Cornerstones

Population aged under 15 years in 2005:

Sourced from Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth

In a country like India, with over 400 million youth by 2022, the three most important policies that form the cornerstones of an economy include:

Basic Education Needless to say basic education, expected to be achieved through the Right To Education Act, is the most important step that has been taken in this direction.

However, it is unlikely that Indian economy can provide so many white collar jobs and therefore may result in inadequate returns to education. Besides, of course the issue of supply of education remains, after all only so many graduate out of the IIT and IIM. What is required is vocational training.

Given that cities are the places where a large proportion of this youth is likely to be employed, Housing policies assume as much importance as the above two. With the present land demand and supply dynamics, the real estate costs make it prohibitive for a large proportion to access affordable housing. Capabilities that enable one to earn livelihood but not enough to afford shelter are rendered useless! Constant exclusion makes white collar jobs with remunerative returns seem like the only solution to the issue of housing in cities. Govt. policies targeted towards provision of low cost housing are thus the third supporting pillar.

Fiscal implications of RTE

The GoI has enacted the RTE with a vision to provide ‘free’ elementary education (class one to eight) to ‘each’ child in the age group six to fourteen. Capital task, the need of the hour, particularly in view of the demographics of India where over 35 crores, currently in the zero – fourteen age group will add to work force over the next fifteen years.

However, RTE will have large fiscal implications, as the Govt will need to step up its education expenditure. Expenditure will rise on account of existing schools with current enrolments to become RTE norms compliant (in terms of infrastructure, number of teachers etc). Further, ‘compulsory’ education will entail students currently out of schools to be enrolled; new schools will need to be built and additional teachers employed. The act looks to provide training and learning material to teachers and schools. ‘Free’ education will entail reimbursing students’ textbook, writing material and uniform costs.

To see detailed estimates for two components of total costs - infrastructure and teachers, for govt. schools in rural India, please see:

http://www.accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/files/state-report-cards/paisa2010report.pdf

Demographic estimates from 'Indian Demographic Scenario, 2025' by Prof. P N Mari Bhatt