Development of Irrigation in India

Development of Irrigation in India

The history of development of irrigation in India can be traced back to prehistoric times. In an agrarian economy like India, irrigation has played a major role. Vedas and ancient Indian scriptures made references to wells, canals, tanks and dams which were beneficial to the community and for their efficient operation and maintenance the responsibility was of the State. Civilization flourished on the banks of rivers and the water was harnessed for sustenance of life. According to the ancient Indian writers, the digging of a tank or well was amongst the greatest of the meritorious acts of a man. Vishnu Purana enjoins merit to a person who effected repairs to wells, gardens and dams. The irrigation technologies during the Indus Valley Civilization were in the form of small and minor works, which were operated by households to irrigate small patches of land and did not require a collective effort. Nearly all the irrigation technologies prevalent then still exist in India with little technological change and are continued to be used by households in rural areas.

The spread of agricultural settlements to less fertile area led to emergence of large irrigation works in the form of reservoirs and small canals. While the construction of small schemes was well within the capability of village communities, large irrigation works emerged only with the growth of states and empires.

In south, perennial irrigation began with construction of the Grand Anicut by the Cholas as early as second century to provide water for irrigation from the Cauvery river. Wherever the topography and terrain permitted, it was an old practice in the region to impound the surface drainage water in tanks or reservoirs by throwing across an earthen dam with a weir, where necessary, to take off excess water, and a sluice at a suitable level to irrigate the land below. Some of the tanks got supplemental supply from stream and river channels. The entire land-scape in the central and southern India is studded with numerous irrigation tanks which have been traced back to many centuries before the beginning of the Christian era. In northern India too there are a number of small canals in the upper valleys of rivers which are very old.

Irrigation during Medieval India

In medieval India, rapid advances took place in the construction of inundation canals. Water was blocked by constructing bunds across steams. This raised the water level and canals were constructed to take the water to the fields. Ghiyasuddin Tughluq (1220-1250) is credited to be the first ruler who encouraged digging canals. However, it is Firuz Tughlug (1351-86) who, inspired from central Asian experience, is considered to be the greatest canal builder before the nineteenth century. As agricultural development was the pillar of the economy, irrigation systems were paid special attention.

Irrigation under British Rule

Irrigation development during British rule began with the renovation, improvement and extension of existing works. The Government also ventured into new projects, like the Upper Ganga Canal, the Upper Bari Doab Canal and Krishna and Godavari Delta Systems, which were all river-diversion works of considerable size. The period from 1836 to 1866 marked the development and completion of these four major works. In 1867, the Government adopted the practice of taking up works, which promised a minimum net return. Thereafter, a number of projects were taken up. These included major canal works like the Sirhind, the Lower Ganga, the Agra and the Mutha Canals, and the Periyar Dam and canals.

The recurrence of drought and famines during the second half of the nineteenth century necessitated the development of irrigation to give protection against the failure of crops and to reduce large scale expenditure on famine relief. Significant protective works constructed during the period were the Betwa Canal, the Nira Left Bank Canal, the Gokak Canal, the Khaswad Tank and the Rushikulya Canal. Between the two types of works, namely productive and protective, the former received greater attention. The gross area irrigated in India under British rule by public works at the close of the nineteenth century was about 7.5 m.ha. Of this, 4.5 m.ha. came from minor works, like tanks, inundation canals etc. The area irrigated by protective works was only a little more than 0.12 m.ha

At The Time Of Independence

The net irrigated area in the Indian sub continent, comprising the British Provinces and Princely States, at the time of Independence was about 28.2 m.ha. The partition of the country, resulted in the apportionment of the irrigated area between the two countries; net irrigated area in India and Pakistan being 19.4 m.ha and 8.8 m.ha respectively. Major canal systems, including the Sutlej and Indus systems went to Pakistan. East Bengal, now Bangladesh, which comprises the fertile Ganga Brahmaputra delta region also went to Pakistan. The irrigation works which remained with India, barring some of the old works in Uttar Pradesh and in the deltas of the South, were mostly of protective nature, meant more to ward off famine than to produce significant yields.

Irrigation Development Now

At the central level the Union Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for development, conservation and management of water as a national resource, i.e., for policy on water resources development and for technical assistance to the states on irrigation, multipurpose projects, ground water exploration and exploitation, command area development, drainage, flood control, water logging, sea erosion problems, dam safety and hydraulic structures for navigation and hydropower. It also oversees the regulation and development of inter-State rivers. These functions are carried out through various Central Organisations. Urban water supply and sewage disposal is handled by the Ministry of Urban Development whereas Rural Water Supply comes under the purview of Department of Drinking Water under the Ministry of Rural Development. Hydro-electric power and thermal power is the responsibility of the Ministry of Power and pollution and environment control is that of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Water being a State subject, the State Governments have primary responsibility for use and control of this resource. The administrative control and responsibility for development of water, rests with the various State Departments and Corporations. Major and medium irrigation is handled by the irrigation/water resources departments. Minor irrigation is looked after partly by water resources departments, minor irrigation corporations, Zilla Parishads/Panchayats and by other departments such as Agriculture. Urban water supply is generally the responsibility of public health departments and panchayats take care of rural water supply. Government tubewells are constructed and managed by the irrigation/water resources department or by tube well corporations set up for the purpose. Hydro-power is the responsibility of the State Electricity Boards.

Sanjay Kumar

Media & Communications Officer, PIB, New Delhi

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A MILLION SKILLED WORKERS TO BE IN THE VANGUARD OF INDIAN GROWTH STORY

A MILLION SKILLED WORKERS TO BE IN THE VANGUARD OF INDIAN GROWTH STORY

India, with growing industrialization, has reached a crucial juncture as the country is poised to touch double-digit growth rate. The 11^th Five Year Plan seeks to achieve a faster and more inclusive growth. This is possible only with effective contribution of all stakeholders.

Skill Development Initiative Scheme

To cope with the serious manpower crunch the industrial sector is facing, and in order to increase the employability of the labour force through development of skills suitable for the ongoing industrialisation process, the Government decided to set up a corpus fund of Rs 550 crore for training one million persons above the age of 14 over the next five years under the “Skill Development Initiative Scheme”. This is a centrally sponsored scheme under which an amount of about Rs 5,000 would be spent per person for providing training and certification.

