6 Strategy for a new system of education --DONE

checked on 13-08-2012

NEW STRATEGY FOR EDUCATION

- Leena Mehendale

I.          INTRODUCTION

            The fast deterioration in the social life and the loss of ethical values in India in the last sixty five years are quite obvious and they are the indices of the ineffectiveness of our educational system.  The problems currently facing the country as a whole are excessive wide spread corruption, Consumerism, population growth, extreme poverty, increasing number of families below poverty line, a widening economic gap between rich and poor sections, rising inflation, capital flight, rising unemployment, and lethargy or indifferent attitude in government offices leading to worsening of government administration, loss of moral and ethical values in all sections of the society, indifference towards nationalistic commitments, brain drain and scarcity of resources.  All this results in accelerating the deterioration of social order and harmony. 

            While each of the above problems may appear to have a short term solution which is independent of the other problems, holistic view of the above problems brings one to a realisation that the remedy has to be a comprehensive and long term remedy.  It is then appreciated that the solution demands character building as one important ingradient and hence it will come only through the process of education.

            It is also apparent that the present system of education is not geared to give either short term or long term solution to the  above problems.  In the following pages I have made an attempt to highlight what should be the objectives of education, and the main reasons why and how the present system fails to achieve these objectives.  Further on, I give  an outline of the new strategy which I propose for correcting these lacunae.

II          WHAT ARE THE OBJECTIVE OF EDUCATION?

            A)        From the point of view of the SOCIETY or the NATION-

            The society or the nation is a harmonious group of individuals.  The maintenance of this harmony is the major prerequisite for the existence or development of the society.  So the system of education in a society must be such which preserves, propogates and perpetuates education and also leads to betterment of the society.

            The betterment of the society can be partly measured by answering some questions as:

Are the basic needs of Roti Kapada, Makan, of everyone fulfilled within reasonable efforts?

Is the society gorwing richer?

Is there enought material production and materialistic gains?

Does the socio-economic system permit equitable distribution of wealth and production?

Is there a reduction in the drudgery of the common man?

Does the environment permit pursuit of excellence?

Does the environment permit inculcation and establishment of ethical and personal value systems alongwith pursuit of freedom and fearlessness?

Do the people have a sense of commitment towards:

a)         the society,

b)         the cultural and philosophical heritage,

c)         the nation?

Do people regard contentedness as a cherished value?

Does the society uphold truth as the ultimate goal?

            The answers of above questions must be given in an integrated fashion.  The pursuit of any of them in isolation will make the society’s growth lop sided.  For example, as the experience of western countries has shown, an increase in the richness alone, not coupled with contentment can also lead to disastrous results.

            The above questions also give us a clue to objectives of education for an individual.

            B)        From INDIVIDUAL’S point of view:-

            The education for an individual,

           

            -           Must make him better equipped to earn his living.

            -           Must encourage him to the pursuit of excellence.

            -           Must build up the sense of belonging towards the society and the nation.

            -           Must build up the sense of compassion and friendliness towards others.

            -           Must bring in appreciation of social harmony.

            -           Must inculcate dignity of human life and human labour.

III        SHORTCOMINGS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM

            Our constitution is committed to the principle of equality of opportunities.  For this, universalisation of education is absolutely necessary.  As a policy we have a committment to the universalisation of education, recently reinforced by Right To Education Act.  We also have a system of education with a well developed, broad base and a standardised syllabus.  Still we have not been able to achieve universalisation even at the elementary level.  Resource crunch  appears to be the major reason.  However, this is not the only cause.  There are certain inherent defects in the present education system.  These have been high-lighted from time to time in the reports of various committees as well as by various academicians and thinkers. Without going into details I would enlist some of them which may or may not have been opioned elsewhere.

1. The present system fails to imbibe ethical and nationalistic values in the  individual.
2. With the present system of education perhaps the information level of the individual goes up.  However, the ability of logical thinking, scientific attitude, and appreciation of art,            beauty or excellence is not created. Education must make a man a thinker and a worker simultaneously.  This is not achieved in the present system of education.
3. There is a serious lack of vocational training. Education must generate a desire and confidence in an individual to acquire skill and strength in his two hands and to use them.  Since this is not generated we have lost the sense of dignity of human labour and of human strength. 
4. The present system prepares a man mainly to work in clerical jobs.  Hence there is a tremendous drain of educated unempoyed people from rural to urban areas.  This leads to a complete breakdown of civic facilities in urban areas and to an enormous quality deterioration in rural areas, both being great problems for all our planners.  Brain-drain to developed countries is a further menace.
5. The type of vocational syllabus presently available is also meant  to prepare highly professional groups for whom the market is available only in cities or developed countries outside India.  Vocational courses which are available today are mostly for typists, stengoraphers, business managers, computer programmers, etc. which cater to the needs of urban areas.  Vocational courses relevant for rural areas have not been designed.  The package of education should be such which will upgrade the knowledge and skill of the village farmer or a village artisan which will improve his earnings and facilitate his staying back in rural areas and not force him to leave the village and settle in urban areas.
6. The biggest draw-back of the present system of education is wastage of time in the life of the student.  It is not yet fully appreciated by us in India that Time is a major investment.  In present system, to reach a respectable level of education, one has to spend at least ten years to reach the level of Matriculation.  At the end of such a long Time investment the student is ill-equipped to earn something on his own and he becomes necessarily a job seeker.  Since jobs are not available he has to, per force, enroll himself for higher education spending additional four to six years in the hope that this will increase the chances of getting a job.  At the end there is no guarantee of employment and this leads to frustration.  Thus after investing a lot of time and money not only  of his family but also of the society, one finds the process of education to be a futile exercise for satisfying his immediate needs.  This leads to a feeling that the way to a job or to riches is not through education, efficiency or honesty but through favoritism, corruption, dishonesty or violence.  This has led to the erosion of value system. On the other hand, no education means a sure loss both to the individual and to the society.
7. The wastage of time hits hard at the poorer section.  In the families below poverty line a child is considered and used as an earning member of the family right at the age of seven years. Like it or not, the parents in the poor families can ill-afford to send the child for schooling for a long and continuous period of ten years.  Therefore the system of education must be developed with such children in mind who can attend schools only for four years at the most.  If at all they can join the schooling system again, it will be possible for them only after a certain gap.  Hence the package of education should be such where vocational and academic training are well-integrated so that the children coming our of schools after four years would definitely have acquired at least a semi-skill if not the total skill.  For those  who can attend school for another three years or five years, higher skills can be imparted.  This idea will be elaborated further shortly.

The total expenditure on education in the present system is very high.  There is very little scope for providing additional sizeable outlay for spending on education.  Two possible solutions which have been pursued by govt for some years now are 

• (i) to privatize the education so that the education administration will be taken up only by those who can manage it and the actual schooling will be undertaken by those who can afford it -- this was the typical remedy suggested by IMF and World Bank to many of its borrower countries of the third world and
• (ii) to invite more and more FDI for higher education.  

Both are defective because they both take away the status of education as a Human Resource Builder and makes it a market-commodity. The first gives a virtual go bye to the goal of universalization of education while the second forgets the need of the nation for having highly skilled and professional groups at affordable costs. 

IV.       SUGGESTED STRATEGY

1.         Introduce vocational education from the beginning:

            There can be no two opinions about the need for introducing a much higher quantum of vocational education.  In the present system the bias is entirely in favour of academic inputs at least in the initial period.  In the present set up of (10+2+3), systematic vocational education starts only at the +2 stage, that is, only after the initial ten years of academic education; this is too late. Today our budget for vocational education is almost one-thousandth of the total budget for education. A small attempt at earlier vocational education has been going on by providing a subject of “work experience” at standard eight in the schools.  However, there is no proper integration of the syllabus of work experience with subsequent vocational or technical or professional education.  For the rural poor even the Time Investment of seven years is quite expensive.  This has resulted in rendering the education irrelevant for a large section of the society.  As the result of this the returns on the investment in education sector are very low both from the point of view of the individual as well  as the country.  Hence introduction of vocational education and its proper integration with the academic syllabus from the very beginning of the schooling is immediately needed. 

