Goal of Universal Education

One of the sad truths of life is the fact that our larger population is still buried under the weight of destitution- limited access to the supply of food, drinking water, healthcare and other basic necessities. Basic prosperity existed even during the prehistoric civilizations of Mesopotamia or Indus Valley. Men used to live in caves thousands of years back and they were equipped enough to survive with dignity. Tell me why should I not compare the life of the poor countrymen from the African countries with those cave-men from prehistoric times. 

Having said that, it's imperative to lay stress on the fact that various institutions across the world are working harder to find solutions to all such problems. They have found success in many of their initiatives. But is that enough. May be or may be not. What's important to analyse is whether the progress is on the right track.

One such global initiative is the objective of achieving universal education. In my opinion this is one area where the progress has been concrete. Education can become the sound base for the next level of solutions.

As per 2011 data there were still about 57 Million children of primary school age who were not in school. It is a known fact that children with no quality education are exposed to physical as well as mental exploitation. The situation is severe for female children as they are exposed to a greater risk at different time points in their life. However data suggests that this problem, that has been a part of world's millennium development goal, has shown good progress and the world is likely to achieve the goal of net enrollment ratio of 100%. The improvement is particularly encouraging in the Sub-Saharan African countries where in a period of 5-6 years, the net enrollment ratio has increased from 65% to 77%. Overall this figure hovers around 88-90%. 

The root-cause of the problem is quite evident. It is nothing but the existence of sheer poverty and marginalization that is responsible for poor state of primary education. Digging deeper into the source of disparity would reveal three major factors: Income, Gender and Location e.g. the children from the poorest households are at least three times as likely to be out of school as their richest counterparts, rural children are nearly twice as likely to be out of school as urban children. Statistically, the largest income & gender disparity is seen in the South Asian and Sub-Saharan countries while the rural-urban disparity exists in all the countries. 

Different forums at the world level have come together and have embraced the mission of global education as one of the top most development priority. Countries like India have launched development schemes such as Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to attain the goal. Some of the actions that are being taken by all the institutions, in particular UNICEF, to reach to the goal are: 

• Awareness Campaigns: UNICEF has committed $233 million to stage global awareness campaigns on the importance of children going to school. Different campaigns also highlights the issues of gender discrimination and forced child labour. 

• Investment on improving facilities at school: In many places, schools are safe haven for children where they can find latrines, clean water, meals and possibly health care. "UNICEF has a strong presence in school-based water, sanitation and hygiene projects, supporting initiatives in 73 countries such as supplying hand pumps to primary schools and training teachers in hygiene education".

• Ensuring 'Right to Education': The support is being provided in the area of community-based early child care, parent education, nutrition, hygiene and other intervention initiatives.

The world is in the right path and pace of achieving the goal of universal primary education and would be achieved if various institutions keep implementing different initiatives on a mission mode basis.

Filing your tax: The indirect incentive

The common notion about filing tax return is that the government needs money to build the nation and the money should come from the public only. Well there is nothing wrong about this notion but we always miss the larger picture. 

If you look at the bigger picture you would find that only 3-4% of our population is paying income tax. Do you really think only 3-4% population is earning enough to pay tax? And the nation is resting on the shoulders of these 3-4%? No. The tax that the government receives from this percentage is not enough to run the nation. Forget about building infrastructure, this much money is not enough to meet even the government expenditure. The government is left with no choice than to increase the indirect taxes and the corporate taxes which have a toll on the spending behavior of the public and the investment planning of various corporate houses. In addition the government has to borrow a significant sum.

What we fail to realize that we are paying taxes for our own good. The tax that we pays greater return in an indirectly through the road infrastructure, the sewerage, the police security, law and order, the railways, and what not. Who should pay the bills if not us? There are still more than 60% of population who are living at a daily wage of Rs. 100 or less. Who would take care of them? Who would fight if our borders are attacked? Freedom is not free. It comes at a price and the earlier we realize this is best for us.

