A nationwide study commissioned by the Bangalore-based Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness highlights that high school and college students are shockingly casual about democracy and entertain regressive beliefs and anti-social attitudes Dilip Thakore
WITH THE INK HAVING HARDLY dried on the recently released Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014, which indicates that 53 percent of children studying in rural primaries can’t read and comprehend class II textbooks and almost 74.7 percent of class III children can’t do simple subtraction sums, comes another shocker highlighting that class IX and even college students are severely under-schooled about their democratic rights and duties.
According to a national survey released on India’s 66th Republic Day (January 26), which celebrated the momentous adoption of the Constitution of India by free India’s first Parliament, students countrywide are shockingly casual about democracy, ignorant about their democratic rights and responsibilities, and entertain regressive beliefs and anti-social attitudes which bode ill for the nation in the new millennium.
Commissioned by the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA, estb. 2000), a Bangalore-based public charitable trust, and conducted by the well-reputed market research agency IMRB (formerly Indian Market Research Bureau) with offices in 17 cities across the nation, the survey reveals that the country’s youth are ignorant of the basic principles and objectives of the Constitution.
“India is the world’s most populous and most complex democracy established with the noblest objectives. The preamble of the Constitution promises to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all citizens of the Republic. Yet with monotonous and ineffective civics education dispensed in secondary school classrooms, no real effort has been made to provide citizenship education to the nation’s youth. Although co-curricular activities such as NCC (National Cadet Corps), NSS (National Service Scheme) and boy scouts and girl guides have been introduced in education institutions to promote some of the ideals of the Constitution, their outcomes and effectiveness have never been measured. Therefore, last year under the guidance of a high-powered advisory panel, we commissioned IMRB to conduct a survey of the attitudes and opinions of 10,542 class IX students and first year college undergrads, plus 757 social science teachers in 11 state capitals to ascertain their citizenship attitudes and values. But our survey is not a mere opinion poll. The respondents were tested through multiple choice questions administered in classroom settings, supplemented by 30 focus group discussions. The outcome of this elaborate exercise is an accurate reading of the abysmal awareness of the country’s youth about citizenship rights and duties,” says Dr. Manjunath Sadashiva, an alumnus of Bangalore and Dortmund (Germany) universities, former joint director (1996-2009) of the Public Affairs Centre (PAC, founded in 1993 by former IIM-Ahmedabad director Dr. Samuel Paul) and co-founder and director of CMCA.
The social attitudes, beliefs and sheer ignorance of students including college undergraduates starkly reflected in the survey, are certain to shake taxpayers and right-minded adults out of their complacency. Many of them entertain fond illusions of India emerging as a democratic superpower in this millennium, as the nation starts reaping its much proclaimed demographic dividend — actually the outcome of failed population control initiatives of successive governments at the Centre and the states, and converted by a sly sleight of the bureaucratic hand into a socio-economic advantage. In written tests administered by IMRB field researchers to determine their ‘national democratic citizenship score’ based on their knowledge and awareness of seven citizenship domains (rights and responsibilities, knowledge and comprehension of democratic governance, attitudes and values towards democratic governance; respect for civic rules; environmental conservation issues; gender equality and respect for diversity and social justice), the sample of 6,168 class IX students and 4,374 first year college undergrads averaged a mere 21 out of a maximum possible 100. Only in the domain of environment conservation did the sample respondents attain a half respectable score (42 percent). In the domain of democratic governance, which tested their knowledge and awareness of human rights, rule of law, equality, role of legislatures, multi-party democracy and military rule, the sample respondents were awarded a negative score of minus 11 percent. 
“CMCA’s inaugural Yuva Nagarik Meter (aka Young Citizen National Survey), is the realisation of a dream of many years. Most people are aware that there’s a serious democracy deficit in Indian society. But our survey measures the scale and depth of this deficit for the first time. The very poor National Democratic Citizenship score of 21 percent that high school and first year college students were awarded in written tests and some of the outrageous responses they wrote, is conclusive evidence that our education system has failed to deliver citizenship education and inculcate the liberal values enshrined in the Constitution in school and even higher secondary education. The civics education provided in schools is barely comprehensible, misdirected and children are not taught how to apply it in real life. This is very dangerous because in the absence of awareness of the rights and responsibilities of democratic governance, the country is certain to experience greater strife and chaos and perhaps even slide into anarchy and authoritarianism,” warns Vrunda Bhaskar, managing trustee of CMCA who has almost 15 years’ experience of civic and democracy activism.
THE concern and disquiet experienced by the trustees of CMCA, which was promoted 14 years ago to generate awareness that “a strong, vibrant civil society comprising humane and democratic citizens at its core form the building blocks of a healthy and mature democracy”, is justified. Further scrutiny and analysis of the scores awarded in several of the seven domains added up to tabulate the low (21 percent) National Democratic Citizenship score (see table), is cause for alarm, if not despair. It justifies the rising apprehension of bona fide educators and right-thinking citizens that the quality of education being dispensed in the country’s 1.40 million schools and 33,000 colleges is pathetically inadequate.