            It must be emphasised further  that this syllabus must be uniform for all.  No distinction must be made and  no separate or optional syllabi be provided for those who may want to opt for education with academic bias alone.

            This recommendation  necessitates that the vocational component must be introduced the age of 6 or 7 years. Some may feel that it will surely necessitate an increased budget provision on primary education.  However, as discussed ahead, this increase will not be very substantial.

2.         Condense the present syllabus

            The present span of education should be drastically condensed.  What is presently covered in the first four years can really be covered in two years if designed more imaginatively.  With this, one can integrate a proper vocational syllabus so as  to make a four year primary education course.  In these four years a student coming out of the school will have covered a good basic understanding of two or three vocations, and selectively he would have covered the academic syllabus up to the present seventh standard.  He would thus definitely have a better earning capacity.  Such a programme could be easily and effectively supplemented through distance learning on television network which has well-penetrated rural areas.  The course presently covered in next five years, this is, upto + 2 stage (12th standard) can also be condensed to three years. Next comes the present five years period of college education (under graduate + post graduate).  This should be either condensed or utilised for acquisition of high technical skills, keeping these two options open for the students.

            Thus the new course will be of 4+3+5 or twelve years duration as against the present duration of seventeen years. And the first 4 years must give a life-sustaining education.

            Something must be said here in brief about the coverage of subjects.  In the new four years course the emphasis will be on such subjects which promote thinking ability, scientific attitude, respect of moral values, especially Truth, compassion towards others, and appreciation of art.  In addition great emphasis will be needed on the acquisition of skills and vocation. These vocations must be more relevant for rural life which means that they have to be suitable to bring a wide range of intermediate technologies.  So the stress will have to be on the subjects such as arithmetic, literacy, language, poetry, agriculture, environment, soil, botany, smithy, masonry work, marketing, handicraft, commerce, account keeping, horticulture, team games, stage performance, water management, afforestation, horticulture and agriculture practices, basic electronic assembly work, fisheries, sericulture etc.  This list of vocations is very wide and a syllabus has to be prepared for each keeping in mind the possible end use and proper integration.

            Thus the present emphasis on knowledge alone will be changed into a balanced emphasis on knowledge, attitude and skills - the three pillars of any education system.

            When a short time of four years spent in education is able to be useful and relevant for immediate earning, then ordinarily it would satisfy the basic needs of the people and this will tend to make them more orderly and generous towards others.

            It can be argued that the attempt of basic education based on Gandhian philosophy has failed long ago and it may not be, therefore, worthwhile to pursue vocational training from the beginning of the schooling system.  However, it is necessary to examine the causes of failure of the pattern of basic education which was tried out during the late fifties.  In those days the basic education was considered synonymous with total ban on mechanisation.  Hence the courses included in basic education pattern had never gone beyond charkha spinning, or sowing or weeding operations   agriculture plots of the schools.  It was not appreciated that for establishing wider industrial base we have to encourage such intermediate vocations, which will permit the spread of low capital intensive industries in rural areas where a combination of mechanization and automation alongwith a sizeable employment generation would be achieved.  With complete negation of mechanization one cannot survive in competition with the developed countries, plus it also leads to inefficient and wasteful use of material resources available in the country. On the other hand, to plan blindly in favour of heavy automation will lead to large scale employment and thus tremendous wastage of human resources and human potential.  The experience of basic education failed mainly because it would not recognise the importance of balanced mechanisation or the need or preparing the syllabi for appropriate vocational courses.

            It it, therefore, advocated that the present pattern of education 10+2+3+2 (for post graduate) or 10+2+5 (for technical degrees such as engineering, doctor, Chartered accountant, etc.) should be condensed to a new pattern of 4+3+5 in which the last stage would be recognised as degree education or college education.  At present the syllabus starts with hundred percent thrust on academic side while vocational component is introduced only after seven to ten years.  Instead, the new pattern will start with a much higher thrust on vocational component and the academic component will gradually increase up to fifty percent in the second or +3 stage. The syllabus can be gradually expanded to include more and more interdepartmental subjects, as a student goes to higher classes.  In fact, some of us who agree with this idea have already started working on detailed syllabi preparation. 

3.         Make teaching a precondition for admission to higher education.

            It shoule be made compulsory that every student who desires to undertake higher education (+5 stage) should work as the teacher herself or himself before she or  he is given admission for higher education.  This policy is most urgently needed for two reasons: firstly the teaching services will help to reduce the budget requirement on education because the service will be available at less cost than the services of normal terachers. The present shortage of teachers can also be taken care of. More importantly,  this will also lead to sense of commitments towards the society and help in developing a feeling of comradery and harmony.  The teaching need not be compulsory for those who may want to leave the school after completion of their seven years.  At that point a person will be adequately skilled both in vocational and entrepreneurial fields to be able to start his earnings in life. Thanks to the vocational bias, he will not be completely dependent on wage employment as in the present system; not will he be dependent on urban-based white or blue collared jobs. This in itself will reduce the burden on budget expenditure for higher education as well as on urban-migration. An analysis of the student going for present day college education shows that at least forty percent of them attend the college because they have not found any worthwhile job and they expect that the college education will improve their chances of giving a job. If, under the new scheme, such a person is permitted to enter into the main stream of life with vocational bias, he has much improved chances of self employment or wage employment. Then need for college education will reduce greatly. This in itself is desirable from the point of view of the budget and resource deployment. The compulsion of teaching need not be imposed on such persons but should be limited only to those who want to take up higher education and, therefore, the society is going to spend a huge amount on themn (as the society is also paying today, for those who can afford to spend time in schools and colleges).

            It should, therefore, be made compulsory that anyone who seeks admission to college education must work as a teacher for one year. After three years in college, he must do teaching job for one more year, and the person wanting to avail of foreign scholarships or doctorates must render teaching services for a third year.

            Many questions may be raised on this suggestion.  But I consider three of them to be more pertinent.  First is how to streamline the deployment of a huge number of students every year.  For this, administrative machinery of the education department will have to work more deligently, but this is not a very difficult task.  Gradually as more population will go into earning directly, this number will also reduce to some extent.  Second question is whether these student-teachers will have any commitment towards the students or the teaching job which is a compulsory imposition on them.  I think that a totally negative view is not warranted.  Young and impressionable students coming out of school are still filled with ideology.  It will also be necessary to emphasize this ideology during their student days.  In any case, no improvement in the education inputs or in the social condition can be expected if proper ideology and attitudes are not imbibed as a part of value system.  Third will be the question of their having proper teaching skills.  This can be taken care by introducing this subject in their earlier course itself, but more pertinent is the fact that presumably they will all be bright students and hence fast on picking up teaching skills. 

            I feel that the teaching service should not, however,. be completely without remuneration.  They should be paid suitable salary.

            The concept of social service is not new, for example medical interness are required to render social service in the field of health. However, when a teaching service is rendered, it helps reducing the budget on education.  The teacher himself  learns the qualities of leadership, compassion and commitment.  It is true that lot of efforts have to be made during the student phase for inculcating the right values because the society depends very much on the qualities and right attitudes of a teacher.  These efforts are particularly necessary in those areas whre the teacher’s qualities and atitudes need to be different from a  manager’s qualities and attitudes. For example, a manager should learn how to utilise the strong points of a person to get the best work out of him but the teacher must learn how to locate the weak points of a person and be able to correct them.  I emphasize this point because in today’s education the thrust is on equipping a student to be a better manager and not a better teacher.

