So much has transpired on the national and international stages since the presentation of the Union Budget 2011-12 to Parliament on February 28, that the Central government’s latest annual statement of revenue mobilisation and deployment seems history. Yet the truth is that Budget 2011-12 was rolled out just over a month ago with much unwarranted hype and hoopla. As usual it was analysed, dissected, sliced and diced, with much gusto and enthusiasm in the media for a few days and the rest is silence. Moreover while most constituencies affected by the tax and spend provisions of the budget had their say in the media and not entirely without reward — the 5 percent “misery tax” proposed to be imposed upon all surgical operations conducted within air-conditioned hospitals and nursing homes has been rolled back — Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee’s provisions for education of the world’s largest population of children and youth (550 million) have been approved by Parliament and the public almost unchallenged. On the contrary, not a few informed monitors of India’s education sector have endorsed and applauded his claim of having increased the Centre’s outlay for education by 24 percent over last year to Rs.52,057 crore. There are several pernicious infirmities of the budget formulation and presentation process which have not been challenged by post-independence India’s brawling, caterwauling politicians, sycophantic intelligentsia or the bovine public for over six decades. For one, neither the Union budget nor the Economic Survey which precedes it by a few days, makes any reference to the sectoral needs of the Indian economy. Secondly, the finance minister’s budget speech is totally silent on the previous year’s outcomes. Year after year the Union (and state) governments’ budget papers are opaque statements of monetary allocations made under myriad heads with no reference to needs or past performance in terms of assets creation or milestone achievements. All of the above process flaws are applicable to the allocation made for education in Budget 2011-12. Yet neither the government establishment, intelligentsia, nor the public seems to have cottoned on that throwing public money at problems is not the best way to resolve them. This year’s analysis of the Union budget from the perspective of provision made for education also squarely addresses the phenomenon of the pervasive indifference of the intelligentsia and middle class to government provision for education. With access to private K-12 schooling for their own offspring, the intelligentsia and middle class have become completely indifferent to the quality of education provided to the public, i.e the poor and socio-economically disadvantaged unable to access private schooling. For reasons elaborated in our cover story, this is a dangerous and self-defeating development. For further particulars, you’ll have to read the cover story which draws a parallel between Mr. Bumble famously denying Oliver Twist’s request for more, and finance minister Mukherjee’s grudging provision for educating the world’s largest — and most high-potential — population of children and youth. And now that the summer holiday season has commenced, in our second…
