History Write short note

Different positive changes that took place in the education field are as follows:
(a) Need for modification in the school syllabi: The National Council of Educational Research and Training, Delhi suggested some modifications in the school syllabi and the structure of school textbooks.
(b) The guidelines for the new syllabi: The guidelines in the new syllabi were based on democratic principles, social justice, awareness of duties and responsibilities, gender equality, protection of the environment, eradication of superstition, population education as also norms of individual behaviour. The syllabi were also formed for creating awareness among the students regarding unity in diversity. Several training programs are arranged for teachers all over Maharashtra for intensifying the effects to fulfill the objectives of the new syllabi. It helped to create awareness regarding the state-level training and school textbooks, comparable to the awareness created at the time of the ‘National Literacy Mission’.
(c) Recommendation of‘Acharya Ram Murti Committee: In 1990, the report of‘Acharya Ram Murti Committee was received by the Government of India. The committee examined the National Educational Policy (NEP). This committee emphasised on universalisation of education, education for women and backward classes, and educational democracy. The most important recommendation of this committee was to include education in fundamental rights and to raise the government funds allotted to education. The directives were issued related to the weight of school bags of children which leads to a reduction in the weight of a school bag. The practices of interviewing children before school admission were banned.(d) Objectives of ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’:

• To enroll every child in school to raise the standard of education.
• To eliminate gender discrimination in education.
• To achieve 100% attendance in school by 2010.

(e) Establishment of Central Schools with uniform syllabi: Central schools with uniform syllabi were created throughout the country so that the wards of Central Government’s and Armed forces employee may not have to suffer. The central schools focus on sports and extracurricular activities along with the academic syllabi.
(f) The programmes of ‘Ratrashala’ and ‘Sakharshala’: The Government started the programmes like ‘Ratrashala’ and ‘Sakharshala’. Mahatma Jotirao Phule started first night school in Maharashtra in the 19th century. A number of night schools are opened in Maharashtra inspired by Mahatma Phule’s work. This programme is specially meant to benefit the students who work in the daytime. In the season of sugarcane harvesting, many labourers migrate temporarily to the sites of various sugar factories. To facilitate the education of their children special schools known as ‘Sakharshala’ were started. The State Government also take help of voluntary organization to increase literacy rate. This has helped in increasing the literacy rate. The districts of Sindhudurg and Wardha achieved a 100% literacy rate. It provided an impetus to adult education. The government provided books to school children for supplementary reading.

A lot of changes have been taken place in the field of the social domain. These changes are as follows:
(a) Human Rights Protection Act 1993: The government is trying hard to reduce the social disparity and to bring all the classes of people in the society into the mainstream of economic development. Human Rights Protection Act was passed in 1993.
(b) Establishment of Human Rights Commission: National Human Rights Commission was established under this act. The main objective of this act is to protect fundamental human rights like the right to life, equality, etc., and to see that nobody is deprived of these rights. According to this act, the commission can act on the basis of a report of a case of deprivation of fundamental rights, published in a newspaper or other media (‘Sui Moto cognizance’). A complaint can be lodged by a social activist or a social institute on behalf of the victim.
(c) The ‘Domestic Violence Act of 2005: The domestic violence act was passed in 2005 to provide protection to women from domestic violence. The most important provision of this act is the right of a woman to the house where she has been residing even if she doesn’t own the house.
(d) Low sex ratio of girls: According to the 2011 census, the sex ratio of girls in India is very low. In the age group of 0-6 years, the number of girls is 914 against 1000 boys. This is really an alarming situation and several women organizations raised a voice expressing their concern over this matter.
(e) Government schemes to overcome this problem: The state government of Maharashtra implemented different schemes to overcome the problem of the low sex ratio of girls. The Maharashtra state government banned sex/gender prediction tests of a fetus and launched a programme called ‘Lek Ladki’. After all these programmes, awareness has been created among the people and the social loathing for the birth of a girl is diminishing.

