Planning Commission member and a great educationist Dr Narendra Jadhav, who was conferred the12th Rajiv Gandhi Awards in Mumbai in August is now finalising plans to shake up India’s education sector. On being conferred the award for Excellence in Education, Jadhav said that education was the only thing that could change an entire generation.
Jadhav, a Dalit, who grew up in Mumbai slums went on to work in the Reserve Bank of India and that proves his single minded dedication to excel with intelligence, perseverance, leadership qualities, unconventional thinking and communication skills.
During his assignment as Vice Chancellor of the University of Pune, Jadhav learnt a few lessons, which he is keen to implement. The plan panel member is thinking of creating an army of white collar workers in the country, citizens who would be employable and useful to the economy. When Jadhav was appointed the Pune VC in 2006, he was in Afghanistan on an USAID assignment as the country’s chief economic counsellor.
But, he took up the Pune job as it is the largest traditional university in the world with 650,000 students, 536 affiliated graduate colleges and 330 recognized institutes. Apart from all these, there was a personal reason too. “Not too long ago it was the seat of the Peshwas, the hub of a caste-ridden society where my folk were humiliated and mistreated for their birth,” Jadhav said. To avenge all that, he took up the post.
Taking up the Pune job, Jadhav had two main objectives before himself: Firstly, to place the University of Pune on the global map as the Center of Excellence, and secondly, to bring the University out of its splendid isolation and make it directly responsive to the ever changing needs of society. Jadhav took several remarkable initiatives aimed at improving access (e.g. through Education Guarantee Scheme for the underprivileged youth) and quality of higher education, (e.g. through a complete revision of all 484 curricula with involvement of relevant industry), and promoting the research environment, (e.g. through major innovative financial incentives).
Jadhav also followed a dynamic marketing strategy so as to place the University of Pune on the Global Map. Presently there are more than 14,000 foreign students from 102 countries studying at the University of Pune. A full-fledged Campus of the University of Pune is being set up in United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is expected to become operational soon.
Another path-breaking decision taken by Jadhav as Pune VC was to provide scholarship of Rs. 1 crore to girl students at the Under-Graduate and Post-Graduate levels. Under the Scheme, scholarship of Rs. 5,000/- is awarded to 2,000 girl students per year. A special feature of this Scheme is that 30% of the total amount has been reserved for daughters of Devadasis, Prostitutes and women affected with HIV.
Jadhav recently launched Information Technology enabled Services (ITES) programme in collaboration with CISCO and several vocational courses for Entrepreneurial and Technician Development, especially for high school drop-outs. In the wake of the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai, the University is in the process of establishing Centre for Internal Security aimed at creating a Think Tank, training all college students in Disaster Management and creating awareness among the public at large. Most of these innovative schemes have been appreciated by the Government and are being adopted by all other State Universities.
Jadhav regretted that only 2% people received vocational training in the country. He said five sub-committees set up under the National Skill Development Coordination Board to recommend issues on vocational education had already prepared their reports. He said that while two sub-committees had already presented their reports, the remaining would be doing so soon. The government would be establishing 1,500 new ITIs to create a pool of skilled hands for the industry, he said.
When questioned about his Planning Commission portfolio, Jadhav said that he was delighted because education in particular is critical for India than at any other time because of the demographic dividend one can earn. Listing out the challenges of his portfolio, Jadhav said that it includes labour, employment, sports and youth affairs along with art and culture.
Political parties have been wooing him in the past five years. He turned down a Congress ticket in 2004 and this year a tussle between Sharad Pawar’s NCP and the Congress, Jadhav lost his chance. Seeing his stature, Mayawati offered him a seat of his choice, while the BJP offered to make him their Pune candidate. The Planning Commission assignment is seen as the Congress Party’s compensation plan.
Dr. Narendra Jadhav served the Reserve Bank of India for 31 years, and took voluntary retirement as the Chief Economist (Executive Director). He also served as Economic Advisor to the International Monetary Fund, as well as in Ethiopia and Afghanistan. He has contributed 11 books and more than 100 research papers in national and international journals. His family biography, Untouchables has been published in 15 languages, including English, French, Spanish, Korean and Thai, and has sold around 4, 00,000 copies.