4.         Introduce much bigger network of creches , mobile creches and Anganwadies

            In rural areas one important reason why the universalisation of education has not been achieved or why the percentage of girls going to schools in less is that the elder children of the family, especially the girls are required to look after the younger children.  If a well deveoloped network of creches and anganwadies is established it will serve four main objectives:

• First: it will relieve the elder child for going to school.
• Second: it will allow the rural women folk to feel free from the anxiety of their children and this will increase their productivity on the jobs.
• Third:  it will be much easier to introduce health care service to this group of children with a much better success rate.
• Fourth: Some useful attitudes such as cleanliness, sharing, team work, discipline, inquisitiveness etc. can be taught to them together.  This is the right stage and atmosphere where the pleasures of learning can be revealed most imaginatively and effectively to a child.

5.         Ensure local participation and learn-what-you-like

            It is suggested that for every locality of two to three hundred families there should be a school and the management of the school should have large participation of  the people of the locality.  Initially this will have to be restricted only for primary schools because this will necessitate that people should be first of all motivated to understand that well-educated younger generation is their need too  even if they do not have school-going children and hence their responsibility also.

            How to involve parents and even non parent residents in a more meaningful education will be a subject for a different discussion and article.  But one idea needs to be elaborated.  The vocational skills taught in various schools must be networked and interlinked by using some spatial planning techniques, so as to  provide a bigger variety and choice. The parents participation can be useful in this.  It will also be useful in resource generation, proper inspection and immediate appreciation, leading to motivation, commitment and qualitative development.

            I also feel that a student will be facilitated to choose a subject of his liking because (i) he will be exposed to many vocations and (ii) because of the participation of the whole community he will have a more realistic understanding of the professsional needs of the society to which he can devote himself.  The concept of “Education through the subject of liking or inherent aptitude” can be practised better when we have a spatial network and community participation.

V.        In sumary

            Two areas of thrust have been discussed.  One is to adopt early vocationalisation coupled with shortened span so as to orient Education towards self sufficiency and make it less expensive, both time wise and money wise.  Second is to emphasize the building up of attitudes like Truthfulness, Commitment, compassion, friendliness and honesty.  It is felt that these can come better by making students to teach. Introduction of this new strategy will make education more relevant and less expensive thus ensuring a better coverage.  This harmony and social order is highly dependent on our being able to provide equal opportunities as well as a more relevant education.  Only such an education can ensure peace and development in the society.

xxx 5 Career Opportunities in IAS --All ready

4 Fuel Does Grow on Trees - DONE

CHECKED on 13-08-2012 for book
Fuel Does Grow on Trees
Leena Mehendale 

The burning of fossil fuels at the current rate is likely to create an environmental crisis. In India, bio-diesel, an alternative and renewable source of energy, is gaining momentum. Bio-diesel burns cleaner and is available from natural, renewable sources such as tree-borne oilseed and animal fats. Like petroleum diesel, bio-diesel operates in compression and ignition engines.

Blends of up to 20% bio-diesel (mixed with petroleum diesel) can be used in nearly all diesel and most storage and distribution equipment. These low-level blends (20% and less) generally do not require any engine modifications. Bio-diesel can provide the same payload capacity as diesel.

India consumes about nine million tones of petrol and 42 million tonnes of diesel, the crude import bill in the region of Rs. 1,10,000 crore. A blend of ethanol in petrol and bio-diesel in diesel will, therefore, make a big difference both in our import bill as well as in the environment impact. Bio-diesel has 10% built-in oxygen and properties that would help it burn efficiently, which would, in turn, lead to less use of fossil fuel. As a tree-based source, it would mitigate the greenhouse effects.

Jatropha curcas has been identified for India as the most suitable tree-borne oilseed for production of bio-diesel, in view of the non-edible oil available from it and its presence throughout the country. The capacity of jatropha curcas to rehabilitate degraded lands by improving the land’s water retention capacity renders it suitable for up gradation of land resources. This oil needs to be converted

to bio-diesel through a simple chemical process called trans-esterification. While large plants would be useful for centralized production, smaller plants can also be started at the village level.

Jatropha plantation on wasteland can rebuild our afforestation programme. One plant of Jatropha can offset 0.15 tonne of carbon dioxide per year. Assuming the presence of 200 plants in a hectare, a lakh hectares of wasteland planted with jatropha can fetch 27 million carbon credit points for the country.

The current annual petro-diesel consumption in the country is 40 million tones. For blending 5% bio-diesel in petro-diesel, India needs around two million tones of bio-diesel annually. By January 2006, India’s demand for petro-diesel will touch 52 million tones. For 5% blend bio-diesel, we will need 26 lakh tones of bio-diesel. The land area required for Jatropha plantation would be 2.5 million hectares. If we can further increase the use of bio-diesel to 20%, the figures projected for January 2011 are 67 million tones of petro-diesel, 134 lakh tones of bio-diesel and 13 million hectares of land.

We need to push bio-diesel in the market. The use of bio-diesel is hampered by ad hoc production and high cost that lowers demand. If we ensure steady flow of demand, it would build up sustained production and supply and bring down the cost. Farmers are not encouraged to grow Jatropha when the demand for bio-diesel is low. The vicious cycle of high price leading to low demand and non-establishment of a supply chain, which in turn results in high prices, can be broken by an assurance of steady purchase by the government, especially oil companies.

Initial incentives have been given to promote green fuels through various methods. It is proposed that a limited subsidy be given on a reducing scale for a limited period. This would help in establishing supply chains quickly.

The proposed model of subsidy envisages the purchase of bio-diesel at a landed price of Rs. 40 per litre for the first six months, then Rs. 35 for next six months and Rs. 30 for another six. There after, it may be purchased at a minimum support price of Rs. 25 per litre. 

The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) has already established a national biofuel center, with a strong website means to work as an information bank. PCRA has developed institutional linkages for research and development in the field of biofuels with Indian Oil Corporation, Delhi College of Engineering and other R&D Institutes.

What is required now is to propagate bio-diesel as a viable crop to farmers and as a viable fuel to auto users.
The Times of India (New Delhi), 01 Jul. 2005

Ashok Sen gets award for Fundamental physics

Fundamental Physics String Theory

Indian scientist Ashoke Sen bags top physics honour

Ashoke,  an unassuming Indian scientist in Allahabad has won the world's biggest prize in physics . Ashoke Sen, a professor at the little known but exclusive Harish-Chandra Research Institute , Allahabad , was on Tuesday declared one of the winners of the first Fundamental Physics prize started by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner.

Sen and eight other scientists will get $3 million each — double of what is given with the Nobel prize. Seven of the winners are based in the United States, one in France and one in India. Sen has been awarded for his pioneering work on string theory.

Yuri Milner made billions from investments in various internet-based companies after giving up his job as researcher at Moscow's Lebedev Physical Institute. He personally selected the winners of this year's award but in future the work would be done by a panel, he told media.

Sen is considered one of the original contributors to string theory, a complex mathematical construct which is meant to resolve one of science's biggest mysteries —that gravity as explained by Einstein does not fit in with quantum theory.

Scientists in India, especially string theory practitioners in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata were overjoyed. Sunil Mukhi, chair of theoretical physics at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, said, "It should be noted that he is the only Indian among the nine awardees. That shows his world stature, and India's too," he added.

Sen studied in Shailendra Sircar Vidyalaya, and then Presidency College, in Kolkata before going to IITKanpur in 1976. He got his doctorate from State University of New York, Stonybrook and then worked at Fermilab and Stanford before returning to India. 

Prof. Sen is a rare scientist who chose to return to India after post doctoral work at prestigious institutes abroad. He said he did not miss the rarefied peer group that often makes the pursuit of academics abroad enriching.

“When I came back in 1995, I did feel a little isolated initially but that is no longer the case now. The Internet has made all possible information accessible, and in terms of a peer group I have quite a good academic circle among colleagues at the Harish Chandra Research Institute,” he said.

“As far as research funding is considered, fortunately theoretical physics hardly requires any, so I never felt any such need. The overall government and institutional support has been good enough for my work.”

Prof. Sen is optimistic about research in India.

