Vouchers To Padhao And Bachao Betis

Let girls from poor families pay fees in private schools, which are better than government-run schools, via vouchers funded by the State

This Republic Day, the Union government launched “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” scheme with the aim to prevent infanticide, protect girl child and educate her. Many targets have been set and many task forces created under various authorities in the country to reach these goals. This one is a government programme, too, and to expect anything innovative would be disservice to the commonsense. The only hope is that the implementation will be better under Modi sarkar.

But why can’t governments think out of the box? More importantly, why do they fail so miserably in achieving those targets they set for themselves? The answer is simple: Governments focus on circles of our concern instead of circles of their influence [Stephen Covey of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame coined the terms ‘circle of concern’ and ‘circle of influence’].

They try to work on things that are not in their control like how society thinks or behaves. Instead if they concentrate on things that they can do something about, success won’t be too far away. The incessant desire to be the saviour of society rather than a helping hand is what fails governments. The ideal thing to do is to identify the causes behind a problem and address them. But to do that, we first need to identify the problem.

Why are boys preferred to girls? Illiteracy, the growing fear of lack of safety for girls, and stigma of a ‘man who cannot father boys’ are some of the reasons. But to stop at these would be barely scratching the surface. In the family planning process, a very important aspect in the minds of the poor is the cost-benefit ratio. Many think if they are going to raise a child with good education — which may take a lot of money — why not have a boy who will be there to serve them in their old age rather than a girl who is going to leave after her marriage for the abode of her husband or parents-in-law, and all their ‘investment’ will go ‘waste’.

This logic may sound a bit too dramatic to people who are well educated, well fed and have a better shot at life. The situation is quite different for an illiterate, landless farmer with no fixed income. This thinking is despicable, but we can do little about it. This is an area of concern, but it lies outside policymakers’ area of influence.

While removing illiteracy, raising awareness about the abilities of girls, spreading the message of gender equality etc are long term projects, it will be prudent to focus on what can be done right away to improve the situation.

The biggest component of raising a child is education. While private schools are obviously out of reach, public schools are of not much help either when it comes to poor parents. Sending the children to public schools has become an utter waste of time.

Barring a few institutions of repute like the Kendriya Vidyalayas, the standard of training they impart to children has fallen from bad to worse. The situation is more horrid in village schools. Teachers are absent on most days and, even if they come for the sake of registering attendance, they sit in staff rooms gossiping all day. Lack of basic infrastructure including, but not limited to, toilets for girls makes the situation more abhorrent. There is a gap in the quality of education that children of the rich and poor receive.

This can be bridged by introducing school vouchers in India.

School vouchers are State-funded scholarships targeting low income groups who can use them to attend private schools rather than public schools. The qualifying private schools will have to meet certain standards set by the government just like they have to now under the RTE Act with the amendments that give more preference to outcomes than infrastructure. Every year, eligible girl students can register themselves at their chosen schools and pay their fees via vouchers issued by the State.

If we can ensure that every girl child gets free and quality elementary education through vouchers redeemable at private schools of their choice, a lot can be changed. It will make them self-dependent. Since government will be financing the most costly component of raising the child, parents can focus on the other needs of hers. Educated women can be agents in defeating social ills like dowry and female foeticide. The vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and illiteracy can be broken. This voucher project can be launched in districts with lowest sex ratio and later replicated in other areas.

The current approach of the government reminds me of a plot that used to be popular in Hindi movies of the 1990s. The girl’s rich father would die, leaving massive wealth in the hands of an evil uncle; the wealth would be transferred to her when she reaches a certain age. In real life, our government behaves like the rich father while the actual father of the girl is the evil uncle — be it the latest Sukanya Samriddhi account or other schemes under which girls get a certain amount after completing a set age bar limit.

Why can’t we use that money to give her quality education? Why wait for 18 or 21 years? Why can’t we trust the girl’s parents? As Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said very often, it’s time our government started trusting our own citizens.

Now, if the idea is so good, why shouldn’t it cover all the students from low income groups, irrespective of gender? I wish if it were so simple. The easy answer is the lack of political capital these days in our leaders’ vaults. Frankly, it’s the lack of will to spend that capital in the area of education. After all, children don’t vote. To be fair, a government needs to pick its battles carefully so that it can win the war at the end of every five years.

The biggest obstacle will be teachers unions in the ‘vouchers for all’ programme. Not to mention the five star activists, columnists, NGOs who simply wait with bated breath to label any new scheme from this government as ‘anti-something’. After being branded as “anti-farmer” and “anti-poor”, the government is not likely to add another group in the expanding list of dissenters. But it will be impossible for these unions to protest if it is done for the good cause of gender equality.

Once the parents see benefits in the voucher program, they will demand to expand it further and we will have a whole new constituency vouching for the change and, hopefully one day, all poor students will be able to get quality education.