to salary,do so, by the present government’s policy of “Skill Development” to deny the poor and marginalized vast majority of the nation’s increments could be imposed to ensure compliance. children the right to equal opportunity and education which appropriateThe judgement fines and which penalties follows extending the values, to promotions principles and the Constitution guarantees them. goals of the Constitution, differs fundamentally from the Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act 2009 (RTE against such forces. The Allahabad judgement must be 2009). The RTE 2009 provided legal sanctity to multi-track, implementedThis Assembly and firmlyextended resolves not justto carry to Uttar forward Pradesh the fight but discriminatory structures prevalent among state-run schools all states of India. The central and state governments of the (KV’s and other `special’ government schools vs `common men’s’ government schools) and accelerated the market their constitutional obligation to all India’s children. Union must accept the strictures of the High Court and fulfill

‘Not consulted on new education policy’

Some of India’s key academics in the field of education have expressed concern over experts being left out of consultations for the proposed National Education Policy, which will guide education in India for the next few decades. Weeks ago, a body of India’s elite educationists wrote to T.S.R. Subramanian, the head of a committee set up by the Human Resource Development Ministry to frame the proposed policy, about the absence of academics in the consultations. The signatories include Delhi University professor Poonam Batra, JNU professor Saumen Chattopadhyay, and Professors Nandini Manjrekar and Disha Nawani of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, among others. “The absence of serious academic scholars in the current consultations has been glaring. Scholarship on education and the extensive knowledge base of teaching, learning and the socio-economic dimensions of education should necessarily be a part of this process,” the Comparative Education Society of India (CESI) wrote to Mr. Subramanian, who heads the MHRD’s Committee for the Evolution of the New Education Policy. The letter also points out issues that should be deliberated by the panel, like what it sees as a negative trend towards commercialisation of education and control over and contractualisation of teachers. It lays stress on autonomy of academic institutes, particularly in framing their curriculum. The letter also advises the panel to foreground its policy in the legal provisions provided by the Right to Education Act and demands a greater role of the state in strengthening the public education system. Mr. Subramanian said the concerns of the academics were misplaced. For, the panel had met a cross-section of teachers to understand from them what ailed education in the country, he said. “We are still in the process of consulting and it is a work in progress. As per the directions of the Ministry, States and universities and schools have been asked to hold seminars to debate the issue and we are still meeting them,” Mr. Subramanian said. He said the members of the panel — former Delhi Chief Secretary Shailaja Chandra, former Gujarat Chief Secretary Sudhir Mankad and ex-NCERT director J.S. Rajput — were qualified for the task at hand. The panel hopes to finish its work by the end of February. (The Hindu, 12 January 2016)

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 25 VOICES AGAINST NEP Agitation against NEP in Tamil Nadu

State Platform for Common School System (SPCSS), Tamil Nadu is concerned because ever since the formation of Nadu held a seminar on NEP at Chennai on 15 Nov 2015. The AIADMK in 70s these two parties never shared dais. Seminar “Challenges Facing Higher Education” was Viduthalai Chiruththaikal Katchi President Mr. Thol, addressed by Prof. Anil Sadgopal and Prof R. Ramanujam, Thirumavalavan presided Demonstration on 3rd followed by a Panel discussion at MIDS in which students August,2016 in Chennai and DK President K. Veeramani from IIT-Chennai, University of Madras, Anna University, Presided a demonstration addressed by the Leader of the Asian College of Journalism joined research scholars of MIDS opposition Mr. M.K. Stalin on August 8th, 2016. In Tamil in interacting with Prof. Anil Sadgopal & R, Ramanujam. Nadu State Legislative Assembly All Parties including Ruling When MHRD did not release the report of the committee Party spoke against the NEP. Several Members including the headed by Mr. T. S. R. Subramaniam, a copy of the same was Leader of the opposition gave notice for Call Attention secured and SPCSS-TN released the document in a Press Motion and an appeal was placed for a house Resolution. But Meet in Chennai and also posted the document on its website both did not materialize due to ugly turn of events in the www.samacheerkalvi.in on 27th June, 2016. The MHRD on assembly on various other issues. 30th June 2016 released a new document without any On September 3rd, 2016 SPCSS-TN along with Forum for authentication or introduction to the source of the document Education Equity, Tirunelveli organized a Consultative in its official website under the title “Some Inputs for Draft Meeting in Chennai attended by almost all Parties including National Education Policy, 2016” in English alone. Tamil Nationalist and ML organizations. Major Parties SPCSS-TN translated the Vision, Mission part and Policy including DMK, Congress, CPI sent their senior leaders. DMK initiative Part in Tamil and released the same in the National was represented by Former Higher Education Minister Dr. K. Seminar “Evolving National Education Policy” held at the Ponmudi. The meeting resolved to form Joint Action University of Madras, Marina Campus on 14th July, 2016 in Committee Against Anti-People Education Policy (JACAAPEP) which AIFRTE Presidium Member Prof. Madhu Prasad and decided to hold a State Wide Demonstration in Chennai delivered the keynote address. on 29th September,2016 and Nation Wide Demonstration 10000 copies of the translated book was widely circulated and Seminar at Delhi on November 17th,2016. Prince and was used in every forum including TV debates. BJP Gajendra Babu and Mr. Britto are coordinators of this forum. persons participating in the debate acknowledged that they State wide demonstration was successfully held on 29th were able to know the document only by reading SPCSS-TN September and now preparations are on for Nationwide translation. Seminar and demo at New Delhi on Nov.17th. On October DMK President Mr. M. Karunanithi issued a 5-page press 8th, 2016 A State Convention for Alternative Education note on 23rd July, 2016 urging the Centre to withdraw the Policy was held. In this convention organized by Federation Policy initiatives. He extensively quoted the SPCSS-TN for Protection of Educational Rights, citizen’s charter for resolution passed in the July 5th Seminar. On 24th July, 2016 Alternative Education Policy was released. A Committee a forum “Federation for Protection of Educational Rights’’ headed by the Member, Board of Advisers, AIFRTE Dr. V. consisting of various College, School teacher Organisations, Vasanthi Devi Prepared the draft, citizen’s charter for Student and Parent Organisations, Educational bodies Alternative Education Policy, which is now in circulation for including SEC- JESUIT was formed to campaign against the public opinion in Tamil Nadu. NEP. SPCSS-TN played a key role in bringing these Now, SPCSS, TN is engaged in moving to other states including organizations together and is also a member organization of Bihar and UP to meet the CM and other leaders of the this forum. concerned State Political Parties. Full translation of the 43 page MHRD Document in English SPCSS, TN have been constantly writing letters to MHRD and along with Member Presidium Prof Anil Sadgopal’s message, few responses also received. SPCSS, TN have moved Member Presidium Prof Madhu Prasad’s address and other Constitutional Bodies like NCSC, NCST to initiate action papers were brought out as a book by SPCSS-TN. under Article 338 of the Constitution of India. Even NCPCR SPCSS-TN facilitated an all-party Meeting at Periyar Thidal was approached. The process is on. Meanwhile, Shri Ramesh convened by Dravidar Khazhakam on 28th July, 2016. This Patnaik, Organising Secretary, AIFRTE addressed a Public resulted in demonstrations by various parties and groups Meeting organized by RSYF and a meeting of students in allover TN against Anti-People National Education Policy IITM. urging centre withdraw the Policy initiative proposals. JACAAPEP is organizing a Massive Demonstration at Jantar First All Party Demonstration organized by Thanthai Periyar Mantar, New Delhi in the forenoon and a seminar at the Dravidar Khazhagam in Coimbatore on 29th July, 2016. Constitution Club in the afternoon on November 17th, 2016. Massive demonstration, day long hunger strike by minority institutions were held all over the state on 30th July, 2016. In The hunger fast at Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli District about 5000 people participated. MPs belonging to both DMK & AIADMK participated. This was a history as for as Tamil

26 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Common Education System vs New Education Policy Dialogue in Varanasi

The public dialogue and meeting on Common Education of Professor Anil Sadgopal with their own experiences. A System vs New Education Policy under AIFRTE campaign few like Prof. Harikesh Singh and Shri Vashishtha Narain organized by Varanasi unit of Samajwadi Janaparishad on Singh also came out with their doubts about the feasibility 6th Aug, 2016 at Paradkar Bhawan, Maidagin, Varanasi and success of this campaign of AIFRTE. Shri Yogesh and proved to be exceptionally successful. It was attended by a some other youths and students raised questions about the number of thinking people and representatives of various nature and objective of the campaign of Common Education social and ideological organizations from Varanasi and system. All such doubts and questions were thoroughly different districts of eastern U.P. besides comrades of cleared and answered by Anil Sadgopal in his reply. Samjwadi Janaparishad. This included teachers and students Presiding over the public dialogue noted Gandhian Shri from Banaras Hindu University, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Amarnath Bhai reminded us about the famous ‘jantar’ of Vidyapith and different colleges, representatives of father of the nation Mahatma Gandhi in his presidential intermediate and primary teachers’ associations from address which implied evaluation of a system on the basis of Varanasi, Mirzapur and Azamgarh, a number of noted its access to the weakest person of the society. Our education citizens, thinkers and social activists of Varanasi, students system has utterly failed in this respect. All the reports of the and youths from ‘Bhagat Singh Chhatra Morcha’, ‘Inkalabi education commissions, especially that of Kothari Chhatra Morcha’, BHU and Allahabad, ‘Students for Change’, commission, for the reform in the education system went BHU, IIT, ‘Ignus Pehal’, ‘Mashal Samskriti Manch’, unheeded. And governments went on withdrawing from representatives of member organizations of ‘Sajha Samskriti their educational responsibility leaving it to the private Manch’, Varanasi, ‘Parivartangami Chhatra Samghathan’ and sector. So much so, that the framework of higher education ‘Svavittaposhit Shikshak Samgh’, Gorakhpur-Deoria and in our country was left to be decided by the Birla-Ambani comrades from Mau, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Balia, Committee appointed by the Vajpayee-led government Chandoli, Mirzapur, Sonabhadra, and Allahabad. conniving with the demand of the market economy. Speaking as chief speaker on the subject of dialogue Professor Henceforth the education in our country became a lucrative Anil Sadgopal pointed out that it is clear even from the business for the affluent. And the ever growing weaker preamble of the new education policy brought forward in the populace of the country went on being deprived from name of educational reform that it is in fact an approval and affordable quality education with ever declining conditions acquiescence of the commercialization and disparity in our of governmental and government funded schools and education system. A majority of people of our country is colleges. apprehensive about good and free education or even possible At the outset of public dialogoue Shri Aflatoon introduced education of their children in future. About whether or not the AIFRTE’s campaign of common education system quality and ability in education would be assessed and initiated in the year 2009. This included qualitative and decided by managers of star category schools-colleges- essential common and free education from KG to PG besides universities in private sector or corporate families and neighborhood schools. The historical judgment of Allahabad educational mafias extracting heavy fees in the name of High Court (August 2015) about the desired reform in the governmental school system further approves of the need of education, egalitarian and national education as per the such a movement which governments all through have shied pluralityimparting of education? our culture. We allWe need need education, education quality befitting and freethe away from implementing. Foreseeing the UP Assembly resource of our livelihood and for reconstruction of our elections in 2017 the AIFRTE and the Varanasi unit of its nation keeping the productive activities and labour at its member organization Samajwadi Janaparishad organized a epicentre along with universal knowledge of humanities, Public Dialogoue and Workshop on 6-7 August 2016 at social sciences, sciences and technology free from any Varanasi with the objective of creating awareness and taking discrimination. We should not let our governments evade all this issue to the people in the whole of UP and Purvanchal in this anymore. We should not allow enslavement of majority particular. of people by a few technologically trained and educated The assembly began with a welcome address by Shri Nazir professionals and capitalists by making education Ahmed, President of Varanasi unit of SJP and concluded with inaccessible to them. The onus of educating the masses lies thanks giving by Dr. Mahesh Vikram, programme-convener. upon the nation and governments and we well know that The programme was conducted by Dr. Neeta Chaubey, Gen. there is no paucity of resources with them. It requires a will Secretary, SJP- Varanasi unit. and resettlement of objectives. Reiterating the objectives of (Note: The success of the public dialogue was proved by the 2 the AIFRTE he demanded nothing less than a neighborhood- hour extended discussion on queries raised by students and based common school system funded by governments to youths about the AIFRTE campaign with Prof. Anil Sadgopal provide free and common education from KG to PG. Many and Dr. Vikas Gupta in the nearby Company garden even after participants, mainly Shri Yogendra Narain Sharma, Dr. Swati, the 3 hour scheduled rigorous assembly.) Father Anand and Chaudhary Rajendra, shared the concern

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 27 Photograph of a Round Ta- ble Conference against NEP-2016 organised by Andhra Pradesh Save Edu- cation Committee in Sept 2016. It was attended by all left teachers organisations in the state including APSEC member-organisations APTF (1938) and DTF.

AIFRTE Organising Secretary Com. Ramesh Patnaik addressing a talk on ‘Draft National Policy on Education 2016’ on 21 Sept 2016. organised by Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle, IIT Madras

A two-day workshop on the New Education Policy was organised by Satyashodhak Shikshak Sabha, Ma- harshtra in Deulgaon on 11-12 Sept 2016.