The Scheme will provide an opportunity to the large unskilled workforce of the country from the socially and economically disadvantaged sections, for securing jobs in both manufacturing and service sectors. The crafts which have been included cover a large spectrum from beautician and carpet weaving to engineering and information technology sectors. Well over 200 modules for employable skills as per industry and labour market demands have already been identified and course curriculum has been developed. It is hoped that this will address the requirement of industry for skilled workers. These industries include automobile, construction, refrigeration, painting, welding, carpet weaving, gem and jewellery, food industry, toy-making etc.

The workers who have already acquired certain skills through many years of hands on work but with no formal certification would also be able to get tested and certified under this scheme. Testing of skills of trainees would be carried out by independent assessing bodies, which would not be involved in training delivery, to ensure that it is done impartially. The essence of the scheme is in the certification that will be nationally and internationally recognized.

Training would be provided through optimal utilisation of available infrastructure in various Government and private institutions and industry. Institutions providing training under this scheme would include various Vocational Training Providers under Central and State Governments, public and private sector and industrial establishments.

The objectives of the scheme include providing vocational training to school dropouts, existing workers, ITI graduates, etc. to improve their employability by optimally utilizing the infrastructure available in Government., private institutions and the Industry and to build capacity in the area of development of competency standards, course curricula, learning material and assessment standards in the country.

Modular Employable Skills

Demand driven short-term training courses based on Modular Employable Skills (MES) have been evolved in consultation with Industry. MES is the ‘minimum skills set’ that fulfills optimal requirement for gainful employment.

It has been envisaged in the Scheme that Central government will facilitate and promote training while industry, private sector and State Governments will train the persons. Optimum utilization of existing infrastructure would be ensured to make training cost effective.

It has also been decided to have flexible delivery mechanism (part time, weekends, full time, onsite/ offsite) and different levels of programmes (Foundation level as well as skill upgradation) to suit needs of various target groups. The services of existing or retired faculty or guest faculty will be utilized.

Towards Public Private Partnership

The Government and industry will have to work together to provide a solution to the training needs. Together they would have to address the basic skills training and then impart industry-specific training.

Therefore, the Public Private Partnership (PPP) has been envisaged in the form of active participation of the industry / Private Sector in every stage of design and implementation of the scheme. Industry bodies are represented in the Central Apex Committee and State Committees, which would have overall responsibility of implementation of the scheme. Other areas of partnership include: forecasting of emerging areas of employment at micro level, development of course curricula and instructional material of various trades, assist in the training of trainers, making available their training & testing facilities, provide on the job training in their establishments, assistance in placement of graduates, provide trade experts to work as assessors of competencies, voluntary donation of equipment to the ITIs/other training institutions and providing guest faculty in new trades.

The Scheme aims to train or certify 10,000 persons during the current financial year that is year 2007-08. An Apex Committee has been set up at National Level. Process is on to set up a National Project Management Cell (NPMC) at national level and six regional cells. It is being ensured that the Assessing Bodies will be of proven integrity and endowed with high quality expertise in the relevant fields.

The Government has released funds for the scheme. Course curricula for 231 short term MES courses (against target of 176) have already been approved by the National Council for Vocational Training (NCVT). Courses under Information and Communication Technology sector have also been covered.

Implementation Manual containing guidelines for implementing the scheme has been prepared and circulated to State Governments for implementation.

The scheme has already taken off successfully as more than 8,000 persons have been trained by December 2007 (against target of 5000). The Website of SDI scheme has been launched (dget.gov.in/mes/index.htm). The process is on for purchase of equipment for MES cells.

The Government has embarked on an ambitious scheme for upgradation of the remaining 1396 ITIs in the country under Public Private Partnership mode by providing an interest free loan of upto Rs. 2.5 crore per ITI. An investment of Rs. 3665 crore is going to be made in the next five years. The Industry Partners are closely associated with the process of upgradation so that they train manpower according to their requirement. It will definitely revolutionize the skill development in the country. In addition, the Government has also embarked on the strategic objective of modernizing the ITIs and improving the quality of training in state Government run ITIs, with involvement of stake holders. Action has been initiated for upgradation of 100 ITIs from domestic resources and 400 ITIs through World Bank assistance so as to create “Centres of Excellence (COE)” for producing multi-skilled workforce of world standard.

Sudha Pillai
Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Employment

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GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN INDIA: ACHIEVEMENTS SINCE INDEPENDENCE

GIRLS’ EDUCATION IN INDIA: ACHIEVEMENTS SINCE INDEPENDENCE

The leaders of our freedom movement realized the importance of girls’ education and had put it as a prime agenda for national development. However, when India attained independence some 60 years ago, it was a formidable challenge that the new government had to face. The national female literacy rate was an alarmingly low 8.9 per cent, Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for girls was 24.8 per cent at primary level and 4.6 per cent at the upper primary level (in the 11 – 14 years age group). Social and cultural barriers to education of women and lack of access to organized schooling, had to be addressed immediately.

Access To Schooling Improved

Education administrators gave high priority on reducing the infrastructure/access deficiency. Focused attention on this need has resulted in establishing a network of 7,67,520 schools at the primary level and 2,74,731 schools at the upper primary level by 2004-05 from just 2,09,671 primary and 13,596 upper primary schools in 1950-51. A large majority (87%) of these are rural schools. Today 98 per cent of India’s rural population has access to primary schools within a kilometer of the habitation.

Greater access to schooling is, however, not enough. Special measures are called for to help girls join the schools. These include setting up of girls toilets and providing separate girls’ schools at upper primary level to counter community resistance to girls’ studying in co-educational schools. Some schools are residential ones – the recent addition to residential schools being the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas that target the most disadvantaged girls at the upper primary stage.

The Government continues to be the major provider of elementary education with 90.2 per cent primary and 72.2 per cent upper primary schools managed either by Government or by local bodies. Annual maintenance grants and school improvement grants are being provided to each school at the elementary level.

