Making choices, shaping times ahead...

Choices…what choices!!!

When I think about ‘Choice’, I start wondering that did I ever contemplate over any of the available choices in my life meaningfully. What is choice? Is it only a decision out of set of available alternatives? Choice may not be available all the time. Sometimes we have to create space, environment for choices. For creating ambience suitable for us takes enormous patience, time and resources.

We rely on our basic instincts, on the rational appeals of our needs to perceive choices. Our awareness about the options, information about right ways to pursue those alternatives and specific techniques, skills to complete the requirements needed for that toiling path is most crucial when we try to map out the choices. Freedom to think about different approach completely opposite to that of tradition in which we have been nourished also leads in prioritizing the list of choices.

On the other part our emotions also paint our vision while preparing for choices. Our perspective towards world, our ideologies, our approach to materialistic world, how spiritual we are, how religious we are, how much we have immersed ourselves in worshipping, how we react to diversity around us, how we relate to people common to us, our attitudes, our habits, our way of facing crisis everything makes choices.

How we question the past, present and how we envision future according to those glimpses from past and present creates enormous possibilities to think about scenarios in coming times about the future ahead of us. Our needs and capabilities determine our choices, of course. But going beyond that, we are also shaped by events. Crisis in personal, social and national lives force us to make critical choices vis-à-vis the personal lives. If I am driven by some insane dream I will naturally be not attracted by ordinary choices available in front of me. May be adopting those available choices will give temporary satisfaction and sustenance. But when I am moved by the dream to achieve the impossible as the world sees it then, I will be neglecting the allure of those and instead opt for non-obvious one.

Having number of choices is always better than having very few. This is a pragmatic sense which provides security. Mere manifested availability should not be a reason for committing yourself for one particular choice. Some choices we wish to make are hidden behind the obviously available exciting choices. If we are curious to ask simple questions, if we succeed to notice the subtle but significant changes under the surface and deeply evolving gradual paradigm shifts around us we can make use of choices we are having or choices we are not able to pinpoint with exact location. 

Is choice only like gateway, through which we pass, and can never return? Some choices are reversible, but many of them are completely irreversible. Preventive and proactive action to address the work we are doing is all about limiting the damage out of wrong choices done sometimes. How liberal we are, how open minded is our approach for the events happening around us? How mature is our common sense,  how down to earth is our experienced wisdom and knowledge also catalyses the whole umbrella of choices, likely to be present and likely to be emerging.

Choices…

When Darwin refreshed from slumber of his voyage,

he told us about natural selection, diversity and survival of fittest;

and also about choices nature makes for our existence,

which jungle for which animal and which flower for which butterfly…

When Columbus turned west instead of east,

he discovered the world never dreamed to be embarked,

When Picasso painted Guitar with dying old man and provocative colas of girl with mandolin,

he created different world of aesthetic choices for future…

                       

                        When Churchill decided to fight Nazis in the sky, seas and land,

                        he left no choices in front of British except to die,

                        but in the end he defined the meaning of Victory sign

                        and the followed his extraordinary choice of bravery…

                       

                        When Rosa Parks chose not to seat in biased seat in bus,

                        blacks revolted under leadership of Martin Luther King;

                        when India chose to lift one ounce of salt for freedom,

                        that became the pride of the liberation movement all over globe…

                        Ultimately when beauty chooses truthfulness as companion,

                        world becomes more just to cherish and to prosper,

                        when compassion chooses passion as soul mates,

                        life turns out of to be perfect choice of god gift created ever…

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Catch them Young: Ideas are not agents that do things, individual do !!!

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Future Dialouge: Business, Science and Politics in the changing world !
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Two opposite observations, but going hand in hand always in futuristic or policy related conferences are as follows: Planning; enough is enough...concentrate on implementation & action; Now stop everything and just go back to basics. This reconciliation of combining the wisdom of the fundamentals from the past and secondly the pragmatism of the future by forgetting the planned design so as to focus on the only actions to be followed. 

Social exclusion and environmental degradation are staunch allies of each other.  Equal access to public space in the cities is at the heart of fighting these allies. The recent debates about sustainability which carry strong notions of socio-economic and  environmental principles need further extension not only towards good governance assisted by cooperation and knowledge sharing but also new technological solutions which are economical and eco-friendly. In this respect, resource efficiency and integrated planning holds the key. Resource efficiency will also be influenced by consumption habits. Integrated planning includes bottom up approach towards micro-participative planning. As regards technology it has to be remembered that it is the key to many problems but it will only work during the favorable conditions. 


