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Government Schemes for New Born Child and Child Health

Facility Based New Born Care

• Facility Based New Born Care (FBNC) is one of the key components under the National Health Mission to improve the status of newborn health in the country.
• A continuum of new born care has been established with the launch of home based and facility based new born care components ensuring that every new born receives essential care right from the time of birth and first 48 hours at the health facility and then at home during the first 42 days of life.
• New Born identified as sick or preterm /low birth weight soon after birth or during home visit are referred to special new born care facilities for further management and long term follow up after discharge.
• New born Care Corners (NBCCs) are established at delivery points to provide essential new born care at birth, while Special New born Care Units (SNCUs) and New born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) provide care for sick new born.
• As on December 2016, a total of 14,135 NBCCs, 1,810 NBSUs and 550 SNCUs have been made operational across the country.

Janani Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSK):

Complete elimination of out of pocket expenses with provision of free transport, drugs, diagnostics and diet to all sick new born and infants is being ensured in the country. About 12 lakhs sick infants availed services under JSSK till December, 2014 in 2014-15.

Ensuring Injection Vitamin K in all the births in the facility.

• All the public and private health facilities should ensure single dose of Injection Vitamin K prophylaxis at birth even at the sub centre by ANM.

National Training Package for Facility Based New Born Care.

• The scheme has been developed with participation of national neonatal experts in the Country. This package will improve the cognitive knowledge and build psychomotor skills of the medical officers and staff nurses posted in these units to provide quality new born care.

India New born Action Plan (INAP).

• On 18th Sept 2014, India New Born Action Plan was launched in response to Global New Born Action Plan.
• INAP lays out a vision and a plan for India to end preventable new born deaths, accelerate progress, and scale up high-impact yet cost-effective interventions.
• INAP has a clear vision supported by goals, strategic intervention packages, priority actions, and a monitoring framework. For the first time, INAP also articulates the Government of India’s specific attention on preventing still births.
• With clearly marked timelines for implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and scaling-up of proposed interventions, it is expected that all stakeholders working towards improving new born health in India will stridently work towards attainment of the goals of “Single Digit Neonatal Mortality Rate by 2030” and “Single Digit Still Birth Rate by 2030”.

Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres

• Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres are facility based units providing medical and nutritional therapy to children with Severe Acute Malnourished under 5 years of age with medical complications.
• In addition, special focus is on improving the skills of mothers on child care and feeding practices so that child continues to receive adequate care at home.
• Expansion of NRCs has been ensured in High Need Areas such tribal blocks. A total of 875 NRCs has been established in the country as on September, 2014.
• The training package for facility based care of Severe Acute Malnutrition in Children has been developed to train staff of Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres on diagnostic and treatment protocols.
• The package aims to improve the clinical skills of the Medical Officers and Nursing staff of NRCs, particularly for the management of children with SAM (Severe Acute Malnutrition).

Rashrtiya Bal Swasthya Karyakaram

• The initiative was launched in February 2013 for Early Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services through early detection and management of 4 ‘D’s i.e. Defects at birth, Diseases, Deficiencies, Development delays including disability are to cover 30 selected health conditions for early detection, management and free treatment.
• An estimated 27 crore children in the age group of zero to eighteen years are expected to be covered across the country in a phased manner.
• As on December 2016, a total of 5418 RBSK teams have been recruited.
• About 12.19 crore children have been screened and 60.8 lakhs children have been referred to health facilities for the treatment. About 16.8 lakhs children have received secondary and tertiary care.
• A total of 445 State level master trainers and 2429 Teams from 9 States were directly trained by the National RBSK Team.

Government Initiatives for Development of Children in India

National Policy on Children

• India is home to the largest child population in the world. Declaring its children as the nation’s “supremely important asset” in the National Policy for Children, 1974, the Government of India reiterated its commitment to secure the rights of its children by ratifying related international conventions and treaties.
• The National Charter for Children, 2003 adopted on 9th February 2004, underlined the intent to secure for every child, its inherent right to be a child and enjoy a healthy and happy childhood, to address the root causes that negate the healthy growth and development of children, and to awaken the conscience of the community in the wider societal context to protect children from all forms of abuse, while strengthening the family, society and the Nation.
• To affirm the Government’s commitment to the rights based approach in addressing the continuing and emerging challenges in the situation of children, the Government of India adopted the National Policy for Children, 2013.
• The policy affirmed that survival, health, nutrition, development, education, protection and participation are the undeniable rights of every child and are the key priorities of the policy.
• The policy emphasised that the right to life, survival, health and nutrition is an inalienable right of every child and will receive the highest priority.

