Central Universities & the issue of inclusiveness

Central Universities & the issue of inclusiveness

Binod Bhattarai & Sartaj Rasool

Recently a conference was held in New Delhi on the theme of “University and Society: Issues and Challenges”, which was attended by the VCs of Central and State Universities across the country. Over 300 vice chancellors of the central and the state universities participated in the same. The conference was broadly divided in to the eight crucial themes that included i) access, equity, engagement and outcome; ii) content and quality; iii) research and innovation; iv) faculty development and inter university resource sharing; internationalization in higher education; vi) alternative modes of delivery of higher education; vii) models of financing and viii) good governance. On the occasion, the Union Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal also called for the Universities to promote the secondary schools as they are the key catchment area of the university system. Stressing on the equality of the opportunities in the sense that the source for the university system is the secondary schools there should be uniform system in all the secondary schools and the entrance tests for the admission into the colleges and universities should be made common, he said. The minister said that the real wealth of the nation lies in the different types of ideas that are generated in the universities. The implementation of these new ideas and innovations supplied by the industries and other such entities not only helps in achieving higher growth levels but also trickling down these growth benefits to different sections of society. The importance of the Universities being well understood and the question arises, can such type of conferences and seminars really address the vital issues of ‘inclusiveness and equity’ at higher education properly with full mind and dedication?

In India, Central Universities are established with a purpose of making education equal access      to all sections of society, regions and people. It has been created by an act of Indian Parliament with an ethos of ‘growth with equity’, social justice and to promote egalitarianism, social inclusion, and a safe and healthy environment for all. But in reality does Institutions of higher education in India really practice the concept of inclusiveness and equity in a real demeanor?

Historically, education in India was to be a potent source of instrument for a exclusion of certain population groups and regions. It has been inaccessible for the peripheral zones and minority social groups in various societies. With the passage of time through various policy initiatives and changing ideology of the people there has been tremendous social change. What was observed to be unapproachable by some sections of the people at one period of time has become their fundamental right in the present period. With the growing ideology of the welfare state the aim of the various governments over past journey of about sixty years has been to reduce inter and intra state inequalities in levels of higher education in addition to per-capita income disparities.

Instead of these various efforts considerable inter and intra-regional variations in the level of higher education have been observed. This disparity in levels of higher education over a period of time seems to be rising in a scenario when the country is performing better in other parameters. In fact there are some regions in the country where access to higher education is not yet reachable to the people and some other regions where at least one central and some state universities giving people an ample choice to build their competencies in different aspects. These deprived regions are characterized by not only the lower levels of the higher education but also by some other indicators of development like  diminutive per-capita income, poor road infrastructure and other dysfunctional means of communication. Of course there are some mediums which work out is not so effective.  The state like Sikkim, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura, and certain districts and regions of a country like Ladakh, Kargil in Kashmir; Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Islampur in West Bengal; Dibrugarh and Tinshukia in Assam; KBK (Koraput, Bolangir and Koraput) region in Orissa; Vidharv in Maharashtra; Purvanchal in Uttar Pradesh; Rayelseema region in Andhra Pradesh etc are excluded from inclusion of mainstream education in central universities across the country due to one reason or the other. Why the ratio of students from such regions gets dwindled as compared to others, subsequently and in some universities the presence of the students from these regions is almost nil? Why the students from these zones are not being able to take education in central universities of this country? Why these regions are excluded from mainstream education? There are certain concealed rationales behind that.

If we gaze over the entrance centers of each central university, it mainly focuses on the metropolitan cities of a country like Delhi, Mumbai, Guwahati, Kolkata, Chennai, Bhubaneshwar etc. and neglects the peripheral cities and countryside. Once have a look over the entrance centre of BHU (Banaras Hindu University) Varanasi, which is one of the well-known central university of a country, has only five entrance centres (Kolkata, New Delhi, Varanasi, Hyderabad and Chennai) located in big metropolis only. University of Delhi, which is known for its name and fame, has no entrance centre outside New Delhi, NEHU (North Eastern Hill University) Shillong, which is good university at North East has the same strategy of centralized concreteness. University of Hyderabad in spite of its several entrance centre doesn’t able to cover the whole country. Even though Pondicherry University with wide coverage has also the same hitch. Despite of internal politics, JNU (Jawaharlal Nehru University) New Delhi has cover up whole country with at least one entrance centre at each state. Here one important question is raised that “is central Universities are for only those who are living in the big cities and not for the small and tiny villages of India?” Why such type of issues is not being discussed in such type of gigantic conferences which was attended almost all the VCs of a country?

The Central Universities in the country attract 80 per cent of funds from the government even though they horde only 10 per cent of students. Universities must be able to get students and faculty as of the country as well from the whole world so that it can march towards with global ideas. For equal representation of every state and its communities, each Central Institutions should give at least one or two entrance centre in every state. It should be decided with the size and geographic location of the state. The people, those who are staying in the hilly places and remote villages of India are not able to get newspaper for reading and there is dearth of proper transport and communication facilities. Take the example of Ladakh and Kargil in Kashmir where road transport remains closed for almost half of the year and unfortunately for the same period when the whole country sits in entrance test of the central Universities. In such circumstances where lies the ethos of inclusiveness and equity? So while allotting the entrance centre of any central institution all these things should be kept in mind if we are really worried about inclusiveness in true sense. In fact inclusiveness in its widest sense is the opportunity for all sections of the community and region to be able to access on equal terms all the opportunities that are available within a society. It also involves identifying and overcoming barriers that directly or indirectly marginalize individuals, regions and groups. An inclusive community is one in which diversity is valued and talents and abilities are recognized as important to society. Inclusion is something that embraces everyone. It affects all aspects of public life and influences all areas of policy at central and local government levels.

Binod Bhattarai (bhattaraibinod3@gmail.com) is with Department of Sociology and

Sartaj Rasool (sartajrasool@gmail.com) is with Department of Economics, Pondicherry University, Puducherry.