“While one expects many more scientists and more research work, I must add that there are several small pockets in the country where great research is being done, and which can replicate the success of scientists in other countries. We do, however, need to set up many more institutes in order to attract more students to science and to hone their talent,” he said.

3 Not a Kirkol Chedchad, this Juhu incidence -- All ready

Reform the exam system : stall student suicides

Modified on 9 Aug 2012

Reform the system of  Examination : stall student suicides

This article suggests some  essential modifications in our present method of examination. The alarming number of exam-induced suicides is the biggest justification for these reforms.
It is an important argument here that actually carrying out these modifications is not a very difficult task as these reforms can be carried out on modular basis and takes advantage of facilities offered by computers.
Most importantly, any investment in Human Resource Development will pay far richer dividends hence we should be spending more efforts on carrying out these reforms.

In government parlance, the erstwhile Department of Education was renamed the Department of Human Resources. We however, have not yet started treating our masses as resources; we neither bother about their deployment nor about how to use them for further improving the resources for example, how to utilize them for reducing illiteracy. Among the many possible reforms that are called for, I treat reforms in the system of examination as most easily doable with an ingenious application of tools made available to us by the present day technology. The reform suggested here will take care of the regularly occuring, scandalous and disheartening aspect of question-papers being leaked.

Our present system of examination has evolved by keeping printing technology at the center of all logistic solutions. This is essentially a centralised system in its character. With the increasing number of children to be examined every year, the load on this centralised system is very heavy. It is necessary to change our examination pattern to bring in decentralisation by replacing the printing technology with computer technology. For this, it will be essential to prepare a question bank in the computer on different subjects and for different levels. This process has already begun on a small scale in some places. The Indian students taking the GRE examination for selection to American or other foreign universities have already been adapted to computer-based on-line examination. I am, however not suggesting wholescale but only one-third modification, I am restricting computers only to one part – that of generating a question paper while arguing that the children will continue to answer questions by traditional method – by writing and not on-line. And the process of evaluating will also remain traditional. It is only the process of preparing question-paper where quick change can be brought about.

Once school boards or universities have such a question bank, where computer memory is the store house for all questions and has the details of the levels and marks allocated to each of those questions, the computer can churn out various question papers in various combinations. It can take out desired number of copies, depending upon the number of children expected for examination. Thus taking out the question paper right at the time of examination without any breach in secrecy becomes possible; and this makes the process leak proof..

  Shifting from printing technology to computer technology will save tremendous amount of time for a very large number of teachers and administrative staff in the school boards or colleges or universities. This time and manpower resource can then be utilised for bringing in qualitative improvements in other areas, for example in evaluating the question paper.

Switch over to computerised question bank and churning out question papers directly from it is highly facilitated if the number of children per examination is less. Rather than all the children taking examination in the same subject on the same date and time, we should encourage children to take the examination according to their convenience. Let a child decide what subject, what level and when she/he wants to finish the examination. Examination centers can be opened in many places where children can come according to their convenience, let us say once in two months and take the examination in the subject and for the level of their choice.

It is important not to make it compulsory for the children to take the examination in all the subjects in the same month or in the same year. A child may be allowed to take examinations in different subjects and for different levels in different years. This means that the number of examinees per subject per course per year  will be much fewer than the present number of examinees who all have to go together for yearly examination. Hence, the teachers who are evaluating the answer papers will also do far better justice in their evaluation.

Such a system in which the computer will be containing question bank and will itself create the question paper has two advantages. Firstly, it will the reduce the menace of copying. The staff --teaching or non-teaching – that has the tendency to declare strike right in the nick of examination time thus putting the children and parents in a tense situation, will no longer do so. The system will avoid the need of transporting so many question papers to so many examination centers – which inter-alia requires a very meticulous planning and keeps the staff under tension for having to maintain the secrecy and sanctity of question papers.

It is pertinent to also speak of one related reform that I consider equally urgent. The present system under which attendance by a school or college is compulsory and a student is required to have specified minimum attendances must be stopped or at least be reduced sizably. Students unable to attend schools must not be debarred from taking examination. They should be allowed to take examination and prove their own ability and level even without formally sitting through the classes in school or college. There is a reason for advocating in favour of this informality.

The advantages of formal schooling system have been well-discussed in past and suffice to recount three important advantages.
i) The system allows a large number of students to pass through the same pattern of education and thus reduce the time and staff spent by the society for producing a standardised batch of educated children upto a certain level
ii) Different experts can sit together from time to time and discuss the changes needed in the curriculum and the reasons thereof. They can discuss the  need as well as methodology for  introducing new modern subjects. Thus there is a continuous updating of the syllabus handled by the experts.
iii) Formal education allows children to mix with the other children of different age groups.

Despite these three advantages the formal system cannot be the only right and insurmountable system. My above-suggested change in the pattern of schooling and examination appears not to have this advantage although it will promote self study. We have to think of such other systems, if we are careful about those that are per force remaining out of the system of formal education – and their number is staggeringly high. The suggested reform, specifically the reform of allowing the children to miss their school or colleges but still allowing them to take the examination or enter and exit any formal stream of schooling at their convenience is the major diversion from present system and is with merit. Our present illiteracy in the country is nearly 45%  but the whole picture is not even this green. Out of the 100 students enrolled at standard 1, only 70 reach to the  level of standard 5 and only 30 to the level of standard 9. Thus drop out rate comes to 30% upto 4th and 70 % upto 8th satndard. This worsens as we proceed further.  This speaks volumes of different inadequacies of our formal system of education that required compulsory attendance in schools. We can immediately do away with this requirement.  The control is further tyranical because once a child opts for informal system (such as open school for 10 th standard) he is not allowed regular University admission and must opt for open University such as IGNOU.

        Let us consider these cases:
a) A child who has to earn his bread by working in hotel or by any other type of child labor. such a child cannot attend school in our formal system of education.
b) A genius who wants to use much more time in developing his ability for international sports competition and whom the parents also want to encourage but are bogged down by the formal system of education which requires that this child must leave aside her/his abilities and must attend the required school hours and days without which there will be no scope allowed for improving his educational abilities by joining the formal system of education at a later day.
c) Consider the case of children who are interested in trekking, understanding environment, forest, wild life, touring world wide etc. They want to spend much more time in these activities and can take out only less time for studying a subject. If they want to get themselves evaluated in the present system of education so that in later years they may enter the formal system, then today’s system does not allow it.

       If the above three categories of children are allowed to prove their capacities and abilities by adequate reforms in our present system, then nearly 50% more children would benefit tremendously just by getting such an opportunity of evaluation of their own study and the flexibility of entering into formal system whenever they so desire.

       One more reform is equally urgent. Children who are not satisfied with the evaluation and the marks must be allowed some chance of satisfying themselves that their evaluation was broadly proper. When this is not allowed, as under the present system, it leaves a feeling of unfairness and injustice in the minds of the children. We cannot expect that while growing up and becoming adult citizens, they would have any respect for the concepts of justice and fair play.

        Yet another urgently needed reform is to allow children to write the examination in their own mother tongue rather insisting that the examination for 11th standard and above (especially in the subjects of science, engineering etc.) must be written in English language. This is a major reason for a large number of brilliant students to miss out their chance and feel frustrated and such frustration once again leads to a wastage of valuable human resources.
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Mrs. Leena Mehendale Jt. Secretary National Commission for Women

LESSONS FROM OUR DEVDASI REHABILITATION PROJECT

(prepared abridged version for book on 25-05-2012)
LESSONS FROM OUR DEVDASI REHABILITATION PROJECT

My narrative  of the work with Devdasis of Sangli and Kolhapur  is titled as --
The Integrated Rural Development Programme for Women in Developing countries:
What more can be done? 

