Imagine: you are on vacation in Agra, one of India's most beautiful cities, home of the famed Taj Mahal. The loud, perseverant food vendors, beautiful silk shops, and commotion of the streets energize you everywhere you go. Walking down the path to the Taj Mahal through the blistering heat, you cannot help but admire its beauty. While on the way back to your hotel outside of town, you see miles of slums with hundreds of young children. Many of them do not know how to read or write, or the history of the wonder right next to them. The cause for this? Education inequality. The rate of illiteracy in India shows no signs of getting better as the most important question remains unanswered: who is to blame for India’s widespread education inequality?
“Responsibility falls purely on India’s government and citizens!” some say, while others argue that foreign governments should be doing more. However, all sides are to blame in some capacity. Thought I concede that there are a lot of problems with the way India addresses education inequality, American charities, donors, and a changing societal mindset have generated a lot of progress. Without a coordinated effort from not only Indians, but those abroad that have the means to help, education disparity will forever scar this beautiful country.
Another common and equally prevalent issue faces blame for education inequality: gender discrimination. In the article “How Education Equality also helps Gender Inequality” by Petrina Darrah, she explains how deep-rooted sexism causes a lot of girls, especially in poorer villages, to miss many of the educational opportunities boys have (Darrah 2020). While I agree that gender inequality is a devastating, saddening issue and certainly a contributing factor to education inequality, in recent times it has had a negative impact on many rural men. As Anu Upneja, Direction of Youth Activities at Ekal Vidyalaya, states, “Recently, there has been a reversal in the roles of girls and boys. Boys have become more spoiled so they’re less focused and don’t make the most out of their education, while girls, previously having limited opportunity, are more focused and are more likely to fulfill their academic potential” (Upneja 2020). Most girls take better advantage of their more limited opportunities, and with the shift in India’s culture and increased women’s rights, women are doing better than ever before. While a lot of societal structures still need to change to give women true equality, recent changes have shown promise. Due to this, I maintain that issues like corruption and other types of discrimination are currently more contributive to education inequality.
The Indian government serves as another scapegoat, blamed for its negligence and lack of urgency in fighting education inequality. In the podcast “The Seen and the Unseen,” Cambridge researcher Karthik Muralidharan talks about the Indian government’s incompetence and constant mismanagement of money (Varma 2020). I agree that the government has disappointed in the way it handles inequality, due to not necessarily a lack of effort, but a focus on the wrong issues. My cousin, Sachin Misra, works in Kolkata, one of India’s largest cities. He passes by the slums on his way to work every day and sometimes interacts with its residents. He stated, “there are a lot of government schemes and initiatives that are under process which are intended to make villages better and safer, especially for minorities and women,” showing the Indian government’s positive actions to help underprivileged villages (Misra 2020). However, the root of the villages’ poverty, a lack of income from agriculture, has yet to be addressed. He shared another alarming fact: “Every year, thousands of farmers commit suicide because of the social pressure of not being able to repay the loans they had taken for their crops, after a season or two of bad harvest”. The government needs to stabilize the agricultural economy to make these villages self-sufficient, rather than applying temporary schemes which only help for limited amounts of time. If the government rightfully compensates farmers for their crops, agriculture could give villages a higher economic and global value, which can be used to invest in better schools and education.
The final argument relates to the role of Indian American people and charities in stopping education inequality in India. On one hand, an argument In the Stanford article “Giving Back to India” by Menezes, Patel, and Pike, states that Indian culture generally is not as philanthropic as others, leading to a lack of outside funding to tackle issues like education inequality (2015). They also argue that Indian Americans have somewhat of an obligation to help their home country and should donate if they have the necessary means. However, I would argue that this issue remains a lot more complex than it sounds. Xenophobia and terrorism hysteria have resulted in the government in India refusing help from private charities. They do this by creating restrictive laws that prevent charities from being able to properly assist villages, as detailed in this article by Amy Kazmin. Indian people have their own reasonable choices for not donating much. In the aforementioned Stanford article, Menezes, Patel, and Pike claim that a lot of Indian Americans and Indian citizens are reluctant to donate because of the widespread corruption in all levels of government. In my interview with Anu Upneja, she described, “Corruption is widespread throughout India, and money is taken by politicians at every level.” When I asked her if money from American charities like Ekal can also be misplaced in the hands of corrupt officials, she claimed that while she remains fairly certain that no tampering has ever taken place, she has “no idea” whether American charities are losing money due to corruption (Upneja 2020). Even with these issues, I have still seen a huge rise in the amount of people volunteering here in the states, and from my experience Indian American participation in charities fighting education inequality has reached at an all-time high.
We can blame many factors, entities, and people in the devastating and widespread issue of education inequality in India, but it is the government’s turn to act by improving India’s economic attitude towards poor villages. In addition, the medieval, unjust system of discrimination rooted in India's society needs to be put to an end. If these issues are addressed in some capacity and Indian Americans continue the positive trend in supporting their home country, the blight of education inequality will decrease dramatically, allowing this magnificent subcontinent to reach its true potential.