Unattended Kalahandi calls out for centre of higher learning

The Pioneer, Feb 9, 2007
Pioneer News Service | Bhawanipatna

Why carry coal to New Castle?
But this seems to be the policy of Union Human Resources Development Ministry relating to the principle of setting up institutions of higher learning in the places where a number of institutes of national level higher education already exist.

Kalahandi has been in news for past four decades for wrong reasons as there has not been a single centre of higher learning in the area. That is why of late, non-resident Oriyas are trying to raise a hue and cry for setting up a national higher educational institute in this district.

Dr Digambara Patra of Waseda University Okubu, Tokyo, Japan, has said in an article that effectiveness of primary education is losing, as there is no parameter in higher education. All over the world, the employment rate is always higher for people having a master degree than that of a high school certificate. Quality education has always paid the best in India like for the graduates from IIT, IISc, ISI, and Central universities. Access to higher education is very much crucial, as it inspires many through its success like the case of IIT education.

In a region like Kalahandi, illiterate and poor people often question validity of education when their children cannot find employment and ultimately work in the agriculture field even after completing their graduation. They rather argue that their children should start to earn for the family by working in the agriculture field from the beginning itself. Intellectually such stand is not correct but in practice this argument has truth.

"Unless we provide quality education in this region, which could make them employable after their obtaining degrees/diplomas, poor and illiterate people would never be encouraged to send their children to primary schools. This is the reason why school drop out rate and illiteracy rate in the region are highest in the country," said Dr Patra.

Most of the issues like caste, creed, and religion are often raised in India except the geographical location of remote and multi-faceted backward places like Kalahandi that has never been addressed by policy makers with respect to establishing of national institutes for higher learning. Quality education has always been a far-reaching aspiration for those unprivileged and poor citizens, who live in remote locations of the district. Not a single national institution like IIT, IISc, IISER, Central University etc, is located within a 500-km radius of Kalahandi.

Even the State Government has done little in the district for improvement of higher education, Dr Patra pointed out. This situation is all the more disturbing since all its neighbouring districts such as Nabarangur, Koraput, Rayagada, Kandhamal, Boud, Balangir and Nuapada and those of the contiguous State of Chhattisgarh such as Raipur and Bastar do not have any national institute and are equally backward.

These regions have been in news for past four decades for wrong reasons of backwardness and poverty.

Dr Patra argues that national institute of higher learning in smaller towns have delivered well both qualitatively and quantitatively all over the world. Unfortunately, in the current rush of establishing national institutes like IIT, IISER, IIM, IIIT, IIPH and NIPER by the HRD Ministry and various other Central Government Ministries, not a single location like Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters of Kalahandi, has been chosen. Rather, the Central authorities are overcrowding polluted and exploding cities, many of which would be ecologically high-risk zones during next few decades as per the predictions by environmentalists.

A location like Bhawanipatna is ideal for national educational institute, not only because of environmental advantage but also for the need of creating infrastructure and employment opportunities, both direct and indirect. It would also usher in many national level academicians, researchers and students to work in this region, changing its current outlook.

Recent NSSO figures show that States having national higher educational institutes, like Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, have higher attendance as compared to States without having such institutions, like Orissa.

Besides, a central university and national institutions like IIT and IIM are urgently needed in Kalahandi to get the best results from the ongoing poverty alleviation programmes.

Failing this, would require another four decades to change the fate of the district, observes Dr Patra.