social

सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने किन्नरों को स्त्री और पुरुष से अलग तीसरे लैंगिक समूह की तरह मान्यता देने का फैसला किया है। अदालत ने केंद्र और राज्य सरकारों से कहा है कि वे इस तीसरे लैंगिक समूह को समाज का एक उपेक्षित और पिछड़ा वर्ग मानकर उनकी भलाई के लिए विशेष सुविधाएं मुहैया कराएं। भारत दुनिया में पहला देश है, जहां ऐसा कदम उठाया गया है। अदालत ने यह भी कहा कि ऐसा करने के लिए संविधान या कानूनों में किसी भी तरह केफेरबदल की जरूरत नहीं है, क्योंकि भारतीय संविधान में ही सभी नागरिकों के लिए समान अधिकारों का प्रावधान है। हर किसी को बिना किसी भेदभाव के वे सारे के सारे अधिकार मिलने ही चाहिए, जो संविधान में बताए गए हैं। लैंगिक रुझान की वजह से देश में किसी को भी इन अधिकारों से वंचित नहीं किया जा सकता। दिक्कत यह है कि किन्नरों को समाज में अच्छी नजरों से नहीं देखा जाता, इस सामाजिक दुराग्रह को दूर करने के लिए मानवीय नजरिये की जरूरत है। यह तभी हो सकेगा, जब एक तो उनके प्रति समाज का नजरिया बदले और दूसरे उन्हें समाज में एक उपयोगी भूमिका और सम्मानजनक स्थान मिले।

ऐसे लोगों के प्रति भारतीय समाज का नजरिया इस फैसले से बदल सके, तो बहुत अच्छा होगा। हमारे समाज में किन्नरों के प्रति दोहरा रवैया अपनाया जाता है। एक ओर समाज में खुशी के मौकों पर इनकी मौजूदगी को शुभ माना गया है और इस तरह से इनके लिए रोजी-रोटी का इंतजाम किया गया है, तो दूसरी ओर इनके प्रति ऐसा दुराग्रह है कि ये सामान्य रोजगार या शिक्षा हासिल नहीं कर सकते। ऐसे में, इस वर्ग के लोग गा-बजाकर भीख मांगने या यौन व्यापार की मजबूरी में ही फंसे रहते हैं। ऐतिहासिक रूप से भारत में ऐसे लोग इस तरह सामान्य समाज से बाहर नहीं थे। इतिहास में यह दर्ज है कि कई किन्नर राजाओं की सेना में काम करते थे या छोटे-मोटे शासक भी बने। ब्रिटिश राज के शुरू में यौन शुचिता का जो मॉडल अख्तियार किया गया, उसमें स्त्री और पुरुष के अलावा तमाम दूसरे यौन रुझानों को अपराध का दर्जा मिल गया। इससे ये लोग अलग-थलग पड़ गए। कानूनन अलग दर्जा न मिलने की वजह से ये कई नागरिक अधिकारों से भी वंचित रह गए।

सुप्रीम कोर्ट के फैसले में यह भी कहा गया है कि स्त्री और पुरुष से इतर अगर किसी का यौन रुझान है, तो उसे इस रुझान या पहचान को जगजाहिर करने की स्वतंत्रता होनी चाहिए। अब चाहे वोटर पहचान पत्र हो, ड्राइविंग लाइसेंस हो या पासपोर्ट, इस तीसरे समूह के लोगों को अपने को स्त्री या पुरुष की तरह दर्ज करवाने की बाध्यता नहीं होगी। हालांकि सुप्रीम कोर्ट का यह फैसला कई तरह से ऐतिहासिक है, लेकिन इस तीसरे लैंगिक समूह को बराबरी के लिए अभी एक लंबा रास्ता तय करना होगा। सबसे बड़ी जरूरत इनको शैक्षणिक सुविधाएं मुहैया करवाने की है और यह आसान नहीं है। शिक्षा के बाद आम रोजगारों में इनके लिए जगह बनाना, और फिर देश की मुख्यधारा में इन्हें शामिल करना भी बहुत कठिन काम होगा। लेकिन इसी के बाद ये अपने परंपरागत पेशों से बाहर निकल पाएंगे। उनके प्रति समाज के रवैये और उन्हें लेकर बने उसके नजरिये को बदलना कानूनी अधिकार मिलने से कहीं ज्यादा मुश्किल है। इसके लिए लंबे समय तक सतत प्रयास करने होंगे। अब इस फैसले के बाद देश के कानून निर्माताओं को समलैंगिकता के बारे में धारा 377 पर भी पुनर्विचार करना होगा, क्योंकि ये दोनों मामले जुड़े हुए हैं। सुप्रीम कोर्ट ने एक शुरुआत की है, इसके आगे सरकार और समाज को इस उपेक्षित वर्ग के लिए काम करना होगा।

