4.3 It does not come as any surprise therefore, that actual achieve- ment lags behind the NPE objectives. when we consider how distant we are from the goal, the gains of the last few years fade by comparison into insignificance. There are still (Fifth All India Educational Survey) about 90 lakhs population in more than 30,000 habitations with population of 300 or more without a Primary School within one Km. 1.46 crores ( approx.) population are still in habitations with less than 300 population yet to be served with a primary school within one Km.
4.4 Much of the optimism over the high enrolment rates is dispelled when we consider that the Net Enrolment Ratios are much smaller by an estimated 22% approximately. In addition the dropout rates continue to be a cause for concern. Although the rate has indeed been decreas- ing steadily (Annex-IV) over the years, the 1986-87 figure still stood at 50.72% for Classes I-V, with as many as 13 States having a rate higher than the national average. (Rajasthan with 72.45% being the highest).The dropout rate at the end of Class VIII stood at 68.89%. In other words, if 100 children enter Class 1,50 drop out by Class-V and another 20 by Class VIII. (Significantly, 26 children drop-Out by the end of the Class I itself).
5. The Unfulfilled task: 5.1 Calculating the number of children who are still to be enrolled in order to reach UEE is not a simple task, and, in the context of the problem of retention and attendance, not even the Whole task. Obviously, it is not enough to bring children to school; one must ensure that they stay there for a minimum of 5 years, attend regularly and learn at least upto the minimum level of learning for Class V. Still, if projections are to be made, if only for reasons of continuity in target projection from the VII to the VIII Plan and to lay down one of the parameters of our objective, we may proceed to make estimates as given below, keeping in mind the uncertainty of the variables taken into account. Previous planning in elementary educa- tion has relied mainly on the gross enrolment ratio (GER), as the principal indicator of progress towards UEE. This however, is often unreliable and does not reflect the actual attendance and effective participation of the Students in learning. Secondly the GER is great- er than the Net enrolment ratio (the difference being made up of children outside the age group 6-11 years); and this factor, placed at 20-25%, is arrived at by estimates only. Thirdly, the population projection on which the enrolment ratios are based, taking family planning targets into account, have often turned out to be optimistic. Fourthly, With the redoubled efforts and fresh initiatives to reach UEE since 1986, any calculation of the growth rate on this basis of previous years' data is likely to be incorrect. Keeping these factors in mind the attempt is to define the gap in terms of figures may yet be made :
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Primary Stage: 5.1.1 Population in the age-group 6-10 year in the base and the terminal years of the Eight Five Year Plan as projected by the office of the Registrar General of India are reproduced below:-
5.1.2 Projected Population in the age-group 6-10 years
(in crores)
Year Boys Girls Total
1989-90 4.999 4.736 9.735
1994-95 5 .196 4.918 10.114
5.2 All children in primary classes are not necessarily from the age- group of 6-10 years. A large number of these children are either under-age or over age. The problem of children outside the age-group of 6-10 years is particularly serious in rural areas. The extent of over-age and under-age children in relation to the total enrolment at the primary stage has been estimated at 22% for the country as a whole with wide variations in different States. Based on this national average of over age and tinder-age children, the estimated enrolment corresponding to the Population in 1989-90 and 1994-95 works out to 11.877 crores and 12.339 crores respectively.
5.2.1 At the end of Seventh Plan by 1989-90 the expected enrolment in the formal school system may be taken at 9.89 crores (8.39 crores in 1984-85 and an average yearly increase of 30 lakhs). In the non- formal Stream the enrolments may be taken at about 6.5 lakhs.
5.2.2 Additional enrolments to he covered during the Eighth Plan period would, therefore approx. be 1.55 crore
5.2.3 Upper Primary Stage At the upper primary stage, the scenario may be projected as
5.2,4 Population projections for 1990-91 and 1994-95 in the age-group 11-14 years, which corresponds to middle Stage Of education, are given below :
5.2.5 Projected population in the age-group 11-14 years:
(in crores)
Year Boys Girls Total
1990-90 3.715 3.528 7.243
1994-95 4.022 3.806 7.828
5.2.6 The problem of over-age and children also affects the middle stage, We have assumed the same adjustment rate of 22% for the middle stage. Based on this assumption the adjusted enrolment figures for the middle stage for 1990-91 and 1994-95 are estimated at 8.836 and 9.550 crores respectively.