(Published as a chapter in the book "Women, Development & survival in the third world" Edited by Halesh Afshar Longman Publication U.K.(1989)

Women are always the worst sufferers from any social evil or economic constraints. In the Third World countries which are with widening income inequalities, passing through difficult phases, the number of exploited and exploitable women is increasing. The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) is one of the very few programmes available for any poverty ridden groups of women. But it puts great emphasis on self-employment without recognizing and providing for all the aspects of it. (The latest efforts in providing micro-finance for  self-help groups also suffer from same draw_back.)
The present success story points out the roles of motivation of beneficiary, leadership, managerial efficiency and personal involvement in the greater use of the IRDP for women beneficiaries. It also suggests that such programmes have a better chance of success if women officers occupy more significant posts, in larger numbers in administration rather than being confined merely to a traditionally "soft" department such as social welfare.
INTRODUCTION:
The Integrated Rural Development Programme, popularly known as IRDP, is being tried as an important strategy by many developing countries in their attempts to alleviate poverty and reduce inequalities of income.
This story, presented as a case study relates to 1984-85  when the benefits of the IRDP were extended to a group of socially and economically exploited women called devdasis. The case study is important because it poses many questions regarding the underlying assumptions of the IRDP, especially in the context of women beneficiaries. It suggests ways in which IRDP can be modified in order to achieve its objectives better. It illustrates the developmental role of public sector and possible problems faced due to its bureaucratic structure. It shows how leadership, organizational efficiency and motivation of beneficiaries act as key prerequisites for the success of any potential development programme. Lastly, it also provides some guidelines for voluntary agencies.
I will proceed by giving a short background of devdasis, the women who are the focus of this case, then an account of the structure of the bureaucratic machine in India and its role in implementing the IRDP. This will be followed by an account of how our team used IRDP for economic rehabilitation of devdasis, the barriers encountered and the story of the final success. While so doing, I will highlight some important issues regarding programme implementation and gender considerations.

THE CUSTOMS OF DEVDASIS:
Indian society is characterized by exploitation that gets perpetuated because of poverty, illiteracy and deep-set traditions whose sanctity has not been effectively questioned. One such tradition is the custom of devdasis. These are women who, in early childhood, were offered or sacrified to God by the parents in order to ensure family well-being against the perceived anger of God, or, more importantly, to ask for a son.
Although there is no basis for this system in the Hindu religious scriptures and though the custom has been banned by law, every year nearly 10,000 girls are thus offered to God. The offering takes place ceremonially on all full moon days at the Renuka temple at Soundatti in Karnataka state, but only on Pausha Pournima (the day of the full moon in February) at a few other Renuka temples. In some cases the girls are offered as family tradition. The daughters of devdasis are also normally offered. Tradition and superstition ban them from marrying and settling down to a normal life, and finally they often succumb to prostitution and begging.
To my mind the devdasis qualify to be called the most deprived class of the society. They lack money and education, they are often from scheduled caste, they have the disadvantage of their sex   and coming from villages they also miss the exposure to modern conveniences which are known, if not available, to the urban poor. They cannot acquire the social status of a married woman and a secure family life. To top all this is their own mental barrier of superstition which stops them from aspiring for a better life.
In the past twenty years some social and voluntary organisations have undertaken programs for the upliftment of devdasis. Their main emphasis has been on social and health aspects. These efforts include regular medical guidance to devdasis, organising them, settling them in married life and removing superstition. Ours was perhaps the first attempt of Economic rehabilitation. We felt that the poor families succumb to this tradition as it partly solves the problem of their livelihood.
Devdasis live in groups in villages, with older ones acting as chaperones, although nowadays it is not uncommon for them to stay with their parents. They have no rights in the family, least of all the right to property, but the parents have a right to their income when parents are providing them with lodging, boarding and shelter. They have no right to marry but they can and do live as the kept women of wealthy clients. Most of the offered girls of age between four and early twenties, eventually land up in the flesh market of big cities, but some stay back in the villages. Some return at old age. As part of tradition, at least on Tuesdays and Fridays, they have to go begging for alms in the name of the goddess  and on several occasions they have to visit the temple of Renuka, spending day and night singing and dancing before the deity. For survival they mostly resort to prostitution and unskilled jobs. They also have to provide for their children.
It is estimated that every year 8,000-10,000 girls or women are offered. The system is prevalent in the states of Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and parts of Maharashtra. The girls are offered by their parents, and rites are performed by temple priests, in spite of many laws declaring both the acts as crimes. Often, the parents are extremely poor, uneducated, and superstitious. Most are from schedule classes, though some offerings are also made from other communities. There are many variations in the reasons leading to the offerings, the rites to be performed, the subsequent living arrangements of the women, their means of survival and so on. But the common factor is the cause of perpetuation, which is undoubtedly a combination of poverty, superstition and lack of education.

THE IRDP :
The Integrated Rural Development Programme introduced in India in 1981 is intended to assist families below poverty line (The word BPL was then coined). A specially conducted survey of families living in poverty, conducted in 1980, showed that nearly 350 million (38 percent) people lived as BPL, out of whom 300 million were in rural areas. They consisted largely of landless labour, small and marginal farmers and rural artisans who have, to a large extent, lost their traditional skills and earning power due to lack of skill-upgradation and unfavourable competition from industrial production. Since most of the women were traditionally engaged as partners with the male artisans, and suffer worse from this poverty-accentuating phenomenon, the IRDP could play a special role for them.
The program has three areas of emphasis. One is to give bank finance to BPL beneficiaries for the creation or purchase of assets such as irrigation wells, cows or machinery.  25 per cent of the cost of asset, comes from the government as a subsidy, which banks treat as equity to give an additional 75 per cent as a loan. The loan is to be returned in easy instalments. The second part is to run short-term vocational courses under a scheme called TRYSEM (Training of Rural Youth in Self-employment). The third is to create infrastructure for the use of a group of beneficiaries. Normally a budget of 15 million rupees is available per district per year for subsidy disbursement, TRYSEM expenses and infrastructure creation. The Zilla Parishad of the district is the unit of implementation of the program and CEO who is an officer of the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) is in charge of this program.