India will be having more than 65 cities which will have more than one million population in the next decade; while Europe will be having less than 40. In the context of half of humanity is already living in the cities and the birth rate of the people living in the cities is outliving that of in the rural areas there is bound to be massive resources constraints on the demography which can contribute to the collapsing of the cities. The rush to the city is more evident than ever before. Rural populations are moving to the cities to seek improvements to their quality of life-most notably through better economic opportunities. Building municipal infrastructure which feeds to the aspirations of huge migrating class needs to a lot of urban sustainability principles in the design itself.  

Even-though, sustainability is not the luxury but a must need, the business opportunities cited by west in this area are enormous. As noted by one climate expert: "Urban sustainability in emerging markets is still very much a growth agenda and it`s better, more efficient growth than we have seen in developed world." We know, that debates about legal commitment about GHG emissions cut failed in Copenhagen and further but interestingly the term "equitable access" is doing more penetrative rounds in the discussions about business opportunities hidden in the problem of unsustainable cities of the developing world, especially in India.  So, 'equitable access'remains the buzz word to attract the crowded debates in the policy making domains in recent times. 

In the situation where urbanization is uncontrolled what can happen? Social breakdown due to cultural divergences-importing & sustaining poverty-stealing of jobs because of skills proliferation across the global demography-economic stagnation because of lack of human and economical development of the urban population- conflict, violence & crime due to trafficking; these are some of the consequences. And remember, human consequences outweigh any other benefit out of the rapid urbanization. Its impact on health, education and employment conditions is enormous giving rise to negative externalities. 

Community participation, strengthening and empowering local leadership, motivating frugal innovation for solving the grassroots problem, addressing the stakeholders with proper information and allotment of tools so they themselves can monitor the security and prosperity of the public good(transport systems, parks, libraries, hygiene systems) are some of the significant structural elements of the urbanized life. Progressive and sustainable urbanization reflects the greatest values of civil life and professional efficiency. 


Planning way ahead of future is certainly the key. As evident in the well established case of Manhattan  the planning of which started in 1811, well before modern technologies of transportation and other innovations were out of our imagination.  Recent innovative experiments of sustainable are New Heaven, Vancouver, Lisbon, Johannesburg, Barcelona. But what about Asian and African cities which are not learning or not investing in the knowledge exchange and dissemination about the best practices of 'sustainable urbanization'. Off course, big cities in India will certainly have Governments attention and allocation of funds likewise. But real shaping up has to be in emerging cities who are going to be megapolis in coming years. Planning for them now will certainly reduce the pressure on the resources and space in the biggest metros of the country. 


Urban reforms must transform the shape of the cities. To achieve this we need to create more and more inspiring examples. Delhi Metro is one such example.Replicating this example in other cities like Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai. Pune is underway. The kind of know-how and experience generated out of great work done by Delhi Metro can also help Indian railway to improve its performance in improving safety and speed before they move forward to discuss the technological up-gradation on the shorter routes of the travel which can add more quality and comfortable travel to the aspiring middle class passengers so as to offer cheap trains to the massive poor population on the busy routes. 

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What exactly happened at Fukushima ?

Conventional Wisdom upside down: Designed in USA, Manufactured in China !

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I recently came across very provocative but still very critical-pragmatic paragraphs about the things we experience in economic policy crisis these days. I was reading John Kenneth Galbraith`s biography written by Richard Parker. In his very in-depth analysis about the transition from Alfred Marshall to Milton Friedman via George Keneyes through John Kenneth Galbraith. In the context of last three years financial crisis following lines are very noteworthy.

" It has recently been common-indeed fashionable-to talk about the end of the New Deal legacy that was born in 1934. In this view, Franklin Roosevelt`s idea of activist government, and the kind of economic theory eventually labeled 'Keynesian'-activist, interventionist, and liberally purposive-with which Galbraith is associated, has come to a close. Replacing it, we are told, is our 'new' era; Information age has replaced industrial age;  computers, fibre optics, and biotechnology are the new iron of the American economic power; and with them is coming a new way not just of doing things, but of living itself. We are told, we`ll be 'set free' to change our jobs (and careers) repeatedly, to manage our health care, investments, and retirement on our own to compete globally, and thereby to win (if we compete successfully) an unprecedented new prosperity alongside our new freedom."

