Rural illiteracy and unemployment

   

        Rural Illiteracy and Unemployment

                Illiteracy and Unemployment are the two main problems faced by India, which possess a hurdle for development. Since Independence, government has come up with numerous welfare schemes and laws to improve the conditions, which has helped to some extent, but India still has a long way to go.
      Moreover, these welfare schemes have been beneficial for urban community but has significantly failed to reach the Rural people.

What is Illiteracy?
       Illiteracy means the inability to read or write, majority of people in India cannot read and write, and these people are particularly from Rural areas.

 
•  Factors contributing to Rural Illiteracy 
1. Casteim
      In pre-Independence era, casteim and untouchability was practised on a large scale. The distinction between upper caste and lower caste was very much apparent. This close stratification of caste system included Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra and Untouchables. Brahims were regarded as superior and Sudra's and untouchables were regarded as inferior. Lower caste people faced many disabilities and atrocities, one of them being lack of education. Education was regarded as the right of superior. Consequently lower castes and woman were deprived of education, because of this we find high illiteracy among lower castes and women. Furthermore their superstitious beliefs  restricts them from education.

2. Gender Inequality
India is a patriarchal society, hence dominance of male has been seen since ancient times. Discrimination is made on the basis of gender. This discrimination is called as Gender inequality or Male Female Inequality. Male are regarded as superior and female as inferior. All the rights and privileges are enjoyed by male and female are deprived of it. Education and work was regarded as the duty of Male while women were confined to kitchen and bringing up of children, they did not have a right to make decisions or hold property. But during British period, secular education was introduced which imparted education without discriminating on the grounds of religion, caste or gender. Social reformers like        Mahatma Joytiba Phule, Maharshi Dhondo Keshav Karve and many, women started coming forward for education. Due to which female literacy has increased but it is still less than male literacy in comparison. As per 2011 census, male literacy is 82.14% while female literacy is 65.46% .

 

   3.Lack of adequate educational facilities
         Many villages lack adequate educational facilities like playground, books, notebooks, efficient teachers etc. The grants given by the government are pocketed by some corrupt people. There is a huge lack of teachers especially well-trained, this leads to very poor quality of education being imparted. Furthermore, there are limited number of schools, which are located far away from villages, this compels the parents to not send their children to school. Only primary education is available in villages, parents cannot send their children to cities for higher education.

3. Lack of awareness and high number of Dropouts.
     Rural parents are not aware of the importance of education, parents of rural area are ignorant towards education and often engage their children in economic activities. Due to lack of guidance, ignorance of parents, childrens helping in economic activity or home, child marriage, the problem of Dropouts is high especially among girls.

      4.Poverty
Most of the people living in rural areas work in agriculture related occupations and are landless labourers, earning a small portion of income, it becomes difficult for them to provide food to their family. These parents cannot afford for education of their child.
 
• Unemployment
      Unemployment is a major social problem in India. Unemployment is a hurdle towards development. Unemployment is a problem when the total number of jobs is very less then the number of people applied i.e. jobs are limited but people are more in proportion. Unemployment is faced by both Urban and rural people.
•Types of rural unemployment
1. Seasonal Unemployment
         Majority of people are engaged in agriculture work, but due to irregular monsoon, lack of irrigation facility, lack of multiple cropping system, division and subdivision of land holding etc, the farmers are employed for 4 to 6 months and remain unemployed for the rest of the time.

     2. Disguised unemployment
It is assume that apparently everyone is employed but in  actual sense, these people lack full time employment. Along with farming, rural people adopt various work like dairy farming, poultry farming, animal husbandry but are not full time employed.
     3.Educated Unemployment
The rural educated youth do not get job after completion of education they remain unemployed for many years. Thus we find educated unemployment too.

Furthermore, due to industrialization and factory system, many cotton industries in the rural area have shut down and hence many rural people have become unemployed.
Many people migrate to urban areas in search of job. But only educated are able to find employment, illiterate and unskilled remain unemployed.