National Policy on Early Childhood care and Education

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development has formulated the National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy and the same has been notified in October 2013.
• The policy lays down the way forward for a comprehensive approach towards ensuring a sound foundation for survival, growth and development of child with focus on care and early learning of every child.
• It recognises the synergistic and interdependent relationship between the health, nutrition, psycho-social and emotional needs of the child.
• In view of the furtherance of the objectives of the national ECCE policy the national ECCE curriculum framework, quality standards for ECCE and Age Appropriate Child Assessment Cards have been formulated and circulated to all states and UTs.

Integrated Child Development Services

• The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest programmes for Early Childhood Development.
• The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
• This Scheme has improved over the years and restructured to address the emerging issues and demands of the time, and has evolved as the foremost tool of to break the vicious circle of child morbidity and mortality along with other objectives.

The objectives of the Scheme are:

1. To improve the nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years;
2. To lay the foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child;
3. To reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropout;
4. To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and
5. To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health and nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education.

National Health Mission

• The child health programme under the National Health Mission (NHM) comprehensively integrates interventions that improve child survival and addresses factors contributing to infant and under-five mortality.
• It is now well recognised that child survival cannot be addressed in isolation as it is intricately linked to the health of the mother, which is further determined by her health and development as an adolescent. Therefore, the concept of ‘Continuum of Care’, that emphasises on care during critical life stages in order to improve child survival, is being followed under the national programme.
• Another dimension of this approach is to ensure that critical services are made available at home, through community outreach and through health facilities at various levels (primary, first referral units, tertiary health care facilities).
• The new born and child health are now the two key pillars of the Reproductive, Maternal, New born, Child and Adolescent health (RMNCH+A) strategic approach, 2013.

Child Development in India

Key Indicators for assessing Child Development

Under Five Mortality Rate

• The Under Five Mortality Rate is the probability of a child born in a specific year dying before reaching the age of five. It is expressed as rate per 1000 live births.
• Majority of the under five deaths are neonatal deaths which are mainly due to complications and infections happened during birth.
• In addition to this, the U5MR is sensitive to a wide variety of drivers such as the nutritional status of mothers, level of immunization, availability of child and maternal care services, economic conditions in the family, etc.
• Under Five Mortality Ratio (U5MR) was estimated at 125 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990.
• The U5MR is currently at 49 deaths per 1000 live births and as per the historical trend, it is likely to reach 48 deaths per 1000 live births.

Infant Mortality Rate

• IMR is the probability of a child born in a specific year dying before reaching his/her first birthday. It is expressed as per 1000 live births.
• The factors influencing infant mortality are likely to influence the health status of the whole population such as health of mothers and extent of pre/post-natal care, general living conditions, rates of illness, their economic development and the quality of the environment.
• Thus IMR is a very sensitive indicator of health not only for children but also for the population as a whole.
• In India, IMR was estimated at 80 per 1,000 live births in 1990.
• As per Sample Registration Survey 2013, the IMR is at 40 and as per the historical trend; it is likely to reach 39 by 2015, against the target of 28 infant deaths per 1000 live births by 2017.

Proportion of One Year Children immunised against Measles

• The proportion of 1-year-old children immunized against measles is the percentage of children under one year of age who have received at least one dose of measles vaccine.
• The indicator provides a measure of the coverage and quality of the child health-care system in the country with the assumption that its level of coverage is likely to represent coverage by other antigens like BCG, DPT, and polio as well, as these are given before the antigen of measles could be given.
• Besides, among these vaccine-preventable diseases of childhood, measles is the leading cause of child mortality.
• The proportion of one-year old children immunised against measles at 74% in 2009.
• Although, there is substantial improvement in the coverage which was 42% in 1992-93, yet at this rate of improvement, India is likely to achieve about 89% coverage by 2017.

Government Policies towards Women Empowerment

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan

• The principal programme for universalisation of primary education is the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), a Centrally-sponsored scheme being implemented in partnership with State/UT Governments.
• The programme has been in operation since 2000-01.
• The overall goals of the SSA are: (i) all children in schools; (ii) bridge all gender and social category gaps at primary and upper primary stages of education (iii) universal retention; and (iv) elementary education of satisfactory quality.
• The SSA is the primary vehicle for implementing the aims and objectives of the RTE.
• In addition to programmatic interventions to promote girls’ education within the mainstream elementary education system, girls’ education is pursued through two special schemes for girls, which are supported under SSA. These are (i) National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL), and (ii) Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV).