THE JAT EXPERIENCE :
Attempts to rehabilitate devdasis in the present case were first started in 1984 when, as Collector of Sangli district, I attempted to prevent the ritual of offering devdasi girls at the Renuka Temple of a taluka place called Jat. These attempts met with opposition from village leaders, priests, parents and older devdasis, all of whom had come to the village to perform several tasks during the ritual, and who have a vested interested in the perpetuation of the system (older devdasis are supported financially by the younger devdasis when they are in the group). The resistance died down quickly, once they realised that I was prepared to invoke the Devdasi Abolition Act of 1934 to arrest them if necessary. They had never faced such a threat before. Secondly, there were many local level politicians in the group who did not want to be seen before a woman collector as the perpetrator of an evil system that undermined the dignity of women. Jat is a small place; similar action later created a violent situation at Soundatti, and a show of force or threats of arrest have not worked there.
At that stage, I  had a meeting with about fifty devdasis whom I had arranged to call from other villages. We discussed issues of human dignity and self-respect, social rights and their deprivation, the questions of religion and faith and superstition - all abstract principles, until one of them asked “What alternatives will society offer to us?” They were roused at least to argue and think of alternatives. I grabbed the opportunity, and registered them as trainees under TRYSEM, by making an exception to the rule that they should have passed at least seventh standard. They were all illiterate. When training was offered, they came forward to meet our challenge. They were registered for a three-month poultry training course in a poultry unit run by ZP sangli at Jat.
This case study deals with the second and subsequent groups of trainees who were trained in making of knitwear and in other occupations. In order to understand why subsequent training batches were successful, something must be said about the first training batch. They could not utilise their training and start their own poultry units. In that sense the attempt was a failure, But it was a great success as it helped to build up hope among Devdasis that they could learn new skills and find alternative livelihood rather than depend on begging or prostitution. For me, the first training batch was a success as it allowed me to offer them instant answer to their unexpected question  – “what is our alternative?”
Although the IRDP is intended precisely for people like the devdasis, in many ways it was an unusual attempt and was thwarted, with many queries, lack of precedents, procedural bottlenecks and so on, which even a team of well-meaning officials cannot cope with unless they are willing to take some risks. A few also feared that I was inviting the wrath of God, to which they must not be a party. Some senior officials questioned why so much effort should be wasted on devdasis. However, the immediate success was that on the last day of poultry training, nearly 100 devdasis gathered with a request to be enrolled for training. The stamp of failure was not yet put on the first batch. So myself and the CEO of ZP (Mr Ramani) decided to organise another group of twenty six devdasis for training in woolen knitwear.
THE CHALLENGE:
During their training I had insisted on one condition: that they would not go begging for alms, because this would be the biggest affront to their self respect. Did they continue with prostitution during the night? I would not ask. Should I have tried to stop it? I have asked myself this question only once and have, since then, fully believed in my answer: “in a society which denies them fulfilment of their financial, physical and social needs, I, as a privileged member of that society, have no right to put that condition.” My boundaries could be stretched only up to offering them alternatives from which they must choose themselves. With my government position as a collector, I could offer them an alternative way of earning and I could not even claim that it was better in monetary terms. But the training might break down their social barriers and superstitions, and bring an awareness of their potential to learn skills and do something worthwhile. That would be the reward, even if they continued in prostitution.
Our second training programme (March 1985) was started in machine knitwear. We faced typical problems like “how to get vocational trainers who were prepared to live in a village for six months? Whether or not these were good teachers? This question arose because under the TRYSEM program it is neither possible, nor I think advisable, to have a cadre of trainers. Giving high and regular remuneration to the trainers, is essential. Such training  has not been tried much. The trainer's own motivation is also extremely necessary. Moreover, could they train a totally illiterate group? Could the trainees be asked to spend additional time on literacy lessons? Is money available under TRYSEM to cover the salary of a special literacy teacher? (No, it is not.) The training in operating a knitting machine had obvious, recognisable economic prospects, but what was the use of literacy classes? These questions was asked both by the trainees and the TRYSEM authorities. These questions will be faced in all TRYSEM or similar programs, and their success in developing countries will depend on whether their bureaucratic structures can provide a systematic answer to them. This is possible only if there is sufficient delegation of decision making at the implementation level
A further question was one regarding the attitude of the banks. In India, banks are nationalised and have directives to make some definite lending under the IRDP, yet  they will prefer to process loan cases of small or marginal farmers who have been engaged in agriculture in the past. Loans can be given for cattle-keeping or a shop or a photographic unit. All these loans are given to those who are already in that occupation, and the purpose of loan is to supplement them economically. But where a new skill is to be acquired afresh, banks are reluctant to give loans to trainees who have no previous experience. How can banks give finance for capital investment without asking what was the guarantee that the devdasis would complete training and that they would be adequately trained and thereafter could market their goods? What guarantee can be given by the devdasis, or by any voluntary organisation prepared to run their training programme, or by a collector (who can be transferred the next day)? Such problems have arisen and have been solved in those very few cases in which the crucial factor was the personal initiative of the organiser. They are not solved routinely or by system-design and certainly not without much persuasion. The answers are not available within the given pattern of the IRDP. So long as that remains the case, the benefits of the IRDP cannot be widespread.
Other vocational courses are also run under TRYSEM. They may be tailoring, carpet weaving, pottery or shoe making; I am talking of all those vocations where the final product must be approved and purchased by the consumer. These courses are run not only under TRYSEM but also by many other institutions for vocational training. What happens to the trainees later? Most of the schemes  do not have a system to follow up cases. In India we do not have statistics about the future pursuits of the trainees.
This brings me to a much more important question. All our  vocational training courses assume that the trainees inherently possess four skills; first, of marketing their goods, second, of inventory control; third, of correctly pricing the product; and fourth, of managing working capital. It is as though all they need to be taught is some vocational skill. The courses are, therefore, typically devoid of any component for entrepreneurial or managerial skill development.
In our training program it was sharply becoming clear that within the funding pattern of TRYSEM it was not possible to appoint extra staff who would keep the accounts or suggest designing and market strategies or who would liaise with banks. The important point to make here is that rural development departments are normally not orientated towards commercial management, and hence the IRDP in its present form in India will not achieve much towards self employment unless the aspects of business management and project management are emphasised, both among the implementers and the beneficiaries. Lastly, there are always problems related to implementation. When large quantities of training material are needed, as in this vocational course, the funding is not adequate. The cost of repair and maintenance of machines is not provided. If the training needs to be extended, extra money is not provided. In spite of all this, the IRDP is the only existing programme which contains some hope for a group like the devdasis.
In short, the trainee group at Jat faced the problem of banks not giving loans initially, then the trainer moving away leaving behind a semi trained mechanic, the raw material was always getting quickly exhausted and not replenished, six months' training duration proved inadequate and so on.
THE INTEGRATED APPROACH:
While these problems were being faced one-by-one during the training program and we would frantically try to find solutions as quickly as possible, I was transferred to the post of managing director of the Western Maharashtra Development Corporation (WMDC), which is a public sector undertaking of the government of Maharashtra, under the Department of Industries and based in Pune. Its mandate is to promote balanced industrial growth, and especially facilitate small scale industries. Luckily, Sangli district was included in its geographical jurisdiction. I recognized that I could use the industrial and promotional activities of the WMDC to combine with the devdasi training programme at Jat.
It was only a lucky coincidence that I was posted to WMDC. What I was planning and advocating was new; namely, to combine the organisational skills and capacity of financial investment of the WMDC with a rural, women- orientated training programme. Many people doubted the wisdom of doing so, but luckily I won the support of the Chairman of the board Shri Ulhas Pawar, a politician with good heart, and my colleague officers at WMDC, who were willing to share this extra burden.
Many outside WMDC felt and advocated that this activity was best left to someone in the Rural Development or Social Welfare Department; in their view it could not be categorised as industrial development. The word devdasi kept on playing on their minds. The govt departments have a sharp dividing line between the mandates of different departments – they are governed by something called “Rules of business” which, in my opinion, completely destroys the spirit of coordination and team work.  My argument was that those departments do not have managerial and entrepreneurial skills, which is the main factor missing in the training and management of rural development progams. I pointed out that as soon as the training was over these women would need working capital, marketing arrangements and accounting skills. They would thus need to become entrepreneurs and on their own they could not do so successfully. Such debates are inevitable in administration and they took large chunks of my time during the next three years.
