`Ek teer do nishaane’ is what I advise when it comes to solving
two major problems facing Andhra Pradesh and India.
First target concerns education and lack of text books. Every year at this time
(June-July) children and parents are excited about the reopening of schools
with parents buying new dress, bags for the children and the young ones happy
to enter a new class and interact with new teachers and tell their friends how
they spent their summer vacation.
But the downside is the shortage of books. This despite the Right
to Education Act, which gives every child the opportunity for free and
compulsory education. Parents complain about not having textbooks because the printing
has not been done on time. If this is the scene in the cities and towns, you
can well imagine the plight in the rural areas.
Second target is unemployment among the people living with
disability (PwD). We talk about inclusive growth but socially,
politically or economically, we have not accepted it and taken it seriously.
Unemployment and lack of opportunity for our PwD friends in India is a huge
problem and Andhra Pradesh fares no better. To bring them into the mainstream,
we need to create jobs and that has to be done and supported by the government.
So the arrow to hit two
targets: So what can be done to address both the lack
of text books and lack of opportunity to our PwD friends. We see every year
text books are printed by the government press and the efficiency of government
printing press is much less than desired. Why not outsource it to others or why
can’t government open new printing press centres which are exclusively run by
our PwD friends. Government through vocational training can train them and then
recruit them for this job. In fact there are organizations that are already
training our friends in these skills.
I want to clarify that I am not undermining or
underestimating the abilities and potential of our PwD friends. They can do
wonders and are efficient. This is one way to create employment opportunity for
them. And it doesn’t have to be school textbooks alone. It can be extended to
different areas of publishing. This will also help the government achieve the
target of creating employment opportunity for five lakh people every year, as
stated by the AP chief minister last week.
Does the government have the
will to think out of the box?