Upswing In Girls’ Enrolment

Growth in access to schooling has been matched by a steady increase in enrolment with the most dramatic upswing since 1990s in girls participation levels. From 13.8 million boys and 5.4 million girls enrolled at the primary level in 1950-51, the number rose to 69.7 million boys and 61.1 million girls in 2004-05. At the upper primary level, the enrolment increased from 2.6 million boys and 0.5 million girls to 28.5 million boys and 22.7 million girls.

The proportion of girls in the total enrolment has also been growing. Girls’ enrolment at the primary stage increased from 28.1% in 1950-51 to 46.7% in 2004-05. At the upper primary stage, girls’ enrolment rose from 16.1% in 1950-51 to 44.4% in 2004-05. The overall improvement in girls’ enrolment with respect to total population of girls clearly shows that there is a near universal enrolment at primary level. The gap and challenge exists now at upper primary stage, but there too the gap is narrowing steadily.

Enrolment of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe girls poses a greater challenge to India’s education administrators. Survey data, however, revealed that the participation of these disadvantaged girls in basic education, has grown steadily over the years. G.E.R. for SC girls at primary level have climbed up from 64.8% in 1986-87 to 106.6% in 2004-05 and at upper primary stage, from as low as 26.6% in 1986-87 to 61.5%in 2004-05. In the case of ST girls, the GER at primary level have gone up from 68% in 1986-87 to 115.5% by 2004-05 and from 21.9% in 1986-87 to 59.5% in 2004-05 for upper primary level.

The overall gender gap in enrolment at the primary stage has dropped to 4.6 percentage points and that at the upper primary level has reduced to 8.0 percentage points in 2005. There are only 48 districts out of a total of 600 districts in India, with a gender gap above 10 percentage points at the primary stage. Focused attention is being targeted to these districts by education policy planners, in order to address the barriers in specific terms.

Declining Drop Out Rates And Out Of School Girls

Providing access and enrolment to schooling facilities are only a part of the story. Our aim is also to help the students to continue their studies. Although the phenomenon of drop outs continue to be a serious problem in India’s education scenario, the drop out rates in elementary education have been on the decline, more sharply so for girls. Girls drop out rate in 2004-05 was lower than for boys, at primary level i.e 25.42% compared to 31.81% for boys. Since 2000, girls drop out rates have fallen by 16.5% points in just four years, compared to a reduction of only 4.1% points over the entire last decade (1990-2000).

With respect to the situation inside the school it is found that the repetition rates have been fast declining for girls. Two clear messages that underlie this trend are: one, that girls who enter the school system do not leave easily and two, school efficiency is gradually improving with girls completing the elementary cycle of education in lesser time.

The number of out of school children have also been declining rapidly, from 32 million in 2001-02 to 7.5 million in 2006-07. Of the total age cohort of girls in the 6-14 years age group, 3.9% are reportedly out of school. In the 6-11 years age group, out of school girls are 3.34 percent and in the 11-14 years age group they are 5.3 percent. The inclusion of these ‘hard to reach’ and older girls, who have remained excluded from the education net is being addressed through context specific strategies and interventions presently.

More Girls Move To Upper Primary

The trends in transition rates from Primary to Upper Primary are also positive. The transition rate has improved from 71.98 in 2003 to 80.64 in 2005. The gains in the transition rates of girls (8.6 percentage points) have been higher than that of boys (7.65 percentage points). This has led to sharper decline in the gender gap in transition rates from 4.03 percentage points to 3.02 percentage points.

In the case of SC girls, the transition rate has increased from 80 percent in 2004-05 to 83 percent in 2005-06 leaving a gender gap of 3 percentage points. The picture is comparable in the case of ST girls for whom the transition rate has increased from 85 percent in 2004-05 to 88 percent in 2005-06 leaving a gender gap of 2 percentage points.

Constitutional And Policy Framework

The Constitution of India in Article 15(1) on right to equality, provides the basic policy framework that enshrines the vision of girls’ education and the spirit in which their education is to be provided.

Until 1976, education was a State subject. Since its transfer to the Concurrent List by the 42^nd Constitutional Amendment in 1976, the Central Government has played a more proactive role in the sector through several centrally sponsored schemes that had a distinct bearing on promoting education for girls.

A new thrust was provided to girls’ education in the National Policy on Education 1986, (as modified in 1992) which provided a holistic vision for the education of women and girls and recognized the cross cutting issues that inhibited the realization of this goal. It aims at using Education as an agent of basic change in the status of women in society.

The 86th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2002 has made elementary education a Fundamental Right for children in the age group of 6-14 years by providing that “the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine”. This has been a path breaking legislation in India, where such a major commitment to the cause of elementary education has bound governments, community based organizations and civil society into a common resolve to achieve universal elementary education.

Drawing upon the Constitution and other policy statements articulated in the years that followed, the Government of India in partnership with State Governments has designed different strategies, interventions, schemes and programmes with specific objectives that impinge on girls’ education. In the second part of this essay we shall look at some of these programmes and interactions that have begun to change the face of India.

Arun Kumar Rath
Secretary, School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development

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PPP

PPPs - An Opportunity to Play Leading Role in Making Indian Railways World’s No. 1 Railway Network

In today’s globalised world, quality and capacity of our infrastructure determines whether we end up on the winning and losing sides of the global village. There is total unanimity among the policy planners in the country that removal of infrastructural constraints is the foremost challenge to be met for our country to continue its journey on the high-growth trajectory of 9% plus GDP growth p.a. Planning Commission has estimated that removal of the infrastructure backlog would require investment of more than US$400 billion and annual investment in infrastructure has to be stepped up from the present level of 4% GDP to 8%. Such huge sums are beyond the Government’s budgetary capacity. It would become even more difficult in future in view of the increasing commitments to social sector programmes like health and education and the constraints imposed by Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act (the Act prescribes that the fiscal deficit of Central and State Governments must not exceed 9% of the GDP).

