Time to prioritise education and health (Indian Express)

• Mains Paper 3: Economy 
• Prelims level: Social sector 
• Mains level: Liberalizing in social sector 

Context:

• The government’s macroeconomic policy has acquired a new salience in the context
• of reversing the current slowdown in recent months.
• The policy currently being pursued is intended primarily to incentivise potential investors by facilitating ease-of-doing business and making large-scale concessions to the corporate sector but investments to serve social objectives and help in indigenisation are being discarded.

What are the reforms needed?

• Reform such as labour market liberalisation and removal of constraints on acquisition of land for industrial purposes.
• Advocating acceleration of investment in physical infrastructure and human infrastructure.

Negative impact of such reforms:

• Likely to have an impact on the incomes, living conditions and the economic security of the workers and the agricultural class.
• The policy of freedom of hiring and firing of labour will be counterproductive as it would squeeze demand further in a situation of huge demand deficit.
• Investment in physical infrastructure is not as labour-intensive as that in other sectors.
• Large-scale projects in physical infrastructure field have long gestation periods.

Positive impact of investing in social sector:

• Creating demand in the short run by way of opening avenues for large-scale employment.
• Imparts competitiveness and sustainability on the Indian economy on the medium and long run.
• Increased public expenditure in social sectors have short- and medium-term effect of enhancing employment, generating demand and attracting investment.
• Lower gestation periods.

Impact of investment in school education:

• The Right to Education Act (RTE) sets out the objective of universalizing elementary education in five years.
• The National Education Policy, 2020 states that the Act “will be reviewed... to ensure that all students... shall have free and compulsory access to high quality and equitable schooling from early childhood education (age three onwards) through higher education (i.e. until Grade 12)”.
• Council for Social Development, have calculated the magnitude of demand creation by meeting just one condition for realising this objective, i.e. employment of teachers.
• The recruitment of 5.7 million (figure arrived by considering pupil teacher ratio as 10:1) additional teachers over a period of five years, can create huge scale demand which is only one factor essential
• for universalising quality school education.
• There is also a large gap between the requirement of infrastructure in the schools and that available and built recently.
• According to government data, only 12.5% of the schools covered by the RTE Act were compliant with RTE norms, most of which are related to infrastructure.
• Thus meeting these norms has the potential of creating employment on a large scale.

Health and employability:

• In the health field, there is a vast number of vacant posts for professionals at these levels and there is a huge deficit of paramedical workers, middle-level health workers, nurses and trained doctors.
• Health being one of the labour intensive sector investments in this sector is need of the hour.

Significance of Investments in education and health:

• Health and education are of instrumental value in driving growth, creating employment and improving people’s well-being.
• Education has a crucial role to play for an individual in gaining employment and retaining employability.
• If we compare 2011 and 2017 data released by the Labour Ministry, the gap in educational attainment emerges as the single most important factor for the higher rate of growth during this period.
• Health and education have been widely recognised as public goods.

Conclusion:

• It is therefore time for reprioritizing education and health in the scheme of development strategy and the allocation of budgetary resources.

Online Coaching for UPSC PRE Exam

General Studies Pre. Cum Mains Study Materials

Prelims Questions: 

Q.1) With reference to the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, consider the following statements:
1. It will have 15 trustees, out of which one trustee will always be from Dalit community.
2. It will be completely free to take every decision related to the temple and 67 acres of land will be transferred to the trust. 

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both  
(d) None
Answer: C

Mains Questions: 
Q.1) What are the impacts of investment in school education? Do you think is there any negative impact of liberalization in informal sector?