Problems of higher education in india

Learning as commodity

The fact that hardly any Indian institution of higher education figures in the list of top 200 prepared by The Times Higher Educational Supplement is taken by many as proof of the poverty of higher education in the country. Indeed, on several occasions, President Pranab Mukherjee himself has expressed anguish that very few Indian institutions figure on the THES list.

It would follow from this those institutions which do figure on this list, or are close to doing so, are of good quality, while the crisis in this sector only afflicts those numerous institutions, especially state universities, which are way below the mark. Implicit in the focus on THES and such other lists is the view that within the dualistic structure of Indian higher education, with a few elite institutions at the top and vast numbers of poor institutions below, the former are more or less "all right", while the crisis is confined only to the latter. This view, however, is incorrect.

The essence of the dualistic structure of Indian higher education is that both sides of it are crisisridden, the first group experiencing as much of a crisis as the second. Although their crises are of different kinds, they are interrelated, constituting two sides of the same coin.

The crisis of the second group is obvious and getting worse by the day because of the fiscal squeeze on state governments, which are their main funding agencies. Most of them now make do with guest faculty or temporary faculty instead of permanent faculty, since they lack resources. Guest faculty and temporary faculty are paid a pittance, much lower than permanent faculty, and are deprived of all benefits including pensions. They have little incentive, scarcely any institutional commitment, and often supplement their meagre incomes by giving private tuition, which leaves them little time for keeping up with new intellectual developments in their fields, let alone for any research or deeper academic cogitations.

Some state universities do not even have funds to employ temporary faculty; they simply let the students fend for themselves. I remember once, as a member of a University Grants Commission committee, being told that the economics department of a university that used to be quite prestigious not long ago had only three faculty members to look after the MA, MPhil and PhD programmes. The students had to cover large parts of the syllabus entirely on their own, with literally zero teaching by faculty members.

The students produced by these institutions are also left to fend for themselves on a job market that is anyway characterized by an excess supply of job- seekers. They end up either jobless or with jobs that have nothing to do with their inclinations and with whatever education they manage to acquire. The neo- liberal economic regime has aggravated the crisis of this particular academic universe. Tax concessions to the rich in the name of development, combined with limits on government borrowing enforced through fiscal responsibility legislation, have restricted the total resources available to Central and state governments as a whole; and among them the Centre has claimed the lion's share, forcing cash- strapped state governments to squeeze higher education. To be sure, state governments cannot escape culpability on many counts, but they have operated within fairly tight structural constraints.

These constraints, and their fallout, are visible not just in India but elsewhere in the world as well. Even in the United States there is a tendency to replace permanent faculty with adjunct faculty, which is paid a pittance, in the current atmosphere of austerity. In fact, out of total faculty strength of 1.5 million in the higher- education sector of the US at present, as many as 1 million — those is, almost two- thirds — are adjunct faculty. This, apart from violating the basic principle of "equal pay for equal work", does great damage to the quality of higher education. No doubt, the US scene is not as bleak as the Indian one, but very similar tendencies are at work there as well.

