Two hands on a Calcutta Bus
Two hands on a Calcutta Bus
“The more time you spend in India, the more you realise that this country is one of the world’s great wonders - a miracle with a message”
The words are not mine, but those of Thomas Friedman, author of the well-known book on globalization “The World is Flat”. The message to which Friedman refers is that democracy matters. I have been in India for the last few days leading a workshop for IB geography teachers, and I agree that India is a miracle, the miracle perhaps being that it survives, and indeed thrives.
What a mass of contradictions! At first sight, India seems like a bizarre dysfunctional creaking museum. But with half a billion people people aged under 25, many of whom are well educated and fluent in English, that initial impression clearly misses the huge potential that is India’s future. Already, the country has over 13 million professionals employed in the IT industry. In August this year alone, 5.9 million mobile phone subscribers were added to the country’s cellular phone networks. Between January and October this year, Indian companies acquired 147 overseas companies worth $US15.72 billion. The economy has been growing at 7% to 8% for more than a decade. Clearly, India is changing and developing rapidly, and it seems to doing so in a stable and steady way.
And yet significant barriers remain to be overcome. Local people have told me how the caste system still intrudes into work-place relationships, with some people not being willing to perform some tasks that are seen to be beneath them, or being unwilling to obey instructions from certain people because of their caste.
In a poll published on Friday in the “Hindustan Times” newspaper, education for all was seen as India’s highest social priority. Education was seen as the most important priority by 40.6% of India’s people, well ahead of the number 2 priority, which was wiping out corruption (17.6%). Of course, I agree that the future of India lies with its education, and I say this not simply because I am educationalist who believes passionately that education is the most important investment that any country can ever make. Education plays a unique role in transforming people’s lives for the better, and that is perhaps a more acute reality in India than many other places because of the huge disparities in wealth, and thus opportunities.
It is great that Indian people seem to understand the truth that the future of our society lies in the classrooms and corridors of our schools today.
Sunday, 19 November 2006