Governments both at centre and states are, therefore, looking at fresh approaches to bridge the infrastructure deficit to sustain the growth momentum. It is in this context that Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as a serious option to leverage limited public funds to attract private investment in infrastructure. Apart from easing the pressure on public finance, PPPs also allow efficiencies of private sector to be harnessed for improved project execution and service delivery.

Like other infrastructure sectors, Indian Railways require massive investments to augment its carrying capacity and modernize its system. While impressive growth in traffic and revenue over the last three years on Indian Railways (freight and passenger traffic is growing at more than 9% and 7% year-after-year respectively) has brought applause from all quarters, it has also exposed the problems of congestion and saturation of the network especially on the high-density corridors connecting our four metropolitan cities. The XI Five Year Plan which is under finalization, has underscored the need to sustain the momentum and attain the projected traffic levels of 1100 million tones of freight and 8400 million passengers at the terminal year. Sizeable investment for expansion of network by way of new lines, doubling and gauge conversion, port connectivity works and augmentation of manufacturing capacity of rolling stock would need to be undertaken to attain these targets. The plan envisages a total investment of Rs. 2,51,000 crore. Of this, 95000 crore is to be raised through internal generation and Rs. 86000 crore has been sought by way of budgetary support (subject to approval by NDC). The rest Rs. 75000 crore is to be raised as extra budgetary resources. Of this, barring Rs. 40,000 crore to be raised by IRFC, most of the rest is to be raised through PPP.

A number of areas have been identified for PPPs.

Construction of DFC partly with PPPs. It has been planned to construct a new Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC), initially covering about 2700 route kms. equivalent to around 5000 track kilometers at an approximate cost of Rs. 28000 crore (US$6 billion) linking the ports of western India and mineral/industrial belt of Eastern India to North India. The construction of this corridor will be implemented through an SPV (Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited) through a mix of Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) and PPP methods. Ministry of Railways is in the process of selecting a consultant to advise on the concession agreement, principles of track access charges and other financing and bidding issues. It is envisaged that PPP would bring in innovative ideas on design, construction and maintenance of railway to achieve optimal life-cycle costs, especially as the work progresses on the initial two corridors and further corridors are taken up. The concessionaire could also tap additional ancillary revenue streams through commercial exploitation of land, construction of freight terminal/logistic park/ICDs etc.

World Class Railway Stations, Passenger Amenities: Metropolitan City Railway Stations like Delhi and Mumbai need to be modernized to provide world-class passenger amenities and services to the large multitude of passengers using these stations. This is being planned through private investments. The areas around the stations and the air space above platform could be commercially developed to pay for the project. The concessionaire would be expected to construct and maintain the operational and passenger areas free of cost, share the revenue earned from the real-estate created and hand over the same after the concession period.

Altogether, 22 stations have been identified in the first stage. CST Mumbai (Carnac Bunder), Pune, Howrah (Kolkata), Lucknow, New Delhi, Anand Vihar and Bijwasan at Delhi, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Varanasi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Secunderabad, Ahmedabad, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Mathura, Bangalore, Jaipur, Gaya, Agra and Bhopal. The process for the pilot project for New Delhi Station has been initiated. Development of other stations and green field passenger terminals would be taken up in a phased manner in due course.

Commercial Utilization of Surplus Land: Indian Railways has approximately 43,000 hectares of vacant land. These are mostly alongside the track in longitudinal strips, around railway stations and in railway colonies. Land in metro cities and other important cities/towns do offer the potential for commercial development to generate a steady stream of non-fare revenue. An authority, namely, Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has been set up under the Railway (Amendment) Act 2005 to pursue this objective.

Setting up of SPVs for Manufacturing of Locomotives/Coaches/Wagons: With sustained economic growth and the resultant demand for rail transport, the requirement of rolling stock has increased manifold. The requirement of coaches/Electrical Multiple Units is projected at 22689 vehicle units for the XI Five Year Plan. The gap between the requirement and the combined capacity of the two existing Projection Units at Integral Coach Factory, Perambur and Rail Coach Factory, Kapurthala (which is around 2500 per annum) is planned to be bridged by augmenting the existing capacity of these Production Units and setting up a new manufacturing unit through a JV under PPP.

Similarly, the requirement of Electric and Diesel Locomotives has been projected at 1800 each during the XI Five Year Plan i.e. 360 locos per year. The existing in-house capacity for the manufacture of these locomotives is 150 per annum and can be augmented to 200 locos each per annum for Electric and for Diesel. The gap between the requirement and capacity is planned to be bridged by setting up two locomotive manufacturing units one each for diesel and electric locomotives through Public Private Partnerships.

Other PPP Opportunities

Operation of container trains and Construction of Private sidings, ICDs and rail side warehouses:

Private operators have been allowed to operate Container Services on Indian Railways. Agreements setting out the terms of such operation have been signed with 15 private operators.

Areas like freight terminals, multi modal Logistics Park, warehouses, ICDs etc. also offer promising possibilities for private investment. Railways could provide land on lease to the private firm for such projects under mutually agreed terms of concession. In addition, Ministry of Railways intends to partner with State Governments, private logistics operators and infrastructure providers to establish multi modal logistic parks equipped with rail sidings with sheds, large inland container depots, warehouses for storage, office buildings for logistics operators, highway connectivity, and assembly units for processing imported raw materials for export. Such parks could either be built independently at strategic locations or could be built in Special Economic Zones (SEZs).

Port connectivity works and other infrastructure projects through Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL):

RVNL has been mandated to undertake capacity augmentation works and port connectivity projects by establishing Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). Some of the projects undertaken or under consideration of RVNL include Palampur-Gandhidham gauge conversion project (Linking Kandla and Mundhra ports to North India), Haridaspur – Paradeep New Line (linking iron ore mines of Orissa and Jharkhand to Paradeep port), Obulavaripalli-Krishnapatnam – New Line Project linking the Krishnapatnam port of Andhra Pradesh, Bharuch-dahej and Surat-Hazira projects in the State of Gujarat.

Catering Services, Budget Hotels and Food Plazas:

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been mandated to develop catering services, budget hotels and food plazas at major stations through involvement of private entrepreneurs.