28 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Workshop on draft New Education Policy Azamgarh

A three day workshop on draft new education policy was by Shibli National College principal Ghyas Baig Saheb and organised in Azamgarh (Uttar Pradesh) on 28-30 Sept 2016. Opening Address delivered by Prof. Zahoor Alam. The It was attended by over 70 participants (mainly school and Resource Persons from AIFRTE were Prof. Haragopal, Prof. college teachers, some students and parents). Participants Madhu Prasad, Sri Ramesh Patnaik, Prof. Mahesh Vikram were actively involved in the discussions and debates Singh and Dr. Neetha Choubey. concerning different approaches to education policies from the freedom struggle onwards, post-independence period and specially emphasizing the commercialization and marketization of education which has marked the period since the National Policy of Education (1986-92) when Government of India (GOI) formally embarked on the neoliberal economic reforms programme. Extensive discussions took place on the impact of these changes on the conditions in which students, teachers and parents find themselves today. Issues of alienation of students and teachers, deterioration in working conditions of teachers, and governments placing the blame for the crisis of education only on the teaching community and partially on the `lack of concern’ of parents from poor and marginalized sections were raised and debated from the perspective of the need for launching peoples struggles in defence of education for all. The significance of the Allahabad High Court judgement (August 2015) directing that all those who received any form of remuneration from the state treasury be required to enroll their children in state-run government schools was also discussed in this context. Campaign for its implementation was seen as an effective step to rapidly improve the quality of government schools. Strong opposition was expressed against policies promoting privatization and commercialization in education. The private public partnership (PPP) model was criticized for Shiksha Mahapanchayat diverting public funds to private, corporate hands. It was on Draft National Education Policy 2016 noted that the best schools (Kendriya and Navodaya Wesley College, Azamgarh 29th Sept, 2016 Vidyalayas etc.) and institutes of Higher Education were funded and run by GOI. So why were they hiding behind the “myth” of lack of funds to dismantle the education of the Organised by Uttar Pradesh Rajya Abhibhavak Sangh and poor and the marginalized in government schools and Shiksha Adhikar Manch. Presided by: Dr. Ravindra Nath Rai The impact of the marketization model of education was Debate initiated by AIFRTE Delegation: Prof. Haragopal, recognizedcolleges? as a major threat to policies promoting social Prof. Madhu Prasad, Sri Ramesh Patnaik, Prof. Mahesh justice such as reservations for SC/ST and OBC, expansion of Vikram Singh and Ayushi Rawat. hostels and scholarships to ensure that their alarming “push out” rate from secondary and higher secondary levels is Shiksha Mahapanchayat Resolved.... reversed as currently they cannot even access the reserved 1. To oppose all forms of commercialization of quotas at higher education, raised intense debate. The education and demand abolition of all existing forms importance of overthrowing the Brahmanical domination of of commercialization; education was extensively discussed. 2. To demand establishment of a common The workshop and Shiksha Mahapanchayat at Azamgarh education system from KG to PG to be completely were successfully organized at Azamgarh by the invaluable financed by Central and state governments who are efforts of planning and implementation by Brijesh Kumar constitutionally obliged to provide equitable Yadav. education of quality for all. The workshop was organised by Shiksha Adhikar Manch and Uttar Pradesh Rajya Abhibhavak Sangh. It was inaugurated

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 29 Seminar on New Education Policy Karnataka

To save and strengthen public education system, people move towards ‘Common School System’ (CSS), which is a participated in a meaningful discussion at a One- day seminar very vital component of the overall strategy for securing on ‘New Education Policy, 2016 - A Critical Analysis’ and equity and social justice in education. NPE, 1986-92 restated joined in the mass movement of ‘Samana Shikshanakkagi the need for Government to take effective measures in the Janandolana (SSJ) at RC College in Bangalore. direction of the Common School System so that all students, The inaugural speech on ‘NEP, 2016-A critical Analysis’ was irrespective of caste, creed, location, or sex, have access to delivered by Prof. Madhu Prasad of AIFRTE. Prof. G. Haragopal education of comparable quality. of AIFRTE delivered a lecture on ‘Relooking at Kothari However, the draft National Policy on Education, 2016 has Commission’s Report’. taken a divergent approach. It claims to be based on ancient The Seminar marked the 50th Anniversary of the submission `Indian’ (i.e. Brahmanical Hindu) scriptures, and the current of the Report of the Indian Education Commission (1964- technological approach to meet the demands of the emerging 1966), the Kothari Commission, which provided guidelines knowledge economy. One of the glaring omissions in this and policies for the development of education in India. It policy is its silence regarding CSS although educational examined all aspects of the educational sector and the failure disparities have been accentuated by the failure to implement to achieve universal education by 1960 as directed by the it. Constitution. This Report provided the basis for all national The seminar, followed by discussion, attempted to policies on education (1968, 1986-92) so far. understand on what basis educational policies are made; The Commission’s Report states in its introduction that “[t] why key recommendations of the Commission’s report were he most important and urgent reform needed in education is not been implemented in the past nor adopted in the present to transform it, to endeavor to relate it to the life, needs and draft policy. aspirations of the people and thereby make it a powerful instrument of social, economic and cultural transformation necessary for the realization of the national goals”. The report defines education, states its aims and objectives and focuses attention on the social and national aspects of education. The report made recommendations for a language policy. The National Policy of Education responded by introducing Hindi as official language and compulsory English in its three language formula. The Commission’s recommendations on medium of education require further debate. The Commission urged that educational expenditure of 6% of GDP be achieved by the fiscal year 1985-86. This never happened, never once an adequate budget was set aside for educating the children of this country. What we are seeing over the last two years is heavily slashed budgets. One of the key recommendations of the commission was to

30 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad ISSUES Letter Addressed to the President on Teachers Day

By an ad hoc teacher

Sir, you do not know me. You can never know me or my appointed only for four months or till the regular incumbent name or the names of lakhs of us who are serving in your joins duty. With such a feeble appointment letter, nobody universities as “adhocs”. Why should you know that we now wants to give us their house on rent. In the lives of lakhs of my ad hoc friends, the regular incumbent has not come in the last 15 years because no such claimant exists. You know whoform wethe are,majority what inwe most think of andyour how universities? we became Do “adhocs”you ever for sure that permanent appointments have not been made thoughask the wevice-chancellors had set out to aboutbecome us? teachers. Have you On ever this wondered Teachers’ for a long time. However, to titillate adhocs like me, many Day, while you are distributing awards to teachers, you will universities did advertise posts several times but never not spare a thought for us. I and my ad hoc friends often think about you and other universities swallowed the money each time. A “thank you” notefilled from them. the I gotUGC theto adhocs bank draft is a good made idea. each After time, all, and we theare giving money to the public universities just as the UGC does. theoffice universities bearers of had the started institution liking you only call aand “university”. only adhocs At Do you know, Hon’ble President, the wonderful term ratherfirst, I thanthought regular it was faculty some members. kind of temporary malady that I was 25 years old when I rejected lucrative prospects in of the next academic session in July, we get paid for the the new, corporatising India. What charmed me was the idea summer-break“summer salary”? months, If we otherwise get re-appointed we don’t. on This the payment first day of getting young minds excited about knowledge. I became a teacher. On this Teachers’ Day, I decided to share with you annually with meticulous formality by preparing rosters as the lived meaning of the choice I had made. peris called the reservation summer-salary. norms. The The universities number of fillposts ad allotted hoc posts to Our university doesn’t look at us as faculty-members; different categories is readjusted, depending on the number we are adhocs. We are not addressed with our names ... The of people holding permanent posts. Readjustment means university administrators recognise us as numbers and think chronic unpredictability about the nature of ad hoc posts to about them only in the months of April-June because they In the past two decades, I have served your university on They think about the numbers and not about us as people minimumbe filled each wages. July. I am sure the university has accumulated a need to be filled by real people for the “task” of teaching. lot of wealth by denying my claim on the annual increments. This saving can be spent on computers, air-conditioners, towith convey highest our qualificationsavailability to become in fields adhocs. of knowledge. We get printers and an occasional elephant ride. In addition, the subjectedThe university to a humiliating doesn’t repetitive believe in ritual record-keeping, of filling the forms so it bank must be giving a hefty interest for 4-5 months when demands the photocopy of our degrees as evidence of our adhocs’ delayed salaries sit in the university account. eligibility every year. The muggy month of July becomes Perhaps the chief auditor general can suggest legitimate preeminently disgracing, every year, when we face an ways for spending that amount. interview and answer the golden question: “What new will Dear Mr President, I often hear you say that the universities need to become globally competitive. I have also excited teacher in me has died another death and I shall heard our VCs talk about achieving quality with the help you do this year?” The true answer that I can’t give is: The of Web portals, YouTube and Google. The absence of the To you, this may seem a small thing. For us, this is a mention of teachers in this kind of chatter, has dissuaded my matterteach with of life newer and levelsits end, of leavea mortified alone mind.dignity. Our existence brightest students from teaching as a career option. When as numbers has resulted in a professional life unimaginable they saw me sitting in the corridors, waiting to face yet for common people. The university gives our minimum- another humiliating interview, their ideas about the life of wage salaries of 4-5 months together, saving a lot of the a good teacher crashed. The disparaging reality of teaching monthly work to be put in by clerks. It doesn’t give us library as a profession dawned on them just when they had become membership, computers, password to Wi-Fi connections passionate about it. and real rooms to sit in. The problem is genuine, you see. Recently, the chief justice of India cried publicly for Our appointments are made only for four months, so we the missing judges in the courts. Nobody has cried for the get erased from the university’s records regularly and missing teachers. Let us record the turning away of the make a fresh entry after a day’s gap in an objective manner. brightest among the young from teaching as this country’s The university is serious about the “task” of teaching, so it highest achievement on this Teachers’ Day. doesn’t give us medical leave or paid leave to get married or To come out together is useless because we are adhocs. To come have kids. Nor are we supposed to attend seminars the UGC out alone is suicidal. After all, I am an adhoc and four months end loves so much. too soon. Our appointment letter declares rather loudly our eligibility for minimum basic pay and the fact that we are (Indian Express, 5 Sept 2016)

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 31 restrictive, partisan and propagandist. Artist’s notion of freedom, No Campus is an Island ethics and morality were supposed to be free flowing and beyond any categorization. Means of producing a work of art was claimed to be intensely personal... However, campuses are in the grip of politics now. So what has KISLAY marginalized politics from campuses still remain dominant. changedAnswer in thelies lastin the one slogan year? which Specially is popular since thein the ideas, current which student once ...Have you ever heard a cricketer asking youngsters to not play movement – “ If you don’t take interest in politics that does not mean politics will not take an interest in you”. Even though the campuses were politically indifferent but ideas of secularism, equality before cricket?During So hiswhy election are some campaign politicians Modi sermonizing got majority to of the the youth vote toof law, freedom of individual and freedom of expression remained youngsters...not do politics Only in university 18 months campuses? into the government it wasrocked by the dominant ideas in some key institutions atleast in arguments student protests... From FTII to HCU and JNU, this period saw some if not in everyday practices. This kind of indifferent liberalism of the biggest student protest. Even a passive student took note of suited the pragmatism of Congress. It could let these institutions the events and was required to have an opinion on it. So why the exist as islands while it enacted draconian laws and trampled upon individuals rights of freedom and liberty elsewhere. By keeping In 60’s and 70’s, politics was considered to be a necessary part them comfortable, it had made them aloof...But, for a party like BJP... ofsudden student resurgence life. However, of interest as the of government the youth in ushered politics? liberalization this indifferent liberalism was not enough. High dose of a particular in the late 80’s, it began disappearing from campus.As noted kind of nationalism, a collective eugolisation of the myth of the sociologist, David Harvey points out that all over the world glorious ancient past and active hatred towards imagined enemies neoliberalism came by taking over the idea and desire of individual of nation (both internal and external) were needed. It required freedom and relating it to market fundamentalism. According to the changing the dormant yet dominant thinking in these institutions. neoliberal idea, to be free from constraints, whether economic or It was done by actively backing ABVP ...banning ideas and books... social, the only requirement was a complete focus on oneself... and silencing people who disagree. It also appointed party people in As this idea seeped into common sense, every phase of student key decision-making positions within these institutes... However, it life turned into a preparation for the ultimate aim of being rich and never expected a collective fight against it in the institutions where famous. It was not a period of learning, analyzing and questioning students were important and articulate stakeholder. but one of arming yourself with various skills that had a high As universities and campuses faced crisis one after another, market demand. In this process, not only was politics separated they were no longer safe islands. One had to think of politics from education, but education itself got reduced to mastering of because politics was actively thinking of us. To respond, a shared skills... understanding had to be evolved, a common strategy had to be But that was still no guarantee for the job, one also needed made and everyone had to protest. Collectivity, till now dormant to ‘groom’ the personality and make itpresentable. Not just the had to be forced into action.As collectivity came back, politics intellectual but the whole personal sphere of habits and hobbies transformed. It became a vehicle for articulating and intervening in became a market terrain as well... Leisure and hobbies became society based on shared ideas. commodities which one had to carefully choose and invest in, to bag Suddenly, like politics, studying also acquired a different a high paying job. All of this turned not just the coursework but the purpose. It was no longer only an individualised, isolated and class entire student life into a competitive game... room activity but a shared exercise to understand complex realities, Inspite of doing everything, very few succeeded. The success of an exercise to introspect, deepen and broaden the movement neoliberal thought lied not in its dream of success but in turning against the onslaught. This kind of study further begged one to systematic failures into individual and atomized failures. This be political, to intervene more in society. With the artificial wedge way it subverted a collective challenge and then created cyclical broken, politics and study became complimentary to each other. spectacles around an individual with apparently mythical powers As crisis came calling, art schools had no time to think in who would set things right. As these ideas turned student life vacuum., As it dawned on them that art existed within the society upside down, what gained most was ‘the cult of the individual’ at and not separate or indifferent from it, many ideas came flooding. the expense of ‘the idea of collective’. The halo of the artist was gone, but creativity was unleashed. Politics Emptied out of its notion of collective action for collective was not seen as being in opposition to art but a way to create, think, gain, politics lost its emancipatory potential... Within campuses, critique, read and understand work of arts. politics became only about winning the student union election by As protests grew in campuses, it led to a further broadening organizing parties, bribing and even using threat... All of this led to of solidarities. As friends were thrown in jail, one was forced to a highly apolitical notion of student. think of countless muslim youths who spent years in jail on false Paradoxically, the neoliberal ideas, which lead to the rise of terror charges. As Rohith was forced to commit suicide, one had to this kind of politics, advertised these aspects to deemphasize introspect ones’ own complicity and silence in the discrimination and demonize politics per se. This was used for banning student within campus where we studied. Politics was telling us to think elections and also to alienate students from politics. within and beyond us. To make a fair assessment, it wasn’t that student groups or As the student movement grows, it dawns upon us that individuals who practiced a different kind of politics were entirely democracy and its institutions are not carved in stone. They have absent from campuses, especially in places like JNU or HCU. But for to be tested and fought for in everyday reality and practice. One the majority of students it was not a part of their routine activity... understands that laws are not mere legal right but usually operate If the mainstream of universities followed this regime of keeping in mind the power equation and hierarchies and unless a thought, the margins of art schools were no different. Being political struggle is mounted to change these very equations in society, they was seen as opposite of being an artist. Politics was perceived to be will continue to operate in a biased way.