Key programmatic thrusts under SSA for promoting girls’ education are:

• Ensuring the availability of primary schools within one kilometre of the habitation of residence of children and upper primary schools within three kilometres of the habitation;
• Provision of separate toilets for girls;
• Recruitment of 50 % of women teachers;
• Early childhood care and education centres in or near schools in convergence with Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme to free girls from sibling care responsibilities;
• Special training for mainstreaming out-of-school girls;
• Teachers’ sensitization programmes to promote equitable learning opportunities for girls;
• Gender-sensitive teaching-learning materials, including text books;
• Intensive community mobilization efforts;
• “Innovation fund’ for need-based interventions for ensuring girls’ attendance and retention.
• National Programme for Girls Education at Elementary Level (NPEGEL);
• Residential programme for education of disadvantaged girls in educationally backward Blocks -Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV).

National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL)

• The National Programme for Education of Girls at Elementary Level (NPEGEL) launched in 2003 is implemented in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBB) and addresses the needs of girls who are ‘in’ and ‘out’ of school.
• Since many girls become vulnerable to leaving school when they are not able to cope with the pace of learning in the class or feel neglected by teachers/peers in class, the NPEGEL emphasises the responsibility of teachers to recognize such girls and pay special attention to bring them out of their state of vulnerability and prevent them from dropping out.
• Recognising the need for support services to help girls with responsibilities with regard to fuel, fodder, water, sibling care and paid and unpaid work, provisions have been made for incentives that are decided locally based on needs, and through the provision of ECCE services in non-ICDS areas to help free girls from sibling-care responsibilities and attend schools.
• An important aspect of the programme is the effort to ensure a supportive and gender sensitive classroom environment in the school. By the end of 2012-13, under NPEGEL, 41.2 million girls have been covered in 3,353 Educationally Backward Blocks in 442 districts. Under the NPEGEL 41,779 Model School Clusters have been established.
• At the cluster level, one school is developed into a resource hub for schools within the cluster.
• The model cluster school functions as a repository of supplementary reading materials, books, equipment materials for games and vocational training, a centre for teacher training on gender issues and for organizing classes on additional subjects like self-defence and life skills.
• The model cluster school serves to motivate other schools in the cluster, to build a gender sensitive school and classroom environment.
• The NPEGEL follows up on girls’ enrolment, attendance and learning achievement by involving village level women’s and community groups.

Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) scheme

• The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs) are residential upper primary schools for girls from Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Muslim communities.
• KGBVs are set up in educationally backward blocks where schools are at great distances and are a challenge to the security of girls and often compel them to discontinue their education.
• The KGBVs reach out to adolescent girls who are unable to go to regular schools, out-of-school girls in the 10+ age group unable to complete primary school, younger girls of migratory populations in difficult areas of scattered populations that do not qualify for primary/upper primary schools.
• The Scheme is being implemented in 27 States/UTs. Up to the year 2012-13, 3,609 KGBVs have been sanctioned and 366,500 girls were enrolled in these KGBVs during the year 2012-13 as against the targeted enrolment of 373,000 girls.

Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA)

• The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan is a flagship scheme of Government of India, launched in March, 2009, to enhance access to secondary education and improve its quality.
• The implementation of the scheme started from 2009-10 to generate human capital and provide sufficient conditions for accelerating growth and development and equity as also quality of life for everyone in India.
• Largely built upon the successes of SSA and, like SSA, RMSA leverages support from a wide range of stakeholders including multilateral organisations, NGOs, advisors and consultants, research agencies and institutions.
• The scheme involves multidimensional research, technical consulting, implementation and funding support. In 2013, in its fourth year of implementation, RMSA covers 50,000 government and local body secondary schools. Besides this, an additional of 30,000 aided secondary schools can also access the benefits of RMSA; but not infrastructure and support in core areas.

The objectives of the Scheme are:

• To achieve a gross enrolment ratio of 75% from 52.26% in 2005-06 for classes IX-X within 5 years of its implementation, by providing a secondary school within reasonable distance of any habitation.
• Improve the quality of education imparted at secondary level by making all secondary schools conform to prescribed norms.
• Remove gender, socio-economic and disability barriers.
• Provide universal access to secondary level education by 2017, i.e. by the end of the 12th Five Year Plan
• Enhance and universalize retention by 2020

The Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA), revised in 2013, has integrated among others, the Girls Hostel Scheme and National Incentive to Girls specially to encourage girls in secondary level of education.

A sum of Rs. 3,000/- is deposited in the name of eligible girls as fixed deposit. The girls are entitled to withdraw the sum along with interest thereon on reaching 18 years of age and on passing 10th class examination.

Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)

• The Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS), launched in 2013, aims at providing strategic funding to eligible State higher educational institutions.
• The central funding in the scheme is in the ratio of 65:35 for general category States and 90:10 for special category states would be norm based and outcome dependent.
• The funding would flow from the central ministry through the State governments/Union Territories to the State Higher Education Councils before reaching the identified institutions.
• The funding to States would be made on the basis of critical appraisal of State Higher Education Plans, which would describe each State’s strategy to address issues of equity, access and excellence in higher education.
• One of the objectives of RUSA is to improve equity in higher education by providing adequate opportunities of higher education to SC/STs and socially and educationally backward classes; promote inclusion of women, minorities, and differently abled persons.

