Letter from the Editor
One of the most endearing and striking characteristics of Indian society is the cheerful optimism of its young population. Despite suffering multiple deprivations, some of which are too dreadful to elaborate, I have never anywhere encountered children of such sunny, cheerful and friendly disposition as in this benighted nation misled into a barren socialist wilderness by a pre-independence generation which shows not the least signs of contrition or remorse for the sustained neglect and abuse of its children. The poignant reality to which Indian society needs to own up is that more children are denied basic education, healthcare, food, clothing and shelter in contemporary India than in any other country worldwide. Yet despite the child-unfriendly environment shaped by the nation’s professedly omniscient central planners and pundits, the happy paradox is that there’s no shortage of young achievers who take on the odds and succeed. Such youth are an inspiration to children and if heeded can also teach elders the errors of their ways.
Therefore in EducationWorld we have been very conscious that the achievements of young people deserve the widest publicity, and right from the very first issue of this under-appreciated publication, we have celebrated young achievers across the country. Of course we aren’t the only ones to do so. Numerous social welfare and philanthropic organisations also acknowledge and felicitate young achievers. But such recognition of youth achievement tends to be sporadic, cursory and unwarrantedly patronising.
Experiencing a deep need to encourage and celebrate youth achievement on a long term basis in EducationWorld, we wrote to over a dozen high-profile corporates who have a vested interest — though most of them don’t know it — in encouraging high youth achievement, to join with us and sponsor annual young achievers’ awards. Fittingly, the sole affirmative response came from the Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies Ltd — repeatedly adjudged India’s most respected corporate by the business media — which with an average employee age of 26 is also one of the country’s youngest companies.
The beneficial fallout of this new partnership is the conferment of the inaugural Infosys-EducationWorld Young Achievers Awards 2005 which will be given every year hence forward. The rationale of the awards, the adjudication methodology and profiles of this year’s Infy-EW award winners are the subject matter of an inspiring youth-against-the-odds cover story written by assistant editor Summiya Yasmeen.
This month’s special report feature written by our Chennai correspondent Hemalatha Raghupati is also thought provoking. Do the thousands of coaching or tutorial schools sprouting across the subcontinent give the relatively affluent who can afford their stiff tuition fees an unfair advantage in accessing the much-too-few excellent institutions of higher learning which provide heavily subsidised education? Or do they render a public service in topping up the learning of the brightest and best to make optimal use of subsidised institutions of higher learning? It’s a conundrum to which there isn’t an easy answer.
Readers are likely to find this particular issue of EducationWorld celebrates a love-fest with the United States of America — a nation much-admired by the lay people (even if not by politicians and intellectuals) of India. This time round several comment columns and even the book review pages are America centric. Though this is accidential, I make no apologies because I am with the lay people. Even if it disqualifies me from being classified as an intellectual.
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