And now when the issue of competitiveness comes across Paul Krugman tears apart this argument in his famous "Pop Internationalism." Krugman basically argues that notion of competitiveness can hold among different firms but never among different countries. He challenges conventional wisdom in this way: "Conventional view suggests that capital and technology are in fixed supply, and the growth in new countries comes at the expense of the more established countries. The reality is that diffusion of the technology, while it increases competition faced by the leader`s exports also expands their markets and reduces the price of their imports."

          Next, Krugman points out at the credibility crisis and manhandling of the situation which leads to debt crisis. "People in early 1990s were convinced that devaluation was not going to work and Europe seemed on an inevitable path of full monetary union. These apparent lessons for the advanced countries were reinforced by different but seemingly related experiences in the developing world. The debt crisis in the developing world led to the emergence of very high inflation rates. In the efforts to control inflation, exchange rate targets came to play an important role." Then he asks very acute question: Where does the conventional wisdom about economic policy comes from? It is partly driven by economic analysis, I don`t mean to say that research is completely ignored and partly driven by recent economic experience. Confidence of economic experts in what they say comes not so much from solid evidence as from the fact that so many other important people are saying the same thing. You get my point: conventional wisdom, to some extent based on real evidence, has a strong element of sheer fashion into it."

When we observe completion of 10 years of 9/11 or three years of financial crisis, one question looms largest: How does experts get it wrong that none could predict that. (Except this...)  Again Krugman, three years back wrote, about the reasons behind wrong forecasts of the coming economic situation. He says: "Few economists saw our current crisis coming, but this predictive failure was the least of the field’s problems. More important was the profession’s blindness to the very possibility of catastrophic failures in a market economy. It’s much harder to say where the economics profession goes from here. But what’s almost certain is that economists will have to learn to live with messiness. That is, they will have to acknowledge the importance of irrational and often unpredictable behavior, face up to the often idiosyncratic imperfections of markets and accept that an elegant economic “theory of everything” is a long way off. In practical terms, this will translate into more cautious policy advice — and a reduced willingness to dismantle economic safeguards in the faith that markets will solve all problems."

Apt description of the crisis in the Krugman`s words is: " Yet the story of economics over the past half century is, to a large degree, the story of a retreat from Keynesianism and a return to neoclassicism." He concludes: "Economics, as a field, got in trouble because economists were seduced by the vision of a perfect, frictionless market system. If the profession is to redeem itself, it will have to reconcile itself to a less alluring vision — that of a market economy that has many virtues but that is also shot through with flaws and frictions. The good news is that we don’t have to start from scratch. Even during the heyday of perfect-market economics, there was a lot of work done on the ways in which the real economy deviated from the theoretical ideal. What’s probably going to happen now — in fact, it’s already happening — is that flaws-and-frictions economics will move from the periphery of economic analysis to its center."

Why I referred to all of this: Just one experience. When I was visiting downtown market in Trieste, Italy recently, I visited many shops which shown the mark on the various products with the punchline: "Designed in USA, Manufactured in China". And I was trying to interpret what it really meant when Italian finance minister visited Beijing to request Chinese government to buy Italian debt. Then certainly conventional wisdom was upside down; welcome the inevitable but unimaginable.

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Education Reforms in India: How and in what way ?

The massive reforms in the Education sector are awaiting for further action by governments, in states and at the centre. Starting from the fundamental Right to Education,  moving towards consolidating the secondary education and towards creating more quality professional and research institutions is the top priority in education sector of the government. The debate about the actual target hovers around achieving 15 % enrolment in 12^th plan and 20% enrolment up to 2020. Some experts in Planning Commission argue that focus should be on the absolute number of people to be brought in the education net rather than concentrating on the percentage of enrolment to be achieved. Real challenges ahead of Planning Commission are manifold when reforms in Education sector are discussed. Those are lack of inspirational incentive for the teacher training at primary and secondary education level. Huge paucity of infrastructure leading towards languishing of the funds and vice versa, great degree of vacuum in   the monitoring of the quality and excellence, too many regulatory institutions making it impossible for smooth functioning of the institutions regulating and those of being regulated.