Mahila Samakhya (MS) Programme

• The National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 recognised that the empowerment of women is possibly the most critical pre-condition for the participation of girls and women in the educational process.
• The NPE, 1986, says, “Education will be used as an agent of basic change in the status of woman. In order to neutralise the accumulated distortions of the past, there will be a well-conceived edge in favour of women.
• The National Education System will play a positive, interventionist role in the empowerment of women. It will foster the development of new values through redesigned curricula, textbooks, the training and orientation of teachers, decision-makers and administrators, and the active involvement of educational institutions. This will be an act of faith and social engineering…
• ” The Mahila Samakhya programme was launched in 1988 to pursue the objectives of the National Policy on Education, 1986.
• It recognised that education can be an effective tool for women’s empowerment, the parameters of which are:
• Enhancing self-esteem and self-confidence of women;
• Building a positive image of women by recognizing their contribution to the society, polity and the economy;
• Developing ability to think critically;
• Fostering decision making and action through collective processes;
• Enabling women to make informed choices in areas like education, employment and health (especially reproductive health);
• Ensuring equal participation in developmental processes;
• Providing information, knowledge and skill for economic independence;
• Enhancing access to legal literacy and information relating to their rights and entitlements in society with a view to enhance their participation on an equal footing in all areas.
• The main focus of the programmatic interventions under the MS programme has been on developing capacities of poor women to address gender and social barriers to education and for the realisation of women’s rights at the family and community levels.
• The core activities of the MS programme are centred around issues of health, education of women and girls, accessing public services, addressing issues of violence and social practices, which discriminate against women and girls, gaining entry into local governance and seeking sustainable livelihoods.

Saakshar Bharat

• Saakshar Bharat is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of Adult Education & Skill Development being implemented by Adult Education Bureau of Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development to raise literacy level to 80% and reduce gender gap in literacy to 10% points by 2017. The target group of this Scheme is 15 + year old, which includes youth also.
• The Saakshar Bharat Scheme was launched in 2009 and has been extended upto 31.03.2017.
• It is being executed by National Literacy Mission Authority at National Level, State Literacy Mission Authority at State level, Zila Lok Shiksha Samiti, Block Lok Shiksha Samiti and Gram Panchayat Lok Shiksha Samiti at District, Block and Gram Panchayat levels respectively.
• The principal target of the scheme is to impart Functional Literacy to 70 million non-literates adults (15+ age group) with prime focus on women having the target of 60 million out of 70 million.
• The emphasis is also on disadvantaged group comprising of SCs-14 million, STs-8 Million, Muslim-12 million and Others-36 million including 60 million women.
• The auxiliary target of the scheme is to cover 1.5 million adults under Basic Education Programme (Equivalency Programme) and equal number under Vocational (Skill Development) programme.
• Under the Mission by end of September, 2014, 388 districts in 26 States and one in UT are covered. About 3.92 crore learners appeared for biannual basic literacy assessment tests conducted so far. About 2.86 crore learners (including 2.05 crore females), comprising 0.67 crore SCs, 0.36 crore STs & 0.23 crore Minorities have successfully passed the Assessment Tests under Basic Literacy conducted by National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), upto March, 2014.
• In addition, about 41 lakh learners have taken up the assessment test held in August, 2014 and 1.53 lakh Adult Education Centres are functioning as of now. 2.5 million persons have been mobilised as Voluntary Teachers; 35 million Primers in 13 Indian languages and 26 local dialects have been produced and distributed.
• Around 29 lakh learners have been benefited under Vocational Training programme through Jan Shikshan Sansthan between 2009 to 2014 out of which the women beneficiaries were 25.02 lakhs.

Kishori Shakti Yojna and Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) SABLA

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, in the year 2000 came up with scheme called “Kishori Shakti Yojna (KSY) using the infrastructure of Integrated Child Development Services(ICDS).
• The objectives of the Scheme were to improve the nutritional and health status of girls in the age group of 11-18 years as well as to equip them to improve and upgrade their homebased and vocational skills; and to promote their overall development including awareness about their health, personal hygiene, nutrition, family welfare and management.
• Kishori Shakti Yojana (KSY) seeks to empower adolescent girls, so as to enable them to keep charge of their lives. Thereafter, Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls (NPAG) was initiated as a pilot project in the year 2002-03 in 51 identified districts across the country to address the problem of under-nutrition among adolescent girls.
• Under the programme, 6 kg of free food grains per beneficiary per month are given to underweight adolescent girls. The above two schemes have influenced the lives of Adolescent Girls (AGs) to some extent, but have not shown the desired impact.
• Moreover, the above two schemes had limited financial assistance and coverage besides having similar interventions and catered to more or less the same target groups.
• A new comprehensive scheme with richer content, merging the erstwhile two schemes addressing the multi-dimensional problems of Adult Girls, called Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) –‘SABLA’ replaced KSY and NPAG in the selected districts.
• KSY would be continued (where operational) in remaining districts. Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls – SABLA is implemented using the platform of ICDS Scheme through Anganwadi Centers (AWCs).
• SABLA aims at empowering Adult Girls of 11 to 18 years by improving their nutritional and health status, upgradation of home skills, life skills and vocational skills. The scheme also aims to mainstream out –of –school children to formal education or non –formal education.