It is hardly surprising that in this situation there has been a mushrooming of private profitmaking institutions offering courses in technical subjects in particular, where the excess supply of jobseekers is less. They charge exorbitant fees, which often force students to take education loans, and to pay back these loans they have to turn themselves into commodities, selling themselves to the buyers who offer the maximum price. Many educationists actually fear that when the demand for job- seekers goes down, the pressure to pay back debt may cause a spate of student suicides, much the same way as we have peasant suicides. This sector, in short, is marked by the shameless commodification of education.

One of the hallmarks of a commodity is that it is no longer a "usevalue", or a thing of utility, for the seller. The products of this privateeducation sector, therefore, are not oriented to deriving creative satisfaction from their work; and correspondingly, they do not derive any creative satisfaction from using the input — namely, education — that goes into producing the commodity which they are themselves. The private education sector converts education into a commodity and takes all creativity out of it, which necessarily makes it second- rate. It is noteworthy that in the US, for instance, institutions of higher education are either state- funded or run by private charitable endowments.

They are not meant to be profit- making entities. Radical criticism no doubt accuses institutions run by private charitable endowments of transgressing into moneymaking — but it remains a case of transgression. Commodification, however, started long before the boom in private institutions. Publicly- funded institutions like the IITs, IIMs, and medical institutes, which were supposed to aid the country's quest for self- reliant development, were from the very beginning major sites of brain drain, with absolutely no restrictions imposed by the government.

The process of commodification, already evident in the brain drain, has now reached a stage where such institutions are ranked according to the initial salaries that their students command when they are offered placements at the interviews arranged by placement cells within them.

Commodification is inimical to creativity. It is also impervious to the social role of education. Not surprisingly, therefore, even within those institutions, which make it to the THES list or are on the verge of doing so, casteism, communalism, inegalitarian views, even contempt or at best unconcern for the poor, and patriarchal attitudes like demanding dowry, all of which, besides being objectionable, are also against the values enshrined in the Constitution on which modern India is founded, are quite prevalent among students. This was not always the case.

Many of these institutions were cradles of egalitarian and radical thought not long ago, despite the trend towards commodification implicit in the brain drain. But neoliberalism has made material selfseeking and self- promotion, to the detriment of any creative quest for self- realization, which necessarily brings in its wake a social concern, a pervasive trait among their students.

S ince education must be concerned with arousing sensitivity to one's surroundings, in particular a social sensitivity (or, to borrow a Gamscian term, since education must produce in societies like ours a group of " organic intellectuals of the people"), one would not be far wrong in saying that in the best of our institutions we are not providing education in the true sense. The readiness with which students in our front- ranking institutions are reportedly succumbing to the so- called " wave" generated by a person widely tipped to be the next prime minister of the country, despite his lack of contrition over, if not actual complicity in, a pogrom against the Muslims in 2002 in the state he led, testifies to a failure in our higher education system.
One cannot of course cavil at students choosing one kind of politics over another, but one has not heard of campuses in our elite institutions having massive debates over support to the person in question, which is worrying. It suggests not just a lack of sensitivity to the feelings of minorities, not just a lack of concern for secular values, but above all a lack of quest for freedom and self- realization; for one cannot be free if one's fellow human beings feel oppressed. It reflects an advanced process of commodification, of both education and its products, even in our front- ranking institutions. At both ends of the spectrum of higher education, therefore, we have a crisis. The dualistic structure exacerbated by the neo- liberal regime prevents proper education in the institutions below because of a lack of resources; it prevents proper education in the institutions above by making it a commodity. The quest for a place in the THES list will further exacerbate this dualism, further commodify education, and further aggravate its crisis.

defence exercise

Indo-French Air exercise ‘Garuda-5'
Jodhpur: India and France would start a ten-day joint Air exercise ‘Garuda-5′, aimed at training the pilots and crew of Indian and French fighters in air superiority operations in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur airbase from June 3, IAF sources said.
Both the Indian Air Force and French Air Force would be engaged in various missions ranging from close combat engagement of large forces, slow mover protection, and protecting and engaging high-value aerial assets in the exercise at the strategic airbase near Indo-Pak border, they said.

