Higher Education and the Boy with Two Identical Shirts

 

In my hostel in IITKGP, called the Hall of Residence, a batchmate, let’s call him Chiranjeev Kumar, once came back from vacation with two identical shirts. Turquoise blue, with some animal and bird prints, his shirts became a matter of amusement for us. Some of us teased him on getting two exactly identical shirts. Whoever does that, Man? But, Chiranjeev, a diminutive, shy boy from Bihar would simply smile away at our occasional ribbings. We never got the answer why one would buy two identical shirts.

 

During the next vacation I told my mother about this weird character, Chiranjeev Kumar, who had two identical shirts and asked her why he would do that.  My mother was a wise and learned lady, and a mother, above all. She heard me and turned somber. With a tinge of sadness she told me, “You don’t understand how poor you friend’s family could be.” Then she explained to me that he probably had another brother. They may have gone  to attend a wedding in some relative’s place and the two brothers were gifted shirt-pieces in the event. My friend was the older one and was living in a hostel. So the parents decided to get both the shirts stitched for him. And, she told me, “Don’t ever tease him again.” I didn’t.

 

In our days the tuition fee in the IIT was a mere twelve rupees and fifty paise per mensum. We didn’t pay for the two months of vacations. So, the annual fees was one hundred twenty five rupees. Hostel fees was another hundred rupees per annum. For just over two hundred rupees per annum we got the best possible education in the world. So did Chiranjeev Kumar.

 

Today the annual tution fees in an IIT is over two lakh rupees that, along with random charges, adds up to ten lakh rupees over the four-year programme. And this doesn’t include personal expenses like meal plan, travels, books and stationery etc. These could easily add up to another five lakh rupees. This is a result of relentless and unstoppable demand that higher education should pay for itself. After all don’t the students go on to make their crores after they graduate? Then there is a connected argument that the government should rather spend on primary schools as if the latter flows from the former. Well, here we are, taken high-class higher education out of the dreams of the poor and not provided enough even for the primary education. 

 

That Chiranjeev Kumars of the country could dream of an IIT education in our times in spite of being from very poor families was a great victory for a free and egalitarian India. That all other institutions of higher learning followed suit - IIMs, NITs, NIDs, Law Institutes - and, in the span of half a generation, turned into elitist doorways to good education. It is claimed that concessions, scholarships and aids are available to the needy but what if the poorest of the poor is deprived of his or her dreams to begin with. The poor father would be stopped in his tracks envisaging a potential expense of twenty thousand rupees a month on just one child. So, his brilliant ward will have to be content with a subsidised primary, or high-school, education. Then he will be advised to consider vocational training to become a plumber or an electrician. After all doesn’t a growing economy need them in hordes?

 

Well, it is these brilliant students, educated at two hundred rupees a month, in the finest Institutions, who have brought fame and laurels to the country more than any road-show and cultural exchange on foreign soils. Remember Y2K? Indian techies were suddenly noticed across the world. They had descended from a country not widely known for IT skills until then and saved the networked world - the back-office systems of banks, airlines, tourism, corporates, and everything else under the sun. The world sat up and paid attention. There were many Chiranjeev Kumars, who made that possible.

 

A thousand dreams die simply because bright children from poor families look at the expenses and baulk at even attempting an admission to once egalitarian, now elite portals, of educational excellence. Chiranjeev Kumar, a student of BTech Mining, took another attempt at JEE, and got into BTech Mechanical - same IIT, same Hall, and the same hostel-room. He didn’t lose a year either because that was the year transition from 5-year to 4-year programme had taken place. Chiranjeev Kumar went to the USA for an MS, switched tracks, and turned into an Orthopaedic Surgeon! I found him on Facebook and asked him if he was the same Chitanjeev Kumar and how did he ever become an Orthopaedic Surgeon. He told me that he always wanted to be a surgeon and went to IIT because his father wanted him to go there. What was left unsaid was that an IIT education was so affordable, probably even more than a regular college, which may have led the family to take that path.

 

Let’s not forget what affordable higher education has given this country. It has also given us a place on the high tables in the world. The catchment population for subsidised education is much larger and statistically speaking these Institutions will get the brightest of the bright. Will we ever go back to those days, or we will condescend to the poor by offering him doles and grants and overcome our collective guilts?

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