IRCTC is commissioning new Food Plazas in Railway premises with private participation with license period of nine years and provision of extension of three years. Already 40 such Food Plazas have been commissioned.

Apart from the above, new services for the luxury tourism segment on the pattern of ‘Palace on Wheel’ in partnership with other interested State Governments/hospitality industry are also being contemplated.

Public-private partnerships are an opportunity to meet India’s investment needs that can be translated into a win-win situation for all. The railways have put together an ambitious plan for development and modernization which will require an investment of 3 lakh crore rupees in the next five years – of which 40 percent is expected to be generated through PPPs.

K.C.Jena
Chairman, Railway Board and also for International Union of Railways (UIC)

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Girls’ Education in India: Strategies, Interventions and programmes

Girls’ Education in India: Strategies, Interventions and programmes

India has made remarkable progress since independence in various aspects of girls’ education like greater access to and enrolment in schools, decline in drop out rates and in the number of out of school girls, greater transition to upper primary level and special help provided to disadvantaged sections of the society. We have also in place the constitutional and policy framework enshrining the vision of girls’ education that enabled the Government to design different strategies, interventions, schemes and programmes with specific objectives that impinge on girls’ education.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

Foremost among these, is the programme for the Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE), called Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), launched at the turn of the century (2001). This national flagship programme has a clear focus on bridging and eliminating gender differences in enrolment, retention and quality of learning. There is a thrust and special focus on girls’ education in the planning and provisioning for UEE, in SSA. Some of these are listed below:

· Free textbooks to all girls upto class VIII

· Separate toilets for girls

· Back to school camps for out-of-school girls

· Bridge courses for older girls

· Recruitment of 50% women teachers

· Early childhood care and Education centres in/near schools in convergence with ICDS programme etc.

· Teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote equitable learning opportunities

· Gender-sensitive teaching-learning materials including textbooks

· Intensive community mobilisation efforts

· ‘Innovation fund’ per district for need based interventions for ensuring girls’ attendance and retention.

A range of strategies and interventions have been evolved that are designed to improve girls’ participation in education, at building systemic responsiveness, motivating girls and their parents and forging partnerships with community based groups for girls’ education. Efforts are also made to address issues within the classroom to enable a conducive learning environment and monitor progress along key indicators in girls’ education.

Strategy Focused Equally On ‘Demand’ And ‘Supply’ Sides

The Government interventions towards girls’ education are not only targeted to address enormous infrastructural deficiencies but also centuries-old cultural and psychological problems. The two broad stands on this strategy has been to focus equally on the ‘demand’ and ‘supply’ sides.

On the supply side the government aims to make the education system responsive to the needs of girls to serve as the pull factor. In actual practice, it means -

§ ensure access to schools

§ increase proportion of women teachers

§ training to enhance gender sensitivity of teachers

§ develop gender sensitive and relevant curriculum & textbooks.

§ provide supportive structures such as Early Childhood Care and Education centers

§ provide alternative learning facilities

§ ensure basic facilities in schools – toilets and drinking water

The community demands for girls’ education is also sought to be generated through –

· motivation and mobilization of parents and community

· enhance the role of women and mothers in school related activities

· ensure people’s participation in school committees

· strengthen links between the school, teachers and community.

Gender Perspective

While designing programmes for girls’ education, the education administrator addresses both ‘generic’ and ‘specific’ issues. The gender perspective is sought to be integrated in all the programme components and the ‘specific’ interventions such as incentives to offset economic disadvantage, relaxation of norms for tribal areas etc. are contextualized interventions required to address various factors of disadvantage. Intensive and innovative efforts are taken up at the micro-level to retain focus on girls’ education and mobilize women/women’s groups for girls’ education.

Even while an over-all improvement has been noticed, it is necessary to target areas where girls’ education is lagging behind. Towards this end, the Government of India has launched two focused interventions for girls – the National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) and the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV). These schemes are targeted to reach out to girls from marginalized social groups in over 3,000 educationally backward blocks in the country where the female rural literacy is below the national average and the gender gap in literacy is above the national average.

NPEGEL Scheme

The NPEGEL scheme is meant for the educationally backward blocks (EBB) where both girls who are in ‘in’ and ‘out’ of school, are targeted. The out of school girls include never enrolled and drop out girls. In the case of girls in elementary school, the thrust is on girls with low attendance rates and girls with low levels of achievement. Ensuring a positive self image and to eliminate gender bias in the classroom is also in the design of the scheme. According to latest (upto 30.09.07) available data, the reach of NPEGEL includes 3272 block, 40,171 clusters, 35,254 model cluster schools, 25,537 ECCE support, 24,387 additional rooms, 9,67,063 remedial teaching, 1,53,324 bridge courses, 1,85,494 gender sensitization of teachers and 71,46,300 uniforms and other incentives.

To impact on the enrolment and retention scenario, the NPEGEL scheme is a holistic effort to tackle the impediments to girls’ education at the micro level through flexible, decentralised processes and decision making. It is well known that children become vulnerable to leaving school when they are not able to cope with the pace of learning in the class or feel neglected by teachers/peers in class. The scheme stresses the responsibility of teachers to spot such girls and pay special attention to bring them out of their state of vulnerability and prevent them from dropping out. Recognising the need for support services to help girls with responsibilities with regard to fuel, fodder, water, sibling care and paid and unpaid work provisions have been made for incentives that are decided locally. Just as gender sensitive teaching learning materials, introduction of additional subjects like self defence, life skills, legal rights, gender etc. have been provided in the scheme, efforts to ensure a supportive and gender sensitive classroom environment through systematic sensitization and monitoring the classroom is also inbuilt in it.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya Scheme

The second major initiative, in the EBBs, is the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme that provides for setting up of residential upper primary schools for girls from SC, ST, OBC & Muslim communities. This scheme targets areas of scattered habitations, where schools are at great distances and are a challenge to the security of girls. This often compels girls to discontinue their education. KGBV addresses this through setting up residential schools, in the block itself.

The KGBV scheme very specifically targets

§ Adolescent girls who are unable to go to regular schools.