            The reforms in the education sector are subjected to huge investment increase made by Planning Commission from 10^th to 11^th Plan. New Central Universities, Innovation Universities, Centers of Excellence, National Institutes of Technologies, IIITs, IITs, IISERs and many other premier higher education institutions are being proposed and being established. What is the matter of worry is speed with which these institutions are being established. Another important aspect of worry is the stagnated number of new institutions being proposed and limited intake capacity with limited disciplines having less scope for interdisciplinary professional courses and creating ambience to nurture interdisciplinary research fields.

            The reforms in higher education will only succeed once we create the anticipatory mechanisms which will tap, trace and respond to the growing challenges of the economic growth and sustainable development. The needs of these two factors should drive the classification of the categories which will dominate the creation of quality benchmarks for excellence in human resource development policy aims at. The complacency on the front of human resource development will greatly cripple the India`s growth aspirations which ultimately are aimed at fulfilling the basic needs of the huge population of this country. Development of soft skills and technical skills which will help in strengthening the employability are surely the principal means to provide the equal opportunity to the oppressed classes in competitive environment of job market and also in the attainment of life having meaningful resources to live and nourishing the capability and culture to share, collaborate and plan for synergetic projects of entrepreneurship in any walks of life.

            One of the great lacunas of planning in Higher Education sector is lack of imagination where this entire workforce will lead us to. The active collaboration with the industries so as to have meaningful utilization of those people coming out of the different institutions is very crucial. The   huge untrained human resources can be big disaster when it comes to providing them efficient services. These human resources must be trained to promote self employment, to ignite the industrial ambitions and to nurture the culture of quality and excellence so as to respect the professional values. These professional ethics exposure are absent from training of today`s higher education system. When Planning Commission consistently talks about Inclusive Growth, it remains to be seen whether the process of inclusion will be cherished by government alone. Every member of civil society and in this narrow respect, higher education sector is equally responsible for creating the value chain which will respond positively to enhance the capacity of supply side and also build the capabilities of demand side in education so as to create equitable access with logical expansion without compromising quality and excellence.

            Considering the huge sector of education, different bodies working on the problems of education and conducting research on education is deeply desirable and sought after aspiration. Opportune time has arrived when Planning Commission should push for creating more and more region specific and sector specific research institutes and developing the capabilities of the people already working in this area. Unless and until we have more mature understanding about the kind of agricultural/industrial/information society we need to have in our future we will not be able to justify the mere creation of massive number of huge knowledge institutions whose sole agenda would be to manufacture the professionals rather than cultivating the leaders in every walk of life who can solve the emerging, incidental problems at hand by complementing that knowledge by adding knowledge to understand the emerging scenarios in better ways.

            India is the country which simultaneously lives from 17^th to 21^st century. The equal and opposite argument about India`s strength and weakness is equally true. The massive contradictions and subtle similarities of habits make it unique destination to preserve the unique heritage we have in terms of human resources. Creating modern educational infrastructure will greatly diminish the potential of this diversity India has by creating more homogeneous workforce by killing the diversity of thought present in different demographic groups in India. Notwithstanding the   equality of opportunity inherent in the constitution, any policy aimed at creating more opportunities in primary, secondary and higher education also leaves huge space where exploitation of the people needing education happens all along. S

            Sometimes, this exploitation happens through expensive cost of the education, sometimes through lack of information technology, sometimes due to lack of sufficient access to information resources which can transform the way we learn and sometimes the lack of        access to quality resource persons which makes huge difference in terms of inspiration and standards. Still, people in India have tried hard, thrived in difficult circumstances and embarked on uphill tasks of creating and sustaining institutions and also in knowledge delivery  practices. These people and institutions need to share their experiences in systematic manner so as to help Planning Commission to have better sense of dynamics of the economics of education and trends in quality delivery of education all over the world.

            The role of leaders in the development of higher education cannot be underestimated. While the notion that only administrative leaders are responsible and capable of sustaining and innovating the progress in primary, secondary and higher education. We need to promote the leadership qualities at every level of the education; in teaching, research, administration, training, project development, collaboration, revenue generation, inclusive policies. Creating more and more leaders to ensure the huge demand to be met with quality and quantity will definitely compliment to the nation`s effort in the other sectors of development and economic progress.

            The higher education and any education sector is increasingly being subjected to privatization and in recent days to Public Private Partnership initiatives. The strong opinion of many stalwarts in public policy hold the view that state should not abdicate the responsibility in all education areas. But looking at the challenges about access and maintenance of the quality, entry of the private institutions were inevitable. Planning commission is envisaging different experiment where PPP will be used to strengthen educational infrastructure. Apart from this proposed entry of foreign universities also tries to give this promise of quality and excellence.

            While some of the qualitative aspects of the promises given about the entry of foreign  educational institutions can be debated, the basic issue of state of the art and centers of  excellence in our research institutions  and universities cannot be wished away relying on  or importing the readymade solution. We need to strive perseveringly for the establishment of the new institutions by rewarding all the people contributing to that process. Also, the gross ignorance about the incentives to the students at any level of education cannot be compromised. This is one area which greatly needs massive reforms. The prospects of quality research and development in public funded, autonomous and private research institutes greatly depend upon the kind of reward or incentives provided to the students irrespective of their economic, social status.

            Bottom-line of education reforms in India lies in the fact that little negligence at this stage of history can ruin the prospects of returning to the normal development pace with average human development indicators. Cautious and attentive planning will certainly help to remove the stagnation and arrest the decline of employment unfriendly academic institutions, defeat the largely anti-research environment in Indian universities, demystifying massive confusion about what it means by ‘world class quality’ and off course to eradicate the pervert politics in education replacing it with potential policies in education so as to empower the masses with knowledge, professionalism and a purpose to utilize that knowledge for solving the problems of our daily lives.

           

            The institutions like Planning Commission have always emerged to the scene. Regarding education, real changes started happening since completion of the 10^th Plan. Whether the changes are driven by new terms being coined in terms of BRICS or ideas of knowledge superpower being tossed from here and there; the potential of education is one of the very few instruments which will make the Idea of sustainably developed India true in every sense. In stimulation and response there lies the choice. It was thought that after liberalization India chose to respond. Some people thought it in terms of outsourcing, demographic dividend and knowledge driven sustainable economic growth. Real  stimulation lies not in the terms being appropriated from outside but it lies in deep felt agony of the daily problems faced by millions of Indian citizens across the length and breadth  of the country. And the space created by this agony and pain is pushing Indian policymakers towards reforms in Indian education system. Within this pain and these upcoming policies, lie our ability to make choices. Choices for better life, choices for better tomorrow!

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Planning Commission 2.0--- Towards Inclusion through Transformation

            Considering the growing challenges in front of Government of India in the context of ensuring ‘human development’ for all of its citizens, the crucial role of Planning Commission was, is and will always be at the core of policy making. This was the most significant realization once someone witnesses the actual evidence driven policy making debates in the Planning Commission meetings. Although, we may not agree that the great aspect of strategic planning which is observed in the foresight activities of MNCs and other think tanks is absent in the roadmaps of the Planning Commission, what must not be ignored that it is the only body which compels politicians, bureaucrats and scholarly world of research and development driven civil society to have common frame of reference and serious patience to listen to the compulsions of the each other professionals.

            The pressures on the public policy making and creating the thinking space for generating the hope of germination of new ideas is very crucial as far as the feasibility of any new initiative Planning Commission is taking. The performance of each ministry`s spending on the different schemes each year is not satisfactory. Even Planning Commission`s own budget meant for capacity and knowledge upgradation in the areas it is working is not being utilized properly which is meant for attracting proper research and documentation.

            The Commission needs a comprehensive research unit of its own to track record and circulate the indicators of development in the sectors of education, health, employment, agricultural and industrial growth, knowledge institutions and knowledge dissemination. The routine administrative work done by officers there cannot be overburdened by the expectations that they alone would be responsible for executing the specialized fields of policy making. Let the bureaucrats and supporting staff working in the Planning Commission be enabler in accelerating the proposals and other urgent priorities of the administrative approvals and let the focused team of ‘knowledge professionals’ be driving the work on carrying out consultations on the new emerging challenges in the fields of e.g. Higher education, Technology deployment in development initiatives, benchmarks for modem, sustainable infrastructure and state of the art ways to conserve the environment.

