People's Democracy

Significance Of Updating SFI Programme

P Krishnaprasad

ONE of the important tasks before the coming 11th conference of Students Federation of India (SFI) is to update its programme and constitution. Since its formation in 1970, the growth of SFI as a vibrant and leading all-India student organisation vindicates the correctness of its programme. But experience during the last 32 years and especially of the last one decade necessitates an updating of certain points in the programme: on socialism, development, private sector in education, etc.

This article attempts to show why the SFI’s central executive committee thought it necessary to get the programme updated in the background of the rapid changes taking place in the national and international spheres.

The programme of a student organisation primarily depends upon the character, immediate interests and the role of student mass in society. Its programme crucially influences the development of its organisation and its role in political process. In the given context, the anti-feudal, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist struggle is the vital factor that determines the direction of political development in our country. 

INDIAN EDUCATION: DISMAL SCENARIO

Even after five decades of independence, Indian state has pathetically failed to provide elementary education to all children in the relevant age group. Though rapid developments took place in the field of education, these were halting and inadequate to meet the people’s needs. Vast sections of toiling masses still lack access to education. Large-scale commercialisation and the state’s new policy of abdication of its role stifles the public education system and has resulted in a rapid decline in standard of and access to education. While comprising only 16 per cent of the world population, India accounts for almost half of the global population of illiterates and 27 per cent (6.3 crore) of the world’s out-of-school children. The explosive escalation of educated unemployment and unemployment in general is spoiling the future of the youth and jeopardising the vast social and material investment made in education. Registered educated unemployment stands at 4.27 crore; unemployment in general is estimated at around 15 crore. Evils like child labour and illiteracy are rampant.

These problems facing education and employment cannot be understood in isolation from the overall socio-economic conditions. Feudal land relations on the one hand and the dominance of monopoly and imperialist capital on the other have fettered the pace of industrialisation in our country. In the absence of comprehensive land reforms, agricultural income continues to remain highly concentrated with a few. The state does not want to eliminate landlordism and feudal relations and liberate the productive forces in agriculture, which alone accounts for 64 per cent of our total workforce. The state safeguards the interests of feudal landlords and rich peasants who function as the social base of the ruling classes in rural areas. Peasants and agricultural workers are being marginalised day by day. They are unable to use advanced technology and fertilisers. Agriculture production still depends upon monsoon to a large extent.

A huge majority of our population lacks purchasing power. This has led to a failure in creating extensive and effective demand for industrial products, which could have spurred industrialisation. Monopoly and foreign capital compel the relatively smaller units to close down. In the face of such hurdles, a lopsided industrialisation has failed to generate employment and an effective demand for manpower. In absence of sufficient demand for trained and educated labour in the economy, no vigorous extension and development of education has taken place. Ultimately it is the effective development of the real economy --- industry and agriculture --- that is crucial for extensive employment, education and overall prosperity.

PROBLEM GETS CONFOUNDED

An intensification of the ‘reforms’ in our country has brought a basic change in the state’s perspective on education. It has been made an industry to ensure huge profits for private sector. The state has given up its earlier view that education is an integral part of human resource development to boost the nation’s growth. The state deliberately violates the constitutional perspective of education as a right, and is replacing it with the concept that it is a commodity. The recent Supreme Court verdict on private educational institutions amply illustrates this policy shift.

The way imperialist powers dictate our ruling classes and their parties like the BJP and the Congress on ‘reforms’ is significant. The big bourgeoisie leading the state can no more provide leadership to the Indian people’s fight against imperialism and ensure free development of our productive forces. Imperialism and Indian state promote the communal fascist forces to divide the people and disrupt their resistance such ‘reforms.’

In the light of this understanding, the tasks of land reforms and end to the stranglehold of monopoly and imperialist capital are central to the objective of extensive generation of employment as well as expansion and development of education in our country. The draft programme focuses on these tasks and declares the commitment to carry out the tasks of the democratic stage of revolution. The draft programme declares: “The SFI fights for the realisation of its aim to establish a democratic, scientific and progressive educational system ensuring education and job for all, that will be facilitated by the implementation of comprehensive land reforms, elimination of the stranglehold of international finance capital and indigenous monopoly capitalism. The SFI aims to accomplish this by organising the student community in the struggles of the wider democratic movement of the workers, peasants, and other progressive forces.” The SFI  fully supports the peasants’ and agricultural workers’ struggles for radical land reforms, elimination of monopoly capitalism and end to dependence upon imperialist capital.

PRIVATE SECTOR IN EDUCATION

A major area the draft programme discusses is of our approach to private sector in education. The existing programme envisages nationalisation of education and, as part of the demands charter, it declares: “State alone should directly assume the responsibility of education and the administration of all educational institutions at all levels” (page 12, para 12). In the background of this understanding, the SFI demanded government takeover of all private educational institutions at all levels and state-funded education for all countrymen. However, such demands will not be realistic while considering the existing social relations and the stage of social revolution in India. 

In the field of education, private sector appeared as part of the social reform movement to serve the overall development of society. The SFI always valued the positive contributions of private sector in the field of education. At the same time, the SFI has consistently been opposing the commercial motives of private sector. The draft points out that, today,  private institutions generally serve as sources of profit and promotion of the vested interests of particular sections of society. All private educational institutions must be made as supplementary to public education system and accountable to the society, by regulating admissions and appointments and by putting an end to commercial motives through legislative measures. The private sector must be brought under strict social control in order to ensure quality education without corruption and commercialisation. The extent of internal resource mobilisation through fees in the private and self-financing sector must be restricted to a limited percentage of the total expenditure.

