Passage – 1

The critique of school as an institution has developed and grown in the past half a century. Education theorist Everett Reimer wrote School is Dead in the 1960s. Most schools are caged jails, where an alien curriculum designed by some ‘experts’ is thrust down a child’s gullet. Today, many schools are gargantuan corporate enterprises with thousands of children on their rolls, and for all practical purposes they are run like factories, or better still like mini-armies. The website of a private school in Lucknow boasts of 56,000 students, for instance. But progressive thinkers have always envisioned ‘free schools’ for children. The great Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, founded a school for the children of poor peasants at his home, Yasnaya Polyana, without any strict schedule, homework or physical punishment. Maria Montessori was the first Italian woman to become a doctor; she went on to work out the ‘stages of development’ in children which became the basis for her educational philosophy, which too emphasised children’s freedom and choice. Tagore’s critique of rote learning is articulated in the classic tale ‘The Parrot’s Training’ (Totaakahini). Perhaps, the longest lasting libertarian school in the world is Summer hill. It was founded in 1921, a hundred years ago in England, by A.S. Neill with the belief that school should be made to fit the child rather than the other way round. The 1966 Kothari Education Commission’s recommendation for a common school system was never implemented. Today, which school a child goes to depends on her socio-economic status. The pandemic has furthered and exacerbated this divide. COVID-19 hit parents economically. The digital divide between the rich and poor has also widened. The poor do not have access to mobiles, laptops and internet connectivity. In such a scenario, one can try and conceive of neighbourhood learning spaces.

Passage – 2

The COVID-19 pandemic and the unmatched mental health challenges have made it more crucial than ever that we continue to make strides towards understanding the concept of mental health stigma and how we might tackle it around the world. Graham Thornicroft, a practising psychiatrist, who is extensively and deeply involved in mental health stigma research at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences at King’s College London has divided stigma into three componentsknowledge, attitude and behaviour. The last behaviour emerges from social isolation, such as what we are experiencing during the pandemic, as well as exclusion from mainstream activities and citizenship. In higher- income countries, stigma rates may be greater than other countries, perhaps because of the pressure to excel. In low-income countries, one can be unwell and still play an active social and productive role somewhere as there are many such roles to play within the family and in society. Enhancing contact with people who have experienced mental health problems is the best way to reduce stigma. To date, most people with mental illness remain silent about their condition, avoiding discussing their problems for fear of losing face, damaging their reputation or jeopardising their family status. Having a space where they may be welcomed and listened to, rather than judged, will go a long way towards enabling them to share their experiences. In a small part of rural Andhra Pradesh, researchers used posters, pictures, drums, and a short street play, as an intervention technique to reduce mental health stigma.

An actor portrayed a person’s journey through mental health crises and setbacks before receiving support and showing hope, improvement and recovery. People assembled around the stage, willing to talk about and discuss what they saw, even two to three years after the event.

Passage – 3

COVID-19 infections are once again on the rise with daily infections crossing 60,000 per day last week. This is considerably higher compared to the reported infections during the same period last year when the numbers were less than 500 per day. What is obvious is that the pandemic is far from over despite the availability of vaccines. However, unlike last year, the response this time has been muted with no nationwide lockdown. One of the reasons for the differing responses is the lesson from the unintended consequences on the economy of the strict lockdown last year. While aggregate estimates on the growth rate of GDP showed a sharp contraction in economic activity (the economy shrunk by 24 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2020) the impact on lives and livelihoods is still unfolding even though the sharp contractionary phase seems behind us. The extent of the loss of lives and livelihoods is becoming clear only now, with detailed data from the Periodic Labour Force Surveys (PLFS) - the latest round of which is for the April-June quarter of 2020. This is the first official report on the estimates for the quarter, which witnessed the worst impact with the lockdown in force until the middle of May. Visuals of thousands of migrants walking back to their villages are still fresh in the mind. While many have returned to urban areas in the absence of jobs in rural areas, many did not. The PLFS, which captures the employment- unemployment situation in urban areas, provides some clues to what happened. The estimates from PLFS are broadly in line with estimates available from other privately conducted surveys, notably the unemployment surveys of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). According to the PLFS April- June 2020 round, the urban unemployment rate for the population above the age of 15 was 20.8 per cent, which is close to the monthly average for the same quarter from CMIE at 19.9 per cent. The CMIE data, however, does suggest a sharp decline in June compared to April and May. Similar to the CMIE data, the PLFS data also shows a sharp rise in the unemployment rate which more than doubled compared to the unemployment rate in the preceding quarter of January-March 2020 at 9.1 per cent and 8.8 per cent in the same quarter (April-June) of 2019. While one in five persons above the age of 15 was unemployed during April-June 2020, the unemployment rate among the 15-29-year- olds was 34.7 per cent - every third person in the 15-29 age group was unemployed during the same period. These are staggering numbers, but not surprising. While the lockdown certainly contributed to the worsening of the employment situation, particularly in urban areas, the fact that the economy was already going through severe distress as far as jobs are concerned is no longer surprising. Between 2016-17 and 2019-20, growth decelerated to 4 per cent, less than half the 8.3 per cent rate in 2016-17. The fact that the economy has not been creating jobs predates the economic shocks of demonetisation and the hasty roll-out of GST. The PLFS data from earlier rounds have already shown the extent of the rise in unemployment compared to the employment-unemployment surveys of 2011-12. The unemployment rates in urban areas for all categories increased by almost three times between 2011-12 and 2017-18. On an internationally comparable basis, the unemployment rate among the 15-24-year-olds in 2017-18 was 28.5 per cent, which makes the youth unemployment rate in India amongst the highest in the world, excluding small countries and conflict-ridden countries. Since then, it has only worsened or remained at that level.

