“Education in India, & Education in BJP Manifesto”: Evidence from the Recent National Family Health Survey- (NFHS-5)

Hitesh Potdar | July 01, 2022 | Published Online

[This is a two-part series explaining and evaluating the current regime’s performance in terms of education in India, based on the latest National Family Health Survey Data | Read Part-1 Here].

Part II

In Part-I of this two articles series, we have analysed and discussed the blaring gap persisting in the educational attainment of women and men across caste and classes in India. 

In Part II, we will be discussing some of the findings on the same issue across religious groups, regions and States. Further, this part also discusses the primary reasons for children not attending school and the overall condition of women in terms of education.

1. Religion-wise educational attainment:

The NFHS-5 clearly indicates that children from the Muslim community have a larger proportion of people who never had any schooling than any other religion. The proportion of females having no schooling is also highest among Muslims. 

Only 11.4 per cent and 14.6 per cent of Muslim women and men had completed 12 years or more than that year of schooling respectively. The median years of schooling are also the lowest among Muslims with 4.3 years and 5.4 years for females and males respectively. The religious community of “Jainism” seemed to have the most levels of educational attainments among others.

This severe gap in educational attainment among the minorities could be due to the lack of income and occupational mobility prevalent in India. However there is a certain apathy, in terms of State action, that is observed in India. 

The funds allocated for post-matric scholarship schemes for minorities have been consistently and significantly unutilised since 2015.^[1] The total number of applications to claim as beneficiaries in madrasas under the Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madrassa (SPQEM) also decreased drastically.^[2]

Surprisingly, Hindus, which are often the religious target group for the current dispensation, also have significant numbers of people with no schooling at all. This actually goes against implicit or explicit concerns of BJP’s Hindutva politics and the welfare of those. The Hindu woman only has 4.9 median years of schooling. It can be interpreted that the levels of educational attainment of women in both Hindus and Muslims are quite more unsatisfactory than in other religions.

2. Region-wise educational attainment:

Anticipated already, the stark difference could be seen in educational attainment in rural and urban areas. And also the stark difference in female and male educational attainment in rural areas. The median years of schooling for women in rural areas are just 4 years with only 11.8 per cent having 12 years or more of schooling and 33 per cent having no schooling at all. The adjoined chart 2 clearly shows that the educational condition of women is worse-off in rural areas when compared to the urban region with sharp differences.

3. State-wise educational attainments:

As the previous section of this article shows how some of the states, especially the BJP-ruled states, have been spending very low on education and moreover, cutting down spending on education in general and for primary sections in particular, the following graphs reaffirm the same.

The proportion of people who never had any schooling is apparently higher for states like Telangana, Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. Whereas the number is lowest for states like Kerala, Tripura, and Goa among others. The graph clearly indicates that women are excluded more in terms of having schooling. 

(Data for some of the States are not available in the NFHS Report. The missing states are kept as zero)

Similarly, Chart 4 indicates that the median number of years of schooling is higher for non-BJP ruled states such as Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab among others. However, the number is worse for states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, and Jharkhand. The same states have worsened conditions for women’s educational attainment as well in terms of the median number of years of schooling.

4. Reasons for children currently not attending schools:

The below table sheds light on the reasons for children not attending schools, of which the higher proportion of children (more of women) cited reason for not being interested in studies at all. This lacunae cannot be attributed to the children, however, its state’s responsibility to create that interest through programmes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, RTE Act provisions and Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan. 

The most striking fact is that the second most common reason for not joining schools is ‘costs too much’ which is very evident from our discussion in the third part of this article/paper on class-wise educational attainment which attributes higher costs to declined government spending in education, specifically primary and secondary; to fall in numbers of government owned/aided schools; to sudden upsurge in rise of private schools and also subsequent fall in intake of children under RTE in these private schools.

If we look at the number for both females and males, we can distinctly see that the women reporting for the first four reasons is higher than that of males. Thus, it could be interpreted that education is more expensive, and inaccessible for women/girls than the men/boys. The category of reason ‘schools are far away’ is reported highly by women/girls than that of men/boys. Women/girls also report significantly not being able to attend school due to marriage or getting married early.

