Gobind Thukral

ON the evening of August 14, two Punjabs, particularly and Indians and Pakistanis in general had a great day across the Atari -Wagha border. As thousands on both sides of the Indo Pakistan border thronged to enjoy great performance of their favourite folk and Sufi singers and pledge for peace and friendship. It sent shivers down the spine of those religious zealots and rabid rousers who wish to promote hostility. If journalists from South Asia Free Media Association [SAFMA], Hind Pak Dosti Much were elated, there were small noises too at the turn of events. How could the two countries celebrate their independence days, falling on August 14 and 15 together? They may have fought for freedom together, gone to jails or gallows, yet they were two different countries, mostly at odds even at war. Imperial game plan chalked and implemented in 1947 did not support this concept of living together as friends and in peace. Intellectuals, parliamentarians and civil society activists from both sides gathered at the border for the one-of-a-kind event.

Next day I scanned a dozen odd Urdu and English newspapers to gauge how the media has understood the event,” Let Us Break the Bread Together”. There was one lone newspaper, Naw-e- Waqt that kept on to old rotten theme of India bashing.

And, the artists did not disappoint. Punjabi Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans was his at his best, treading the path to friendship within care and yet a clear political message, of course through the wise Sufi poets of the yore. He knew he was in Lahore. His message was: “Life is short, and we should not spend it hating each other.”

And, Alam Lohar a craze of Punjabis across the border dazzled everyone. Drama troupe of Kewal Dhaliwal with his Yatra 1947 that tells the tragic blood soaked tale of partition which such pathos and poetry in between it made every sob and cry. Noted Indian and Pakistani singers, such as the Niazi Brothers, Allah Ditta Loney Wala and Sufi musician Sain Zahoor. On the Indian side was Harbhajan Mann, the melodious singer whose political message healthy social value system is never lost and others to build mass movement for peace. no doubt organizers , Imtiaz Alam , general secretary of the SAFMA and Satnam Manak of Hind Pakistan Dosti Munch were happy at the events. Thousands of people who could not make to venues on both sides because of unprecedented rush.

Those people in the Indian sub continent who wish no wars, no hatred, open borders and peaceful co existence are feeling disillusioned. These people from India and Pakistan are not only worried about the slow and tardy pace for the resolution of old conflicts like Kashmir, but also about other confidence building measures. If Pakistan is nervous about the fast deteriorating situation in its Baluchistan, NWPF and  the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan and Jihadist elements  attacking innocent unguarded targets, the battles lines in Indian Jammu and Kashmir are being firmly drawn daily and innocent citizens across the vast Indian territory are under attack every other day.

It is not that they have lost heart and have become despondent. They feel strongly and urge everyone around to be vigilant about the mischief makers, the imperial game plans working hard to keep the pot of Indian Pakistan relations boiling. The imperialists and war mongers gain a lot from the tensions, divisions and restlessness. And, then there are those that make political capitals out of fear and communal hatred and caste divisions.

Happily the number of those people across the two countries who seek peace and friendship is now very large and is increasing by every day. this was visible one thousands marched from Lahore to the Wagha border in Pakistan and more than equal response was visible from Amritsar and Punjab to Atari border to assert that they want peace and friendship. Braving harsh weather, these people thronged the border r check post at Wagha and heard popular folk singers, Hans Raj Hans, Alam Lohar, Harbhajan Mann and many others under the banner of South Asia Free Media Association and the Hind Pak Dosti Munch. Exchange of candles that started as a small effort has become a major movement for peace across the two countries.

Candles are now more than symbolic gestures. One has to be there to feel the warmth and the strong desire for peace among all sections in Pakistan and India. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan Chairwoman Asma Jahangir, HRCP Director IA Rehman and Member of National Assembly (MNA) Samina Khalid Ghurki went to Zero Point to exchange peace candles with Indians. From the Indian side, renowned journalist Kuldip Nayar, parliamentarian Navjot Singh Sidhu, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Pervaiz Malik – who had gone to India with a Pakistani delegation as well seior journalists. Samina Ghurki said that exchange of peace candles on the border was a positive gesture. She said that many families had been divided at the time of partition. The families should be given opportunities to meet each other freely. Talking to reporters on her return from Zero Point, Jahangir said that dialogues on peace between Indian and Pakistan had transcended seminars and come onto the roads. She said that people did not want wars, only peace.