Efforts of a number of environmental activists have contributed to environmental conservation and preservation. In Maharashtra, the following three people worked tirelessly to further the goal of environmental conservation and to protect endangered animal species.
(a) Rahibai Popere:

• She was facilitated by the ‘Nari Shakti Award’ by the President of India on 8th March 2018.
• She is popularly known as ‘Beejmata’ (seed mother) for her work in ‘Kalasubai Parisar Biyanee Samvardhan Samiti.’
• She has worked relentlessly to preserve seeds of native cultivars for the future generation.
• The food made with hybrid varieties of food grains and vegetables caused many problems in the human body so thought to preserve native varieties of food grains to overcome the problems.
• She began to cultivate native varieties of food grains and store the seeds of those landraces. She did not confine her efforts to only to her family, but through micro banking groups (bachat gat) she spread this movement into other villages.
• This movement was supported by ‘Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation (BAIF)’.
• She preserves these seeds in an earthen pot which is covered by the plaster of soil and cow dung in order to save the seeds from ants and insects.
• She has a collection of more than 50 landraces of food grains and 30 landraces of vegetables.
• She is one of the three Indian women selected as ‘Women of the year 2018’ by BBC among 100 women from various countries.

(b) Bhau Katdare:

• Bhau Katdare and his associates worked to save an endangered species of ‘White-breasted Sea Eagle’ through an institute called ‘Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra’.
• He created public awareness to save and conserve this bird by trekking the sea coast of Ratnagiri district.
• The nests of this bird were smuggled out and sold in foreign countries. Due to the efforts of Bhau Katdare and his associate’s Indian swiftlets were included in schedule ‘I’ of the ‘Wildlife Protection Act’ – 1972, which was a remarkable contribution of ‘Sahyadri Nisarg Mitra’.
• Through his institution, he also worked to save Olive Ridley turtles. In the first year, they successfully protected 50 nests and 2734 baby turtles. From these 50 nests were released back into the sea. Hundreds of tourists come every year to watch the ‘Turtle festival’ to watch the occasion of baby turtles returning to sea.
• To accommodate them, facilities of ‘Home Stay’ were developed and the peasants were trained in this.
• Now, they started the protection of the endangered ‘Pangolin’ (anteater / Khavalya Manjar)

(c) Premsagar Mestri:

• Prem Sagar Mestri and his associates are working for the protection of two species of vultures, ‘Long-billed vultures’ and ‘White back vultures’ which are observed in the region around Raigad.
• They are also working for increasing the number of these species of vultures and to make available safe food for them through ‘Society for Eco Endangered Species Conservation and Protection – SEESCAP a non-governmental organisation.
• The number of vultures is decreasing because of the painkillers given to animals which have proved to be toxic for these scavengers. Besides the dearth of trees with adequate height, scarcity of food, etc., are the causes responsible for the decrease in the vulture population. People working for SEESCAP are successful in saving the vultures of this vicinity.

The transformation of India is seen in the field of education as well. 1990 was declared as the ‘International Year of Literacy.’ During this year Kerala became the first state in India to achieve a 100% literacy rate. The government of India has started different innovative programmes to educate people:
(a) Primary Education:

• District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) was started in 1994 aiming at providing access to primary education to all.
• This programme was financially supported by the world bank and started in seven states including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, and Assam.
• The main objective of this programme was to achieve 100% registration and attendance of children in primary schools and bringing down the number of drop-outs.

(b) Mid-day Meal (Shaley Poshan Ahar):

• A programme was implemented by the government on 15th August 1995, to provide mid-day meals to children in primary schools.
• If the facility to cook the food in schools was not available then food grains were distributed to each child to ensure his/her attendance in school.

(c) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan:

• This programme was launched in 2001. The motto of this programme was “Let’s all learn, Let’s all progress”.
• By the 86th Amendment in the Constitution of India, the right to free education was granted to children in the age group of 6-14.
• This programme was launched by combining the earlier programme of ‘Khadu-Phala Yojana’ and ‘Mid-day Meal’.
• The programme gives special attention to the education of girl children and children with special needs (Divyang).