Support to Training and Employment Programme (STEP)

• The STEP Scheme was launched as a central sector Scheme in 1986 -87.
• The scheme aims to make a significant impact on women by upgrading skills for employment on a self- sustainable basis and income generation for marginalised and asset-less rural and urban women especially those in SC/ ST households and families below poverty line.
• The key strategies include training for skill development, mobilising women in viable groups, arranging for marketing linkages and access to credit.
• The scheme also provides for support services in the form of health check –ups, child care, legal & health literacy and gender sensitisation.
• The scheme covers 10 sectors of employment Ie. Agriculture, Animal husbandry, Dairying, Fisheries, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Khadi and Village Industries, Sericulture, Waste land development and Social Forestry.
• The scope and coverage of the scheme has been enlarged with the introduction of locally appropriate sectors.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP)

• The new scheme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao was launched on 22/1/2015 with the overall goal of the scheme is to celebrate the girl child and enable her education.

The objectives are:

1. Prevent gender biased sex selection elimination.
2. Ensure survival and protection of the girl child.
3. Ensure education of the girl child.

• The BBBP is an initiative to arrest and reverse the decline in Child Sex Ratio. Through this process, efforts to empower women, provide them dignity and opportunities will be enhanced.
• Implementation is through a national campaign and focussed multi sectoral action in 100 selected districts, covering all States and UTs. This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Ministry of Human Resource Development.

The commitments proclaimed under BBBP are

• Celebrate the birth of girl child
• Take pride in daughters and oppose the mentality of ‘Paraya Dhan’
• Find ways to promote equality between boys and girls
• Secure admission to & retention of girl child in schools
• Engage men and boys to challenge gender stereotypes and roles
• Report any incident of sex determination test
• Strive to make neighbourhood safe & violence free for women and girls
• Oppose dowry and child marriage
• Advocate simple weddings
• Support women’s right to inherit and own property.

By
Himanshu Arora
Doctoral Scholar in Economics & Senior Research Fellow, CDS, Jawaharlal Nehru University

Women Empowerment in India

Gender Equality

• The first and foremost condition for Women Empowerment is to promote Gender Equality. Gender equality is a human right which entitles all persons irrespective of their gender to live with dignity and with freedom. Gender equality is also a precondition for development and reducing of poverty.
• Empowered women make invaluable contribution to the improvement of health conditions and educational status and productivity of whole families and communities, which in turn improve prospects for the next generation.
• Gender equality will be achieved only when women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. This means sharing equally, power and influence, and having equal opportunities in economic and social spheres. Equal claim on education and career prospects will enable women to realize their personal ambitions.
• Gender equality demands the empowerment of women, with a focus on identifying and redressing power imbalances and giving women more autonomy to manage their own lives. When women are empowered, the whole family benefit, thus benefiting the society as a whole and these benefits often have a ripple effect on future generations.

How Gender Equality Promotes Economic Development

The Positive effects of Women Empowerment in an Economy.

Linkage Between Women Empowerment and Child Health and Education

• It has been found in various studies conducted by the World Bank, ADB and other renowned research organisations that, educated female-headed households do much better in the provision of health and education of the children at home.
• This happens because women have an inclination towards the healthy development of her children. Moreover, the studies have also found that men as the household head tend to spend their income on luxuries and unproductive purposes like Liquor and Gambling. Such household headed by men tend to spend least on child’s education and health.
• The case for women-headed households is totally different as Women’s tend to minimise the expenditure on unproductive things and spends maximum on their child’s health and education.

Indicators to Measure Gender Equality/Women Empowerment

Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary Schools

• Education is the single most important factor to ensure gender equality and empowerment.
• Enrolment of girls in primary education, survival and transition to higher levels of education lead to achieving gender parity in education.
• During 2000-01 to 2013-14, substantial progress has been achieved towards gender parity in education as revealed by some important indicators.