Those thousands that gathered there on the night of August 14 resolved that the people, who have gathered here to celebrate our respective Independence_Day, wish to build bridges of friendship, partnership and cooperation to fight together scourges of poverty, terrorism and extremism while upholding the banners of our national sovereignty and independence and brotherly neighbourhood.They urged the governments to remove all hurdles in the way of free movement of people, goods and information across our borders and work together to promote cooperation in whatever area that we agree and create conducive conditions of trust and confidence to resolve our bilateral disputes through peaceful means.

The declaration also called upon the governments and the people to revise the visa regime and exempting journalists, business people, academicians, artists, writers, students and elderly from the formalities of visa.

It called for promoting trade and investment, communication networks and co-operation in services, energy, food, water, education and health.

Peace is essential to eliminate poverty and strengthen the sovereignty of both countries. Both India and Pakistan should respect each other’s sovereignty and forge an all-sided partnership while continuing efforts to resolve differences on divisive issues such as Kashmir.

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Economic growth and human resource development

Vinod  Anand

EXAMINING the link between economic growth on the one hand, and equity and human development on the other, one finds that since the 1950s much of the focus has been on the link running from growth to other parameters. During that era countries depended solely on the growth process to attain the objectives of equity and human development. But this was not supported by the experience of the third world countries, and the generally accepted hypothesis of the fifties lost its force, and new serious has turned the earlier thesis on its head. The focuses is on how the social and economic objectives of equity and human development influence growth through their effect on a number of variables like political stability and fiscal policy.

There are in fact two connotations of human development: the first relates to Human Resource Development (HRD), and the other emphasises Human Development Index (HDI).

Human Resource Development refers to improving the quality of human beings as productive factors. There is good statistical support (in terms of regression analysis) to the strong positive relationship between output and the physical inputs (essentially labour) as the independent variables. In the terminology of conventional economics, human agents are treated just like other factors of production, but in the context of economic development these human factors (like, labour, enterprise, organisation) are treated at par with capital, and, in order to distinguish them from physical capital, they are conceptualized as human capital, and, hence, embodied savings. Adding to the stock of physical capital has always been a priority in all investment decisions, but high priority to investment in human capital is also important. There is good amount of support to the fact that the acceleration of economic growth and development may be hindered by a deficiency in the knowledge of skills embodied in human beings. It is a known fact that in most of the developing countries, there has always been a relatively low amount of investment in human capital, which gets manifested in terms of low labour efficiency, factor immobility, limited specialisation in occupation and trade, a deficient supply of effective entrepreneurship and management, customary values and traditional social institutions. Many Studies of economic growth (both in developed and developing countries) confirm the importance of non-material investment. And hence, Human Resource Development plays an important role in the whole process of economic growth, and also in economic development.

There are in fact three reasons to regard human inputs as an important resource for production:
the product of human economic inputs adds to the national wealth;
any expenditure that improves the quality of these inputs increases national wealth;
The cost of improving the quality of such inputs is a real cost.
In essence, development of human resources is closely related to the process of development, and both move in the same direction, and both supplement each other. For example, investment in education accelerates the process of development because, amongst other things, it
promotes economic growth;
reduces income inequalities;
accelerates rural development; and
helps in population control

There is a consensus on the issue of improving the quality of human beings, but how do we do it? The answer to this question is not that easy. It is in fact multi-dimensional, entailing not only economic analysis but also sociological, psychological and political considerations. In order to devise an effective policy in this regard we require looking firstly at the various indicators of Human Resource Development. These indicators reflect all such human activities that add to human productive capacity, and once human productive capacity goes up, it automatically adds to Human Resource Development. The indicators of Human Resource Development are, therefore, activity-related. There are five such indicators namely, health facilities and services, on-the-job training (apprenticeship), formal education, study and extension prorammes for adults, and migration to adjust to changing job opportunities. Education is one of the most important indicators. It contributes most to Human Resource Development, and its data are easily available and accessible as compared to other indicators. Indicators of Human Resource Development are also classified according to what aspect of human capital they measure.