• Developmental schemes by the government
       Different ministries have launched various schemes for the development and welfare of the rural people

• Deen Dayal Upadhyay Grameen Kaushal Yojna
This scheme was provided for the development of rural poor youth
Launching it on 25th September 2014 by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and Venkaiah Naidu on the occasion of 98th birth anniversary of Pandit DeenDayal Upadhyaya
The aim of the program was targeted around youth under the age group of 15 to 35 years
This scheme benefited a total of of 52000 candidates by skill development from 2014 to 2015
 
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural employment guarantee scheme
National Rural employment guarantee act 2005 was launched with the new name “Mahatma Gandhi National Rural” on 2nd Feb 2006.
This scheme provides ‘right to work’ to people falling below the poverty line.
It guarantees hundred days employment in a year to village people
50% workers should be women


• Training to rural youth for self employment (TRYSEM)
This scheme was started on August 15, 1979
This program has been merged with
 Swarn Jayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojna on April 1999
It aims to provide technical skills to rural youth and to help them to get self employment in the feilds like poultry,dairy, fishery, carpentry, black smithery, shoe making etc.

• Antyodaya Anna yojana (AAY) 
 This scheme was launched by Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayee on 25th December 2000
This scheme is centred around providing food grains to around 2 crore families living below poverty line.
Rice is provided at a rate of rupees 3 per kg and wheat at rupees 2 per kg
Total 35 kgs of food grains is provided to a family

• Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojna
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched this scheme on the birth anniversary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash
Under this program each member of parliament will take the responsibility for developing physical and institutional infrastructure in three villages by 2019
Ministry of Rural development will be the supervisor of this program

• Community development programme and panchayat Raj system
  This program was launched on
 2nd October 1952 for all round development and progress of the rural community various facilities like irrigation, sanitation, housing, education, drinking water etc provided to the  villages of India. This program gained some success in the beginning but failed  to achieve effective participation of people.
In order to solve this issue the central government appointed a committee headed by Balwant Rai Mehta in 1957, the committee reviewed the working of the program and suggested some remedies. This recommendation suggested democratic decentralisation also known as panchayat Raj samiti

• Educational Schemes
Right to Education Act (RTE)
Right to Education act, Article 21 (A) has been provided by government in 2009, wearing the state shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age group 6 to 14 years

The RTE act provides for the

• Free and compulsory compulsory education till completion of elementary School as the right of the child
• It clearly states that the states are obliged to provide free education. ‘Free’ meaning no child should pay fees.
• Duties and responsibilities of the state government, local authorities and parents for providing free and compulsory education have been specified.
• It provides appointment of appropriate trained teachers .
• Physical punishment/mental harassment, screening procedure of admission of children, capitation fee, running schools without recognition, private tuitions for teachers have been prohibited.
• It provides for different types of curriculum for all round
development of the child.
• Morever, it is the fundamental duty of a parent or guardian to provide education opportunity to child.

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
 This programme has been operational since 2000-001
This programme provides free and compulsory education to children from the age group 6-14 years
It’s expenditure is shared by state and centre by 50:50 ratio.

         Saakshar Bharat
This program was created to increase awareness about education. Along with reading, writing, arithmetic, it also creates awareness about social disparities.
In 2009, the programme was formulated with the objective of reaching 80% literacy, focusing on low levels of education among women and creating literary opportunities for them, reducing the gap between male and female literacy
The objective of the program are
• Imparting literacy to non-literates
• Imparting relevant skill development program
• Promoting a learning society by providing opportunities to continue further education
The target of the program was to impart literacy to 70 million non-literate adults from age group 15 to beyond.
Limitations
Surely, the government has introduced various schemes which has helped to some extent but largely the results aren’t satisfactory enough.
Many of the funds provided by the government are pocketed by corrupt people, which leads to increase in corruption.
Many government promise certain schemes but fail to put that into reality.
The schemes only are beneficial to the already  well off or middle class family, it fails to reach the poor and needy.
Effective participation and enthusiasm is a lacking point for the government which caused the people to feel discouraged about the program.
Lack of planning for proper welfare schemes is also another reason.
 
Conclusion
For becoming a developed country every sector must be equally developed. India is currently facing one of the biggest challenges like poverty, Unemployment, overpopulation etc. If the government implements proper laws and schemes and ensure the working of schemes from time to time, then it can increase it’s position.
Education must be imparted to all irrespective of age. Vocational training and self employment should also be provided.
Improving the infrastructural condition and creating awareness among citizens Should be done.
 
Reference :
https://mhrd.gov.in/saakshar_bharat
https://mhrd.gov.in/rte
https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/list-of-various-rural-development-schemes-in-india-1480939663-1
http://www.efatrust.com/rural-education/promoting-education-awareness/
https://www.census2011.co.in/literacy.php
https://data.gov.in/keywords/seasonal-unemployment
                       
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