I was most surprised and chagrined by the attitude of many senior colleagues, who would ridicule my efforts and say that no person working in the (prestigious!) Department of Industries needed to concern oneself with these downtrodden women, as the department was meant for high--flying industrialists, and that the devdasis would be better left to the Social Welfare Department. I was told that I was attaching too much personal emotions to the whole issue, which is anathema to the spirit of bureaucracy. Some even said that I was not able to come out of my complex of being a woman and so on. On the other hand, many officers supported my efforts precisely because I was promoting the cause of needy women and they shared my concern for them. Perhaps I did get emotionally attached to the project, which, in the hind-sight, I found necessary for successful implementation of any scheme. This case has taught me that a detached efficiency is not always the best tool for achieving development, as is normally believed among bureaucrats – being emotionally attached is a plus point, with a small rider that I am discussing later.
In WMDC, we started by giving the trainees of Jat an order for knitwear with some  advance financing (about Rs. 50,000). The results were very good. The trainer mechanic, who, by this time, was also frustrated and prepared to quit, decided to stay on. Attendance improved. The trainees started to discuss marketable colour combinations. The secretary of the RD dept. allowed an extension of the training period for a further six months, a discretion available but rarely used. WMDC used the knitwear for a market survey. Costing, accounting and even procurement of orders and transportation were all arranged by the WMDC. It was, in a true sense, the nurturing of an infant industry. When the first batch of knitwear received a good response, we thought of larger participation.
During this period WMDC also used the support  of a voluntary agency named Bhagini Nivedita Pratishthan Sangli for marketing. Earlier, during my days as collector Sangli, they had undertaken to provide hostel facility for the childrn of trainee devdasis.  But their participation in marketing could not continue for long because they had a staff shortage. Also, their main field was nutrition and the health care of the school children. Since then I have been acutely aware of two factors that undermine the working and potential of voluntary agencies. First, is their lack of voluntary workers, sometimes resulting from paucity of funds. Second is their lack of managerial ability, efficiency and technical knowledge despite their well--meaning and hard--working volunteers. These qualities are as necessary as sincerity. The combination of sincerity with knowledge and efficiency is extremely rare. But is it less rare or less needed in government jobs?
Next, WMDC prepared a scheme to run a training-cum-production center for the devdasi trainees. The idea was that this scheme would run for three years, during which WMDC would invest money and provide all support, like accounting, inventory management, marketing and so on while also imparting training to them in these areas. These services were identified as crucial. The scheme would need an investment of nearly Rs. 500,000. We were faced with two sets of questions -- some bureaucratic (including my own bureaucratic rigidities) and some having much wider implications. The bureaucratic questions were the most trivial and the most time-consuming. For example, why are the devdasis not being trained instead, in vegetable selling? Or, did the progam come within the purview of the Department of Industries, or of Social Welfare or of Rural Development, and if it was not of the former, then why should I pursue it. More frequently asked question was “when devdasis are in the domain of Social Welfare then why should those "belonging to SW department", accept my methodology or work given that I was not from "their department". The file when referred to finance or planning department also faced similar querries.
Thus, WMDC had to enter into lengthy correspondence with several departments in govt. of Maharashtra. Finally we were able to ignore them all when a Joint secretary of the Department of Women and Child Welfare in the Government of India, found this idea important and made the funds available. What I want to point out is that this is not a unique situation. Such conflicts will arise when bureaucracy does not show dynamism. Traditionally, bureaucracy is characterised by accountability, which means that one must be seen to be acting strictly within the given job description and within the set rules of financial control. This ignores two vitally important aspects in any development program. First, every development programme will require the coordination of functions of many departments, out of which one that shows maximum promise of success will have to be accepted as the 'leader' for any project. This is no reason for other departments to withdraw their support. In the present age of specialisation, all government sectors must draw from the expertise of one- another rather than try to build up their own cadres in every function. What actually happens is either a race for power-grabbing  or complete abandoning of any project. The coordinated management, in which IAS officers are supposed to be experts is lacking. The second aspect concerns financial propriety. Financial rules are necessary in order to prevent misuse of the vast funds which a government officer handles. However, since the present rules do not recognise the element of risk in any development project, they insist that any project selected for implementation must be, in effect, 100 per cent risk free. This is never possible yet, because of this approach, there is no attempt or methodology to quantify a reasonable risk, or assess possible areas of failure. Thus there can be neither any risk monitoring nor a scope for on-line changes during the implementation of the govt. program.
While tackling these issues, WMDC, in December, 1986 had started another training group in knitting at Gadhinglaj in Kolhapur District for forty trainees. Gadhinglaj taluka has an estimated devdasis population of 5,000 whereas their population in Jat is only about 500. This training was also funded by DRDA of Kolhapur District and supplemented by the local Social Welfare Department. Later (between December, 1986 to December, 1988) two training groups for silk reeling and one more for making knitwear were also started. The total number of beneficiaries had thus risen to 160 by December, 1988. Thus despite all initial bottlenecks, WMDC has systematized a way of using the IRDP more effectively. The trend to involve more women through training would continue in future years. The number to be added per year had been deliberately kept low for reasons which I will shortly  discuss.
The policy issues have to be settled more carefully and the role of leadership becomes important. The issues must be decided on clear philosophical principles if they are to provide continuous guidance. The first principle in selecting trainees was that devdasis must feel themselves to be a part of the mainstream of society. So we included 20 per-cent non-devdasis in every batch and we also tried to select the devdasis from different educational levels. A few devdasis do attend schools up to different standards. The mix was considered necessary to have a  demonstration effect on those lagging behind, and has worked out well. Literacy and numeracy had to be a part of their training, and this was found very difficult to impart. We also insisted that each trainee group formed itself into a co-operative society in which WMDC would be shareholder but not a sharer of profits accruing to the society. The members would earn wages from the co-operative society according to their output. When the co-operative society published its yearly accounts and declared profits, they would share the profits too. Some part of the profit was to be kept aside by each co-operative society in an educational fund, to be used for future training groups if needed. WMDC would provide the clerical and managerial support to every batch and thus to every cooperative society initially for three years. The members were to train themselves to run the affairs of the society. They had to spend some time in acquiring managerial skills, thus forgoing some wage-earning. This was, of course, too much to demand from an uneducated, unprivileged, downtrodden group of women. Even well-educated people are not necessarily good managers. Yet, their real emancipation will come only when they are no longer pliable and manageable by others, easily surrendering before all forms of exploitation and victimisation. The devdasis also understand this. Each woman's learning speed may be slow and different from that of others, but there is no escape from this learning process.
This brings me to the best part of the project. The desire to learn comes not from the lure of increased earnings: in fact, the devdasis earned more wages when their time was not spent on learning these different skills. The argument that learning will prevent their exploitation is understood by them, but only in theory. It was far inadequate to motivate them in learning managerial skills. In their opinion, if their management could continue to be with WMDC, that would, in fact, protect them from exploitation. They would far prefer if management were to remain with WMDC forever and if they did not have to train themselves in management.
I did not share their view. First, no dependence can be free from exploitation, and second, the burden of this trust would be too heavy on WMDC. But there is a third and more important reason, which I will discuss shortly. Their willingness to learn came through self-confidence that we systematically tried to build. For this purpose we arranged visits by university teachers and students and promoted their mixing with the trainees. We had personality development camps ranging from three to seven days, conducted by visiting voluntary organisations. Third effort was to call them to Pune in groups of four or so, for a week's training, during which they were trained by WMDC staff in basic office management skills such as filing, stapling, punching, telling the time, making phone calls, using xerox machines and calculators and such innumerable primary level, trivial skills which at our level we never notice and at their level they had never experienced. Gradually, their interest grew as we took them to secondary and higher levels of learning such as purchasing wool, managing their stalls during exhibitions, making out receipts, procuring small orders, operating their bank accounts, measuring the work output, making wage payments, writing up cash books, visiting other offices, explaining their problems to those officers, writing out applications and so on. With different speed this has proceeded. Some learned to ride bicycles, and wanted to learn jeep and car driving. Some liked photography, some have learned computer data-operating skills, and at the end of the day they feed the data of the total work done by each individual. In turns they undertake inspection and quality control. Some have taken an examination in co-operative accounting. Some are appointed as instructors for subsequent trainee groups, including training in reeling for some farmer group in faraway villages of Aurangabad and Solapur. We encouraged them to demand and receive full trainer's salary on such occasions. A few still have to show any worthwhile progress, but this was to be expected. As for work quality, the silk reeled by them is sold at the silk exchange in Bangalore (the main silk market in India) for the best prices, while the sale of knitted garments has exceeded $40,000 per year (600,000 rupees). Their average earning is 400 rupees per month (The Minimum Wage Act prescribes 300 rupees per month as the lower limit).
On the whole the project was very successful. One  justification for so much involvement by WMDC was that Devdasis was a group whose members could not be expected to get any benefit from various government schemes, simply because government departments do not know about them. Unfortunately devdasis are not the only group with such a fate there are several others like vaghya-murali, nandibailwale, dombari, etc. They cannot knock at the doors of offices to take advantage of various schemes. In that sense WMDC has acted in the role of a voluntary agency, providing supporting services and also filling short-term financial gaps. WMDC approached many offices for them, trying to get whatever benefits were available under different schemes. We thus secured a grant of Rs 5,00,000 for building a working women's hostel for them from the Women and Child Welfare Department. The National Chemicals and Fertiliser Corporation agreed to provide funds for a work shed and nursery, and for expert staff for our proposed training activity in forest nursery. The CEO Sangli built twenty houses for them at Jat under the program of houses for the houseless. IRDP agencies in both Sangli and Kolhapur districts gave money for training and subsidies for equipment. Now the Central Silk Board is in a position to support some more programmes in sericulture activities because the World Bank has asked them to undertake women's programmes. In the space of three years WMDC has been able to integrate the beneficiary programs of many departments and get not only the money but also their expert staff to use for the benefit of trainee  devdasis. However, such help is slow to come. Any other agency which tries to provide a similar co-ordinating service must have its own financial standing and expertise in accounting, marketing dealings and knowledge of various departments which run different beneficiary programmes. This is a guideline for the voluntary agencies.
The other side of such support, however, must also be considered. The devdasis have often asked why WMDC must withdraw its support at a later date. The answer, which is obvious to me, is that the role of WMDC must be limited to that of initiating at the first stage, and only as a stand-by in the later years. Such work needs staff members who are both dedicated and efficient. No organization has a large number of them. Hence, there has to be a scheme by which the work of these staff members is handed over to a different group, so that the staff is kept free for their original work or for subsequent trainee batches. I also felt strongly that those who take over, must come from within the beneficiaries themselves. WMDC achieved what it did because of the high level of efficiency and dedication of the staff and their sense of immense satisfaction that, as a team, they were contributing to a vital social cause. Their  skills in entrepreneurial management were of crucial importance. Very often I also received useful suggestions from other staff members who were not closely linked with this work .
Those who were involved in training, and especially those who were involved in personality development and literacy training, were puzzled as to why I insisted that every beneficiary should be asked to learn everything. Would it not give much quicker results if only a core group was identified as potential managers and was given much more concentrated attention? That can be one way to proceed. However, I would accept a much slower speed if it meant better understanding of the running of the organization by a larger number, than a system in which a few managed and others remained as ignorant as before and therefore as prone to exploitation as before. That is why we have arranged the training in such a way as to include each beneficiary in the learning process. In my opinion the most important point of this success story is the lesson that there is no substitute to learning and no short cuts to the process of learning.
Digressing slightly, I have often seen voluntary agencies running training programmes. They either restrict their role to training only, or if they have to get involved with management as well, then they cannot extend their help to more groups because all their manpower is used up just in the management of one group. I do not want to undermine the work of those voluntary agencies who have remained confined to the management of only one group. But it reduces the scope of help by that voluntary organization. They have to learn how to train the beneficiary group for managerial training too and then withdraw their role in the management. I hope that the example narrated here will help them to modify their strategy.
Another small digression is about the role of women officers. It would be wrong to make a generalization that only women officers can be aware or sensitive to problems of women trapped in a situation like those of the devdasis. In my opinion any officer sensitive to such social problems would have acted similarly.
I, however, must question the normal belief that women officers are suitable only for working in the departments of Social Welfare or Health or Child Care or that they alone are useful in those departments to solve the problems of women. This case shows that the solution to women's problems does not lie necessarily in the schemes of the Social Welfare or Rural Development Department. It is therefore important that women officers be posted in all departments without bias.
There was also the question of giving similar organizational support to many other groups of educated unemployed , who had been given skill training under TRYSEM, but had thereafter remained stranded because no attempt was made to develop their entrepreneurial skills. As I mentioned earlier, that component is not built into the training schedule of TRYSEM. Many such groups approached us. Giving support to these groups would bring us faster results because they have an educational background. We would have more success stories to our credit. However, to provide comprehensive support to TRYSEM beneficiaries is not the assigned role of the WMDC, it is not the assigned role of anyone. We would have been allowed to do it very sparingly and that permission was given only for the devdasi group and with lot of grudge. To my mind, this lack of recognition of the need for comprehensive support for trainee groups reduces the potential of programmes like TRYSEM or the IRDP. Theoretically, many public sector corporations can fill this gap. Indeed, some have tried it in the past. However, they have been trapped in the roles of permanent managers because they did not have the express policy of withdrawing after an initial period of support. As for WMDC, this type of role can be taken up only selectively. WMDC does not have large enough staff to undertake similar activity for many groups; at least not unless such role is  assigned to it. The general consensus in WMDC was that we  need not worry so much about collecting success stories and should restrict our small capacity to help this most neglected section of the society. Other groups are much higher up in the social and economic hierarchy and have a better chance of survival without the WMDC. However, in the system of the IRDP and TRYSEM, something must be included for them. That is another main point in this case study.
In conclusion, I must add that to my mind even the IRDP is not the best programme for imparting the necessary managerial and entrepreneurial skills. This training must be built into the Indian educational curriculum and should be started much earlier rather than having the students spend eight to fifteen years before they are taught these skills. Our educational system must recognize the fact that 50 per cent of children drop out before they have spent four years in school. At that stage they and their parents realize that their wage-earning capacity has not been improved by the four years of schooling. For society as a whole, the returns on investment in universal education can be infinitely high when fully realized, but to an individual the returns come too slowly and the situation can be frustrating. Often the time investment that ranges from a minimum of eleven years to a maximum of twenty years, is beyond the individual's reach. This is true of all developing countries. On the other hand, we have supposedly quick-gain programmes like TRYSEM in which vocational expertise is supposed to be achieved in three to six months with a further assumption that any one who has the vocational expertise can automatically market it. Both assumptions are wrong. All our educational experts must do some heart-searching on the validity of these assumptions, on the one hand, and on redundancy and time wastage in our educational system, on the other. Only then shall we be able to tap the full potential of poverty alleviation programmes like the IRDP.
NOTES:
1. For more information on the IRDP, the reader is referred to the Sixth Five Year Plan of India.
2, 3. The administrative hierarchy in India is as follows. The central government functions from Delhi. The federation of India is divided into several state governments. The smallest unit is a village; about 500 villages make a taluka and about fifteen talukas make a district, which is the most important administrative unit. Each state has several districts. The bureaucracy is responsible for carrying out all development programs within the perspective outlined by the political leadership, although itself it is required to remain apolitical . Most of the key functions of bureaucracy are performed by the IAS officers. In general , the IAS officers are known for high efficiency, sincerity and their apolitical functioning. Unlike in the colonial days, now the bureaucratic machinery of most developing countries is given the task of carrying out speedy development. In India, the IAS officers at district level work, either as district development officers (or CEO) and are in charge of all developmental activities, including the IRDP, or, they work as collectors, who look after revenue collection, maintenance of law and order through police, district planning, and overall co-ordination of government functioning in that district. More senior IAS officers work as heads of public-sector corporations and secretaries of various departments. The author is herself an IAS officer and was actively involved in implementation of the case study presented here.
4. In India, formal vocational education starts after schooling and is conducted mainly by the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) and to a small extent by the Districts Industries Centre (DIC).
5. Some readers may even question the whole ideology of giving low-level skills to the TRYSEM beneficiaries and requiring that they turn into small-scale entrepreneurs. Knowing the tough competition which the small-scale business faces from the large concerns, this may be a valid question. However the purpose of this case study is not to go into those long-term questions but to suggest how best the IRDP can be utilized when it is the only available programme for the groups like the devdasis.
6. I have learnt from subsequent collectors of Sangli that the practice of offering young girls as devdasis at the temple in Jat has stopped. At Soundatti also, the government has partly succeeded, as no offering now takes place openly.
Not part of the book: The project got active support from the entire staff of WMDC, collectorates of  Sangli and Kolhapur, Zilla Parishad Sangli, and Panchayat and Tahsil staff at Jat apart from some high-ranking indidviduals such as Shri Ulhas pawar (chairman,WMDC), Shri Sharad Kale (Secretary Industries Maharashtra), Smt. Sujaya, (JS in Social Welfare in GoI), V. Ramani, (CEO Sangli), Smt Shashi Mishra (Secretary Socal Welfare Maharashtra), Bhagin Nivedita Pratishthan Sangli and Bank officers of MSFC in Sangli.