Abstract :
This paper explains in detail the evolution of India since its independence till date,
emphasising important factors that act as a major influencer for our country’s growth. Despite
the advancement in technology in the past decades, our country’s economy has been facing
numerous challenges, such as political instability, infrastructural deficits, and social
inequalities. This research highlights the huge role of education as the ultimate source of
economic development and argues that by improving the educational sector, we can increase
the growth of our economy. Additionally, the paper also discusses the direct relationship
between education and economic growth. It also discusses various methods to implement this
in our curriculum. To improve our economic growth we must rely on “Quality Education”,
which has been evaluated after analysing our country’s current demographic stage. Quality
education and improvised healthcare would help us to attain the title of developed nation.
Introduction:
"Education is the foundation of healthcare, and healthcare is the foundation of education—
together, they create a healthier, more knowledgeable society."
India isn't an exception, as the social sector is vital in figuring out the future of developing
countries. In a nation as diverse and populous as India, it is both strategically and morally
imperative to address social issues with ingenuity, empathy, and long-term solutions.
Education is the foundation of progress and transformation and provides a means of realizing
the full potential of an economy such as India. One of the most populous and diverse nations
in the world, India's future rests on its ability to equip its vast population with the information
and skills needed to thrive in an increasingly complex world. Spending on education, India
aims to produce a generation that can address pressing problems, promote economic growth,
and build a sustainable future in addition to academic achievement. Any country's
development and well-being depend heavily on its healthcare system, but India's needs are
particularly pressing as the nation strives toward social progress and sustainable growth. With
over a billion people, India has specific illnesses such as viral illnesses and restricted access
to good health care in rural areas. Yet handling these issues alone is not enough to create a
strong healthcare system. Life expectancy has risen, employee efficiency has been boosted,
poverty has decreased, and the overall standard of life is improved once healthcare is invested
in.
Indian economy since independence:
The nation enacted several Five-Year Plans to direct economic growth, with the planning
commission playing a key role. However, the Indian economy grew slowly due to issues like
inefficient state-owned businesses, little international trade, and a reliance on agriculture.
In 1947, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was established. When people were
initially focused on increasing sanitary conditions, various public healthcare services aimed at
promoting health and immunity emerged. In recent times healthcare has been the major
reason for tourism in India. India has grown as the hub of medical tourism with an increase
every year. Measures such as the number of doctors per 1,000 people, the number of hospital
beds per 10,000 people, the number of medical schools, and the number of hospitals and
dispensaries all gradually improved as a result of these efforts. After the implementation of
the first five-year plan, the government decided to focus on education, which was going to be
the stepping stone for developing the country in the future. At independence, India's literacy
rate was at 12%, and the country faced serious difficulties in delivering basic education to its
citizens. This field was the primary focus of the government's first five-year plan. Over
seventy years since independence, India's education system has grown over time. India has
increased its literacy rate from 18% in 1951 to 73% in 2011. Currently, India's education
system is the strongest and largest in the world, with over 315 million students. The prime
fact here that should be noted is that “According to UNESCO, the gross enrollment ratio for
primary education in India has reached 99% in 2019, reflecting near-universal access to
primary education.
The most influential factor that fuels the Indian economy:
The most influential factors that fuel the Indian economy are “education” and “healthcare,” as
these factors act as the base for the youth to be the driving force for India to be a developed
nation. Education involves not only learning the contents of our textbooks but also mastering
the skills that we possess. Skills in the sense of not only art and crafts but also social skills
like behaviour and informed decisions on how to navigate our lives to not only make
ourselves successful but also to take our India to the next stage of honour, i.e., one of the
nations in the list of developed countries.
But we all know that discrimination still prevails in India regardless of the state we are living
in. Discrimination is at its peak when people of richer backgrounds feel the need to suppress
other people, which restricts many opportunities for most of the citizens in India. Regardless
of the schemes and policies, changing people’s mind sets has been one of the daunting
challenges faced by the government. Just because of this crisis that still goes on, India lags in
the need for development that’s essential for the welfare of its people and the vision to be on
the list of developed nations.