The flying consisting of air to air refuelling, basic and advanced fighter interceptions, protection of high-value aerial targets and group combat manoeuvring would be the main focus of the exercise, IAF sources said.

Objective of the exercise is to expose IAF Pilots to French Fighter Tactics and French Pilots to Indian Fighter Tactics, to expose IAF Aircrew to Air to Air Refuelling, Cross-servicing of a common type between ground crews and Understanding basic concepts of each countries fighter operations.

Four Rafale multi-role fighter aircraft and one air Refueler aircraft with more than 100 personnel would form the France delegation.

“The focus of the Air Exercise from June 3 to June 13 is learning from each other’s best practices,” Defence spokesperson Col SD Goswami told PTI today.

ukraine crisis

East vs West: Flashpoint Ukraine

The question many nations of the world are asking is whether the relatively brief period of the post-Cold War era is over. It would perhaps be premature to slot the Ukraine crisis as the beginning of a new version of an old division of the world. But beyond the shrill rhetoric emanating from Moscow, Washington and other world capitals, we are witnessing more than a conflict of interests. What is happening is the West’s denial of the right of the Russian Federation to safeguard its geopolitical interests.

What President Putin is trying to accomplish after annexing the Crimean peninsula following the West’s pre-emptive action in signing on Ukraine into the European Union at the cost of Russia is to ensure that a country of 45 million people in a vast area bordering on its flank is not absorbed into NATO. Moreover, half of this country consists of primary Russian-speakers and have deep cultural, religious and trade links with the Russian Federation.

Understandably, Russia is keen to prevent the complete encirclement of its motherland by a western military organisation. Following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the weak leaders that took over the fragmented successor state, the US and West European nations trod all over Russia, breaking legions of promises, to co-opt the former constituents of the Soviet Union such as the Baltic states but also countries like Poland. The new attempt was to take in the land mass of Ukraine and Georgia, among others, to tighten the noose.

The Russian Federation sent its military into Georgia to carve out two areas of the country into independent states in 2008, a warning the West chose to ignore. In the long negotiations with former President Viktor Yenukovych, the European Union sought to co-opt Ukraine into the West through the European Union and later NATO. He balked at the prospect of putting his signature at the last minute because he was not prepared to face Russian wrath.

In any event, Moscow made his task easier by giving him a loan of $15-billion and a hefty discount on gas prices, the lifeline of Ukraine’s energy needs. This decision of the former President led to months of demonstration in Kiev’s Maidan, to be ostentatiously cheered by high-level representatives of the United States and West European countries ultimately leading to sniper shootings and an interim agreement among the foreign ministers of France, Germany and Poland in the presence of a Russian representative calling for a presidential election by the end of the year. But the demonstrators on the Maidan had tasted blood, tore the agreement before it was dry and proclaimed a revolution.

An interim government was formed, the imprisoned former leader Yulia Tymoshenko was released from confinement and addressed the crowds. To save himself from harm, Mr Yanukovych fled to Russia. The European Union quickly signed an agreement with the interim leaders, keeping some provisions in abeyance until the expedited presidential election would be held towards the end of May. All this was par for the course. But subsequent events, including bouts of rebellion in the eastern region the US is charging Russia with instigating, imply that the West will continue the encirclement of the Russian Federation at an unacceptable cost.

There is much talk in Western capitals on how Russia’s actions have re-energised a drooping NATO, how the West European nations must increase their defence budgets, on the permanent stationing of NATO troops on European soil, in addition to the increased air patrolling of NATO nations’ borders. The point of these moves is that the West has not accepted the fact that Moscow is fighting to safeguard its national interests as best it can after losing out to the West following the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has spelled out his country’s demands. It wants a federal constitution for Ukraine, with the regions given a great measure of autonomy in administering their affairs, a guarantee for the official status of the Russian language and a constitutional provision that it would not enter NATO. In other words, Ukraine will remain non-aligned between the European Union and Russia while dealing and trading with both. Thus far, the US has rejected the idea of a new federal constitution.