Instead of government takeover of all private educational institutions, the SFI has to emphasise the demand of strengthening public education system as the mainstream channel of education. The role of state in ensuring elementary education to all its citizens and equal access to all in higher education must be stressed. 

The ongoing economic ‘reforms’ have a multidimensional impact on education. While, the advocates of globalisation are citing lack of resources to justify the non-allocation of funds for educational development, they allow larger concessions to big corporate houses and affluent sections by way of tax relaxation and incentives, as recommended by the Kelkar panel.

The government’s withdrawal from education has resulted in mushrooming of private institutions and pushed down the quality of education in general. Commercialisation of education, in reality, amounts to reservation in favour of the rich. Even universities and government and quasi-government institutions are now doing the same in the name of self-financing courses.

The SFI’s draft programme stresses that higher education must be open to entire population. The diehard policies of the state confine higher education to a few only. In this regard, the draft demands the entire population’s access to higher education on the basis of equality of opportunity, backed by affirmative action like reservation in admission for the economically deprived sections. The equality of opportunity presupposes that higher education cannot be expensive, and cannot certainly be a self-financing activity. Resources for it have to come, mainly, from the state exchequer. The argument that no resources are available owing to fiscal crisis is an erroneous one. The fiscal crisis in the country is itself a reflection of a lack of political will on part of the state to tax the rich.  Instead of hiking the fee, why can't the government tax the rich to make higher education widely available to the poor? For instance, only the reintroduction of the tax ratio that existed in 1990 will provide additional revenue of Rs 30,000 crore per year to the union government.

The draft programme stresses the importance of development and the role of education in it. It states that curriculum, as a scientific and coherent social document upholding the people’s development, must focus on the developmental potential of various states. It must envisage a comprehensive manpower planning, considering the stages of development of productive forces, growth potential of our agricultural, industrial and service sectors, and the technological and scientific requirements. The draft envisages the growth of close relations between universities/centres of excellence and production sectors of the economy for mutual advantage and progress while warning about the potent danger of corporate control over centres of higher learning and research.

CONCEPT OF SOCIALISM

Another important aspect addressed by the draft is related to the concept of socialism. The present programme keeps socialism as its aim (page 4, para 6) and the SFI constitution says the aim is “to take active interest in the struggle for liquidation of the evil legacies of colonialism and for building in our country an independent, democratic and socialist society to ensure prosperous and progressive future of our countrymen” (page 15).

However, a socialist society can be built only after completing the democratic revolution. Therefore, in today’s context, student movement undertaking this task is not in keeping with a scientific understanding of the present stage of Indian revolution. At the same time, socialism is the inspiring political ideology that attracts the radical-minded students and it shall remain the guiding principle of the progressive student movement. Thus, the SFI thinks it will have to consistently struggle for an exploitation-free society that will, in the long run, lead to socialism. The updating of the programme is being undertaken with this perspective.

The rigorous imposition of the neo-liberal economic ‘reforms’ the world over must be viewed in the backdrop the dismantling of Soviet Union in the early nineties. The Soviet Union proved for the first time that it is possible to replace the exploitative capitalist system with an egalitarian society, and to provide basic amenities like education, employment, housing and food for all. Socialist transformation in different countries brought big strides in science and technology and opened up prospects for the advance of humanity on a scale never seen before. The Soviet Union acted as an inspiration for all the revolutionary forces in discharging the historic responsibility of eliminating colonialism and defeating the most brutal form of imperialism --- the fascism. The Soviet Union acted as a bulwark against the imperialist design to dominate the world. However, the collapse of Soviet Union paved the way for imperialist drive, under US leadership, to pursue a neo-colonial strategy and step up efforts to establish its hegemony over the world by using its economic, political and military power aggressively.

Yet, the collapse of socialist Soviet Union does not negate the relevance of socialism. True, capitalism continues to forge with new scientific and technological advances. Nevertheless, it remains a crisis-ridden system of oppression, exploitation and injustice to the vast majority of the people. The struggle of the productive forces for development will have to inevitably advance to socialism, the only alternative to capitalism. In this context, the struggle between socialism and imperialism assumes a central place. The SFI is interested in encouraging free and frank discussion on scientific socialism and the means and methods of achieving it.

World capitalism is incapable of solving the basic problems affecting humanity. It has led to intensified exploitation of workers and perpetuates the concentration of wealth and assets in the hands of a few multinationals. The ongoing process of globalisation is the new form of imperialist re-colonisation. The concentration and internationalisation of finance capital has reached unprecedented heights in this phase of capitalism. The speculative finance capital dictates the direction of neo-liberal ‘reforms’ and brings to the fore the reactionary character of globalisation. While it results in sluggish growth in advanced capitalist countries, it spells for the third world a vicious cycle of intensified exploitation and growing debt. In order to disrupt the people’s resistance, imperialism promotes fascist and fundamentalist movements by manipulating the religious or pseudo-nationalist feelings. The recent emergence of communal fascist forces in India seeks to destroy the people’s unity by projecting non-issues, so as to serve the interests of imperialism.

The student community has to play a significant role today in building a vibrant movement all over India. Pressing problems like the developmental aspirations of various nationalities, social justice, gender equality, protection of environment, unfettered growth of our languages and plural culture, etc, need to be addressed in order to attract the best minds for a qualitative shift in the current phase of the progressive student movement. In the background of this growing resistance, worldwide and in our country, against the imperialist economic offensive and communal fascism, the SFI’s updated programme and constitution, to be adopted by its 11th all-India conference, will reinforce the student movement and make it able to address the tasks ahead with more clarity and determination.

(P Krishnaprasad is president of the SFI.)