32 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Horrors in Kashmir, Kheralanzi,Azzamgarh, or on Maruti and the imagination to think the unthinkable which makes certain workers in Gurgaon have some commonality now. They are not politicians preach to the students to not do politics. They surely mere aberrations but integral part of the functioning of Indian have reasons to be afraid, very very afraid. democracy. It is the ability of student movements to broaden their demands, The Writer is FTII Alumnus their understanding, their courage to question the unquestionable Indian Express, May 30, 2016

Deifying people with disabilities: a cruel joke

AVINASH SHAHI

India is a signatory to the UN Convention on Rights of Persons residing in the rural areas are compelled to live in inescapable with Disabilities. In India, the people with disabilities are addressed penury. However, the governments at the Centre and in the states by many denominations interchangeably. Since the mid-1980s, remain negligent about their pressing needs.The daily ordeal of the patronising terms such as “differently abled” and “specially abled” persons with disabilities at the grassroot reveal their vulnerabilities have been quite common in public parlance. Recently, Prime which requires an urgent ttention from the government. Minister Narendra Modi in his last Mann ki Baat, broadcast on Therefore, amidst harsh poverty faced by the disabled, December 27, 2015, appealed to the public to adopt the use of the extolling them as “divyang” is not less than a covert ploy to shield term “divyang” (divine body) to address persons with disabilities. their resilient character and struggle as human beings. This well-intentioned appeal by the Prime Minister, through the Undoubtedly, people with disabilities face daunting hurdles state-run All India Radio, to call people with disabilities as “divyang” and create innovative ways to overcome them. However, their (divine bodies) could do great damage to their dignity and identity. struggle to deal with the obstacles should not be glorified. People People with disabilities have long been enduring the pain of not with disabilities should not be construed as passive subjects. being addressed as normal human beings as they think themselves They are agents of their own destiny. It is thus imperative for the to be. Government to take them on board before formalising any new Moreover, the term “divyang” is antithetical to the definition of terminology in the disability legislation. disability envisaged under the United Nations Convention on the The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Rights of Persons with Disabilities, to which India is a signatory. (DEPWD) should seek responses from the disability sector on the The UNCRPD stipulates that disability occurs due to extraneous term “divyang” suggested by the Prime Minister. The view of the factors such as physical, psychological and environmental barriers. Prime Minister reflects the mindset of a large section in the Indian The Indian Government which ratified the treaty, is thus duty- society who are judgmental about the capabilities of the people bound not to contravene the provisions of the UN treaty in the with disabilities. domestic legislation and the public policy on disability. Persons Instances abound, such preconceived notions held by the with disabilities have long been demanding from the State that they political class and the Indian bureaucracy have dealt irreparable should neither be pilloried as evil mortals nor be deified. They are damage to the disabled people. Like any other non-disabled person, as human, with distinct physiological and psychological attributes, disabled people want to earn respect by their deeds and live with as other non-disabled individuals in society. dignity. However, too much obsession with the notion of “abelism” Therefore, instead of patronising and glorifying them, the in the public sphere has dashed the dream of the people with government at the Centre and in the states need to create a disabilities from becoming equal citizens on a par with others. They conducive climate in which they get a level playing field, at par with are often pitied and treated with charity. They are not respected as others. Until the government does not undertake serious efforts to people having Constitutional rights. The woes of the People with do away with the stigma attached with disability, the hardships of Disabilities related to accessibility, education and employment are the disabled would continue to be accentuated. Merely a change in paid tangential attention. The Central Government allocates meagre the nomenclature for addressing the disabled people is inadequate. budgetary support for their empowerment. For instance, in the last A much deeper engagement with the plight of the disabled Budget of 2014-15, presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitely, people is needed to bring about substantive transformation in their it was paltry Rs 5,000 crore. Moreover, the state governments’ lives. A large number of disabled people are striving for the bare indifference towards people with disabilities is more shocking. minimum, and they are still “divyang” for the Prime Minister. It’s a Despite disability being one of the subjects in the state list cruel joke with their lives. “What’s in a name”, they wonder. under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution, several states are yet to formulate a comprehensive policy on disability issues. The demand for bringing disability in the concurrent list is yet to The writer is a doctoral scholar at the Centre for the Study of be met. As a result, the large number of people with disabilities Law and Governance, JNU

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 33 Shyamaprosad Mukherjee: How ‘selfless’ was this ‘patriot’? AIFRTE’s response to the event held at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library on 29 June 2016

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) had its revealing: “. . . now that age is advancing and responsibilities baptism by fire on 29 June 2016 when it was subjected to the are increasing, I feel ever and evermore the need for a regular likes of Amit Shah, president of the ruling BJP and close substantial income. I have no greed of wealth. Is there associate of Prime Minister Modi, spouting venom at the memory of Jawaharlal Nehru - India’s first Prime Minister, a no chance with the Govt. of Bengal, for I am too strong a prominent freedom fighter, and advocate of secularism, Hindunobody for who the can present utilise powers my services that be, and and pay suffer for them? as I might,I have rationality and scientific temper as foremost values in the may God give me strength and wisdom to maintain my country’s social and political life. Lokesh Chandra, NMML integrity and independence and not sacrifice them for Director and BJP appointee, underlined the fact that “India money’s sake.” [Leaves from a Diary: S.P. Mookerjee, Oxford has to change and it is no longer the world of Nehru”. The University Press, 1993.] event at NMML, an exhibition and lecture on the life of However in December 1941 his `strong Hindu’ identification Shyamaprosad Mukherjee, the “selfless patriot”, was did not prevent him from joining a Coalition Ministry with intended to accentuate the fact. the Muslim League in Bengal. Shyamaprosad was Finance Shah claimed that Nehru was personally responsible for the Minister in a government headed by A.K. Fazlul Haq, who ceasefire announced following the war in Kashmir after had moved the Pakistan Resolution at the Muslim League’s Pakistani forces entered the state. Shamefully innuendo’s session in Lahore in March 1940! He remained in his position were even held out that Shyamaprosad Mukherjee’s death in till the end of 1942 as long as the Ministry lasted. Srinagar on 23 June 1953, while under arrest, resulted from V.D. Savarkar’s tour of Bengal in 1939 marked a turning point Nehru’s lack of concern which was also the reason for a in Shyamaprosad Mukherjee’s search for a political career conspiratorial `failure’ to properly investigate it. So far the with opportunity. The man who on August 21, 1936, had Sangh Parivar has observed 23 June as ‘End Article 370 Day’ presided over a meeting in Calcutta and had lauded and ‘Save Kashmir Day’ but this year the slogans were Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the key speaker, as “an Indian discarded because of the political expediency of forming a nationalist”, joined the Hindu Mahasabha. Its head, Savarkar government in Jammu & Kashmir in alliance with Mehbooba had clearly stated: “In practical politics also the Mahasabha Mufti’s PDP. knows that we must advance through reasonable How factually truthful are the RSS claims of Nehru’s errors vs compromises.” Shyamaprosad Mukherjee’s unwavering commitment to In 1942, the Quit India Movement was launched. British colonial rulers unleashed a reign of terror against the mass India, Mukherjee was party to the government’s decisions to movement. Congress was banned, its provincial governments (a)Kashmir? refer the As Kashmira minister dispute in the to first the CabinetUnited Nations of independent Security were dismissed, and India was turned into a jail where many Council on December 31, 1947; (b) accept the plebiscite died only because they had bravely raised the `Tiranga’ resolutions of the U.N. Commission for India and Pakistan against the oppressors. The Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS and dated August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949; and (c) adopt the Muslim League not only boycotted the Quit India Article 370 of the Constitution as determined by the Movement but actively supported the British government in Constituent Assembly on October 17, 1949 - an embarrassing its repressive campaign. fact which Sheikh Abdullah sharply reminded him of on A classic example of “reasonable compromise”, Shyamaprosad February 4, 1953. Mukherjee wrote to the Bengal Governor: “The question is When Shyamaprosad resigned from the Union Cabinet on April 15, 1950, there was not a word on Kashmir in his of the province should be carried on in such a manner that in speech in Parliament on his resignation. Nor was Kashmir spitehow to of combat the best this efforts movement of the inCongress, Bengal? thisThe movementadministration will mentioned in his address to the annual gathering of the RSS fail to take root in the province. It should be possible for us, on December 3, 1950. It was only on December 31, 1952 that especially responsible Ministers, to be able to tell the public he took up Kashmir at the Jana Sangh’s first annual session in that the freedom for which the Congress has started the Kanpur as an issue on which communal feelings could be movement, already belongs to the representatives of the whipped up. To understand the logic behind this it is people. In some spheres it might be limited during the necessary to look at the course of Shyamaprosad Mukherjee’s emergency. Indians have to trust the British . . . for the own chequered political career. maintenance of the defense and freedom of the province Shyamaprosad started as a Congressman and was elected to itself.” the Bengal Legislative Council as the Congress candidate. The prominent historian R.C. Majumdar, widely held to be When the Congress decided to boycott the Legislature the sympathetic to the Hindu Right, notes that Mookerjee following year, he resigned from the party to seek re-election advised the British on how to suppress the movement: “In as an independent. A diary entry of February 17, 1939, is that letter he mentioned item-wise the steps to be taken for

34 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad dealing with the situation…” Perhaps nothing is as revealing about Shyamaprosad told me how the Government had opened gruel kitchens in Mukherjee’s failure to measure up to his times as the onenext village, door to where his own? 400 people– I asked were people fed daily right for and two left. months. They poignant account of a visit to Shyamaprosad’s home-village How the Government had given 15 annas to each family, and Jirat in Hooghly District by the renowned artist Chittaprosad. a handful of chura per head in the same village. After this the In 1944 he was documenting the ravages of the man-made Union Board also gave 14 pice to every man, 10 pice to every famine of Bengal in great detail for the journals of the woman and 10 pice to every child. They spoke well of the Communist Party of India, People’s Age/ People’s War. Students Federation and the Muslim Students League, which Early in June, Chittoprosad cut across six or seven villages in gave cloth and 12 maunds of seeds, plenty of vegetables and the Balagor area to reach Jirat. What he saw was terrible. a donation of Rs. 5 per family in some villages just after the Flood, famine and a delayed monsoon had reduced the flood. The Communist Party too had twice given out a pao people to eating mangoes and mango seeds. His experiences (1/4 seer) of rice and a pao of flour per head. The Dumurdaha are recounted in these lengthy excerpts from his article. Uttam Ashram distributed Rs. 2 per household and 8 seers of Chittaprasad’s sketches of Shyamaprosad’s newly-built atta at controlled rates for three months. house accompanied his report. In short, everyone had tried to help, except the biggest man and the strongest organization in the district – Dr. Mukherjee “The Riches Piled Here: An Insult to Hungry and his Hindu Mahasabha. Thousands Around – Painful Sights in I put the question point-blank to a prominent villager in Shyamaprosad’s Hooghly Home Village”. Srikanti village: what did the Bengal Relief Committee do for Shyamaprosad – but he understood at once when I mentioned “If there is any Bengali who has shot up to become a national Ashutosh.them? He had`No, not we heard got nothing of the Bengal from them’Relief wasCommittee the answer. or of figure in the last two years it is Dr. Shyamaprosad Mukherjee. After that I stopped talking about Shyamaprosad until I got to Jirat. the builders of modern Bengal – who fought the Governor to But the closer I got to Jirat, the more I realized the plight of makeAnd why the not? Calcutta – he is university the son of Ashutoshan international Mukherjee, centre one of these villages next door to Jirat. In one word, I saw what culture and learning. Shyamaprosad became a national happened to a village when its natural leader leaves it in the figure overnight when he resigned to protest Amery’s rule in lurch. Shyamaprosad does not help them and no one else is Bengal in 1943. His was the strongest voice against the big enough in these parts to help them. So scoundrels and Bengal Governor in the worst days of Bengal famine. thieves steal whatever help, in the shape of food, cloth, Lacs of rupees poured into his Bengal Relief Committee from medicines, trickles in from outside. the four corners of India. For instance, everyone in Srikanti village was bitter about Has this man who was given lacs to save Bengal kept the light one such man, (I refrain from giving his name), a real cut- throat who was in charge of the Union Board’s relief activity like to know.” now. He doled out rice to his own favourites – at the rate of 1 “Howburning much in his had own Dr. Shyamaprosadvillage? – that is done what to most help peoplethese villages would ½ seers a week. But when the kisans of kadamdanga went to him for aid, he made a neat offer to them: `you cant get rice from me for nothing, you know! Work without pay in my fields, and I will sell you rice at controlled rates.’ The whole village raised a howl over this, but then he was given 15 pieces of cloth by the Union Board, to be given to 83 families in three instalments. He went back to his old game: he sent the village folk back empty-handed and made a present of the entire stock to his favourites.

One family Becomes Boss of Them All With these stories ringing in my ears, I stepped in Shyamaprosad’s own village at last and went straight to Ashutosh’s ancient mansion. . . .But I found a sad, decayed, broken-down memorial to the `Royal Bengal Tiger’ . . . . In these ruins, Ashutosh’s sons have given a sop to those who hold their father’s memory sacred by putting up an `Ashutosh Smriti Mandir’ (Ashutosh Charitable Dispensary). The sour-faced doctor in charge told me that he kept the dispensary open three hours every morning and 30 to 40 people come daily. But I went two mornings running and never found it open for longer than one hour. I looked for 30 to 40 patients but found only 10 to 12 when hundreds are

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 35 down with malaria all round. . . . Just when the floods were knocking down every house in Balagor – the sons of Ashutosh took it into their heads to build a brand new mansion. Old Ashutosh’s house was apparently not good enough for them. I could not get over Shyamaprosad building a brand new mansion in the middle of the famine while his father’s house fell to pieces like every other house or hut for miles around. I went to see the hateful, vulgar, new garden-house. The house is known all over Balagor as the only new house built in the last year and as the only house with two dhan golas stacked with paddy. . . . .There are strong iron gates and iron gratings on the windows to protect the richest spot in Balagor. . . .The whole place looks like an oasis in the desert. . . .The riches heaped here are an insult to the hungry thousands around. I fled from the house in disgust but even then I did not hear the end of the story. The talk of the Balagor villages is of a new hat (market) – opened by Shyamaprosad with pomp and The reality of Mahasabha Relief Work With this kind of profiteering going on in broad daylight in ceremony on one of his two visits home in the year of the the hat opened by Shyamaprosad, I didn’t expect to be famine. impressed by the relief activity of the Hindu Mahasabha in Jirat village. But I went along all the same because Jirat is the already had a hat of long-standing in Sijey village not far only village where people seem to have heard of relief work fromAll honest Jirat. One folk hat swear was at enough this hat. – the Why? point Because was to clean Balagor up by Shyamaprosad. profiteering in it and give the village-folk a square deal. . . . I found this relief work to be as much a racket as the hat and But when I went there I did not find a hat of the ordinary the `charitable dispensary’. Once a week it seems 28 seers of sort. It was only two months old, but there was a good supply atta and 28 seers of rice used to be distributed by the Hindu of mangoes, and some potatoes and onions too. Some paddy Mahasabha through 4 relief centres. Apart from this had come from Burdwan. They told me that 30 or 40 cartloads Shyamaprosad’s two brothers set up a shop and sold rice at of paddy came twice a week from Burdwan district next door half the market-price. But this did not help anyone because to Hooghly. The police who keep watch at the outposts of the market rate at that time was Rs. 40 per maund! That is Burdwan let the carts through in return for a bribe of Rs. 5 why the poor peasants and fishermen of the village told me, `All charity was for the babus. Charity bought for Rs. 20 per better-off peasants in Balagor did buy some of it. But how maund was too expensive for all except a handful.’ couldper bag. they Where hope to does win, the in a Burdwancut-throat rice competition go? Some with of the This is roughly what I found out in Jirat, Shyamaprosad’s home village. I have been to many villages in Bengal which Balagor villagers got a few bags but the lion’s share is drained were homes of our great men – nowhere have I seen so much outbig tradersof Hooghly from district Nadia byand rich the outsiders rice mills who of the bid 24 up Parganas? the price hatred and bitterness against the rich and specially against of rice from Rs. 8-14 per maund to Rs. 9-8 per maund while I the biggest man of the village. was there. But on my way back I found out something more for which I There is a scandal over sugar too in Jirat hat. You get it only was not prepared. It seems a whole generation of middle- class youth have taken to brazen-faced lying to glorify their shopkeeper whispered the inside story into my ears. `How at the cut-throat rates of Rs. 2 to Rs. 2-4 per seer. Why? A `leader’ – Dr. Shyamaprosad Mukherjee! Everyone in Balagor and Jirat had told me that Shyamaprosad towing to the maid-servants or the housewives of the had not come to Balagor more than twice in the last two bhadralokcan we sell (middle-class) cheaper?’, he asked.families. `You They can won’t only getgive it it by for kow- less years – once during the famine and then again to open the than Rs. 1-12 per seer’. Why did they have to get round the Jirat hat. And yet a doctor I met in the neighbouring village Kasalpur told me that Shyamaprosad was coming and going from Calcutta and store it up. It is beneath their dignity to from Calcutta all the time - `four times in the last two months tradewives –and so theyservants make of their the rich?wives Because pull off athe bargain babus on get the sugar sly. – there is a man who loves his village.’ They get the cash and there is no blot on their reputation – Bimalendu Goswami who controlled rice and flour distribution at the Jirat relief centres told me that he gave out neat trick, isn’t it? 36 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad relief only on Sundays. But a young High School student who [People’s War, Sunday, August 6, 1944. Vol. III. No. 6, page 4.] was proud of the Hindu Mahasabha told me that 24 students worked daily at the relief centres to feed 100 to 150 mouths Editor’s Note: We have reproduced large parts of Chittoprosad’s daily! article so that our readers can learn from the truth of our The rich have thus made themselves hateful in Jirat – and history and not be confused by the distortions and lies being Shyamaprosad is hated and feared more than anybody else. propagated by the ideologues of the Sangh Parivar. We But at the end of my visit, I heard a few words which showed condemn the RSS and the Sangh Parivar who played no part, that the ancient civilization of Bengal and the spirit of direct or indirect, in the Indian people’s struggle against Ashutosh still lives, in spite of Shyamaprosad and all his British Imperialism for claiming to be the very embodiment of doings. Indian nationhood today. They are trying to impose their idea It was evening and the boys and girls had gathered in noisy of `Hindu nationalism’ not only onto the contemporary politics groups under the trees in front of the school-house which of the country, but also onto the history of the freedom struggle. had been locked up. Somebody started cursing. At once, an The Sangh Parivar-led NDA government’s project of re-writing Indian history is trying to conjure up `leaders’ in an effort to gain legitimacy for their claim that they should be `Howold man can barked: they be `Who human, is using when bad even language? the school Have has you been all acknowledged as true heirs to the freedom movement. become animals or what?’ The task of constituting a feudal, colonized capitalist society Then they all approached my guide, a kisan worker and said: into an independent modern nation was thought of, planned `Giveclosed us down?’ a school-master answered please!somebody. We shall starve and give him and fought for by generations of Indians who struggled against our own food.’ exploitation and colonial oppression through local, regional, `Kerosene cost 10 annas a pint, but we shall pay for it class, caste and gender movements to create a diverse and somehow. For God’s sake let the school start again. If we plural national movement that expelled British imperialism. don’t get our school open, civilization will go out of Ashu’s The responsibility for creating a nation is an on-going process village and our children will grow up hooligans.’ which can succeed only if the values of the freedom struggle, What an iron will to live and labour! They will live and fight expressed in India’s republican constitution, are promoted and as the Royal Bengal Tiger fought – in spite of Shyamaprosad.” secured.