5.2.7 According to Selected Educational Statistics (Ministry of Education, Govt. of India) for 1985-86, 86-87, 87-88, total enrolment in Classes VI-VIII in the country was 2.81, 2.88 and 2.99 crores respectively, On an average, we may take 12.5 lakh children as added to the middle, Stage annually during 1985-88 in the formal system. In the NFE system the additionality would be an inconsequential about 0.7 lakh.
5.2.8 Accepting this additionality the enrolment at the upper primary stage would work out to 3.25 crores at end of the 7th Plan as against the target Of 8.836 crores. The Eighth Plan target of additional coverage at the middle stage would be then 6.31 crores (9- 550-3.25 crores).
6. Difficult and Backward Groups 6.1 Having made the above calculations, it is felt necessary, on the basis of the experience gained in the implementation of the VII Plan to underscore the conclusion reached, that an overview of this nature does project
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the problem n its proper dimensions. There is need as never before to look at the segregated picture and evolve strategies to tackle the problem-areas and islands of backwardness.
7. Backward Areas: 7.1 We have, since 1977 been looking at the target, group state wise, and focussing attention on the states classified as Educationally Backward-viz. Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, J&K, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh since it became a State. Since 1987, however, the case for further ,segregation has been evident and the need felt for attention to the backward districts of other States.
7.2 A study of the district-wise Picture is revealing. In Annex-V districts have been ranked for educational backwardness on a simple, admittedly imperfect basis, by assigning equal weightage to four parameters, namely the literacy rate, the female literacy rate, the gross enrolment ratio for primary level and the gross enrolment ratio for primary level for females. By these criteria, all but 2 of the 100 most backward districts are from the Educationally Backward States; if we look at the first 150 districts, only 4 are from other States, and among the first 200, we find only 9 districts from the other States.
7.3 The obvious conclusions would be that the categorisation of the educationally backward States is still valid. Except West Bengal, which has only 2 districts in the 1st two hundred (none in the first 100) the educationally backward States still uniformly lag behind. if we study the list more closely, and look at each criterion separately for the 100 most backward districts, we see that 54 districts continue on all the 4 separate lists, as well as on the joint list of all the 4 indicators. These maybe identified as the Most Backward, the ones on whom attention and effort must be concentrated in the Eighth Plan most intensively of all.
7.4 The view that emerges is that the classification of the VII Plan may well be usefully continued in the VIII. Plan viz. the 10 educationally backward States, but may be extended to cover the educationally backward districts in other States. Additionally within the educationally backward States, the focus of attention should remain on the Most Backward districts and all schemes and strategies in the VIII Plan must address these first of all.
8. Girls : 8.1 Statistics support the contention that girls-particularly girls in the rural areas- are the single most important group causing the shortfall from UEE :
Percentage of Girls enrolment to Total Enrolment (1986):
Classes I-V Classes VI-VIII
(6-11 years) (11-14 years)
All India 41.16% 35.45%
(Total)
Rural Areas 39.89% 32.05%
Source : 5th All India Educational Survey (NCERT).
The gross enrolment ratio for girls in Classes I-V ages 6-11 in 1986 was 79.89% as against 106.42% for boys. More significantly, while this ratio did not fall below about 86% for boys in any State, for girls it varied from about 50% upwards. For Classes VI - VIII (ages 11-14) the gross enrolment ratio was 60.61% for boys and front 16% upwards in the case of girls. The difference in rural areas is even sharper, leading us to the obvious inference that educational backwardness of an area is now largely a matter of girls' education; and thence, that strategies must give attention and funds on priority to correcting this imbalance. One may add that attention to the worst off- group should automatically improve the position in the better-off groups-the boys, and the urban girls- and may well prove to be the solution to the UEE problem.
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9. Working Children: 9.1 There are several estimates regarding the incidence of child labour in India.The comparable data can be had only from the decennial Census figures, which shows the population of child workers in 1981 at 81 lakh boys and 55 lakh girls (1.36 crores). Of these, less than 7% are in urban areas. The state-wise break-up of the Child Labour Participation Rate (CLPR) shows us Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh figure as the worst States, and Kerala, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and, curiously, Uttar Pradesh as the better States. With the exception of Uttar Pradesh, there is also an interrelationship between the educational and economic performance of the States and the CLPR. Over 85% of the child workers are engaged in agriculture and allied activities, with the secondary and tertiary sectors having just about 12 to 15% of the share of child labour.