Beyond the slated meetings among the US, Russia and other interested parties, the underlying problem is the West’s refusal to give weight to legitimate Russian strategic interests which is something akin to a hostile power signing on Mexico for its own geopolitical interests at Washington’s expense. Perhaps Washington and West European capitals wish to complete the diminution of the Russian Federation in the world. The argument over Russia’s form of government as opposed to the growing ranks of democracies does not wash because the West has frequently supped with the devil and continues to do so for reasons of state and geopolitical interests. The question here is not how evil and dictatorial President Putin is in running his country and its foreign policy but in how Russia conceives Western actions to be damaging to its core interests. At present Russia and the West are talking past, rather than to, each other. True, the West has tacitly accepted the reincorporation of Crimea, in view of its tangled history and it being the base of the important Russian Black Sea Fleet. But it is not prepared to go further in guaranteeing that Moscow’s legitimate concerns on Ukraine be accommodated.

No one wants a new hot war in Europe or anywhere else. The options the West is formulating revolve round increasingly stinging economic sanctions which would make life difficult for the Russian Federation. Such sanctions would come at a cost to West European nations, which receive a substantial portion of their gas and oil supplies from Russia, apart from London being a favourite place for Russian oligarchs to park their billions.

The alternatives seem to be between a new round of economic blood-letting before arriving at a compromise and a decision to seek a fair compromise for safeguarding Ukraine’s integrity while taking into account Moscow’s legitimate interests.

India continues to have the weakest IP environment of all countries included in the Index, the report said.

India ranked at the bottom of Intellectual Property Index

For the second consecutive year, India has been ranked at the bottom of 25 countries in terms of protection and enforcement of intellectual property practices, a US Chamber of Commerce report said today.

India has been a low seven point out of a maximum 30, with the United States topping the Intellectual Property (IP) index with 28.5 per cent.

A report by the Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC) of the US Chamber of Commerce maps the IP environment of 25 countries from around the world utilising 30 factors, which are indicative of an IP environments that fosters growth and development.

"India, which again finished last in the second edition of the Index, continues to allow for the deterioration in its IP climate," the report said adding that India continued to score lowest, most notably in categories relating to patents, copyrights, and international treaties.

China shows improvements in certain aspects of its patent regime, however, its overall IP environment continued to see challenges, particularly in regard to trade secret protection and enforcement.

The United States received the highest overall score, but came in third after the United Kingdom and France in the enforcement category.

Canada's treatment of pharmaceutical patents, copyright laws, and unwillingness to ratify international IP treaties resulted in significantly lower scores than other upper-income economies, the report said.



"Despite the 2010 declaration by the then-President of India that the next 10 years will be India's 'Decade of Innovation', the continued use of compulsory licenses, patent revocations, and weak legislative and enforcement mechanisms raise serious concerns about India's commitment to promote innovation and protect creators," it said.

According to the report, in the bio pharmaceutical space, Indian policy continued to breach international standards of the protection of innovation and patent rights, revoking patents generally accepted around the world and announcing that other patented medicines are being considered for compulsory licenses.

Most notable was the April decision by the Supreme Court of India on the patentability of the anti-cancer drug Glivec, the court held that the drug did not meet patentability standards as imposed by the Indian Patent Act's Section 3(d) regarding "incremental innovation" and limiting patent protection to what is specifically disclosed, again in contradiction to global norms, it said.

"This is despite Glivec being recognised as a breakthrough drug and given protection in 40 jurisdictions around the world.

"Given the prominence and size of India's generic pharmaceutical industry, other countries have taken notice and begun to introduce similar provisions into their own laws and regulations," said David Hirschmann, President and CEO of the GIPC.