 Indicators that measure the stock of human capital are
levels of educational attainment at different levels namely, primary or elementary, secondary or pre-university, and higher level;
number of persons who are in high-level occupations, not essentially in terms of emoluments, but in terms of skills.
Human Resource Development is confronted with many problems in developing countries. These are:
rapidly growing population;
mounting unemployment in the modern sector, and widespread under-employment in traditional sectors including agriculture;
shortage of persons with critical skills;
inadequate or undeveloped organisations and institutions for mobilizing human effort;
lack of incentives for persons to get involved in particular activities, which are important for national development.
There are, however, many other problems linked with nutrition and health.

There is another important aspect of Human Resource Development, and this relates to the fact that most of the developing countries are faced with two diverse manpower problems: the shortage of skilled manpower in the modern sector, and surplus (excess) labour in both modern and traditional sectors. Both of these problems are closely related. To the extent the problem of shortage gets sorted out, the problem of surplus labour automatically gets resolved to some degree. Both the problems are related to education, and both get aggravated with the pace of modernisation.

In view of this, any strategy of Human Resource Development should have a two-fold objective of building skills, and providing productive employment to unutilised or underutilised manpower.

After having discussed the basic framework, and the various aspects/dimensions of Human Resource Development, we now briefly look at the Indian scenario, essentially in the area of education.

There are three very important aspects of expenditure on education in India. Firstly, it is not considered as an investment in human resources. It is just thought an investment in social service. The role of education as an important input in the various production processes is completely ignored. Secondly, public expenditure on education had also stagnated for three decades, though it has steadily increased since the eighties. But, it is still most inadequate in terms of our needs, and also as compared to many other countries. India is ranked very low amongst many countries in terms of the proportion of public expenditure on education to Gross National Product. Thirdly, India is still lagging behind in terms of literacy rate. Although the national average has gone up, yet more than half of the population still remains illiterate.

India has, however, expanded educational facilities at all levels including technical education. Universalisation of education has been a policy priority, but it still remains an unfulfilled dream. As a consequence, the spread of secondary education is quite limited and higher education is available to a small percentage of the population. The country has, however, progressed very well in the field of technical education both quantitatively and qualitatively. During recent times, India has laid great stress on modernisation and technological advancement in education, and has contributed amazingly to high-skilled manpower in software and information technology.

Despite our limited endeavours in other spheres of education, India manages its own affairs on its own in almost all the areas, and does not, in any way, depends on foreign expertise. On the other hand, it provides all kind of manpower to other countries.

In terms of policy, India had continued with the colonial education system of the British rulers till about 1968, when the Government had announced its first National Education Policy, which was in accordance with the requirements of the country, but there was a big gap between the policy and practice due to many natural and man-made bottlenecks. Another National Policy on education was announced in 1986, which, amongst other things, emphasised

qualitative improvement, essentially in higher and technical education;
vocationalisation of secondary education;
development of regional languages;
dynamic linkages between education, health, social welfare, and employment;
Priority to backward areas, including hilly and tribal regions.

This policy was revised in 1992, and was in line with the earlier policy, but it further added to the inconsistencies and contradictions between the stated goals and actual policy, on the one hand, and between stated goals and resource allocation, on the other.

In the context of Human Resource Development, the prevailing education system in India suffers from the many shortcomings, some of which are highlighted below:

There is no link, whatsoever, between the producers and users of manpower with the result that institutions of learning, essentially at the secondary, technical, and higher levels, are not exactly aware of the end result and use of their manpower output.

There is no focus on the quality of education in terms of the depth and dimensions of teaching and in terms of syllabi, though technical education does have some quality control.

Higher education is by and large financed by the Government and that too without any reference to quality and output.

Summing up this discussion, we conclude that our political process has largely failed to deliver the basic social needs. We have; therefore, to shed our complacency and we have to recognise the current euphoria about economic liberalisation. Market forces, no matter how efficiently they work, cannot alone tackle the issues involved. The State has to perform its basic role in the areas of social and human development.

[The author is a former Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla.]

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