Passage – 4

One of the most important challenges for Indian diplomacy in the subcontinent is to persuade its neighbours that India is an opportunity, not a threat. Far from feeling in any way besieged by India, they should be able to see it as offering access to a vast market and to a dynamic, growing economy which would provide their own economies with far greater opportunities than more distant partners (or even their own domestic markets) could provide. This would go beyond economic benefits: as David Malone argues, “Economic cooperation represents the easiest ‘sell’ to various constituencies within the countries of the region. Were this to prove successful, cooperation on more divisive and sensitive issues, such as terrorism, separatism, insurgency, religious fundamentalism, and ethnic strife, could be attempted with greater chances of success.” Winds of change are blowing in South Asia. There is a definite consolidation of democracy in all the countries of the region, every one of which has held elections within the last three years. Some of our neighbours have made significant strides in surmounting internal conflict and others are in the process of doing so. If India has to fulfil its potential in the world, we have no choice but to live in peace with our neighbours, in mutual security, harmony and cooperation. Just as Nehru left Robert Frost’s immortal lines “Miles to go before I sleep” on his bedside table when he died, Shastri kept some lines of the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak, on his desk. When translated into English they read: “O Nanak! Be tiny like the grass, for other plants will wither away, but grass will remain ever green.” Shastri was seen by many Indians of exalted ambition as a tiny man, but he had the mind and heart of a giant. His vision of peaceful coexistence with our neighbours, through adopting the demeanour, the modesty and the freshness of grass, may well be the best way for India to ensure that its dreams remain evergreen in its own backyard.

Passage – 5

On the day of writing this, India had reported 116 deaths from COVID-19. In contrast, the US, with around one-fourth the population of India, reported 1,897 deaths, or 16 times the daily deaths as India. The UK, which has one-twentieth the population of India, reported 592 deaths, or 5 times the daily deaths as India. On other metrics too-new cases, active casesthe Indian curve has flattened. If and when the UK and the US achieve what we have, there will be major celebrations. Such low death rates would be seen as a victory of the government, citizens and science over the dreaded coronavirus. However, because we are India, we don’t get as much credit. We are considered poor, third-world and untrustworthy, incapable of achieving something like this on our own. Instead of learning from India’s experience, the first instinct is to doubt Indian data. We aren’t counting the cases right, we aren’t doing enough tests, we don’t classify the deaths properly-the list of doubts goes on and on. This, even as the tests have only increased, positivity rate has dropped and almost all Indian hospitals are seeing a drop in COVID-19 admissions and fatalities. To think that the Deep Indian State is capable of fudging data at the level of every district and every state, and sustaining this fagade for months is giving it way too much credit. Conspiracies require enormous co-ordination and effort and it isn’t quite how things work in India. Given that you can check corona data at every ward level, it is also impossible to fudge data, not to mention create a downwards curve that is moving in the same direction in virtually every comer of India. In terms of testing, while a case might be made for a lot of Indians not getting tested, it is also true that random testing has increased in the last few months. Domestic flyers into Maharashtra from many states for instance, have to get a COVID-19 test done irrespective of symptoms. If there was rampant corona, we would see a spike in cases from just these flyers. It may be hard for people to accept this reality but almost all evidence points to the fact India has flattened the corona curve, while the US, UK and most of Europe still haven’t. What is even more remarkable about India’s achievement is that it has managed to do this without draconian lockdowns (apart from the two months in April-May 2020). In fact, cases have dropped even as India opened up more.

Passage – 6

Asia is at the front line of climate change. Extreme heat in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, wildfires in Australia, typhoons in Japan, are real and present dangers and likely to become more frequent as climate change intensifies. McKinsey’s report on ‘Climate risk and response in Asia’, finds that, without adaptation and mitigation, Asia is expected to experience more severe socioeconomic impacts of climate change than other parts of the world. Large cities in the Indian Subcontinent could be among the first places in the world to experience heat waves that exceed the survivability threshold. Just as information systems and cyber security have become integrated into corporate and public-sector decision making, climate change will also need to feature as a major factor in decisions. Climate science tells us that some amount of warming over the next decade is already locked in due to past emissions, and temperatures will continue to rise. India anticipates a significant infrastructure build out over the next decades with projects worth $1.77 trillion across 34 sub sectors, according to the National Infrastructure Pipeline. Robust regulations around outdoor work could significantly reduce the economic risk of lost hours as well as the toll on life from heat waves. The good news is that we have started to see some Indian states and cities pursuing such policies. Ahmedabad City Corporation introduced a heat action plan- the first of its kind in India in response to the 2010 heat wave that killed 300 people in a single day. The city now has a heat-wave early warning system, a citywide programme of roof reflectivity to keep buildings cool, and teams to distribute cool water and rehydration tablets during heat waves. Renewable energy has grown rapidly in India and can contribute 30 per cent of gross electricity generation by 2030, according to the Central Electricity Authority.