"A robust IP system provides the critical foundation needed for nations wishing to advance their economic and social progress, and provide assurances to consumers that the products they use are authentic, safe, and effective," said Hirschmann.

"By highlighting countries that are leading or lagging in fostering a strong IP framework, the GIPC Index provides a clear and objective tool for policy makers to strengthen innovative potential and for business leaders to assess risk and investment," he added.

According to Hirschmann, the United States may lead the overall ranking, but has fallen behind in its enforcement efforts.

"Therefore, we urge the Obama administration and Congress to expand on current enforcement programs and allocate dedicated resources throughout the government to effectively enforce IP rights and protect consumers," he said.

India Ranks Among Top Investment Destinations

India has received total foreign investment of USD 306.88 billion since 2000 and 94% of this amount has been received during last 9 years. India’s Foreign Direct Investment policy has been progressively liberalised to make the investment regime more investor friendly. In a recent review of the policy the government has amended the sectoral caps and/or entry routes in some sectors viz. petroleum & natural gas; commodity exchanges; power exchanges; stock exchanges, depositories and clearing corporations; asset reconstruction companies; credit information companies; tea sector including tea plantations; single brand product retail trading; test marketing; telecom services; courier services and defence. The review of FDI policy is done with a view to boost investor confidence thereby stimulating FDI inflows and contributing to accelerated economic growth.

The government approved liberalisation of FDI norms in a number of sectors, including 100 percent in telecom and higher caps in insurance and defence sectors. FDI in multi-brand retail has been allowed up to 51%. The minimum foreign investment requirement is US$ 100 million, at least 50% which shall be invested in 'backend infrastructure' within three years of the induction of FDI. The FDI limit in Single Brand Retail has been enhanced to 100%. It was also decided to allow 49 percent FDI in single brand retail under the automatic route and beyond through the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) route. While the FDI cap in defence sector remained unchanged at 26 percent, it was decided that higher limits of foreign investments in 'state-of-the-art' technology manufacturing would be considered by the Cabinet Committee on Security.

The result of the liberal foreign investment policies is that India has been consistently rated amongst the top three investment destinations globally by all international bodies including World Bank, UNCTAD. This is also mirrored in the foreign investment data. Between 1999- 2004, India received US$ 19.52 billion of foreign investment which increased to US$ 114.55 billion between 2004-09, and increased further to US$ 172.82 billion between 2009- September 2013.

FDI inflows have a positive impact by supplementing domestic capital, technology and skills of existing companies including in the aviation sector, as well as through establishment of new companies. It has indirect multiplier effect on other related sectors also, and thereby stimulates economic growth. FDI inflows also have a positive impact on the current account balance.

When it comes to the impact of FDI in retail trading towards the consumers, it is beyond doubt that they have gained a lot from organised retail on multiple counts. Studies in comparable situations have revealed that lower income consumers saved more. Farmers too have benefited significantly from the option of direct sales to organised retailers. The profit realisation for farmers selling directly to organised retailers is about 60 per cent higher than that received from selling in the mandi.

Small manufacturers will benefit from the safeguard pertaining to a minimum of 30% procurement from Indian small industries. This would provide the necessary scales for these entities to expand capacities in manufacturing, thereby creating more employment and also strengthening the manufacturing base of the country. They will also derive the benefits of technology upgradation, which will provide a fillip to productivity and local value-addition, thereby raising the profitability and earnings of the small manufacturer. The sourcing condition will also enable the small enterprises to get integrated with global retail chains, thereby enhancing their capacity to export products from India. Small retailers would continue to be able to source high quality produce, at significantly lower prices, from wholesale cash and carry points. The young population joining the workforce will benefit from the creation of employment opportunities, in the entire range of activities from the backend to the frontend retail business, as also from the skills imparted to them by the prospective investors.