Gender Parity Index

• The Gender Parity Index (GPI) is the ratio of the number of female students enrolled at primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education to the corresponding number of male students in each level.
• The Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is the number of pupils enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the theoretical age group for the same level of education.
• GPI of GER is the ratio of GER of the girls to that of boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education. Thus, the GPI (GER), which is free from the effects of the population structure of the appropriate age groups, for each level of education, is taken as the appropriate indicator to monitor the gender equality in education.

Source: World Bank and MOHRD

Ratio of Literate Women to Men

• The ratio of literate women to men, 15–24 year old (literacy gender parity index) is the ratio of the female literacy rate to the male literacy rate for the age group 15–24.
• The literacy rate for population in the age group 15-24 years has shown an upward trend both in rural and urban areas and for females as well as males.
• The youth literacy rate has increased from 61.9% to 86.1% during the period 1991-2011. This period saw a higher increase in literacy rate among female youths (from 49.3% to 81.8%) compared to male youths (from 73.5% to 90%). Over the years, the gap between male and female youth literacy rate has been reduced considerably.
• As per Census 2011, the ratio of female youth literacy rate to male youth literacy rate is 0.91 at all India level.
• During the decade 1991 -2001, the percentage increase in ratio of female youth literacy rate to male youth literacy rate is 19.4% whereas during 2001 -2011, the growth was 13.75%.
• The slow pace of progress in the indicator ‘ratio of female youth literacy rate to male youth literacy rate’ in the last decade can be attributed to the tendency of low growth rates observed for most of the indicators which are nearing the saturation point. With the progress achieved during 1991 – 2011, India is likely to achieve the gender parity in youth literacy rate by 2015.

Proportion of Seats held by Women in National Parliament

• India has witnessed 16 General elections to the Lok Sabha of Nation’s Parliament so far.
• As in January 2015, India, the world’s largest democracy, has only 65 women representatives out of 542 members in Lok Sabha, while there are 31 female representatives in the 242 member Rajya Sabha and at present, 12.24% seats of Indian Parliament is held by women.
• According to data released by Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU), India ranks 115 in the World for proportion of National Parliament seats held by Women.

Source: Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha

By
Himanshu Arora
Doctoral Scholar in Economics & Senior Research Fellow, CDS, Jawaharlal Nehru University

1. Education in India: Role and Channels in Promoting Economic Growth
2. Education Development in India: Key indicators- Gross Enrollment Ratio, Primary Enrollment Ratio, Youth Literacy Rate
3. Government Policies for Promotion of Education: RTE Act, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Mid Day Meal Scheme, National Youth Policy

Policy Initiatives of the Government in the Education Sector

National Policy on Education 1986.

A key milestone in India’s march towards Education for All was the adoption of the National Policy on Education 1986 (revised in 1992) which states “In our national perception, education is essentially for all”.

Some of the key thrust areas of the National Policy on Education 1986/92 include;

• National system of education which implies that “up to a given level, all students, irrespective of caste, creed, location or sex, have access to education of a comparative quality”
• Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) “both as a feeder and a strengthening factor for primary education and for human resource development in general”
• Focus on universal access and enrolment, universal retention of children up to 14 years of age; and a substantial improvement in the quality of education to enable all children achieve essential levels of learning;
• Emphasis “on the removal of disparities and to equalize educational opportunity by attending to the specific needs of those who have been denied equality”
• Widening of access to secondary education with emphasis on enrolment of girls, Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), particularly in science, commerce and vocational streams;
• Education for women’s equality, with special emphasis on the removal of women’s illiteracy and obstacles inhibiting their access to, and retention in, elementary education;
• The introduction of systematic, well-planned and rigorously implemented Programmes of vocational education aimed at developing a healthy attitude amongst students towards work and life, enhancing individual employability, reducing the mismatch between the demand and supply of skilled manpower, and providing an alternative to those intending to pursue higher education without particular interest or purpose;
• Making adult education Programmes a mass movement involving literacy campaigns and comprehensive Programmes of post-literacy and continuing education for neo-literates and youth who have received primary education with a view to enabling them to retain and upgrade their literacy skills, and to harness it for the improvement of their living and working condition;
• Overhauling of the system of teacher education with emphasis on continuing professional development of teachers, establishment of District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) with the capability to organize pre-service and in-service training of elementary school teachers, and upgradation of selected secondary teacher training colleges.

National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Education (2013)

• A National Policy on Early Childhood Care and Education was adopted in September 2013. The Policy envisages promotion of inclusive, equitable and contextualized opportunities for promoting optimal development and active learning capacity of all children below six years of age.
• The policy lays down the way forward for a comprehensive approach towards ensuring a sound foundation for survival, growth and development with focus on care and early learning for every child.
• The key goals of the policy include: Universal access with equity and inclusion; Quality in ECCE; and Strengthening capacity, monitoring and supervision, advocacy, research and review.