§ Out of school girls in the 10⁺ age group who are unable to complete primary school

· Younger girls of migratory populations in difficult areas of scattered habitations that do not qualify for primary/upper primary schools.

As the KGBVs specifically targets communities where girls are more disadvantaged, such as SC/ ST, OBC and Muslim minorities, the scheme provides for a minimum reservation of 75% of the seats for girls from SC/ST/OBC and minorities communities and 25% to girls from families that live below the poverty line.

The reach of the KGBV’s include –

· 2180 sanctioned – of these 270 are in EBBs with 20 percent Muslim population

· 1564 KGBVs operational

· Of total enrolment (25% SC, 32% ST, 26% OBC, 5% Muslim and 10% Below Poverty Line).

· About one fourth of the girls enrolled in the EBBs with Muslim concentration are Muslims.

India is deeply committed to Universalization of Elementary Education of satisfactory quality by 2010. Greater focus and efforts are now being made to extend the gains to the “last mile” and to ensure that not only all girls are in school but they also complete the cycle of elementary education with quality education.

Shri A.K. Sengupta
Former Senior Additional PIO , PIB, New Delhi

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75 YEARS OF AIR INDIA

75 YEARS OF AIR INDIA

This year the national carrier Air India is undergoing momentous changes as it is all set to emerge as a world class airline and one of the largest airlines in the Asia Pacific region, following its merger with Indian (erstwhile Indian Airlines) the leader in the domestic aviation sector.

History

One summer day in 1929, late Mr. Nevill Vintcent, a former Royal Air Force pilot came to India from Britain on a brainstorming tour during which he surveyed a number of possible air routes. He saw the immense potential for aviation in India. It came to pass that he met late Mr. J.R.D. Tata, a young Indian who was the first to get his A-licence in India and that too in the shortest number of hours.

Mr. Vintcent worked out a scheme, secured Mr. Tata’s approval and together they showed it to Mr. Peterson, a Director of Tata Sons and Mr. J.R.D. Tata’s mentor. Sir Dorab Tata, the then Chairman of Tata Sons, pleasantly surprised all by giving the scheme his okay. So they went ahead and drew plans for the operation of an air service from Karachi to Mumbai with one stop at Ahmedabad.

All that they asked from the Government was a guarantee for only a year for the sum of Rs. 1,00,000. This, however, was turned down. The Tata-Vintcent combination was naturally disappointed, but no dismayed. A second scheme was prepared. This time the guarantee asked for was only Rs. 50,000 for the first year, Rs. 25,000 for the second year and after that no guarantee at all. This scheme too was not accepted. The team tried a third time. This time they offered to donate an air services to the Government of India, with no strings attached. The Government agreed and thus was born Tata Airlines, which later became Air India.

On October 15, 1932, a light single-engine Puss Moth took off from Karachi on its flight to Mumbai (then known as Bombay) via Ahmedabad. At the controls of the tiny plane was Mr. Tata, operating the first scheduled air service in the country. He landed with his precious load of mail on a grass strip at Juhu. Life was simple then. There were no runways, no radio facilities in the aircraft or on the ground. There were no pretty hostesses, no aerodrome officers and no airport buildings. At Mumbai, Mr. Vintcent, took over from Mr. Tata and flew the Puss Moth to Chennai (then known as Madras) via Bellary.

In 1933, the first full year of its operations, Tata Airlines flew 160,000 miles, carried 155 passengers and 10.71 tonnes of mail. In the next few years, Tata Airlines continued to rely for its revenue on the mail contract with the Government of India for carriage of surcharged mail, including a considerable quantity of overseas mail brought to Karachi by the Imperial Airways for destinations in India. On the Karachi-Chennai route, frequency was stepped up to twice a week in 1934, and a year later, a weekly service was started between Mumbai and Trivandrum (now known as Thiruvananthapuram) with stops at Goa and Cannanore. In 1937, the frequency was stepped up to two per week and another flight between Mumbai-Delhi via Indore, Bhopal and Gwalior was started. New planes began to appear in the fleet. In addition to the original Puss Moth and Leopard Moth, there were Wacos, DH-89s and Stinson Trimotors.

The introduction of the Empire Airmail Scheme in February 1938 brought the opportunity for further expansion and renovation of fleet. Tata Airlines received a ten-year contract under the Scheme with guaranteed minimum payment for the carriage of first class mail on the Karachi-Colombo and Karachi-Lahore routes.

When the war came, the Empire Air Mail Scheme was suspended and the Government took over the fleet of bigger DH-89s leaving the airline to make do with the smaller Wacos and Stinsons. Later, during the war, some Beachcraft Expeditors and DC-2s were loaned to Tata Airlines, with the famous DC-3 (more popularly known as the Dakota) joining the fleet towards the end of the war. Four surplus DC-3s were allotted to the airline by the US surplus property authorities and in addition, about eight DC-3s were brought directly from the US office of the Foreign Liquidation Commissioner.

If the war interrupted the airline’s smooth progress, it provided other opportunities. The airline was involved in a survey of South Arabia route, carriage of supplies to Iraq, movement of refugees from Burma and overhaul and maintenance of RAF equipment. The transition to civilian status immediately after the war caused few problems to the airline, since it had already acquired considerable operating experience. To stress on its new civilian status and its role as a public utility, Tata Airlines was converted into a Public Limited Company on July 29, 1946 and renamed AIR INDIA. Around this time, the airline moved its operating base from Juhu to its present location at Mumbai Airport.

At the beginning of 1947, Air India turned its attention to the international scene. Towards the end of the year, an agreement was reached with the Government of India for the formation of Air India International Limited to operate international services. At Air India’s request, the Government agreed to limit their capital participation to 49 percent , subject to an option to acquire, at any time, a further two percent from Air India. Air India was appointed technical manager on a ten-year contract.

In order to make the earliest possible start, Air India had already placed a provisional order for three Lockheed Constellations and arranged for the training of pilots and other staff. Luckily, Lockheed was able to deliver the planes six months earlier than planned because of cancellation of an order by another airline. Thus, Air India International, which was registered on March 8, 1948, inaugurated its international operations modestly with a weekly services from Mumbai to London via Cairo and Geneva on June 8, 1948.