Price stabilisation and inflation control could be achieved through direct buying from farmers, improving supply chain inefficiencies to lower transit losses, improved storage capabilities to control supply/demand imbalances, better quality and safety standards through farmer development and increased processing of produce. FDI in retail may thus be an efficient means of addressing this issue as this would bring in large investments required for the back end infrastructure & value chain and requisite technical &management know-how.

India has highest population of illiterate adults: UN report

India has by far the largest population of illiterate adults at 287 million, amounting to 37 per cent of the global total, a United Nations report said highlighting the huge disparities existing in education levels of the country's rich and poor.

The 2013/14 Education for All Global Monitoring Report said India's literacy rate rose from 48 per cent in 1991 to 63 per cent in 2006, the latest year it has available data, but population growth cancelled the gains so there was no change in the number of illiterate adults.

India has the highest population of illiterate adults at 287 million, the report published by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation said.

The report further said that the richest young women in India have already achieved universal literacy but the poorest are projected to only do so around 2080, noting that huge disparities within India point to a failure to target support adequately towards those who need it the most.

"Post-2015 goals need to include a commitment to make sure the most disadvantaged groups achieve benchmarks set for goals. Failure to do so could mean that measurement of progress continues to mask the fact that the advantaged benefit the most," the report added.

The report said that a global learning crisis is costing governments USD 129 billion a year. Ten countries account for 557 million, or 72 per cent, of the global population of illiterate adults.

Ten per cent of global spending on primary education is being lost on poor quality education that is failing to ensure that children learn.

This situation leaves one in four young people in poor countries unable to read a single sentence.

In one of India's wealthier states, Kerala, education spending per pupil was about USD 685.

In rural India, there are wide disparities between richer and poorer states, but even within richer states, the poorest girls perform at much lower levels in mathematics.

In the wealthier states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, most rural children reached grade 5 in 2012.

However, only 44 per cent of these children in the grade 5 age group in Maharashtra and 53 per cent in Tamil Nadu could perform a two-digit subtraction.

Among rich, rural children in these states, girls performed better than boys, with around two out of three girls able to do the calculations.

Despite Maharashtra's relative wealth, poor, rural girls there performed only slightly better than their counterparts in the poorer state of Madhya Pradesh.

The report said widespread poverty in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh affects the chance of staying in school until grade 5.

In Uttar Pradesh, 70 per cent of poor children make it to grade 5 while almost all children from rich households are able to do so.

Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, 85 per cent of poor children reach grade 5, compared with 96 per cent of rich children.

Once in school, poor girls have a lower chance of learning the basics. No more than one in five poor girls in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are able to do basic mathematics.

The report added that children who learn less are more likely to leave school early.

In India, children who achieved lower scores in mathematics at age 12 were more than twice as likely to drop out by age 15 than those who performed better.

In some countries, the engagement of teacher unions has improved policies aimed at helping disadvantaged groups. In India, teacher unions have a major influence on state legislatures and governments.

If days are lost because teachers are absent or devote more attention to private tuition than classroom teaching, the learning of the poorest children can be harmed.

Across India, absenteeism varied from 15 per cent in Maharashtra and 17 per cent in Gujarat – two richer states – to 38 per cent in Bihar and 42 per ccent in Jharkhand, two of the poorest states.

There is much evidence of the harm done to students’ learning because of teacher absenteeism.

In India, for example, a 10 per cent increase in teacher absence was associated with 1.8 per cent lower student attendance.

Governments should work more closely with teacher unions and teachers to formulate policies and adopt codes of conduct to tackle unprofessional behaviour such as persistent absenteeism and gender-based violence.

It said codes of practice should be consistent with legal frameworks for child rights and protection and a range of penalties, such as suspension and interdiction, clearly stipulated.

Policy-makers should ensure the curriculum focuses on securing strong foundation skills for all, is delivered at an appropriate pace and in a language children understand.

"India's curriculum, which outpaces what pupils can realistically learn and achieve in the time given, is a factor in widening learning gaps."