Come to think of it, bringing India into the developed countries can’t be achieved only with
the factors of education but also by improving the quality of healthcare provided equally to
all people of India. In India, a person's financial situation has a big impact on their access to
healthcare. Rich people can afford private healthcare, which is typically of superior quality,
while impoverished people frequently depend on overburdened and underfunded public
health systems. The situation is significantly worse in rural areas, where there may be a lack
of basic medical services or inadequate facilities.
A proper education with good healthcare provided to the citizens of our nation, developing
our country, could be an easy go. Encouraging the youths in their field of interest to pursue
that field, and helping them achieve their goal, has now become the role of the prime
working-age and mature working-age categories of people, e.g., our elders. Developing an
individual's skills based on their passion is seen as the prime factor of development, as the
more interest, the quicker the results in the mission.
Why and How Education?
Education has been at the forefront of improving India’s economy. The productivity of a
country’s economy is closely linked to the proportion of educated workers, as they are better
equipped to perform tasks requiring literacy, critical thinking, and skills. Improving the
quality of education will help us improve the country’s economy since the young dependency
population has been declining compared to the previous years. “It is not the quantity of our
work that counts but the quality that makes a difference.”.
Different types of learning can be encouraged. To succeed in multiple, changing
environments, students must develop the intellectual flexibility and adaptability to
incorporate varied sources of information into their decision-making and understanding of the
world.
Project-based learning:
Project-based learning involves students designing, developing, and constructing hands-on
solutions to a problem. The educational value of it is that it aims to build students’ creative
capacity to work through difficult or ill-structured problems, commonly in small teams.
Blended learning: Blended learning is a flexible way of studying, combining online
aspects with an in-classroom experience to allow for an accessible learning style. In a
blended course, students may view classes, access readings, ask questions, and complete
assignments online, so time in the classroom can focus more on discussion and activities for
better understanding and application.
Integrated learning: Integrated learning is a learning theory that helps students apply their
knowledge to new situations. It emphasizes the ability to research, analyse, and use
information to solve problems.
Why Healthcare?
Healthcare, which serves as one of the major factors that seem to influence the stage of the
Indian economy, seems to be handled well in most countries post-coronavirus crisis, which
was a disaster in many parts of the world. Healthcare is the one factor that can be said to be
prime for deciding economic growth, as it doesn't only include treatments but also the growth
and death rate in its hands. An economy cannot be developed if it lacks the basic healthcare
facilities that have to be provided for the welfare of its people. Proper full medical check-ups
for elderly people, vaccinating the younger ones, and most importantly, preventing ourselves
from the most awful diseases, i.e., keeping our environment clean, to being conscious well
enough to remember that the more we mess with our mother earth, the more we are going to
suffer. When people are healthy, productivity increases simultaneously. India has made
significant improvements in the health outcomes of its people. Life expectancy at birth
increased to 69.6 years in 2020, from an expected 47.7 years in 1970.
Demographic stage of India since Independence and an overview:
India was in the first stage of the demographic cycle until 1920; during this period, the
population remained stationary. The high death rate in India until 1920 was due to
widespread poverty, poor sanitation, lack of access to health care, and frequent outbreaks of
infectious diseases. After 1920, significant improvements in Indian health programs by the
Rockefeller Foundation Due to the improvement in healthcare facilities, India entered the
second stage after 1921, when there was an enormous increase in population until 1980. Then
India entered the third stage and was part of this stage till the recent survey. Which is very
concerning regarding the near future.
Demographic categories of India since Independence and an overview
India has been the most populated country since 2023 and has been a key factor in fuelling
India’s economy since independence, but the recent scenario in population growth has pushed
India to change its strategies.