There is still a large chunk of population who don't file their return either because they don't know how to file or they don't have taxable income. No matter what it is important that we still submit our returns. Especially the businessmen who fail to file return. Think about how much damage you are doing to the nation by not contributing your bit. The salaried people are paying taxes through TDS but failing to file return would be foolish as there are numerous personal benefits of filing return other than the indirect benefits mentioned earlier. (you can find it here)

“I’m taking the #TaxPledge to file IT returns with the easy Income Tax efiling option from H&R Block at BlogAdda.”

Filing your tax: Personal benefits

How do you feel when your employer deducts TDS from your gross salary and your net salary plunges to a figure you feel ashamed of? Just to explain through an example, if your annual salary is 6 lpa, the simple calculation is that you should get 50 thousand every month into your bank account, (at least this is what the elders think). Sadly you see around 10 thousand less every month in your bank account because of PF and TDS.

Suddenly at the end of the year you find that you have received less net salary than your peers who are receiving the same gross amount. Apparently you had not done your tax planning properly. The other reason can be that you forgot to declare some of your expenses and investments and missed the tax exemption from the government. You ended up paying more tax. But there is still a way to get the excess tax back from the government. You file your return and include all the valid exemptions under different sections of Income Tax rules. 

If I stay politically correct, I would say that you should pay as much tax to the government as you can afford. But I also realize that when you are spending your money on various items such as conveyance, food, rent etc. you are already paying other indirect taxes and hence there is no reason why you should be taxed twice.

Numerous other reasons that should prompt you to file your return, other than getting back the excess tax you paid to the government like Your child want to apply for a scholarship, You want to apply for a home loan or a car loan or a personal loan, You want to track all your previous investments and their return including interests and dividends, You want to track how much you spent and how much you saved etc. There are so many personal benefits other than the fact that you are paying tax for the good of the nation (details of which in my post here)

"I’m taking the #TaxPledge to file IT returns with the easy Income Tax efiling option from H&R Block at BlogAdda.”

Growing at the right age

Remember those cute little friends you had when you were in school (of course you were cute and little yourself too). But ever noticed some of those little friends of yours grew up to be larger than you had imagined and then you kept wondering, 'In what world!' 

There's always a school mate who turned up to be taller than u had expected him/her to be. Was it random or something was at play? 

I remember a friend who was quite short as compared to his age. But by the age he was 16 he turned up to be one among the tallest. Apparently he had joined a Karate class which helped him grow taller when his growth hormones were most active. Yes! There is a age period when you are supposed to grow, when you are supposed to take care of your diet and your exercise routine. There will be a limitation to the extent you can grow because of genes etc but at least you can attain your maximum.

And not just physically, a child needs to grow intellectually as well. I recollect an example from my college. There was a guy who was literally a genius- to me and to others from the batch. We tried to understand the secret and it turned out that he had learned everything at a very young age. Apparently he was perfect at many programming languages by the time he completed class 8. By that time he already was a master at calculus and other topics, we hadn't even heard about it. He was qualified enough to clear IITJEE by the time he passed class 10. Another example would be - The Japanese. They are very good at mathematics and in my opinion the reason is because they exercise their neurons at a very young age. There's no denying the fact that a child can pick up new technology way faster than an adult. This is true because the brain cells are most active then. 

In short, no debate on the fact that growth - both physical and psychological- is extremely critical to be taken care of during the right age stage. Once you don't capitalize during that stage, it's impossible to reach the zenith one would wish for. One can become a genius if trained at the right age. One can build a strong core and stay fit.

It's important to keep a track if the child is growing at the right pace or not. If he/she is not growing at the rate you had expected you better make them work towards it. The regret of not doing it when you had the opportunity is very painful. Less than expected physical growth has a direct impact on the confidence of a person which will have a lifelong impact and may be much harder to regain the same confidence.

So what all can be done if you find out that the growth pace need to be checked. A list can always be made but the following two would be most critical:

• Building a discipline- such as exercise routines and play time- depending on the age stage (<10, <10-15)
• Diet which doesn't add junk to the body. More of growth nutrients, protein etc.

For child below age 10, it may be difficult to bring the required discipline. A fun way would be to include solutions like Horlicks Growth+. For details check out: https://growthplus.horlicks.in/.