A Brahmin’s Cow Tales

For over a month, the mild, balding professor of history, Dwijendra Narayan Jha, has been shuffling to his classroom in Delhi University escorted by a police constable. Teaching ancient history does not usually endanger one’s health, but ever since Jha went public with the best-kept secret in Indian history—the beef-eating habits of ancient Hindus, Buddhists and even early Jains in a book titled Holy Cow—Beef in Indian Dietary Conditions—his phone hasn’t stopped ringing. “The calls are usually abusive,” says Jha, “but sometimes they demand to know what evidence I have, and one day late in July it was an anonymous caller threatening dire consequences if I ever brought out my book.” The calls had two effects on the 61-year-old historian: he called the police and braced himself for battle. “There is a cultural war going on and academics have a role to play,” Jha says calmly. But it’s not the kind of war that he had anticipated. Even before his book could hit the stands, the VHP exhorted its cadre to confiscate and burn copies. The BJP followed suit: one of its MPs, R.S. Rawat, wrote to the Union home minister demanding not only a ban on the book but also the arrest and prosecution of its author and CB Publishers. But before the book could be burnt or banned, the Jain Seva Sangh stepped in. Outraged by Jha’s reported assertion that their founder Mahavira ate meat, the Hyderabad-based organisation sought a court injunction against the book, leaving the nonplussed historian without the words to fight his war. Anticipating controversy and debate, Jha meticulously scoured ancient texts, culling material from original sources for over two years. “If they want to evenban my heard book, of thosethen they texts, will let havealone to read ban them. the Vedas, I have the texts Upanishads, and they go the by Sutras blind faith,”and the he epics. says. Where“That is will what they a historian stop? I have can andgiven should evidence, do: counter if they have faith counter-evidence,with facts,” he adds. why don’t they come forward with it? But they are so illiterate, they haven’t Jha’s interest in dietary history began a few years ago after reading French historian Fernand Braudel’s history of early modern European diet. But he soon became intrigued by the beef-eating habits of Indians which existed in Rig Vedic times and continued till the 19th century and after, despite repeated Brahminical injunctions against cow-killing. That ancient Hindus, including Brahmins, were beef-eaters, willing to incur the minor penalty that an agrarian society began imposing on cow-killers, and that this fondness for cattle meat had nothing to do with Islam or Christianity came neither as a shock nor surprise to this unconventional Brahmin, whose first name Dwijendra means “the holiest of Brahmins”. “No serious historian,

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 37 not even ‘Hindu’ ones like R.C. Majumdar or K.M. Munshi, has ever disputed that ancient Hindus ate beef,” says Jha. However, convinced that repeated Brahminical injunctions not to kill cows reflected a popular proclivity for beef, Jha went further and unearthed irrefutable evidence of cow slaughter and consumption by Hindus of all classes, including Brahmins, until as late as the 19th century. “I was expecting this,” says Jha, who tasted beef for the first time nearly 30 years ago at Cambridge. “It was difficult to believe Brahmins were laying down norms without a reason. I think there is much more evidence than I got.” The cow as a sacred animal, Jha believes, did not really gain currency until Dayanand Saraswati’s cow protection movement in the 19th century”. The cow became a tool of mass political mobilisation with the organised cow-protection movement,” the historian points out. “The killing of cows stopped gradually with the agrarian society and caste rigidity. The Brahmins found it convenient to say that those who ate beef were untouchable. But they themselves continued to consume it, recommending it for occasions such as shraadh. Simultaneously, they trivialised the beef taboo by saying that eating beef is like cleaning your teeth with your fingers. It was never a sin to eat it, merely an indecorum. There was never a taboo, only discouragement.” With this discovery, culled from ancient scriptures, medical texts, the Manusmriti and religious commentaries, Jha impishly “decided to take the bull by its horns” and publish a book on his findings. “There is a saying in Hindi: Laaton ke bhoot, baaton se nahin maante (Those used to force are not persuaded by words). So I had to give them the shock treatment,” he explains. Only, Jha’s “shock treatment” did not stop with Hindus. Buddhists, he claims, citing canonical texts like Mahaparinibbana Sutta and Anguttara Nikaya, also ate beef and other meat. “In fact, the Buddha died after eating a meal of pork,” he says. “Vegetarianism was not a viable option for Buddhist monks in a society that loved meat of all kinds—pig, rhinoceros, cow, buffalo, fish, snake, birds, including crows and peacocks. Only camel and dog meat was taboo in India.” Similarly with the early Jains. Citing the Bhagavatisutra, Jha points out that Mahavira once ate a chicken meal to gain strength for a yogic battle with an adversary. “His only condition was to ask the woman who cooked the meal to find a chicken already killed by a cat instead of slaughtering a fresh one,” says Jha. “This has upset the Jains, but why are they not upset with the texts

Dharam Pracharak Samiti.” that carry these stories? I found these in bookstores run by devout Jain booksellers like Motilal Banarsidass and Sohanlal Jain Despite Jha’s avowed dislike of “being conspicuous”, the man whose family consists of “a wife and three servants” has never shied away from controversy. His family is accustomed to his “mad ways” and his upbringing has been unorthodox enough to allow him to experiment even with beef. But his community of orthodox Maithili Brahmins in Bihar has not taken kindly to his book either. “They didn’t like me citing sources from Mithila to prove my point,” says Jha nonchalantly. “Indian society has come to such a juncture,” says Jha, “that historians have to play an active role in countering superstitions and unreason.” He took up cudgels during the Ayodhya dispute and even objected to the TV serialisation of epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata. “It politicised the myths and propagated a value system and religiosity not in keeping with a state-run broadcaster,” he says. “Ramanand Sagar’s version of the epics is not real history.” “Old and tired out” Jha may call himself, but there’s something irrepressible about him. Bans and fatwas haven’t stopped him from beginning work on his next book. “It will be called,” says Jha with deadpan face, “Adulterous Gods and their Inebriated Women”. Courtesy: Outlook, Sept 2001

38 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Dalit protest in Gujarat

ANAND TELTUMBDE

In the BJP’s model state of Gujarat a shameful incident of five, viz., Chhattisgarh (3.86), Haryana (2.79), Kerala (6.34), four Dalit youths being publicly flogged by a Hindutva Madhya Pradesh (6.75) and Rajasthan (3.44). In the year vigilante gang took place. On 11 July, a group of Shiv Senamen 2013, it scaled itself up, beating Chhattisgarh and ranked styled as GauRakshaSamiti came across a Dalit family fifth just behind Haryana (5.45), Kerala (7.36), Madhya skinning the carcass of a dead cow in a village Pradesh (7.31) and Rajasthan (5.01). MotaSamadhiyala in Una taluka of the GirSomnath district. In September 2012, in Thangadh, a small town in Accusing them of cow slaughter, they beat up the entire Surendranagar district of Gujarat, three Dalit youth were family and then picked up four youth. They stripped them up gunned down by Modi’s police on two consecutive days (22 to waist, chained to the back of a car and dragged to Una and 23 September 2012) but he had not uttered a word town, where they were beaten right near a police station for although he was barely 17 km away from the spot, leading several hours in full public view. The assaulters, confident aVivekanand Youth VikasYatra. On the first day, police that they would never be prosecuted, filmed their sinister act opened fire on the protesting Dalits against the Bharwards, published the video which, however, backfired, enraging who had beaten a Dalit youth over a minor clash, seriously Dalits to come out on streets in an exemplary protest. injuring a seventeen-year old boy Pankaj Sumra, who later Although, Gujarat has never been a model as far as the died in a hospital in Rajkot.News of the death sparked condition of Dalits in the state was concerned, such a blatant outrage among Dalits who took to the streets demanding atrocity on Dalits in broad daylight was never witnessed that a complaint be filed against police officials responsible before. It only exposed the emboldenment of the anti-Dalit for the death. The next day, the police again opened fire on elements in Gujarat to unleash their prejudices under cover the agitating Dalits injuring three Dalit youths, two of whom, of supporting the government’s Hindutva agenda. Mehul Rathod, 17, and Prakash Parmar, 26, diedthe Rajkot civil hospital.These killings, just before the state assembly Modi’s Crocodile Tears polls in 2012, had sent shock waves across the state and Narendra Modi, it is said was disturbed to learn about the complaints were lodged against four police officials. incident as though he had never known atrocities on Dalits Investigation was handed over to CID (Crime). However, in Gujarat. He had better know that Gujarat had a dubious despite three FIRs filed against policemen, charge sheet has distinction of consistently ranking among the top five states been filed only in one case and one accused B C Solanki was in terms of the rates of incidence of atrocities on the Dalits. not even arrested. In 1913 when his publicity of Vibrant Gujarat had reached crescendo in the wake of ensuing general elections and his Pent Up Anger imminent coronation as the prime ministerial candidate, the Gujarat has a long history of feudal repression of its Dalit number of atrocities per lakh population of the Scheduled community, which being relatively small, just 7.1 per cent of Castes (SC) was 29.21, up from 25.23 in the previous years, the population, as compared with the national average of marking it as the fourth worst state. The National Crime 16.6, hadlargely remained politically inert. In recent history, Research Bureau (NCRB) in earlier years erroneously used after a flash of Dalit Panthers in early 1970s, they were incidence of atrocities per lakh of population and corrected rudely shaken out of their Gandhian slumber by the 1981 it only in 2012. Therefore, the rates of incidence of crime anti-reservation riots. For the first time, there was a spate of against the SCs as given in NCRB tables would necessitate celebrations of Ambedkarjayantis all over the state. But this correction in absolute figures but they are unlikely to alter awakening proved short-lived. When the BJP realized the Gujarat’s relative rank among the states. In terms of major electoral importance of the Dalits and began wooing them, class of atrocities like Murders and Rapes also Gujarat beats they easily succumbed and found themselves participating most states dry. Table 1 provides the rates of these atrocities in a big way in its 1986 Jagannathrath procession and later, for the years 2012 and 2013 for the major states of India to even accepting to be its foot soldiers particularly during the show how Gujarat ranks among the top few for the crimes 2002 post-Godhra carnage of Muslims. However, nothing against Dalits. changed for them on the ground. The discrimination, The table clearly shows that in terms of the rate of humiliation, exploitation and atrocities continued rising Murders, Gujarat has been ahead of all the states except for unabated with complicit state overtly or covertly backing the two in 2012, viz., Uttar Pradesh (0.57) and Madhya anti-Dalit civil society. Pradesh (0.78) and clear winner in 2013. Actually, it ranked A recent study has demonstrated that of all the atrocity approximately on par with Uttar Pradesh, the much maligned cases that occurred across four districts in Gujarat, 36.6 per state for crimes against the SCs even in 2012. In terms of the cent were not registered under the Atrocity Act and that of rate of Rapes, it was ahead of all the states in 2012 except for the cases where the Act was applied, 84.4 per cent were