On the domestic front, however, storm clouds had begun to gather. The availability of cheap war surplus DC-3s in the country had given rise to a number of airlines during the immediate post war era. Twenty-one companies were registered. However, only 11 were licenced to operate 51 routes all over the country.

The early Fifties saw the financial condition of airlines in India deteriorate to such an extent that the Government decided to step in and nationalize the air transport industry and accordingly, two autonomous corporations were created on August 1, 1953. Indian Airlines was formed with the merger of eight domestic airlines to operate domestic services, while Air India International was to operate the overseas services (the world ‘International was dropped in 1962. Effective March 1, 1994, the airline has been renamed Air India Limited).

Nationalization opened a new chapter in the airline’s history, which was marked by the expansion of its fleet and routes. By mid-Fifties, Air India had replaced its fleet of Constellations with the larger, faster and more modern Super Constellations. New destinations were added – Singapore and Hong Kong in 1954, Tokyo in 1955, Sydney in 1956 and Moscow in 1958.

The Fifties also witnessed Air India bursting forth on the world air transport scene with a refreshingly different publicity campaign. The little Maharajah, who had first made his appearance as a symbol on a note-pad in mid-Forties, began to appear all over the world in various garbs – in London he wore a bowler hat and read The Times, in Sydney he was caught sun bathing on Bondi beach, in Nairobi he went on a Safari and in Europe he went skiing, to the intense amusement of the locals. No other airline quite matched Air India’s panache and subtle humour in promoting its services. Air India became one of the most talked about airlines in the world.

The jet age was already looming on the horizon and heralded revolutionary changes in the air transport industry. Air India was keeping a sharp eye on the latest developments and decided to order the Boeing 707 in the late Fifties. The first Boeing 707 was received in February 1960. This marked the airline’s entry into the jet age.

The Boeing 707 enabled Air India to extend its Mumbai-London service to New York in May 1960. This was a major step in the airline’s steady expansion into new markets. The other major route to be added in the Sixties was Mumbai-Mauritius.

As the Sixties closed, Air India in keeping with its tradition of ordering the latest and the best planes available, placed an order for the Boeing 747-200s, the first of which was delivered in April 1971. Over the next nine years, Air India received nine more planes at regular intervals, thus achieving the biggest ever expansion of its fleet and capacity in its history, with simultaneous expansion of all other facilities.

Another significant event was extraordinary expansion of services to the various cities in the Gulf region. In 1970, Air India was operating only a couple of services a week from Mumbai to the Gulf, but following the oil boom, there was a mass migration of Indian labour to the Gulf and other countries, and Air India had to step up services to meet the demand.

The latter half of the Seventies also saw more services being launched to Africa. Further expansion into Africa took place in the Eighties when services were started to Dar-es-Salaam and Harare in Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, because of the economic downturn in Africa and the consequent fall in traffic, services to Accra, Lagos, Dar-es-Salaam and Harare were discontinued. The airline currently operates flights to Nairobi/Dar-esSalaam in Africa.

Air India started the Eighties with a programme of fleet renewal. In the first phase, Air India purchased three Airbus 300-B4s in 1982. In the second phase, six A310-300s were inducted into the fleet. The airline acquired two more Boeing 747-300 Combi aircraft in October/November 1988 and two Airbus A310s in the August 1990. Four Boeing 747-400s were inducted into the fleet between August 1993 and July 1994. Two more Boeing 747-400s were inducted in November 1996. Air India currently has a fleet of 50 aircraft along with Air India Express, its budget airline.

Air India has come a long way from that far off day, way back in 1932 when all it had was one palm-thatched hut at Juhu Airport, two single-engine planes – a Puss Moth and a Leopard Moth – one full time pilot and two apprentice mechanics. From its inception, Air India has followed a policy of self-sufficiency. This has been a matter of necessity for the simple reason that Air India is located away from the main centers of air transport activity in the world, and the planes could not be sent out for either maintenance or major checks without disrupting services and the subsequent loss of revenue.

This has meant, of course, a considerable investment in building extensive and often expensive facilities, but the major advantage of this policy has been that the airline now possesses one of the most modern and up-to-date engineering bases in the world, capable of handling complete work on its fleet of Boeing 747-400s, Boeing 747-200s, Boeing 747-300s, Airbus A310-300s and Boeing 737-800s. The most important acquisitions have been the B-777-200 LR aircraft with which Air India has launched the daily non-stop direct flight between Mumbai and New York on 1^st August 2007 and will launch the daily non-stop direct flight between Delhi and New York on 8^th February 2007.

The airline’s historic and Herculean effort of airlifting over 110,000 stranded Indian nationals from Amman to Mumbai during August-October 1990 was, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the largest evacuation of civilians and was featured in its 1993 edition.

The New Air India

The New Air India is the merged entity comprising the two state owned carriers – Indian Airlines and Air India. The Government on 1^st March 2007 approved the merger of the two public sector carriers in to a new company – National Aviation Company of India Ltd., which was incorporated on 30^th March 2007 with its headquarters at Mumbai. The brand name of the new airline is Air India and its logo remains the Maharaja. The new airline is the largest in the country, with a fleet size of almost 120, comparable to other airlines in Asia, and a further 111 aircraft on order.

The merged entity now has an integrated national and international footprint and is enabling these two airlines to pool their resources, achieve synergies, face competition and establishing new benchmarks for efficiency and reliability. Though the formal merger of the two airlines has been completed in August 2007 and integration of operations will proceed in a phased manner over the next two years.

The merger is in keeping with the industry trend of moving towards consolidation to achieve synergies and reduce costs. The merged airline is now offering an integrated schedule from interior points in India to various international destinations and vice versa, offering seamless connectivity to passengers.

A larger and stronger public sector national carrier is expected to increase regional connectivity to hitherto under services and un-serviced destinations.

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Promoting Communal Harmony

Promoting Communal Harmony

In our country people belonging to various religions live in harmony, but there are occasions when the communal fabric gets disturbed, often on trivial issues. It is the responsibility of all sections of society to ensure peace and brotherhood so that all round development of the country takes places rapidly.