The reason ‘did not get admission’ is quite evident in the systemic exclusion of around 5.5 per cent of women and men from the education system and there are many reasons to say that this number could be higher than that reported. 

The category of ‘required for work on farm and family business’ is comparatively reported more by men/boys. This evidently could be more in rural areas because of family labour involved in agriculture and other subsistence livelihoods; whereas in urban areas it could be attributed to child labour in the informal sector. 

BJP’s manifesto read “Review, amend and strengthen the Child and Adolescent Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 2012 and Integrated Child Protection Scheme”. On the BJP government’s watch, the child labour law was weakened, allowing children under the age of 14 to work in their household enterprises. It did, however, enhance the punishment for underage labour.

5. Women being worse-off in educational attainment:

All previous sections are evident of the fact that how women’s/girls’ conditions are worse-off in terms of educational attainment across all parameters. To summarise, the proportion of women/girls in terms of no schooling is approximately twice that of men/boys. A similar trend could be found for the median number of years of schooling. The proportion of women/girls is far worse when we consider the age groups above 15-19 years old. The proportion gets more skewed for the older women and yet it has not been satisfactory for even the women/girls new to the education system. It gets more worrisome for those who are SC/ST, Muslims, and from rural areas. 

NFHS-5 uses five different parameters to understand the literacy and learning status among women viz- percentage literate can read a full sentence, can read a part of a sentence, cannot read at all, and completed standard 9 or higher (which also are considered as equivalent to literate). Here one must note, that these levels of literacy: i.e. can read a full sentence, can read part of the sentence and completed Standard 9, forms the overall levels of literate. 

Around forty per cent of women, who are widowed or divorced or separated or deserted (hereafter, WDSD), have had no schooling ever with only 10.9 per cent having schooling for 12 or more years. The conditions for women/girls who are not married is far better than married and women from the above category.

The literacy rate for women who are WDSD is significantly lower than that of other categories, whereas conditions for women/girls not married is comparatively better than married and the former category. Around half of the women from WDSD cannot read at all and only 10.9 per cent can read a whole sentence. The literacy rate for the ‘never-married’ category is satisfactory at 92.4 per cent. 

These conditions signify the failure to use instruments from the schemes and lip service of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) which was a national campaign to save and educate girls. The BBBP was developed as a flagship programme to address the declining child sex ratio and increase the number of girls enrolled in school. The scheme became part of public discussion after CAG of India released the report on it stating inefficient allocation and disbursement of funds, haphazard implementation and more expenditure on logistical and HR issues rather than education as core.

Conclusion

The data from NFHS-5 and its comparison with NFHS-3 and NFHS-4 clearly states the failure of BJP government to fulfil the promises they made through their manifestos and their workings as well while being in government. The noteworthy promise from all of that was to increase the budget allocation and overall spending on education to 6 per cent of the GDP. 

However, the government never spent more than 4 per cent of GDP and kept it oscillating around 3.33 per cent of GDP, often with troughs over the period of the last 9 years of rule. The persisting gap between actual expenditure by the centre on education and estimate expenditure also could be seen in these years.

The game plan of the BJP in education, much like other sectors, has been to announce tall promises, with no actual delivery. By cleverly crafting an image of being pioneers of various education initiatives, they have tried to evade public responsibility with no on-ground change. The analysis of NFHS-5 data throws light on the bare reality of conditions of education in India promulgated by the BJP government, which has in effect taken the country decades back. 

Thus, the recent statements by the Prime Minister’s Office or that by the HRD Minister/ Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan are nothing but too much rhetoric with too little substance. The problem of unemployment has already started haunting the country along with consistently increasing informalisation and casualisation of jobs. These persistent poor educational conditions make the problem of unemployment and labour market stagnation further deplorable. The current initiatives of NEP and a constant withdrawal of State support from education have created an unjust and unequal system, particularly for the marginalised section of the country.  

About Author

Hitesh Potdar is a research associate with the Indian Researcher

End Notes

^[1] Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 2525, dated on 16.03.2020

^[2] Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 4291, dated on 22.03.2021

Some of the headlines would suggest, how the BJP claims came to the forefront: