World’s largest child population cheated. Again

In the Union Budget 2015-16, finance minister Arun Jaitley seems to have forgotten that contemporary India shabbily hosts the world’s largest population of children and youth (0-24 years) aggregating 600 million. Nor does the finance minister seem aware that the world’s largest child and youth population is the most deprived constituency globally: Dilip Thakore Union finance minister Arun Jaitley suffered a massive memory lapse on February 28 when he rose to present the first full-fledged budget of the BJP-led NDA government, which swept to power at the Centre last summer with the largest majority of any government since 1985. Despite the BJP’s election manifesto promising to increase the annual expenditure (Centre plus states) on education from the current 3.4 percent of GDP to 6 percent, in the Union Budget 2015-16, Jaitley actually reduced the Central government’s outlay for education from the budgeted Rs.82,771 crore in 2014-15 to Rs.69,075 crore. The BJP/NDA government’s allocation for education this year suffers in comparison even with the lower revised expenditure (Rs.70,705 crore) incurred by the Union government last fiscal (2014-15), when in his anxiety to maintain the Centre’s fiscal deficit at 4.1 percent of GDP, he slashed education (and health) spending in the last quarter of 2014-15 with higher education expenditure reduced by 24 percent (Rs.3,900 crore) and the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (National Higher Education Mission) bearing the brunt. Despite this, in Union Budget 2015-16 Jaitley announced the Central government’s intent to promote and establish five greenfield AIIMS (All India Institutes of Medical Sciences), two IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology), and a Centre for Film Production in Arunachal Pradesh, forgetting not only his financial constraints, but also that higher education institutions countrywide are already reporting massive faculty shortages. Evidently, Jaitley’s amnesia is not restricted to populist promises made in the BJP’s election manifesto. India’s latest celebrity finance minister whose cockeyed Union Budget 2015-16 has attracted the familiar fawning adulation of India Inc, also seems to have forgotten that contemporary India shabbily hosts the world’s largest population of children and youth (0-24 years) aggregating 600 million — a number greater than the entire populations of the US and Europe minus Russia, combined. Nor does the finance minister seem aware that the world’s largest child and youth population — from whom will emerge political and industry leaders, and workforce of the 21st century — is arguably the most short-changed young population globally. Against global national expenditure per year on education averaging 5 percent of GDP, and developed OECD countries including the US, UK, Japan, South Korea, and Scandanavia budgeting 7-10 percent of their GDP on education, India’s annual expenditure on education (Centre plus states) during 68 years since independence has averaged 3.3 percent of GDP. Only China budgets a lower percentage (2.5-3 percent) of GDP for education, but it’s pertinent to note that its GDP is six multiples of India’s, and that 90 percent of its education outlay flows into primary and vocational education. College and higher education tuition fees are more than ten times that…