The police have a great role to play in promotion of communal harmony and national integration. They come in contact with the general public in the process of performing their duties far more frequently then most other bodies of civil servants of the Government. In such a situation, interaction with vision, understanding, tact, compassion and humour by the police will not only raise the public esteem of the police but will also lead to a healthy police-public relationship, and secure the desired measures of public involvement and cooperation in promotion of communal harmony.

Keeping this in mind, the National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH) has been organizing seminars with the aim of effective sensitization of the police officers so that they become the torchbearers of communal harmony and national integration in their day to day functioning. The first such seminar was held at Haryana Police Academy, Madhuban, in August 2007 and the second one in Mumbai in October 2007. The Foundation, which is working silently for promotion of communal harmony, has also supplied reading materials on the role of police in promotion of communal harmony and national integration, constitutional and statutory provisions relating to communal harmony. These seminars have been quite successful in spreading the message of communal harmony and national integration amongst the police officers.

The Foundation is an autonomous organization registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. It functions under the aegis of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Union Home Minister is the Chairman of the Governing Council. The principal objectives of the Foundation is to foster communal harmony, fraternity and national integration in general, and facilitate physical and psychological rehabilitation of the child victims of caste, communal, ethnic or terrorist violence, in particular. The NFCH undertakes and assists state governments, local administration, non-governmental organizations, universities, colleges and schools, social activists, scholars, researchers and students in undertaking activities and programmes aimed at promoting harmony at local, state and national levels.

Though there have been some incidents of communal violence in certain States, there has been no major communal riot in any part of the country in 2007. Proactive role of the Central and State Governments prevented escalation of communal violence at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh and Indore in Madhya Pradesh last year. All states are advised to keep a close watch on the situation with communal overtones and take early steps to prevent any flare up. Over the last five years the incidents of communal violence have gradually come down. The decline is attributed to the Centre closely monitoring the situation and keeping a strict vigil on the activities of individuals and organizations to ensure that the situation remains under control. The activities of all organizations having a bearing on maintenance of communal harmony in the country are under constant watch of the law enforcing agencies.

The Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill 2005 has been introduced in the Rajya Sabha. The Bill has been referred to the Department Related Standing Committee of Home Affairs. The report of the Standing Committee, on the basis of suggestions made by several individuals and organizations with regard to the Bill, has been received. The report and various suggestions received are being examined in the Ministry in consultation with the Ministry of Law and Justice and others for further necessary action.

The Good Samaritan

Playing the role of a Good Samaritan, the NFCH provides financial assistance to children who are orphaned or become destitute in caste, communal, ethic and terrorists violence for their care and education. Assistance is provided at the rate of Rs.9,600 per annum per child in ‘A’ and ‘B’ class cities and Rs.9,000 per annum per child at other places without any restriction on the number of children in a family. Additional assistance at the rate of Rs.1,800 per annum per child is extended for undergoing vocational training. Children in the age group of 0-18 years (extended to 21 years in appropriate cases) whose families are below poverty line (Rs.31,600 in urban areas and Rs.22,400 in rural areas per family per annum) are eligible under the assistance provided they pursue their study after the age of five. Assistance is sanctioned for 12 months at a time coinciding with the academic session of the child and is renewed on year-to-year basis. The Foundation aims at providing assistance to every single eligible child victim of violence so that such children, after receiving proper education become responsible and productive citizens. The Foundation has stepped up its liaison with State Governments for ensuring assistance to every eligible child, both in the categories of fresh cases and renewal cases. The NFCH has to necessarily depend on States and particularly District administrations for identification of orphaned or destitute children and for submission of their applications along with necessary documents. Every year awards are given by the Foundation to individual and an institution for their outstanding contribution to the cause of communal harmony and national integration. Instituted in 1997, the award has acquired an aura of its own. The Foundation is striving for greater publicity for the awards so as to ensure that cases of as many deserving cases as possible are placed before the jury for selection.

Aimed at creating awareness about communal harmony and national integration, the Foundation extends assistance to state administrations and non-governmental organizations for holding debates, seminars, workshop, painting, poster, slogan or essay writing competition, musical and cultural programmes, kavi sammelans and mushairas. The Foundation is striving to encourage and support as many organizations as possible to take up, on a significant scale activities related to promotion of communal harmony and national integration. The Foundation extends financial assistance to state/union territory administrations for organizing inter-community ‘milans’ (get together) on important festivals like Eid, Deepawali and Christmas subject to certain monetary ceiling. ‘Sadbhavana clubs’ have been established in educational institutions to sensitize students and motivate them to work for promoting communal harmony and national integration. The clubs aim at inculcating social values like fraternity, love and peace among the young generation. They strengthen bonds of unity and affinity and promote belief in the principles of non-violence in the society. The Foundation associates itself with important inter-community festivals like “Phool-Walon-Ki-Sair” in Delhi, and “Nauchandi” festival in Meerut and “Deva Mela” in Barabanki, both in Uttar Pradesh, to promote better understanding among various communities.

Communal Harmony Campaign

Since its inception in 1992, the Foundation has been taking active part in communal harmony campaign and has extended financial assistance of over Rs.16 crore for rehabilitation of 8,849 children up to December 31, 2006. It also assists non-governmental organizations under the project “Cooperation” and grants fellowships for undertaking research in field situation in the communally sensitive districts.

The Union Home Ministry on its part gives “Kabir Puraskar” national award to those promoting communal harmony by showing physical and moral courage while saving the lives and property of members of another community during communal riots, caste conflicts or ethnic clashes. While “Sankalp Divas” is observed on October 31 every year, “Qaumi Ekta Week” is observed from November 19 to 25.

The Home Ministry also encourages voluntary organizations to undertake activities for the cause of national integration and communal harmony through cultural shows, essay and painting competitions, inter-regional camps and exhibitions.

It is the cumulative result of all these efforts that a sense of communal harmony prevails in the country by and large as is reflected in the Home Ministry statistics.

Subhashis Mittra

*Chief Home Affairs Correspondent, PTI

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