Distribution of total boy and girl workers in the age-group 5-14
among some employment categories
Category of worker Rural Urban
Boys Girls Boys Girls
1. Cultivators 43.9 36.8 6.1 5.3
2. Agricultural labourers 39.9 51.6 12.2 23.2
3. livestock, forestry,
fishing, etc. 7.8 3.3 3.7 1.8
4. Manufacturing,
Servicing & Repairing 4.9 5.9 39.1 38.2
5. Construction 0.4 0.5 3.3 3.2
6. Trade & Commerce 1.3 0.4 19.0 2.9
7. Services 1.5 1.3 13.3 24.6
Source : Census 1981
9.2 The other sources of information regarding Child Labour in India are National Sample Survey (NSS) rounds, and Planning Commission estimates on the basis of NSS rounds These figures are at vast vari- ance from the Census data:-
Census ('81) 1.36 crores
32nd NSS round ('78) 1.63 crores
Planning Commission ('83) 1.74 crores
9.3 The Census and NSS figures relate to children whose main occupation, according to the definition of "labour" is participation in any economic productive activity. It leaves out of consideration children who are engaged in work which cannot be called directly economic productive activity, but are nevertheless attending to the paid or unpaid work, undertaken continuously or sporadically, within or outside the family, which may be directly remunerative or which may indirectly facilitate remunerative activity. There are children, mainly girls, who are engaged in domestic work, either simple chores like running errands or washing clothes or arduous ones like fetching fuel or water or taking care of siblings; or children, mainly boys, who work at cultivation of land, tending livestock, attending to the family shop or assisting with household industry. These are also children in categories that generally go unreported, such as bonded labour, and children in conditions of abuse. They include street children too, that expanding sector of child labour engaged in such marginally economic activities as hawking newspapers, cleaning cars, shining shoes, etc.
9.4 The only estimate of working children that encompasses all these categories was made by the Operations Research Group, Baroda (ORG), in a study supported by the Government of India. It came up with a figure of 4.4 crores. It is likely to be nearer the truth than the other estimates.
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9.5 Clearly, therefore, this large category of working children will have to be targetted as a special group requiring special strategies and programme. The situation also implies disaggregated target- setting and decentralised planning for particular local areas, since the nature of this problem and the measures that will be required locally must vary a great deal from place to place and from occupation to occupation
10. Scheduled Castes and scheduled Tribes : 10.1 The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are already well established categories and distinct target groups under the existing pattern of planning. The Scheduled Castes account for about 15.8% of the total population, the Scheduled Tribes for 7.8%. Both groups, overall, do worse than the general population in terms of enrolment, literacy and other indications of progress in elementary education. However, these are not to be regarded as homogenous target groups in all respects. The variation between different Scheduled Castes groups is quite significant and regionally even Scheduled Caste girls in some parts of the country, like Kerala, will be doing better than non- Scheduled Caste boys in some of the more backward States and dis- tricts. Some of the Scheduled Tribes are noticeably ahead of the country as a whole. Therefore, it will be necessary to refine the identification of target groups even among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and identify particular sub-groups which are very handicapped and require particular attention. These exceptionally disadvantaged groups should be identified, on a Block or Tehsil basis, as being those whose level of literacy is much below the general level of literacy in the State. As regards minorities, again, consideration will have to be given both to linguistic and to religious minorities. In the case of religious minorities-who may he of different religions in different parts of the country-it will be necessary to identify the backward groups. In many parts of the country it will be the Muslim community who will need special attention on a local basis, particularly in regard to girls' education.
11. Handicapped children 11.1 Handicapped children Would include those who are orthopaedically handicapped, those with hearing impairments, visual impairments, the mentally handicapped and others. These are a distinct target group which will need to be addressed by special programmes in terms of the objectives of National Policy on Education. viz., "to integrate the physically and mentally handicapped with the general community as equal partners to prepare them for normal growth and to enable them to face life with courage and confidence."
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