            The grave vacuum of the forecasting unit is being felt in the structure of the Planning Commission. In all macroeconomic or microeconomic planning scenarios, forecasting must be an essential component.  It is admirable that Planning Commission always welcomes new reports by global think tanks for detailed discussion, what needed is the dis-aggregated outlook towards the study of the problem and massive stakeholder participation for better, in advance anticipation of     the bottlenecks possible in the  execution of the schemes being run by the concerned ministries.

               Planning Commission has recognized the significance of reception of new paradigms regarding the real time consultations with the different representatives of the civil society through social platforms and technical platforms of social networks. Another significant aspect is the conviction of the Planning Commission to build the network of actors and to work in synergy rather than to continue to languish in isolated silos. This is very significant when the challenges being faced do not depend on one-dimensional assessment and unilateral initiative for enhancement of the possibilities of success in terms of conceptualizing, strategizing, mobilizing resources and executing the utilization of the time available for efficient deployment of the human resources. Having been engaged in the human resources division, the aspect of massive ignorance towards the development of the class of specialized people in the governance demands special  attention.

            Going ahead, during the meetings of steering committee and working group meetings the lack of preparedness on the front of members was not satisfactory. Very few members were caring for preparing and submitting advance note of their assessment of the situation. It was not observed during the three months tenure of the candidate`s internship that very few members of the committees being formulated discuss or participated in the deliberations in proactive manner. I wish not to utter the word ‘sycophant’ to describe the people not speaking or merely appreciating the established scope of discussions in the meetings, but there seems to be grave lack of leniency towards what already has been set in agenda. With the body like Planning Commission responsible for creating a liberal environment in the government to spark the debates encouraging fearless discussions without muting the capable voices. 

            The formulation of groups for any new strategy formulations must be very diverse compared to current groups which even though being sometimes little diverse tend to express homogeneous     opinions cutting the scope for any nuanced  argument to make its way forward in the echelons of the priorities of particular action. The groups normally comprise the people from government but no significant numbers of people are accommodated from academics, strong research background, professional competencies, and people coming from comparative background (other countries and other states).

            Considering the vast size and demography of the country like India, strengthening the State  Planning Commissions, supporting local universities and research institutions for capacity building in planning and forecasting exercises and having comprehensive discussions about the problems of each sector and each state is very crucial. More decentralized approach in generating reliable indicators and evidences about the problems being faced by that region directed to enrich  the consultations will also help to build trust and collate not only disaggregated data but also perspectives and opinions in the context of weaknesses and assets of that state.

            Having a professional, state of the art team of the consultant for the Planning Commission studies and tasks is very convenient way to complete the operations and functions being delegated from time to time. The outcomes of these studies and detailed analysis done by these reports of the major policy making areas may be strategically sometimes very crucial and therefore needs immunity from disclosure. However, Planning Commission should take lead in organizing seminars, conferences which promote more open and diversified deliberations on different issues involved in particular study or area of policy making. This will create more tolerant and wise atmosphere around the proceedings of the Planning Commission adding transparency as its major   asset. After Indian entry into liberal globalization and in the backdrop of recent financial crisis, the circle is completed. Therefore Planning Commission needs to reinvent its vital role for the betterment of the institutional structure of the historical legacy which is not only responsible for allocating the development grants but the igniting the new development debates, rewarding the sustainable ideas and compensating for the intellectual vacuum present in the ministries and in the governance above all. 

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From Silent Genocide to Silent Observer: A Tale of Domestic Apartheid in India

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With persistent inequalities in India, the girl child is at already at disadvantage and faces strong discrimination at every stage of her life in little or no access to education, lack of health care and nutrition and child marriage. In a shocking (?) revelation about the increasing intolerance of ‘modern’, ‘educated’ Indian society, a research article published this week in ‘The Lancet’ has shattered the claims of Indian governments—both central and states –in stopping the girl child killings every day and night in well-developed Indian habitats. This study, supported by India`s 2011 census preliminary results, reveal a growing imbalance between number of girls and boys aged 0-6 years due to increased parental sex determination with subsequent selective abortion. The international team of nine health experts lead by Prabhat Jha assessed sex ratios by birth order in 0.25 million births in three rounds of the nationally representative National Family Health Survey covering the period from 1990 to 2005.