National Youth Policy (NYP):

• The National Youth Policy, 2003 reiterated the country’s commitment to the composite and all-round development of the youth and adolescents of India.
• The objectives of the National Youth Policy 2003 included providing the youth with proper educational and training opportunities and facilitating access to information in respect of employment opportunities and to other services, including entrepreneurial guidance and financial credit.
• The National Youth Policy, 2014 policy seeks to empower youth of the country to achieve their full potential.
• The priority areas of NYP 2014 include: education, employment and skill development, entrepreneurship, health and healthy lifestyles, sports, promotion of social values, community engagement, participation in politics and governance, youth engagement, inclusion and social justice.
• In the National Youth Policy, 2014 document, the youth age-group is defined as 15-29 years.

Right to Education Act

• In 2010, the country achieved a historic milestone when Article 21-A and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 became operative on 1st April 2010.
• The enforcement of Article 21-A and the RTE Act represented a momentous step forward in our country’s struggle for universalising elementary education.
• The RTE Act is anchored in the belief that the values of equality, social justice and democracy and the creation of a just and humane society can be achieved only through provision of inclusive elementary education to all.
• The Right to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2009 provides a justiciable legal framework that entitles all children between the ages of 6-14 years free and compulsory admission, attendance and completion of elementary education.
• ‘Free education’ means that no child, other than a child who has been admitted by his or her parents to a school which is not supported by the appropriate Government, shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses which may prevent him or her from pursuing and completing elementary education.
• ‘Compulsory education’ casts an obligation on the appropriate Government and local authorities to provide and ensure admission, attendance and completion of elementary education by all children in the 6-14 age group.
• It provides for children’s right to an education of equitable quality, based on principles of equity and non-discrimination.
• Most importantly, it provides for children’s right to an education that is free from fear, stress and anxiety.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan

• The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) is being implemented as India’s main programme for universalising elementary education.
• Its overall goals include universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps in education and enhancement of learning levels of children.
• SSA has been operational since 2000-2001 to provide for a variety of interventions for universal access and retention, bridging of gender and social category gaps in elementary education and improving the quality of learning.
• SSA interventions include inter alia, opening of new schools and alternate schooling facilities, construction of schools and additional classrooms, toilets and drinking water, provisioning for teachers, regular teacher in service training and academic resource support, free textbooks & uniforms and support for improving learning achievement levels / outcome.
• With the passage of the RTE Act, changes have been incorporated into the SSA approach, strategies and norms.
• During the period 2000-01 to 2013-14, the number of primary schools (schools with only primary section) has increased from 638,738 to 858,916 schools while the number of schools imparting upper primary education increased from 206,269 to 589,796.
• Nationally, about 98 per cent of the rural habitations have a primary school within a distance of 1 km.
• The enrolment in primary education during the period 2000-01 to 2013-14 has increased by 18.6 million (from 113.8 million to 132.4 million).

Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services under the Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS)

• The ICDS Scheme is one of the world’s largest programmes for early childhood development. This has a component aimed at pre-school education for children of age 3-5+ years.
• All services under ICDS converge at the Anganwadi – a village courtyard – which is the main platform for delivering these services.
• The ICDS Scheme covers all the States and Union Territories in the country.
• The expansion of ICDS contributed significantly to the increased coverage of ECCE services.
• The number of projects under the ICDS scheme has increased from 4,068 to 7,025 projects during the period 2001-02 to 2012-13.
• The number of Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) increased by 145% (from 545,714 to 1,338,732 centres) during the period 2001-2002 to 2012-13.
• The total number of children of age 3-5+ years, who received pre-school education in Anganwadi Centres increased by 112% (from 16.7 million to 35.3 million) during the period 2001-02 to 2012-13.
• Girls constituted 49% (17.3 million) of the total number of children who received pre-school education during the year 2012-13.

Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995.
• In 2001, MDMS became a cooked Mid-Day Meal Scheme under which every child in every Government and Government aided primary school was to be served a prepared Mid-Day Meal with a minimum content of 300 calories of energy and 8-12-gram protein per day for a minimum of 200 days.
• The Scheme was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children studying in Government, Government aided and local body schools, but also children studying in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres.
• In September 2004, the Scheme was revised to provide for Central Assistance for Cooking cost @ Re 1 per child per school day to cover cost of pulses, vegetables cooking oil, condiments, fuel and wages and remuneration payable to personnel or amount payable to agency responsible for cooking.
• Transport subsidy was also raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states and Rs 75 per quintal for other states.
• Central assistance was provided for the first time for management, monitoring and evaluation of the scheme @ 2% of the cost of food grains, transport subsidy and cooking assistance.
• A provision for serving mid-day meal during summer vacation in drought affected areas was also made.
• In July 2006, the Scheme was further revised to enhance the cooking cost to Rs 1.80 per child/school day for States in the North-Eastern Region and Rs 1.50 per child / school day for other States and UTs.
• The nutritional norm was revised to 450 Calories and 12 gram of protein. In order to facilitate construction of kitchen-cum-store and procurement of kitchen devices in schools provision for Central assistance @ Rs. 60,000 per unit and @ Rs. 5,000 per school in phased manner were made.
• In October 2007, the Scheme was extended to cover children of upper primary classes (i.e. class VI to VIII) studying in 3,479 Educationally Backwards Blocks (EBBs) and the name of the Scheme was changed from ‘National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education’ to ‘National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools’.
• The nutritional norm for upper primary stage was fixed at 700 Calories and 20 grams of protein. The Scheme was extended to all areas across the country from 1.4.2008.
• The Scheme was further revised in April 2008 to extend the scheme to recognized as well as unrecognized Madrasas / Maqtabs supported under SSA.
• During 2009-10, 8.41 cr in Primary and 3.36 cr Upper Primary children i.e a total of 11.77 cr children were estimated to be benefited from MDM Scheme.
• During 2010-11, 11.36 Cr children i.e 7.97 Cr. children in primary and 3.39 Cr. children in upper primary had been covered in 12.63 lakhs institutions.
• During 2011-12 total coverage of children against enrolment was 10.52 Crore (i.e. Prymary-7.71 crore and Upper Primary 3.36 crore children).
• During 2012-13, 10.68 Cr. children (Elementary level) had been covered in 12.12 lakh Schools. 10.45 Cr. children were covered in 11.58 lakh Schools during 2013-14.

Education Development in India

Key Facts and Statistics

• The essence of Human Resource Development is education, which plays a significant and remedial role in balancing the socio-economic fabric of the society. An all-round development of our citizens can be achieved by building strong foundations in education. Education is a unique investment in the present, bearing invaluable benefits in the future.
• The overall increase in enrolment in primary education during the period 2000-01 to 2013-14 was 18.6 million while the overall increase in enrolment of boys and girls respectively was 4.6 million and 14.0 million during this period.
• The enrolment in primary education reached the highest level in 2011-12 (137.1 million) and then declined to 134.8 million in 2012-13 and to 132.4 million in 2013-14.
• Between 2011-12 and 2013-14, the total enrolment in primary education decreased by 4.7 million, with the enrolment of girls and boys decreasing by 2.5 million and 2.2 million respectively.
• One of the reasons for the decline in enrolment in primary education is the declining child population age 0-6 years. The child population in the age group 0-6 years has declined by 5.05 million between 2001 and 2011 (Census of India, 2001 & 2011).

Indicators of Education Development

The Gross Enrolment ratio is defined as total number of students enrolled in a given level of education, regardless of age.

• It is expressed as percentage of the official school age population relative to the population of the age group which officially corresponds to the given level of education.
• A higher GER indicates higher degree of participation. A GER value approaching 100% or more indicated that a country is able to accommodate all of its school age population.
• The GER in primary education increased from 95.7 per cent in 2000-01 to 116.0 per cent in 2010-11 and then declined to 101.4 per cent in 2013-14.
• The overall increase in gross enrolment ratio in primary education during the period 2000-01 to 2013-14 was 5.7 percentage points (from 95.7 per cent in to 101.4 per cent).
• The GER for boys declined by 4.7 percentage points, while the GER for girls increased by 16.8 percentage points during this period.

Net Primary Enrolment Ratio

• Net primary enrolment ratio is the ratio of the number of children of official school age (as defined by the national education system) who are enrolled in primary school to the total population of children of official school age.
• Based on the available data, the Net Enrolment Rate (NER) in primary education (age 6-10 years) was estimated at 84.5 per cent in 2005-06 (U-DISE).
• The NER has increased to 8.08 per cent in 2013-141. The NER was higher for girls (89.26 per cent) than that for boys (87.2 per cent).

Youth Literacy Rate

• Literacy rate of 15–24 year olds, or the youth literacy rate, is the percentage of the population 15–24 years old who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement on everyday life.
• In India, a person aged 7 years and above who can both read and write with understanding in any language has been taken as literate. It is not necessary for a person to have received any formal education or passed any minimum educational standard for being treated as literate.
• The literacy rate for population in the age group 15-24 years has shown an upward trend both in rural and urban areas and for females as well as males.
• The youth literacy rate has increased from 61.9% to 86.14% during the period 1991-2011 and the trend shows India is likely to reach 93.38% which is very near to the target of 100% youth literacy by 2015.
• At national level, the male and female youth literacy rate is likely to be at 94.81% and 92.47%.