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 39 registered under the wrong provisions, thus concealing the of entire cow family to the detriment of vast majority of intensity of the violence in the cases1. Earlier, Ahmedabad people and the economy. This obsession is certainly going to based Council for Social Justice had studied 400 judgements be the single biggest disaster for the country in the coming delivered over a decade under this Act since April 1, 1995 in years but has become the immediate killer for the Muslims the Special Atrocity Courts set up in 16 districts of the state), andDalits, who are vocationally linked to and dependent on and found wanton violation of the rules by the police to the slaughter of the cow family. BJP may ignore its weaken prosecution.The judiciary also contributed its own consequence only at its own peril. prejudices to render the Act toothless2. No wonder, the conviction rate in atrocity cases in Gujarat is six times lower References than the Indian average over 10 years for crimes against SCs 1. http://navsarjan.org/navsarjan/status-of-dalits-in- and STs. In 2014 (latest available data), 3.4per centof crimes gujarat/ against SCs in Gujarat ended in convictions, against a 2. https://www.sabrangindia.in/tags/council-social-justice. comparable national rate of 28.8 per cent– that is, one 3. http://navsarjan.org/Documents/Untouchability_Report_ conviction for every eight across the country. Not FINAL_Complete.pdf uunsurprisingly, the practice of untouchability in the state goes rampant.A study titled “Understanding Untouchability: Courtesy: EPW, 6 August 2016 A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1,589 villages”, conducted in Gujarat during 2007 to 2010, by Navsarjan Trust, an organisation working among Dalits in Gujarat, in collaboration with the Robert E. Kennedy Centre Table 1: Rate of incidence of Murders and Rapes (per for Justice and Human Rights, revealed a widespread lakh population of the Scheduled Castes) incidence of untouchability being practiced in rural Gujarat3. Year 2012 2013 The new generation of Dalits, faced with dark future in the Murder Rape Murder Rape sea of prosperity around, would not stomach it. It is this Gujarat 0.56 2.29 0.71 3.82 buildup of anger accentuated by the sugar coated anti-Dalit Andhra Pradesh 0.39 1.49 0.38 1.64 policies of the BJP that burst out in the form of spontaneous Bihar 0.16 0.49 0.30 0.85 flare up of Dalit anger in the state. Chhattisgarh 0.18 3.86 0.18 3.37 Haryana 0.37 2.79 0.43 5.45 BJP’s Killer Cow Jharkhand 0.03 0.41 0.15 0.31 At the root of this atrocity and consequent flare up lay the Karnataka 0.34 0.83 030 1.29 suspicion of cow slaughter by the self-appointed vigilantes Kerala 0.03 6.34 0.07 7.36 which directly derive their power from the latest push by the Madhya Pradesh 0.78 6.75 0.68 7.31 ruling BJP. This incident reminded one of Jhajjar in Haryana, Maharashtra 0.27 1.49 0.30 2.75 where on 15 October 2002, five Dalits were lynched to death Odisha 0.15 2.21 2.26 2.77 and set ablaze by a Hindutva mob in front of the police Rajasthan 0.54 3.44 0.62 5.01 station in Dulina on similar suspicion of cow slaughter. The Tamil Nadu 0.26 0.47 0.19 0.39 police, instead of acting against the lynching, had registered Uttar Pradesh 0.57 1.45 0.54 1.91 a case against the victims under the Prevention of Cow Source: Crime of India, 2012 and 2013. National Crime Slaughter Act! The case was withdrawn only after the result Research Bureau, Govt. of India, New Delhi of a post mortem revealed that the cow had been dead 24 hrs. before the lynching. Only thereafter, two cases of murder and attempted murder were reluctantly registered against 32 villagers.No sooner than they were arrested, all of them were out on bail by January despite being booked under stringent sections: murder, rioting with deadly weapon, mischief by fire and explosive substances (435) and under the SCs and STs Act. They bragged publicly that they wouldn’t mind doing it again.The Hindutva outfits openly justified it. On 28 September 2015, A Muslim family was attacked by similar vigilante mob in Bishahra village near Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, following rumours that it was storing and consuming beef. They lynched 50 years old Mohammad Akhlaq to death and seriously wounded his son Danish. Nothing happened to the killers but a case of cow slaughter is registered against the family of Mohammad Akhlaq by the police at the instance of a local court in Surajpur! The government unashamedly continues to ignore the directive principles of state policy in the Part IV of the Constitution that were to be the fundamental principles of governance but makes an alibi of an Article to ban slaughter

40 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad TN to Gujarat: Pattern of impunity in cases of crimes against Dalit people

The thrashing of four Dalit men by alleged cow vigilan- BJP, every suspect accused in the 1997 Laxmanpur tes in Gujarat has triggered a fresh round of tug-of-war Bathe massacre of 58 Dalit villagers was acquitted. In between political parties to claim the lucrative vote AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu, no one has been convicted bank ahead of crucial state polls next year ... for the for setting 200 Dalit houses ablaze in Dharmapuri in Dalit community, this political uproar is a bitter déjà 2012 after an inter-caste marriage incensed dominant vu. For the past two decades, India’s scheduled castes, castes. which form a little less than a fifth of the population, The massacres are part of a broader pattern of impu- have witnessed numerous massacres and atrocities. nity in cases of crimes against the Dalit people. Data From Khairlanji in Maharashtra in 2006 and Mirchpur from the National Crime Records Bureau show crimes in Haryana in 2010 to Laxmanpur Bathe in 1997 and against scheduled castes form almost a quarter of all Dangawas in Rajasthan last year, atrocities against Dal- crimes recorded in India but the acquittal rate is almost its have occurred under almost every single party’s 80%. More than 100,000 cases are still before courts rule in India. with a pendency rate of 85%. No political party has In most cases, an inquiry committee is set up, the gov- come forward to change this statistic. ernment makes conciliatory noises and compensation The mounting crimes and poor conviction rates reflect is announced. All this has already happened in Gujarat. the social exclusion of the community because of how But as the memory of the atrocity fades from public caste influences public life in India. Dalits are almost memory, pressure to take action on the perpetrators never in influential positions in the media, writing or lessens on the government. private sector, and excuses for the rank casteism range Such action also has fallout — the perpetrators often from “lack-of-merit” to unavailability of suitable SC come from influential communities, such as the cow candidates. vigilante outfits in Gujarat who are said to have the Despite constitutional safeguards, the government backing of Hindu groups. It is often easier for parties to sometimes fares equally poorly. A government survey hold out sops — naming a new construction after BR last year found Dalits made up just 7% of all teachers in Ambedkar or announce a package — than press for higher-education institutions in India. In Gujarat, this conviction. stood at 5%. The only two categories where scheduled In case after case of Dalit violence, the want of evidence castes are represented commensurate with their popu- leads to acquittals, and this phenomenon cuts across lation appear to be ‘safai karmacharis’ – a profession party lines. that India’s caste system has traditionally forced on In Congress-ruled Haryana, no one was convicted of Dalits — and prisoners. murder after a 70-year-old Dalit man and his disabled India’s Dalit community carries with it a memory of daughter were charred to death, and 18 Dalit houses trauma and oppression at the hands of the caste system torched in 2010 in Mirchpur. In Bihar, ruled by the that dictates who gets to go to school, get educated, es- Rashtriya Janata Dal and later by Janata Dal (United)- cape poverty, become a leader or be remembered in

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 41 death... Massive public rallies by Dalit people never scheduled castes while simultaneously condemning show up on national television channels, our literature them. is kept out of upmarket bookstores and our cultures The BJP has been at the receiving end of Dalit ire in the are co-opted or erased. The only time a Dalit person past two years, be it the suicide of Rohith Vemula or the makes the news is when they are thrashed or dead. murder of Dalit children in Haryana. But there is little This has to change and the brave fightback from Dalit difference between them and most other political par- communities across Gujarat is one of many resistance ties, which have a poor record of joining anti-caste movements across India. fights. Other than the Bahujan Samaj Party, none have In striking work, calling for shutdowns and leaving cow Dalit leaders at the helm. carcasses outside government offices, Dalit people are challenging caste oppressors, who force menial jobs on Dhrubo Jyoti, Hindustan Times, 20 July 2016

How Rohith Vemula was targeted, abused and tortured by ABVP Shiva Sai Ram who worked in ABVP-UoH and quit later writes ... “An event from the past haunts me. The reminder of that is “Ganesh Chaturthi”. In the year 2013, during my association with ABVP, an incident involved me, Rohith and the one who is responsible for his institutional murder (Susheel Ku- mar). It was during Ganesh Chaturthi, when a huge debate sparked in the Facebook groups of UoH regarding the cele- bration of the festival and pseudoscience being peddled by the right-wing on its name. I being fiercely religious and bigoted tried to defend the celebration of the festival. There were multiple people arguing against my position and one of them was Rohith. We as a group (read Ganesh Utsav committee as ABVP works in mysterious ways) were aware of the atheist identity of Rohith and others. The debate wasn’t going in our favour where we got heavily outnumbered by people arguing against the festival. It was at this juncture ABVP decided to resort to what it best does. Witch hunting. I was relatively new to the organization (approx. 2 months) and didn’t know how it functions behind closed doors. It was decided that they would witch hunt those involved in the debate by filing a “blasphemy case” against them. I was asked to take the screenshots of their posts and comments and mail them to few email id’s of people who weren’t stu- dents (one of them being Susheel’s brother). I did the same and sent them the screenshots. After a secret discussion among themselves, they decided that Rohith would be their sole target. Their basis of the complaint would be a poem posted on his timeline by Rohith which was originally written by revolutionary Telugu poet Sri Sri on the Hindu god Ganesh. Another post in which Rohith humorously asked why the birthdays of Superman/Spiderman etc., aren’t cele- brated like we celebrate Vinayaka Chaturthi. The case resulted in the arrest of Rohith and him being placed in the local police station for 2 days (as far as I remem- ber). There was jubilation among the ABVP ranks following our successful step to “teach Rohith a lesson”. Rohith was released later (complete details of the case unknown) and made a post regarding the way an attempt was made to muz- zle his voice. There have been countless instances of which I’m ashamed to have taken part as a member of ABVP, but this one is the most haunting one of them all where it involved me getting directly involved in witch hunting Rohith. This isn’t the only incident where Rohith was singled out. The seniors inside the organisation had so much hatred against Rohith and his outspoken attitude in whichever political organisation he was. This led to him being constantly hounded and cornered both in online and offline spaces. It might be hard to apologize for this as Rohith is no more, but revealing this hatred out on the very occasion it was committed relieves me of the immense guilt I hoard for all my activity and as- sociation with right-wing groups. I’m attaching various screenshots to support the claims I’m making here. People who are today denying the way Hindutva forces actively drove Rohith to suicide might not be aware of the relentless abuses and torture he had to go through for taking a political stance against casteist-communal- fascist politics of the Sangh Parivar. This is how an “in- stitutional murder” is committed. This is how marginal- ized groups like dalits, adivasis and religious minorities are “witch hunted” by the state, police and hindutva groups. It’s never too late to realize the folly of these groups and rise in rage against their politics of hate! Source: www.indiaresists.com

42 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Changes to India’s child labour law will disadvantage tribals, lower-castes

The United Nations says changes to India’s child labour law which permit children under 14 years of age to work for their families and reduces the number of banned occupations for adolescents (15 – 18 years) from 83 to 3 will disadvantage vulnerable groups such as tribals and lower-caste communities. But the U.N. Children’s Agency (UNICEF) said that allowing children to work for their families legitimized family labour, and limiting the number of professions considered as hazardous would result in more unregulated child labourers. With child labour rates highest among tribal and lower caste communities at almost 7 percent and 4 percent respectively, UNICEF said, the changes would have an adverse impact on these especially marginalised and impoverished communities. A

17 at 5.7 million, out of 168 million globally. More than half of India’s child workers labour in agriculture and over a quarter in2015 manufacturing report by the - Internationalembroidering Labour clothes, Organization weaving carpets (ILO) putsor making the number match of sticks. child workersChildren in also India work aged in between restaurants five and hotels, and as domestic workers. “Under the new Child Labour Act, some forms of child labour may become invisible and the most vulnerable and marginalised children may end up with irregular school attendance, lower levels of learning and could be forced to drop out of school,” said UNICEF India’s Chief of Education. “Secondary enrollment is still lagging behind, especially for the most vulnerable children, many of whom are working.” she added. While child rights activists have welcomed the changes in the current law by extending the ban on child labour under 14 to all sectors and creating a separate category for adolescents aged between 15 and 18, as well as stiffer jail terms and in family businesses and in entertainment and sports “if it does not affect their education”. finesThe for Government those employing of India children, (GOI) thereclaims is thatgreat these concern proposals over the aim Modi at strikinggovernment’s a balance proposal between to permit education children and to India’s work tobacco,economic carpet reality, weaving in which and parents metal relywork. on UNICEF their children urged theto help GOI with to provide farming an or “exhaustive artisanal work list” ofto hazardousfight poverty. occupations of adolescentsBut family and or home-basedto exclude family work work is often for hazardous under 14 year-olds. and includes working in cotton fields, making bangles and bidis, rolling Fighting poverty is the responsibility and obligation of the GOI. It is obligated to provide a protective legal framework for dropping out of school due to long hours of work. children by banning all forms of child labour, exposing exploitation(Based through on UNICEF trafficking input fromand preventingThomson Reuters boys and Foundation) girls from

How Gujarat wants to shackle its universities

On March 31, the last day of its Budget session, the Gujarat House passed a law giving sweeping powers to the government to ensure the ‘planned and coordinated development’ of universities, striking a blow to their autonomy, and drastically cutting the powers of Vice-Chancellors. The Bill, which was passed in the absence of Opposition MLAs who had been suspended by the Speaker a day earlier, has triggered intense agitation within the academic community in the state.

So, what is the new Bill about, and why the outrage against it? The Gujarat State Higher Education Council Bill envisages the formation of a council to be headed by the Chief Minister for the “planning, co-ordination and development” of higher education. Universities fear the council will snatch their autonomy and reduce them to a mere department of the government. Under Section 15 of the Bill, the government may, either on the council’s recommendation or on its own, overrule decisions taken by a university — which will then be required to implement directions given by the government.

Isn’t the Bill similar to the Gujarat State Common Universities’ Ordinance, 2004? Yes, that ordinance, issued by the Narendra Modi government, too sought to clip the wings of V-Cs and university bodies like the Syndicate, Senate and Academic Council. Following protests from the teaching and non-teaching community of Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, the only unitary residential university of Gujarat whose medium of instruction is English, then Governor Naval Kishore Sharma sent the ordinance back, asking the government to explain the urgency behind it. The state government withdrew the ordinance in October 2004.

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 43 Why then was the Bill brought now? Both the UGC and Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan, a centrally-sponsored scheme launched in 2013, recommended the setting up of a higher education council in states. Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal already have such a council and, should the Governor sign the Bill, Gujarat will become the sixth state to comply. However, Gujarat is by the Higher Education Minister, in AP by an educationist, and in Karnataka, by the Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister. the first state that proposes to have the CM head the council — in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the council is headed But does the Bill really threaten the autonomy of universities? The Bill seeks to have a common syllabus for universities, a “planned and coordinated” development of higher education in the state, and sharing of resources among state universities. Section 15 makes it clear universities will have to implement government decisions even if they are against university laws. This means directions of the government will have precedence over university statutes and laws, and bodies like the Senate and Syndicate will be rendered useless. The government would be able to interfere in the day-to-day administration of universities, and V-Cs could become figureheads. Both teachers and non-teaching staff are liable to be transferred, and there are fears that the provision may be used to ‘fix’ those who do not toe the Howofficial exactly line. Currently, will transferring each university a teacher is an affect independent students? body, and jobs are not transferable. More than it will affect the teachers themselves, say critics. PhD candidates working with a particular professor will suffer if she is transferred, especially if the research is focused on an area of her specialisation. In most state universities, Gujarati is the medium of instruction, and a professor who is transferred from, say, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad (Gujarati) to M S University, Baroda (English) or vice versa is likely to have a lower output in class. Also, critics say, the fear of transfer would discourage free thought and research, especially in the social sciences, if it is seen to be critical of the dominant ideology of the state — this will result in the lowering of the intellectual and academic discourse in institutions of higher learning.