The life of the girl child reflects strong elements of discrimination at various stages. Prejudice against daughters stems from the perception of girl child as a liability. Devil is apparently frightening us before we enter into details. But we have to face this grim nature of facts before we prepare ourselves to fight this challenge root of which firmly and deeply lying in social/cultural prejudice and convictions about the women as a whole in our everyday lives. The 2011 Indian census revealed about 7.1 million fewer girls than boys aged 0-6 years, a notable increase in the gap of 6.0 million fewer girls recorded in the 2001 census and the gap of 4.2 million fewer girls in the 1991 census. In effect, more girls than boys die at ages 1-59 months, but this is mostly offset by more boys than girls dying in the first month of life. In contrast, in most high-income countries, only slightly more boys than girls are born, with recorded sex ratios at birth of 950-975 girls per 1000 boys.


Significance of this study lies in the fact that this is first one to assess the trends over time in selective abortion of girls in India at the national level with nationally representative data. Research compared the sex ratios of second-order births after firstborn girls with the second-order sex ratio after firstborn boys. Findings note a sharp decline in the girl-to-boy sex ratio for second-order births when the firstborn was a girl. These declines are greater in educated and richer households than in illiterate and poorer households. The total of about 4-12 million selective abortions of girls happened during the period from 1980 to 2010. The data also suggests that selective abortion has spread from a handful of states to most parts of the country. Thus, most of India`s population now live in states where selective abortion of girls is common. The exact contribution of selective abortion of girls to the measured sex imbalance at ages 0-6 years in the censuses also depends upon child mortality rates. However, the uniqueness of this study lies in exposing that it is only in recent years did slightly more girls die compared with the boys.


A UNFPA study (2010) points out that even after legislations such as the ‘Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act of 1994’ (PCPNDT Act) and many campaigns to promote the value of girl child, the situation has barely improved. Both central and states have launched many programs and policies which aims at empowering girl child so that they can avail equal freedom and opportunity. All the policies target the poor families which de facto face poverty as a major constraint that prevents raising and educating girl children. But findings published in Lancet provoke us to shift the focus of policy, programs and schemes in completely reverse manner. It is to be emphasized here that for example poor regions, tribal regions of the country are far ahead as far as protecting the girl child to enhance the child sex ration than compared to so called educated, developed and rich class. We can easily make out that availability and access of cheap technology is making the monster out of this ‘modern life style.’


During the last decade, there has been a substantial decline in the sex-ratio at birth (SRB) as well as child sex ratio (CSR). The 2001 census data and the different rounds of sample registration surveys show that the problem is acute in the economically progressive states of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Gujarat. Examination of child sex ratio at the district level indicated that in 1991, not a single district in India recorded a CSR less than 800. However, in 2001 census 14 districts came under this category. Likewise, there were no districts having CSR in the range of 800-849 in 1991, however 31 districts recorded this range in 2001. Triggering a sense of crisis, many states were forced to swing into action on the premise that financial incentives would trigger behavioral changes among communities, more specifically among newly weds and young parents to value a girl child. The effect of all the schemes was basically intended to improve Sex Ratio at Birth and Child Sex Ratio, increased school enrolment and attendance in primary, middle and high schools, and an enhanced age of marriage.


What the performance of all the schemes launched recently tells us about the effectiveness of the government`s efforts in this direction? Firstly, let us look at kind of schemes launched. Dhan Laxmi scheme of government of India, Ladli scheme of Delhi and Haryana, Ladli Lakshmi Yojna of Madhya Pradesh, Bhagyalakshmi of Karnataka, Balri Rakshak Yojna of Punjab, Balika Suraksha Yojna of Himachal Pradesh, Mukhya Mantri Kanya Vivah Yojna of Bihar, Balika Samrudhi Yojna of Gujrat etc.


Multiple conditions and corresponding documentation hinders the smooth implementation of the scheme. The monitoring mechanism for these kind of schemes is very poor. Government monitors the scheme through district authorities and organizes public hearing to gather feedback from the beneficiaries to take corrective actions. Many applicants are normally unaware of the benefits under the scheme. The ignorance and lack of awareness among the beneficiaries in turn leads to manipulation and corruption. These schemes are implemented through the vast network of Anganwadis and the ICDS machinery. Successful implementation requires support and co-operation from other departments such as education, health, pachayats etc. The officials responsible for implementing the schemes complain about non-support from the government departments resulting in delays and difficulties.


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