Education will not lead you out of poverty

It’s summer of 2016, 5:00 PM, I’m scrolling through job openings at a government level in India. I come across the job of a sweeper, which pays like 13K/month or roughly $175/month. My first thought is Damn! I didn’t even know you needed to pass a recruitment of some sort for the job of a sweeper (I know privileged me!)

Well, I didn’t give it too much thought until I read some days later the qualifications of people who had applied for it. There were not only graduates and post graduates but even Ph.D. holders who had applied for it. Let that sink in, there were people who had spent 7–9 years after their 10+2 education to become masters in a subject only to apply to sweeper positions.

It was heart breaking really but it also begs a question. We have been made to believe that education will solve the poverty of the nation, it will propel people from abject conditions to one’s of decency. If that’s the case, where are the jobs that are going unfilled due to lack of properly qualified personnel. If that’s the working hypothesis, how come there are no jobs which are go vacant?

I think the issue runs much deeper than the superfluous Education cures all philosophy. India needs investment from grassroots to the upper echelons for it to start turning around the tide. The state government’s have to become more proactive and instead of waiting on the centre, they have to take some initiative.

I would love to see one state leader who has a definite plan for the state for the next decade & not try whiling away his/her time for the 5 year mandatory tenure. Unless that happens, we will see well qualified personnel applying for positions of dog walkers in IITs and sweepers for the state government.