Who will be on the proposed council? There will be a 32-member governing council and a 22-member executive committee, with four individuals being part of both. The governing council will be headed by the CM as president, with the Education Minister and Minister of State for

Education as vice-president and co-vice-president. 12 senior government officials will be on it, along with five V-Cs, a provost aof member-secretary. a private university, two eminent scholars from institutes of national importance in Gujarat, five eminent persons from the fields of arts, sciences, medicine, engineering, etc., three eminent academics with more than 15 years of experience, and education, technical education and medical education departments, besides 15 other members. AllThe members executive will committee be appointed will beby the headed state bygovernment. a chairperson, There and are willno quotas have three for representatives ex officio members of SC/STs from or thewomen higher in either the governing council or executive committee.

Is there a system of appeals against the council’s decisions? proceedings of the council will remain valid even if some persons, who are not members of the council, or not entitled to be a member,No. Proceedings attend the or council’s decisions meetings, of the councilvote and can’t take bepart invalidated in the proceedings even in caseof the of council. infirmities. Section 14 says that the Indian Express 27 April, 2016

44 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad The Potato Song Adivasi girls in Edamalakudi sing a unique song in English in honour of the potato that they don’t eat, in a village where no English is spoken

P. SAINATH

“English” said the children in the class. We had just might have been 11. The rest were nine years old or less. The asked what their favourite subject was. Not the smartest boy had put his math where his mouth is, we pointed out. Now it was their turn to deliver on the claim of English being say “English,” then every tyke in the room will likely say the their favourite subject. Let’s listen to some English, then, question to pose in an Indian classroom. If the first two kids girls. without being punished for it, you know this is the way to go. same.But Whenthis youisn’t seejust the any first place. two victimsIt’s the givesingle-teacher an answer classroom invaded by eight unknown and strange-looking Integrated Tribal Development Project school in Edalippara. men.They Then were teacher a bit S. shy, Vijaylaxmi as anyone said: might “Sing be them finding a song, their It’s located in Kerala’s remotest and only tribal panchayat, girls.” And they did. We all know that Adivasis can sing. And Edamalakudi. And nowhere outside the school can you hear Not a syllable out of sync. They were still shy. Little Vaidehi signage in that language. Yet it was, the children said, their keptthese her five head Muthavan low and girls looked sang at beautifully. her table rather Perfectly than in at tune. her favouriteEnglish spoken. subject. It’s Like hard many to find other any schools, boards, this posters one in or Idukki even district runs classes 1-4 combined in a single room. Headed off the wall. by a truly wonderful teacher, severely underpaid, heavily audience.It was anBut ode they to awere potato. terrific. The lyrics, however, were overworked, battling impossible conditions, but dedicated They do grow yam somewhere in the Idukki hills. But I’m not sure the potato is grown anywhere within a hundred And there is a dissenter. “Maths,” said one brave little kilometres of Edalippara. fellow,to her flock.standing up. Show us your math, we demanded, Anyway – and you can listen to it yourself – the song went: Potato, Potato chest and racing through tables 1-12 without a pause for Oh, my dear Potato breathplacing or him applause. on the burningI think he deck. was Heinto did, a second puffing round up his when tiny I like the potato we had to put a lid on him. You like the potato We like the potato young girls, obviously the intellectual elite of the class. Their Potato, Potato, Potato specialWe turnedseating to arrangement the separate suggested bench near as much.teacher The with oldest five It was so nicely sung, exalting a humble tuber we weren’t sure they’d ever consumed. (Maybe we were wrong. A couple of villages near Munnar are said to have begun potato cultivation. They would be about 50 kilometres away). But the lyric stayed with us. Weeks later, most of us still hum the song. Not because we’re lovers of the super spud – which all eight of us, I think, are – but because they just mesmerised us with that crazy, but seriously-delivered lyric. And with that utterly charming performance.

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 45 Supreme Court ruling against AFSPA

S.G. VOMBATKERE

In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice the armed policeman, and see why the Army and the U.U.Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out AFSPA take a beating. in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea Under Article 246 of the Constitution, Parliament by hundreds of families in the north-eastern State of makes laws concerning the deployment of the Armed Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team Forces “in aid of the civil power”, prescribing the pow- into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving ers, jurisdiction, privileges and liabilities of soldiers the Army and the police. during deployment. The Armed Forces (Special Pow- In particular, by saying: “It does not matter whether the ers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) is one such law. Others are, the victim was a common person or a militant or a terror- Army Act 1950, the Navy Act 1957 and the Air Force ist, nor does it matter whether the aggressor was a Act 1950, and associated Rules and Regulations, to ad- common person or the state. The law is the same for minister military law to all ranks of the three Armed both and is equally applicable to both…This is the re- Forces. quirement of a democracy and the requirement of These laws abrogate a soldier’s constitutional rights preservation of the rule of law and the preservation of under Art.19(1)(a), (b) and (c), of freedom of speech individual liberties”, the Hon’ble Supreme Court took a and expression to communicate with the media, free- step in the direction of equality before the law, and re- dom of assembly, or the right to form or be members of affirmed Article 21 that no person shall be deprived of associations or unions for collective bargaining. Be- his life or personal liberty except according to proce- sides this, the Army Act (AA, for short) and the Acts for dure established by law. the Navy and Air Force are strict by any standards, and The judgment has been welcomed especially among in fact their “excessive” strictness has been commented people in the “disturbed areas” of our northeastern upon in legal circles. Thus, because of the nature of du- states and Kashmir, and is surely in partial vindication ties performed by them and the strict laws in force for of Irom Sharmila’s principled, 12-years-long on-going maintenance of strict discipline among them, soldiers fast demanding repeal of AFSPA. are by law, uniquely disempowered citizens. This is not This writer, with his Army background, is the first to the case with members of the bureaucracy, state police- point out that no soldier (the term refers to all ranks of men or armed policemen (CAPFs), on whom restric- the Armed Forces – Army, Navy and Air Force) will de- tions by law and administrative rules are far less strin- fend wrong doing of any sort, leave alone heinous gent. This (necessary) disempowerment is a stumbling crimes like murder and rape, by another soldier wheth- block for the Army when called in aid of the civil power. er he is “on-duty” or “off-duty”. The reason is not mere- The reasons are discussed hereunder. ly that such should be the attitude of any good citizen, Government can function in the interest of people when but because a known offender in the team is a threat to there is peace and order in society, functionaries in the coherence, man-to-man trust and fighting efficien- power use people-oriented politics, and the rule of law cy of the military team, and to the survival of the indi- prevails among all sections of society. Providing secu- vidual soldier in high-risk situations, at all levels from rity and public order by fair and just enforcement of the section, platoon, company and battalion upto the extant laws, and maintenance of supplies and services highest formations. essential to the public, is the primary task of govern- The Hon’ble Supreme Court’s ruling will not find dis- ance by the civil administration, which is the combina- sonance within the Armed Forces (hereinafter Army, tion of the powers, roles and functions of people’s for short). However, without in any manner question- elected representatives, bureaucrats and integral po- ing the wholly welcome order of the Hon’ble Supreme lice forces. Court and with all due respect and humility, this writer Disturbance of law and order usually happens because would like to make some points on the larger issue of of conflict of interests within civil society, caused by in- AFSPA and deployment of the Army on internal securi- appropriate laws and/or unfair policies and/or poor or ty (IS) duties. ill-motivated implementation – in short, mal-adminis- tration or mis-governance. When law and order, and Disempowerment of the soldier peace in society is disturbed and is beyond political The plea by the families of Manipur concerns alleged resolution, governance calls for using the force of the fake encounters involving both the Army and the po- state and/or central police (CAPFs). When law and or- lice. While a faked encounter is reprehensible, a mur- der cannot be restored despite deploying state and der is a murder and a rape is a rape, it is necessary to central police or because of their misuse, it can only be examine the differences between the Army soldier and restored by deployment of the Armed Forces (Army)

46 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad on IS duties in aid of the civil power as permitted by the liable for trial by criminal law – and this is really the Constitution. Government has no other option; the cause for the public demand to repeal AFSPA. Army is its instrument of last resort. AFSPA Sec.3 confers upon a state or central govern- When government calls the army for IS duties as for ex- ment, powers to declare the whole or some part of the ample, to quell rioting, the army may confront a violent state as a “disturbed area” … “in such a disturbed or mob. The army officer commanding the sub-unit is dangerous condition that the use of Armed Forces in obliged to take the written permission of a magistrate aid of the civil power is necessary”, by issuing a notifi- who accompanies the sub-unit, before opening fire if cation to that effect. The assessment of the condition of the situation so warrants according to the discretion of society and the discretion to notify it as “disturbed” is the magistrate, because the soldier cannot use firearms the sole prerogative of government. The Armed Forces against civilians without permission from civil author- have no role in this whatsoever. AFSPA Sec.4 confers ity. But when law and order breaks down in a large special powers upon members of the Armed Forces in area, government cannot provide magistrates to day- the notified disturbed areas to arrest, enter and search, and-night accompany every army sub-unit, and it or open fire. therefore empowers the Army to handle such situa- tions by means of AFSPA. Demand for repeal of AFSPA Notwithstanding the constitutionally permissible last- The AFSPA resort necessity of using military force for internal se- The AFSPA is an enabling legislation. It legitimises de- curity when the political-administrative tools of gov- ployment of the Army in large areas which the civil ad- ernance fail, there is little justification for an elected ministration may notify as “disturbed areas”. AFSPA is government to use even police force for day-to-day gov- applicable only to the Armed Forces (under the Minis- ernance continuously over decades. try of Defence), and not to CAPFs or state police forces People in our northeastern states and Kashmir, for dec- under central or state Ministries of Home Affairs re- ades trapped in the crossfire between government po- spectively. The Constitution of India makes a distinc- lice and military forces on the one hand, and the bul- tion between “the members of the Armed Forces” lets, grenades and IEDs of militants on the other, want (Art.33(a)) meaning soldiers, and “members of the nothing more than peace and democratic freedoms. Forces charged with the maintenance of public order” Irom Sharmila, a national icon of courageous non-vio- (Art.33(b)) meaning police personnel. Thus the term lence, who has been on fast for 12 long years demand- “Armed Forces” (proper noun) should not be applied to ing repeal of AFSPA, stated it squarely and unequivo- just any body of uniformed persons bearing firearms cally in 2013: “I am against a government that uses such as police or CAPFs who may be authorized and violence as a means to govern”. [Jiby Kattakayam; “I am trained to use firearms, but only to the soldiers of In- against a government that uses violence to govern”; dia’s military. But, often unable to distinguish between The Hindu, March 5, 2013]. the Army and civilian forces that bear arms, media per- She goes further to say that “the government and the sons often use the catch-all term “security forces” or army are colluding to cheat the people” . Her stating “armed forces” (common noun) to include the military, that the people are being cheated of peace, social order CAPFs and state police. and meaningful development is understandable and The confusion is exacerbated because CAPFs and police correct. But her accusation of army’s colluding with forces wear camouflage uniforms that are virtually in- government, suggesting that the army has an institu- distinguishable from Army uniforms. In tense situa- tional interest or stake in IS deployment, is unfounded. tions where a journalist takes risks, it can be risky for It bears repetition that the army comes out of barracks him/her, and even more so for any member of the pub- at the specific call of government and not of its own ac- lic, to ask an armed man to which force he belongs. cord. Therefore, “cheat the people” refers to govern- Thus often enough, the media and the public straighta- ment cheating the people through abject failure of the way blame the Army for incidents involving CAPFs or politics of development, and monumental political-bu- police, because of AFSPA being in force. Even if subse- reaucratic corruption of ideology and principles. Dec- quent inquiry by civilian authority in a particular case ades-long continuous violence through the instrumen- finds that the Army was not involved, the negative “Ar- tality of police and military for governance is antithetical my-AFSPA” image persists in public opinion. to peace and social order essential for development of According to AA Sec.69 “Civil offences” and AA Sec.70 the sort that people crave for and need. This legitimate “Civil offence not triable by court-martial” read togeth- craving of the people is reflected in their demand for er, a soldier who commits rape, murder or culpable repeal of AFSPA. homicide not amounting to murder of a civilian, will not be tried by a court-martial unless he is on active Continuous use of AFSPA service, or at any place outside India, or at a frontier Hearing several petitions challenging the constitution- post. In any case, AFSPA being in force is not the cause al validity of AFSPA, the Supreme Court ruled in 1997 for his committing crime, and cannot be viewed as a fa- [Naga People’s Movement of Human Rights v Union of cilitator for crime. But repealing AFSPA would cause India [1997] ICHRL 117 (27.11.1997)] that the powers AA Sec.70 to become inapplicable, making the soldier given to the army by AFSPA were not arbitrary or un-

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 47 reasonable and did not violate constitutional provi- a critically ill person. A patient cannot remain for years sions. However, the Supreme Court went further to rule in a hospital ICU, because he/she would be effectively that (#) declaration of an area as disturbed should be dead. The patient needs treatment for the disease and reviewed every six months, (#) central government right nutrition to regain normal health. Likewise, the sanction or refusal to prosecute army personnel should military remaining deployed on IS duties over decades be accompanied by reasons in writing, and (#) army makes civic life in society effectively dead, without as- personnel operating under AFSPA would do so under suring peace or security. India’s societies need the legally binding safeguards or guidelines in the form of a “treatment” of honest political effort by transparent comprehensive list of DOs and DONTs before, during dialogue and engagement with people, and “nutrition” and after operations, in dealing with civil courts, and of good governance for their growth. Society does not when providing aid to civil authority. [Note below]. need the army, except to guard the country’s borders The restriction that government should review the against external aggression and protect its sovereignty declaration every six months is cosmetic, since it mere- and territorial integrity. ly calls for bi-annual bureaucratic paperwork. It has While no government may ever propose to Parliament not prevented governments from maintaining entire to repeal AFSPA, it would certainly be open to amend- states as disturbed areas continuously for decades. To ing it. An amendment to cap the applicability of AFSPA limit army deployment on IS duties, the continuity of to a total of say, 90 days in any calendar year, will allow AFSPA needs to be broken. This writer suggests amend- governments to retain their (albeit undoubtedly coer- ment by inserting a final sentence in AFSPA Sec.3 as fol- cive but unavoidable) option of military deployment lows: “Provided that the Governor of the State or the when civil administration fails to maintain law and or- Administrator of the Union Territory or the Central der. This will make governments accountable to the government shall not declare an area as disturbed for people, to rediscover ways of providing a deeply trou- more than an aggregate of 90 days in any calendar bled society with honest politics and good governance. year.” The period (of 90 days or less or more) suggested It will also enable the Army, one-third of which is en- can be finalized after wide public discussion and cross- gaged in IS duties, to focus more on securing India’s party consultation. borders.

