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The performance of various governments over the decades on education and healthcare has been inadequate and it is the media's inability to focus on these questions which is responsible for this, said Nobel laurate Amartya Sen. He said that the media is much more concerned with the things like films and public entertainment, which is a subject of 20% of the population may really engaged in.
Speaking to the reporters after releasing a book, 'A Southern Music: The Karnatic Story' written by singer T M Krishna, he said, “basically the performance of the governments over the decades have been wanting. But ultimately it is not just the government, it is the media's inability to focus on these questions.”
Often media is much more engaged with the things like films and public entertainment and who said what about whom, which is a subject that 20% of the population really may be engaged in. But there is a huge population that get very little attention from the media and in a democracy, that makes a big difference, as to what policies follow.
“The government in the democratic system have to be insisted what they have to do and they (media) have been very little insistent on behalf of the dalits and basically the lower half or more of the population of this country,” he added.
He said that while the secondary and higher education have been neglected to some extend, relatively, the school education generally and primary education in particular, dwarfed the country's efficiencies in other areas of education.
While the private sector may be able to contribute more, it is not reasonable to expect the private sector to do something basically the responsibility of the State. Not only Europe and America, but countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, HongKong, Singapore, China, Thailand and Indonesia have grown in terms of education, to various levels.
“When some economist say, we will do education and healthcare later, that means that they haven't studied what happened in economic development all over the world,” he said. There are major issues which get hardly any attention in the Indian media and the country is falling behind almost every country in the world, in terms of many of the commitments.
“As a percentage of governmental expenditure on healthcare on total healthcare expenditure, India is one of the lowest, along with three countries including Haiti and Sierra Leone. Totally at the bottom. But do the newspapers discuss it?,” he asked. The political system allows the media to publish anything they like and if they (media) are not taking interest on these causes, it is the media to be blamed for and may be the public for not demanding them to be more responsible. However, there are some newspapers which gives more coverage for such issues.
He added that the news on the national sample survey that more than half the Indian don't have a toilet in their home and have to defecate in the public, that generated a little comment on the page seven or eight or nine on one day and then it disappeared.
“It is unthinkable for a country which is trying to be a leader of the world, where half the population has to defecate in the open. Why isn't it a news about which there should be more protest in India?” he asked.
| The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won many seats in Delhi without going in for coast and religious divisions and it can be done more intensely than the (AAP) did in much wider areas in the country, said Amartya Sen. |
| Responding to a query by the reporters here in Chennai, he said, “They did win many seats without going in for cast and religious divisions which is to their glory. It can be done, and can be done more intensely than the Aam Aadmi did and can be done much more widespread than in the small enclave of Delhi.” |
| He said that even though the focus is still much more on the middle class than one would like to see, Aam Aadmi in Delhi did bring in much more public oriented issues than had been the case before. |