The growth rate of India’s population has not always been very high. Between 1901 and
1951, the average annual growth rate did not exceed 1.33%, which was a modest rate of
growth. Between 1911 and 1921, there was a negative rate of growth of –0.03%. This was
because of the influenza epidemic of 1918–19, which killed about 12.5 million persons, or
5% of the total population of the country (Visaria and Visaria 2003: 191). The growth rate of
the population substantially increased after independence from British rule, going up to 2.2%
during 1961-1981. Since then, although the annual growth rate has decreased, it remains one
of the highest in the developing world. Before 1931, both death rates and birth rates were
high, whereas, after this transitional moment, the death rates fell sharply, but the birth rate
only fell slightly. The principal reasons for the decline in the death rate after 1921 were
increased levels of control over famines and epidemic diseases. Improvements in medical
cures for these diseases, programs for mass vaccination, and efforts to improve sanitation
helped to control epidemics. Unlike the death rate, the birth rate has not registered a sharp
fall. This is because the birth rate is a sociocultural phenomenon that is relatively slow to
change.
The population policy took the concrete form of the National Family Planning Programme.
The broad objectives of this program have remained the same—to try to influence the rate
and pattern of population growth in socially desirable directions. In the early days, the most
important objective was to slow down the rate of population growth through the promotion of
various birth control methods, improve public health standards, and increase public
awareness about population and health issues. Over the past half-century or so, India has had
many significant achievements to her credit in the field of population. A new set of guidelines
was formulated as part of the National Population Policy of the year 2000. In 2017, the
Government of India came out with National Health Policy 2017, in which most of these
socio-demographic goals were incorporated with new targets.
Our Idea :
Children are taught the basic skills to thrive in life from a very young age. Entrepreneurship
and basic marketing strategies are essential to survive in this growing, competitive business
world. “Business and the world are interconnected.” From hawkers to lawyers, everyone
requires marketing and business strategies to navigate life’s challenges.
Entrepreneurship and basic business strategies have to be taught to students from upper
primary school regardless of the profession a child may choose in the future. Every
profession involves business in their ethics at the end of the day.
We can’t learn anything by reading the same material over and over; however, utilizing the
knowledge we gain into action will be effective and be in our memory for a lifetime. If you
continue studying a language guidebook without speaking the language, you will make no
progress. When you start speaking in that language, you’ll notice a difference. As time goes
on, you’ll see an improvement. Therefore, unless the theoretical knowledge is turned into
practical tasks that are practiced and proven, sitting on the side with a book or simply
learning is not beneficial in the long run.
Students from grade 6 can take up apprenticeships that are organized and governed by the
schools. Apprenticeship here refers to the blend of academics and professional education.
This helps in utilizing the young population for improving the economy as well as skills that
have been installed in them. Students have various options to choose from for their
apprenticeship. Students can choose among the choices from
Literature: Students can learn and write articles and blogs for the school websites and make
greeting cards.
Art: Students can make use of their creative skills by indulging themselves in artworks and
making clay charms and pottery, which can be put on sale in exhibitions.
Digital arts: Students can showcase their technical abilities by helping the school run its
websites. And digital artwork, animation, and editing skills.
And many more options like these, where students will be paid for the work done, which will
help in improving the economy by utilizing the creative brains of the young population of age
group 11–18, where work will be provided according to their age.
Conclusion
"The correlation between education and healthcare is undeniable; one cannot thrive
without the other. Both must be prioritized for the advancement of society.". We all
know the basic formula for a healthy and wealthy life, which is a proper educational
environment and healthcare equipment. For a world economy to develop, both of
these factors have to go hand in hand. In this ever-evolving, competitive world,
fighting for a better position is harder than thought if the country lacks even one of
these factors.
Education is not just about memorizing the textbook contents and copying the same
in the exam sheets, but it's about learning ethics, basic manners, and, most
importantly, gaining knowledge beyond book contents. Students have to understand
the importance of education, that it's not just about learning for marks but learning
for life. As the saying of Swami Satchidananda goes, “Live and learn to love and
serve.”
And now coming to healthcare, it is the basic fundamental pillar for every individual
to survive in this world, as this world is beginning to change competitively day by
day. The basic factor of survival is being healthy more than being fit .The citizens of
the world have to be provided with the basic food essentials for their survival, as
agriculture is also decreasing every day.
In conclusion, it's not just one or two factors that decide our lives, but the way we
utilize those factors decides not only our future but the country’s future too. So, let's
efficiently use all our potentials to uplift the pride of India.
Citations :
https://apo.who.int/publications/i/item/india-health-system-review