End note The use of the military in aid of the civil power is an op- tion that no government, howsoever liberal, will dis- Major General S.G. Vombatkere, retired in 1996 as Additional DG card especially since it has constitutional sanction. The Discipline & Vigilance in Army HQ AG’s Branch. He is a member of the military on IS duties is to civil society what an ICU is to NAPM and PUCL. E-mail: [email protected]

Mid-day meal to cost more for States At a time when State governments are already upset about reduced Central allocations, the Union Human Resource Development (MHRD) Ministry has added to their woes by discontinuing the reimbursement of additional expenditure incurred on procurement of unsubsidised LPG cylinders under the Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme. This has been done after the Union Finance Ministry informed the MHRD that LPG cylinders would be avail- able under the MDM Scheme at the market price only. Though the decision was communicated by the Fi- nance Ministry only on May 15, it has been implemented with retrospective effect from the beginning of this

States were informed about this decision just last week. This comes on the heels of an earlier decision – fiscal. 2014-15. Again, there is a cut as the annual rate of increase of the cooking cost – which includes fuel cost – communicatedhas been 7.5 per on cent July in 28 preceding -- to increase years. the “cooking cost” component by only five per cent over that of Unlike with LPG subsidy, no explanation has been offered to the States for the reduction in the rate of in- crease of cooking cost. In the case of LPG subsidy for the MDM Scheme, it had been originally withdrawn by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (P&NG) in 2012 as the school-meal programme comes under Non-Domestic Exempted Category, which is not eligible for subsidised cylinders. After the P&NG Ministry refused to reconsider its decision, the MHRD had secured the Finance Ministry’s approval in meeting the additional burden due to withdrawal of subsidy on LPG cylinders. According to the latest available data, 10.45 crore children in 1.58 lakh schools across the country were served cooked meals on every school day under the MDM Scheme in 2013-14, making it the largest school meal programme in the world. The Hindu, 14 August 2015

48 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad PRESS-STATEMENTS Attack on Allahabad University Students Union President

AIFRTE condemns the action of the Vice-Chancellor of Alla- and intellectual life and culture of the universities. habad University in harassing the President of the Student’s Students across the country are resisting this attack and the Union Richa Singh who has taken strong and independent Sangh Parivar and the Modi government need to accept that decisions in defence of a law-governed conduct of university there is little support for their strong arm tactics and people affairs, including that of the students union. She enraged the are fast becoming alienated by their fascist practices. In their hindutva forces of the Sangh Parivar, when she refused to al- desperation the RSS forces are escalating their attacks in in- low BJP MP, Yogi Adityanath to address the Union as his stitution after institution in the hope that finally the students meeting had been fixed without her consent, and since then will be cowed down and submit to their anti-democratic and they have been attacking her as a Maoist and extremist. bullying tactics. But it is time they read the writing on the That the University authorities should now be trying to can- wall. cel her PhD admission after two years as a registered scholar on technical grounds, and that too at the behest of her de- AIFRTE strongly supports Richa Singh in her struggle against feated rightist rival in the elections, smacks of a design and the university authorities and the Sangh Parivar and de- method of functioning that is becoming increasingly familiar mands that the V-C immediately ensure that all harassment on campus after campus as the Sangh Parivar uses the ABVP of the elected leader of the Allahabad University Students to initiate action against those who oppose the imposition of Union be stopped forthwith. hindutva ideology and its storm troopers on the academic 9 Feb 2016

Assault on JNU Students

AIFRTE strongly condemns the Delhi Police assault on the their political opposition. Thousands of students and faculty Jawaharlal Nehru University students at the behest of the marched through the campus for over an hour to express central government with Home Minister Rajnath Singh and their anger and firm opposition to these fascist tactics. Minister of Human Resource Development Smrti Irani lead- The JNUTA has issued a strong statement condemning the ing the attack. Shaken by the widespread reaction against police action and stated that the University has its own inter- events in the central University of Hyderabad and the death nal mechanisms for resolving any controversies that may of Dalit student leader and research scholar Rohith Vemula, arise within the university community. Meanwhile eight re- the central government is trying to brazen it out by escalat- tired Deans of the JNU have issued a statement that this is the ing their attack on other universities and radical students first time that a president of JNUSU has been arrested since unions in what will be another futile attempt to stop the ris- the Emergency and that the sedition charge against Kanhai- ing anger and resistance against the fascist tactics of the RSS ya Kumar “is beyond the bounds of credibility” as he is a and the hindutva organizations of the Sangh parivar like the member of the All India Students Federation (AISF) and his ABVP. political principles and positions are well-known. The recently appointed V.C. Jagdesh Kumar allowed the po- The police action, has also been condemned by defenders of lice to enter and comb the JNU hostels for so-called ‘anti-na- civil liberties and democratic rights, and termed an “unde- tional’ students without even informing the Deans meeting clared emergency” by the left parties and other progressive at the University. The Deans of the Schools of Social Sciences, forces. International Studies, Languages and Arts and Aesthetics AIFRTE expresses complete solidarity with the JNU academ- have stated that the decision to give “blanket permission” to ic community and demands that the JNUSU President be re- police amounts to a “major change in the policy adopted by leased immediately and all fabricated charges of sedition successive Vice-Chancellors ever since JNU was established, and criminal conspiracy against him be dropped. and against the policy that most universities adopt.” They AIFRTE further demands that the police be withdrawn from categorically stated that it is “patently wrong” that they “en- the campus immediately and all harassment of students, in- dorsed this decision” and strongly urged the V.C. to retract cluding suspension of eight students without inquiry or evi- his decision. dence, be stopped forthwith if normalcy is to be restored in Plainclothes men picked up and arrested Kanhaiya Kumar the University. President of JNUSU and have taken him into police custody AIFRTE further demands that the ruling party and the cen- for three days. The JNUSU has condemned arrest and the tral government firmly restrain the hindutva organizations witch-hunt unleashed on the campus as a blatant attempt by of the RSS including the ABVP within constitutional limits the present regime and its hindutva ideologues to silence and make sure that they learn to respect the autonomy and

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 49 critical freedom of the academic communities across the racy’. The Constitution of India leaves no room for vigilante country. This is essential for an enabling academic environ- groups and lynch mobs to create space for police and other ment to prevail and for the defense of people’s democratic agencies to act against the democratic rights of its citizens. rights and freedoms. The Supreme Court in a recent state- ment has also recognized that ‘Dissent is critical to Democ- 13 Feb 2016

Unjustified Rustication of JNU Students

AIFRTE strongly condemns the non-transparent, democrati- Without consulting the Deans committee, the VC allowed po- cally unpalatable, and legally questionable method of func- lice to enter the campus, comb the hostels and threaten the tioning adopted by the JNU Vice Chancellor and the univer- students. Following a huge protest meeting addressed by sity administration in response to the events of 9th February Kanhaiya Kumar, in which he repeatedly expressed his com- 2016 on the JNU campus. mitment to the principles of the Constitution, police arrested On the basis of a totally flawed procedure of investigation him on charges of “sedition” and issued notices against other the VC and his administration have chosen to impose harsh students. The murderous assault on Kanhaiya in police cus- penalties including rustication, exclusion from the campus tody and on university teachers and students by BJP affiliat- and fines up to twenty thousand rupees on the students. It is ed lawyers and an MLA in the premises of the Delhi High clear that without the assured support of the central govern- Court was caught on TV by all channels. A team of senior law- ment no VC of a central university could have acted in this yers sent to report on these happenings by the Supreme manner. The JNU VC has shown that he is going to follow in Court barely escaped with the help of their own security. The the footsteps of the authorities at Hyderabad Central Univer- atmosphere was that of a “lynch mob” being freely allowed to sity, IIT –Chennai and FTII etc., and hand over the autonomy take the law into their own hands against so-called “anti-na- of the University to the mandarins of the MHRD and the cen- tionals”. tral government. The real significance of the actions of the University admin- The JNU student community has rejected the legitimacy of istration against its own students can be seen in this back- the HLEC. It has responded to the university’s action with an ground. Instead of instituting a Proctorial enquiry as per indefinite hunger strike by 20 students including JNUSU University statutes and rules to handle a minor infringement President Kanhaiya Kumar and Secretary Rama Naga, from of discipline, the freshly appointed JNU VC with known RSS the night of 27th April 2016. links, Prof. Jagdesh Kumar, chose to appoint a `high level en- It is necessary to review events as they happened to under- quiry committee’ (HLEC) to investigate the incident. The stand the full import of the university administration’s ac- teachers association (JNUTA) and the students union (JNU- tions. Having given permission for a cultural evening, post- SU) both objected that the terms of reference of the commit- ers for which were widely displayed on the campus, the tee, its procedure and composition were neither made clear authorities suddenly withdrew permission at the last minute nor appeared to fulfill any established norms or criteria. when students had already gathered for the event. This ac- JNUTA referred its apprehensions to a panel of legal experts tion, at the behest of an ABVP student leader, created confu- headed by Chief Justice (retd) A.P. Shah. The panel stated sion and a tense situation in which a scuffle broke out be- that there appeared to be a violation of both the rule of con- tween some opponents and those who had gathered for the stitutional law and the principles of natural justice. Two sig- event. Student leaders, including some office bearers of the nificant observations made by the distinguished panel were JNUSU, intervened to bring the situation under control and emphasized in JNUTA’s letter of April 4, 2016 to the VC: students dispersed after raising some slogans. This was stat- “II. Natural justice requires that anyone accused of violation ed in the initial report of the JNU security staff. of rules of discipline must be clearly informed of the charges However, after two days, TV news channel Zee News, the against him/her and also the evidence in support of the only channel present at the site because it had been invited charges. It was observed that neither the original notices by the ABVP, began airing ‘doctored’ video footage which asking students to appear before the HLEC nor the show- claimed to show assembled students including the student cause notices issued after the submission of the HLEC report leaders shouting slogans like ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ and other spelt out the charges in the manner required. ‘anti-India’ slogans. The slogans were written in dialogue- III. All accused must also be allowed the full opportunity to boxes as audio was extremely unclear. With inflammatory defend themselves. Apart from clear specification of charges and sensational statements by anchors, the channel repeat- and presentation of evidence, right of personal hearing and edly ran this footage which was quickly picked up and shown the right to rebut, recording of testimony in their presence, on other channels by BJP spokespersons. The result was the right of cross-examination of witnesses, etc were identified generation of a public hysteria over the “anti-national” ac- as integral elements of this process. It was observed that tivities of the JNU students and their leaders. given its specified norms, a normal proctorial enquiry pro-

50 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad cess would have involved most of these. However, the failure and that we all “Stand with JNU”. to specify procedures to be followed by the HLEC enquiry AIFRTE condemns the confrontationist stand adopted by beforehand, the subsequent lack of response to the queries GOI towards the democratic and independent-thinking stu- raised by students asked to appear before the committee and dents of the country. It condemns the shameful targeting of finally giving accused students only a part of the HLEC Re- dalit, tribal, OBC, the disabled and students from deprived port – all were inimical to the right of putting up a defence sections of society who are fighting for their legitimate dem- that should be available to any accused. Further, the time ocratic rights and demands. given to respond to the show-cause notices (despite its ex- AIFRTE condemns the shameful witch-hunt as “anti-nation- tension) could also have a similar effect particularly given als” of those who are the real future of the country and the the fact that some students were incarcerated during that true defenders of the constitutional values and freedoms time.” that bind us as a nation. AIFRTE therefore extends its fullest support to the students AIFRTE recalls the sacrifice of Rohith Vemula and warns the in their just and courageous struggle. It calls upon the entire GOI and the JNU VC that any delay in reversing the decisions university community across the country to observe at least of the ill-conceived HLEC will be resisted by the university one day hunger strike or relay hunger strikes in solidarity community through united and resolute action. with the JNU students in their own colleges and universities. Let university authorities and GOI know that we are united 29 April 2016

Struggle Against Closure of Schools in Andhra Pradesh

AIFRTE salutes APSEC for its success in making the Govern- The APSEC delegation was invited by Principal Secretary and ment of Andhra Pradesh retreat from its earlier move to Commissioner of School Education in response to their no- • close down around 4,800 Government Primary tice of direct action. APSEC delegation presented the whole Schools affecting around seventy thousands of children, range of problems with the government proposals. • reduce around 8,000 primary schools to single APSEC also proposed positive measures as immediate devel- teacher schools and effecting the education being provided opment of government schools. It demanded to around 1,20,000 students there in the schools, and • student support measures for 100% enrollment and • close down Upper Primary Sections in 4,400 Schools 100% retention of the children in the age group of 3 to 18 and deny education in classes 6th, 7th and 8thto about years, 1,45,000 children. • Pupil-teacher ratio of 20:1 in primary schools and APSEC recent campaign for two months on concrete issues • Closing of private schools which violate rules and helped greatly the mobilization of public opinion and built regulations in force in the state. up the momentum for an opposition to the government’s APSEC, in its memorandum, also demanded implementation proposals and moves to close down government schools. of Allahabad High Court judgment mandating that all those Other teacher and student organizations who are not mem- who benefited from the state treasury in any way (through bers of APSEC were also encouraged to take up the cam- salaries, grants, sanctioned projects etc.,) should admit their paign. children to government schools. If implemented in Andhra From 11th to 15th May 2016, APSEC conducted round table Pradesh it would strengthen the government school system conferences in almost all districts and held Dharnas at Dis- and ensure social justice. trict Collector’s offices in all 13 districts on 16th May. Mem- AIFRTE sees in this struggle a model to be emulated by the ber organisations of APSEC - [APTF (1938), DTF, PDSU, AISF democratic forces across the country to make governments and PDSU] - mobilized teachers and students for the Dhar- reverse policies that encourage privatization of even prima- nas. The student organisations independently and collec- ry education by allowing government schools to deteriorate. tively also conducted campaigns during this period, courting In fact central and state governments are constitutionally arrest and being slapped with false charges. The agitations obliged to provide free and compulsory quality education to were in news for the last two months. all children. In a meeting with the education Minister, other teacher or- AIFRTE also sees the Allahabad High Court judgment as an ganisations joined member teacher organisations of APSEC important answer to the rapid deterioration of government [APTF (1938) and DTF] in raising strong objection to the schools. If, as APSEC has demanded, this is extended to way proposals were prepared and conclusions arrived at in Andhra Pradesh and indeed to all states across the country, a the so-called rationalization of schools. Due to the pressure major step will have been taken towards establishing a na- created by agitations conducted by APSEC and the opposi- tional system of free and compulsory education with peo- tion expressed by teacher organizations, the minister de- ple’s participation. clared that government would not proceed with the propos- als before looking into the objections raised by them. 23 May 2016

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 51 REPORTS Threats to Acting Registrar Dr Muniza of Gandhian Institute of Studies, Varanasi