For instance, how is it possible that 74 percent of the 10,542 high school and college students enrolled in relatively superior urban education institutions aren’t aware that legislatures of the Central and state governments formulate, debate and enact the laws under which the country is governed, and only 37 percent have a proper understanding of the meaning of democracy (rule of law, human rights, equality and elections)? Moreover, what is one to make of the preference of first year college undergrads for single party rule at the Centre (67 percent), and military rule (53 percent)? 
Apologists of the country’s feckless youth — there’s no shortage of ignorant and ill-informed youth leaders and pandering political pundits who believe that youthfulness per se is a qualification for political and business leadership and conversely age, wisdom and experience are dispensable attributes — often argue that the waters of Indian politics have been so muddied by the political class that the country’s youth have switched off. Hence the low scores in the domain of democratic governance and preference for authoritarian rule.
Given the casteism, communalism, corruption and criminality that free India’s (adult) politicians cutting across all political parties have injected into the body politic, there is some substance in this argument. It perhaps partially explains why the country’s youthful electorate — 50 percent of registered voters are below 25 years of age — has given massive majorities to political parties with ruinous policies and development programmes formulated by sentimentality rather than critical rationalism. “Barring card-carrying political cadres, ordinary people are hardly influenced by either a candidate’s individual merit or by a party’s good looks. What gets them going, if they ever get going, is to make sure that somebody in that line-up is thoroughly trounced, perhaps even disgraced… Voters get their high not because their candidate has won, but because somebody else has lost,” explains Prof. Dipankar Gupta, director of the Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory at Shiv Nadar University, Gurgaon in an insightful essay in The Hindu (February 9), explaining the reckless voting behaviour of the country’s young electorate.
WOWEVER, even if one accepts the argument that the country’s youth are sufficiently disillusionedcynical and with the perverted processes and practices of contemporary politics to prefer military or authoritarian rule, it’s more difficult to explain away the regressive views of the sample respondents of the CMCA-IMRB survey on gender and civic governance issues.
For instance, 43 percent of male and 39 percent of girl/women students agree that women should endure domestic violence, and 44 percent of male high school students and college undergrads (and 36 percent of females) advise acceptance of the illegal dowry system. Moreover 57 percent of male (52 percent of female) youth agree that provocative clothing and deportment of women is the cause of sexual assaults and violence against the latter. And paradoxically, in a response which reflects poor critical thinking skills, while 71 percent of respondents agree that women can perform equally well or better than men in all professions, 52 percent opined that the main role of women is to be homemakers and raise children.
“The low democratic citizenship score of high school and college undergrads in the CMCA survey, and their attitudes towards women and girls are very disturbing. Quite obviously as educators and parents we need to teach children not merely to pass civics exams, but to practice democracy and gender equality. In Campion, which is a boys’ school, we have weekly classes on citizenship rights and duties for all students and twice-weekly on gender sensitivity for class VII students. The survey findings indicate that we need to do much more,” says Paul Machado, principal of Campion School, Mumbai, ranked the country’s #1 boys day school in the EW India School Rankings 2014.
Casual lack of respect for law and order implicit in the answers of sample respondents to gender egalitarianism and pervasive violence against women, is confirmed by their replies to queries related to civic awareness and civic behavioural norms.
Forty-three percent agree that bribing public servants and officials to overlook violations of civic rules is acceptable, with 51 percent agreeing it’s “difficult” to adhere to civic rules and behavioural norms when violation is common. Moreover, 38 percent say it’s permissible to break civic rules when penalties are small.
Although the inclination is to wryly dismiss these findings, it’s pertinent to note that the respondents are “well-educated” individuals likely to rise to positions of leadership and authority in a society in which 53 percent of children don’t complete primary education, and 300 million citizens are comprehensively illiterate.
WITH the great majority of the country’s youth unaware of the constitutional schema, rationale of the rule of law and advantages of democratic governance, importance of gender equality and civic discipline — the outcome of shoddy and obsolete syllabuses and curriculums designed by unknown academics with suspect antecedents hidden in the woodwork of education ministries of the Central and state governments — an entire generation of selfish and self-centred youth lacking the attributes of empathy and compassion has mushroomed across the country. This sociological disaster is confirmed by CMCA’s Young Citizen National Survey. 
Fifty percent of the sample respondents comprising — it bears repetition — high school students and first year college undergraduates studying in reportedly superior schools and education institutions of urban India, resent migrant labour from other states of the Indian Union and 45 percent agree with the outrageous proposition that construction workers, mainly migrants from the poor states of north India, have no right to demand onsite housing and toilet facilities.
Even more disturbing are responses to other issues of diversity and social justice. Almost half the respondents agree that domestic help have no right to demand minimum wages and minimal work facilities, and astonishingly, 65 percent of the country’s educated youth are against boys and girls of different religions meeting even in public spaces. In the circumstances it’s not surprising that youth vigilante groups — including beat cops — who confront, assault and humiliate courting couples suspected of being from diverse backgrounds, are running wild across the country.
”Students grow up in a society in which traditional and distinct demarcations of religious beliefs, caste and class are respected and observed at home and in media such as cinema and television. Therefore, education institutions and teachers have to make a special effort to educate not just students but parents as well, to accept and celebrate diversity which enriches Indian culture, and to develop sympathy and empathy for fellow citizens. The CMCA Civic Club which we started in our school in 2008, has played a major and valuable role in sensitising our students to citizenship issues,” says Sajeetha Bharati, principal of the K-X Titan School, Hosur, Tamil Nadu, which has 800 students mentored by 45 teachers on its muster rolls.
Adds P. Janani, head girl of the school: “It’s very upsetting that young people are so heartless towards migrant workers who construct homes for our comfort, and would deny them basic facilities of minimum wages, housing and sanitation. I strongly condemn this attitude.” 
In neighbouring Karnataka, Jayanti Prabhakar, principal of the CBSE-affiliated Freedom International School (FIS, estb.2006), blames the external environment and influences including the media, cinema and parents for the poor democratic citizenship score of today’s youth. “Although in FIS, citizenship and especially civic education is high on our agenda, and we have established an active CMCA Civic Club which educates parents and students about citizenship rights and duties, the contrary external influences are too strong. The negative examples that the adult world and most parents set by way of breaking laws and rules, and loose talk about democracy and politics influence the anti-social behaviour and attitudes of children. Since children are educated not only in school but at home as well, we are exploring the idea of inviting parents also to attend CMCA classes, lectures and seminars,” says Prabhakar, an English literature alumna of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai with over three decades experience in education, and founder-principal of Freedom International which has 1,201 students and 86 teachers on its muster roll.
THE sole silver lining of the revealing CMCA Young Citizen National Survey is that the country’s youth are more aware about ecology and environment preservation issues, arguably the outcome of sustained media campaigns highlighting the continuous damage being inflicted upon the country’s increasingly fragile ecology by ill-considered government policies, backward technologies, and uncaring citizens. In the domain of environment conservation, the 10,542 sample respondents recorded their highest score (42 percent), with 81 percent agreeing it’s “important” to reduce water wastage and 78 percent in favour of public and government protection of lakes and tanks (see above). However it’s pertinent to note that a score of 42 percent indicates there’s insufficient ecology awareness overall, within the country’s depressingly ill-educated and ignorant youth.
Awareness of the poor, if any, citizenship and liberal values education being dished out to students by syllabuses prescribed by anonymous academics appointed to the pan-India and state examination boards — 24 percent of the 10,542 students tested by the survey were enrolled in CBSE and CISCE-affiliated schools — prompted the promotion of CMCA and its campaign to establish civic clubs promoting citizenship education in schools across the country. Since the movement started in 2000, the Bangalore-based CMCA has established 355 civic clubs with a membership of 17,000 children in 300 schools in six states across the country.
“With the cooperation of school managements, we establish Civic Clubs in schools, and our volunteers conduct a Campus & Community Nagarik Programme in colleges weekly, with special focus on citizenship rights and duties. Our mission is to nurture active citizenship and inculcate democratic values in children, and to develop a citizenship education programme which the Central and state governments could introduce in schools countrywide. Our first Yuva Nagarik Meter or Young Citizen Survey is a step towards achieving this mission,” says Ashish Patel, a former chartered accountant and director of Citibank who quit the corporate world to sign up with CMCA in 2014 as national coordinator of this countrywide crusade.
Unfortunately, although its import is self-evident, CMCA’s laudable campaign to introduce democratic citizenship education in all schools countrywide isn’t attracting the support it should be receiving. In almost 15 years of its existence, the CMCA trust hasn’t been able to attract corporate or philanthropic donations of worthwhile magnitude, and its endowment corpus is a modest Rs.60.48 lakh against which the annual expenditure is Rs.3 crore, forcing the management to survive on a hand-to-mouth existence. 
“Although we receive valuable support from several industry majors such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors and Titan Industries, most corporate donations are constrained by having to conform with CSR (corporate social responsibility) rules and regulations. Unfortunately, since the mission and activities of CMCA don’t constitute conventional education, it’s difficult for us to attract enough funding which would enable us to accelerate and roll out our programmes with the speed they need. Raising resources is difficult, but we manage to scrape through,” says Vinodini Lulla, a business management postgrad of the S.P. Jain Institute of Management, with 15 years experience in some of the country’s top advertising agencies (O&M, Rediffusion and Clarion) prior to signing up with CMCA as treasurer, trustee and chief fund raiser in 2004.
The half-hearted support which CMCA receives from industry and the public is unfortunate because the focus of the institution — good citizenship — is an area of darkness of Indian education and society. The great majority of the obvious infirmities of contemporary India — communal riots, gender crimes and discrimination, corruption, casteism, lack of compassion for the poor, disadvantaged and children — are rooted in the neglect of citizenship education.
CMCA’s unprecedented Young Citizen National Survey plainly indicates that the country’s K-12 education system has failed to inculcate the positive values of liberty, equality and fraternity, proclaimed as the prime objectives of the Constitution of India, within children and youth. If educationists, teachers and parents fail to heed the alarming message of this valuable survey, there’s clear and present danger of the nation losing its freedoms and sliding into dictatorship.