Even as sustained agitations to revive the Gandhian Institute funds when it resisted attempts to accommodate a repre- of Studies (GIS), a prestigious institute in Varanasi have been sentative of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) Ms. Ku- successfully launched, a late night, brazen threat to the act- sum Lata Kedia. She managed to become a member of the ing registrar of the Institute, Dr Muniza Rafiq Khan has Institute faculty but was thereafter suspended for her ques- caused much concern. Activists, journalists and senior politi- tionable activities against the Institute and her colleagues. In cians from all over India have written to UP chief minister, August, 2002, Ms. K.L. Kedia was dismissed from service for Akhilesh Yadav to not only ensure Dr. Muniza’s security but non-performance and misconduct by the Institute’s Board of also to rid Management. the insti- However, efforts made to restore the institute to a function- tute of ille- ing state have met with little success as the Uttar Pradesh gal occupa- government has neither released the 50% matching grant to tion by the Institute nor sanctioned the arrears due for these past unauthor- years. The staff of the Institute has passed through very dif- ized per- sons. their salaries each month. Yet, due to the prestige it enjoys This threat- theficult Institute times for has, more even than now, six been years able and to receives get major only projects 50% of ening letter, from ICSSR, Ministry of H.R.D., the Ministry of Panchayati allegedly Raj, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, World Literacy signed by of Canada, etc. one Jagdish Positive results have followed the agitation. Through an of- who has been mak- dismissed the old Sanchalak mandal and cancelled the illegal ing unau- Gandhifice order Vidya issued Sansthan on 16th registered September, by Ms.the stateKedia. government The Com- thorised missioner, the Chairman of the new Sanchalak Mandal, visit- use of the ed the GIS campus on 21st September and warned the illegal premises occupants to vacate the premises within 72 hours. This is the for some classes, was posted on her front door on the night of September 3, 2016 around 8.30-9 p.m. when the Acting Jayprakash Narayan. The struggle is still going on to revive thefirst GIS big andstep renewtowards its revival registration of the Instituteaccording established to its earlier by The SSP and local police have been very cooperative and giv- structure. enRegistrar, Dr Muniza Dr Muniza Khan Rafiqprotection Khan returned to her residence. but stringent action should be taken immediately to resolve the entire issue. The on-going dharna at Luc- know to save the Gandhian In- stitute of Studies in Varanasi has renewed interest in the institute which has been crippled by anti- social elements since 2007. Background This prestigious autonomous research Institute, was estab- lished by late Jayaprakash Narayan in 1960 as an “attempt to link Gandhian movement with Social Science.” Among its founding members were Naba Krishna Choudhary, Shankar Rao Dev, Dr. Sampurnanand, etc. The Institute earned the wrath of former HRD Minister, Mr. M.M. Joshi, and was starved of

52 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad Movement against school closure in Karnataka

Due to the timely intervention and planned action by Samana Shikshankaggi Janandolana (SSJ), Karnataka government has taken back the order of closing thousands of govern- ment schools for this year. This is an important victory for the work of AIFRTE in Karnataka. this success was possible due to the consistant work on the is- sues related to education done by SSJ and other concerned or- ganisations in the past few years. But, govt has not men- tioned anything about strenght- enng the public educational in- stitutions including schools, we have decided to intensify our struggle in this regard. Earlier, the Karnataka government has decided to close down all those schols where the strength is less than 30. Already 791 schools where the admissions were less than 10 have been closed (they are calling it merger). This step when taken by ear- lier BJP government, SSJ protested and 19 of our activists got beaten up and arrested too. Then during elections, the Congress declared in its manifesto that it will not close government schools, rather contribute for strengthening it. The education minister gave statements that he shall not close government school even if there is only one student. But it is the same gov- ernment now talking of school closure, not doing anything in these 3 years to strengthen public school system. In this context SSJ called for a meeting of committee members on

2nd June 2016 and discussed the issue. In the meeting it was decided that SSJ Karnataka must wage intense strug- gle to stop government from closing down more than 3000 schools. We shall start from campaigning and build- ing district wise movement and then join for a massive demonstration in Bangalore on 4th Sep 2016. According to the plan, SSJ delegation met the Karnataka CM on 4th June and submitted the memorandum. District level press conferences were held and various organisa- literary forum, Farmers organisations, Dalit organisa- tions,tions (groupsstudents fightingorganisations, for Kannada SDMC co language, ordination Kannada com- mittee, teachers associations etc) were contacted seeking their support.

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 53 Education scam: Notes from North-East The CBI report submitted on 5th March 2012 to the High Court said, “It was felt necessary to examine Mr. J.D. Sangma, the then Director of DEME. In course of his examination by the CBI, Sangma has stated that under the instruction of Militarization in the Educational Campus: the then Minister of Education- Ms. Ampareen Lyngdoh- “ .. A visit to Manipur University (MU), tells a different he had to change score sheets as prepared by all the five story. It is unique in many ways; perhaps it’s the only board members duly applying white fluid on the original university in the world which has a military camp inside mark, as awarded by the members of the board”. The police, the campus. Even under the international law, the Law for reasons known only to them, are yet to take the scam of War prohibits transgression over academic spaces by seriously. Now there is at least a petition filed by an activist military personals. It is not acceptable and justifiable, even in the High Court to pursue the case. Based on the petition, as a wartime conduct. But here, you’ll face a check-post at the High court has asked the SP of East Khasi hills to submit the entry gate where Kalashnikov will ask your details, the progress report. And the State counsel has submitted scan your IDs, if you are not an enrolled student of MU no progress report till date.( The Shillong Times, May-June, and have a vehicle, then the first thing to do is to park the 2016) vehicle somewhere on the roadside at your own risk, and In Nagaland, another type of scam has been reported. It then request them, explaining the reason for your visit. You involves salaries of Hindi teachers, appointment of teachers, can only enter the campus after getting his nod. Everybody, contractors locking school building due to non-payment of including students, professors or any other officials, except pending bills, proxy teachers in the remote village schools the military residents of the university have to obey this and misuse of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s (SSA) funds and rule. Otherwise, you’re just inviting trouble. Indeed, the schemes. Taking serious note on the reported failure and functioning of Manipur University reflects the state of higher scams in the Education department, Nagaland Governor, education in the Manipur. It also reflects the manner in P.B. Acharya asked chief minister and education minister which the idea of a ‘university’ and for that matter the idea to initiate thorough probe by taking corrective measures of ‘higher learning’ is understood. So there is no ‘university’ immediately on the reported scams. As of now, nothing inside the Manipur University. MU is actually a military- has come forward to check the scams. (The Nagaland Post, varsity—an armed guarded space where impartation of 28March 2016) certain ‘chosen’ knowledge and circulation of that ‘imparted’ knowledge occurs. What we see is perhaps the best example Pace of privatization, communalization and of Foucaultian “Panopticon”—the tower of surveillance. commercialization: As Foucault said, “Knowledge is power”. What’s happening The department of school education of Government of inside the walls of Manipur University is the manifestation Nagaland initiated rationalization of school. It means closing of power relations, where knowledge linked to power not down the government schools. It has been claimed by the only assumes the authority of the ‘truth’ but also the power education Minister that some schools had zero enrolment. to make it true. In other words, the hegemonic domination of It was said that SSA/RMSA should know that priority should the state over people is well preserved through exercising and be given to those schools are most in need. ( The Nagaland displaying the ‘power of knowledge’, and using it to regulate Post, 12 Feb2016) and conduct the affairs of academia. In such environment Promoting RSS run Schools in Assam: There are 549 free thinking is merely a ‘virtual’ dream. [Source: http:// schools known as Shankardev Shishu Niketan or Shankardev ifp.co.in/page/items/32408/higher-education-is-on-the- Vidya Niketan run by the Vidya Bharati Akhil Bharatiya deathbed-mockery-of-higher-education-in-manipur] Shiksha Sansthan or in short Vidya Bharati. Since this year, 25 top positions including the first has been bagged Shrinking space of democracy in the campuses: by them, the Education Minister, Government of Assam, There was violence in the campus of higher education has announced that there should be a Shankardeva Shishu in Assam University, Silchar. A group of students demanded Niketan in every panchayat of the state. (The Telegraph, 1st the postponement of final semester examination in view of June 2016) the power disruption caused by storms and squalls over the Against Yoga: Mizoram Kohran Hruaitute committee previous few days. At around 1:30 a.m. the police suddenly (MKHC), a conglomeration of leaders of major churches in resorted to lathicharge and firing rubber bullets. The police Mizoram has appealed to people to stay away from yoga resorted to blank firing too. The next morning, there were since it is viewed as a plot to assimilate the Christians and a large number of students protesting against the police gradually convert them to Hinduism. Meanwhile Society action and demanding resignation of the VC, registrar and for the Propagation of Ayurveda, Naturopathy and Yoga SP. In Guwahati University (GU) too, three students were (SPANY) set up as per Central government’s directives has expelled from GU for raising voices against irregularities in asked church leaders to have more comprehensive study of the University. Milton Handique was expelled for posting so- Yoga. (The Mizoram Post, 7 June, 2016) called `anti-university content’ on facebook. The other two- The results of Government schools in Manipur in the Writtick Saikia and Rejaul Karim were expelled for filing RTI SSLC examination under BSEM were very bad. As many as applications, charging them with disturbance to university’s 73 schools out of the 323 government schools in Manipur affairs. [1st June 2016, Telegraph, 3rd May Telegraph] have 0% pass in HSLC examination this year. There are 28

54 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad government schools where just one student from each They are not supposed to pay for the 2nd year as well. It school passed. Not a single government school student covered 301 colleges. The benefit is likely to go to 50000 figured in the top 20 list. Instead of looking for reasons for to 70000 students in the state. This does not covers private their underperformance, the government is now thinking colleges. Admission of all the differently able persons in of abolishing these government schools to pave the way for all institutions from class IX to University level including private schools. Already the government has closed down professional courses like medical and engineering will be Tombisana High school in the heart of the city. Bengali high free from this academic session irrespective of the financial school was also demolished and the land handed over to the condition of their families.( Telegraph, 12 June 2016) Ramakrishna Mission. The government has now signaled that nonperforming schools will be closed down instead of Growing aspiration for Education through Mother trying to improve them. (The Shillong time, 29th May 2016) tongue: All Tribal Student’s Union of Manipur has demanded education at primary level through the children’s Some good news for teachers and students: mother tongue. It is said that out of 717 EGS schools, 456 The government of Meghalaya is now negotiating with schools were upgraded to Primary Schools in the year Federation of All Meghalaya Adhoc Secondary School 2011. It was further demanded that a one-time measure of Teachers Association to hike Adhoc Teachers’ salary for 2352 relaxing requisite benchmark qualification for recruitment teachers teaching in 434 government recognized secondary of teachers under SSA and RMSA be implemented. Mother schools by 100% and to upgrade all the Adhoc Secondary tongue of one’s locality or community should be made an School to deficit system. (The Shillong Times, 3rd June 2016). essential qualification in Lower Primary School to regional 7000 TET–qualified tutors regulated in Assam! Newly language. (4th June, Sangai Express) installed BJP government of Assam has regulated 7234. Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP), the state apex student body said They were working as contract teachers under SSA. Around that it would take up measures for the introduction of Mizo 38000 TET qualified teachers are working in Assam on language in the elementary school especially in English contract basis under SSA. The government is now planning medium schools. (The Mizoram Post, 10 June 2016) to regularize all of them phase-wise. It was said that there In Tripura, Chakma Community is now demanding are 30000 posts of teachers lying vacant in Assam. The to introduce their mother tongue at the Primary level. It qualification to become a teacher is TET qualified in addition has been claimed that the community is around 4% of the to a B.Ed/DEd. total population and as per art 350(A) of the Constitution As per government of Assam announcement, the and as per directive of the Linguistic Minority commission, provincialised and government colleges in Assam will not like other languages, Chakma too must be the medium of take fees including admission, tuition or any kind, from education at primary level. ( Marup, 24th June 2016) students who will take admission in higher secondary or first year of three year degree course provided the family (Compiled by Surjit S Thokchom) income is Rs one lakh or below per annum from all sources.

Round Table Conference in AP against closure of government schools

District units of A.P. Save Education Committee conducted Round Table Conferences in different districts from 11th to 15th May against pro- posed closure and merger of schools in Andhra Pradesh. The photograph is of one such conference in Vijayna- garam district. See the related press-statement of AI- FRTE in this issue for details.

RECONSTRUCTING EDUCATION for Emancipation 55

JNU Student Najeeb Missing Missing Justice ... Missing Accountability...

On 14th October night, Najeeb Ahmed, a student of M.Sc. Biotechnology, JNU was brutally assaulted and violently threatened by a group of ABVP students. From 15th October morning, Najeeb went missing from the campus. The disappearance of a student from a central university in the national capital after assault and intimidation of right wing lumpens is no doubt an ominous reflection of the dark times we are living in. For past three weeks, students, teachers, staff members of JNU, and citizens of Delhi have been coming out on the streets demanding institutional accountability to bring back Najeeb. • What is absolutely shocking and shameful, the partisan role of the University administration in the whole affair. JNU admin- istration has not taken action on its own nor filed any complaint with the police regarding the assault on Najeeb. None of the Univer- sity press releases mention the vicious attack and intimidation on him. • Further, the JNU administration is stooping to the lowest levels by repeatedly churning out show-cause notices and threat letters to student activists involved in the movement for Najeeb. • On the other hand, the Delhi police did not allow Najeeb’s mother to mention the incident of assault on Najeeb in her FIR (which now stands as a simple FIR of kidnapping, against unknown persons). • The JNUSU and other eyewitnesses also filed a police complaint naming the persons who assaulted Najeeb and threatened to kill him. But it is utterly appalling that the assaulters named in the complaint were still not interrogated even after 22 days of the disappearance. Neither have their call records been investigated so far. A student from a minority community goes missing from the university, his assaulters roam scot free and the university administra- tion – police – ruling government remain mute spectators. The pattern is simple, clear and unmistakable. The BJP government has waged a war on campuses and on all marginalized sections and dissenting voices across the country. Yesterday it was Rohith Vemula pushed to suicide, then it was JNU stu- dents charged with sedition and jailed, today it is Najeeb, tomorrow it may be any of us, or any of our children. In DU recently, a program on ‘the idea of university’ was vandalized and physically attacked by the ABVP lumpens in collusion with the university administration and Delhi Police. Faculty members in support of student movements were also targeted, harassed and vilified by the right wing forces. Everywhere it is the same design unfolding: the RSS-ABVP goons under full patronage of university administrations and the BJP government get away with each and every vicious attack across campuses, and Dalits, minorities and dissenting voices are intimidated, harassed and even institution- ally murdered. This is the time to fight back! We appeal all progressive individuals and organizations to join hands and resist Modi government’s war on the dignity and security of the oppressed people, on student-youth, on universities. We must raise the questions loud and clear: • Why has the JNU VC continuously been shielding the assaulters of Najeeb? • Why has the Delhi Police still not interrogated nor investigated call records of these assaulters? • Why is Central government silent on the failure of Delhi Police, which comes directly under it? We must unitedly stand up in the fight for justice for Najeeb and against political protection and patronage to the assaulters of Najeeb.

Printed, published and owned by Donkada Ramesh Patnaik (11-4-169/1/A, Flat no 306, Pleasant Apartments, Red Hills, Lakadikapool, Khairatabad, Hyderabad 500004). Printed at Charita Impressions, 1-9-1126/B, Azambad, Hyderabad 500020 and published at 11-4-169/1/A, Flat no 306, Pleasant Apartments, Red Hills, Lakadikapool, Khairatabad, Hyderabad 500004. Editor: Donkada Ramesh Patnaik (Organising Secretary, All India Forum for Right to Education). Language of Publication: English RNI No. TELENG/2015/62894 56 Volume 2, Issue 2, 3 & 4, July-October-December 2016; Hyderabad