Pushing Education in India

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By that time, political and business leadership in India should have enough courage to undo the caste- and religion-based quota system.

Real Action

One reader wondered when the Indian farmer would benefit from education. The answer is that the India farmer already benefited from what is called the Green Revolution and has continued to benefit. The farmer will benefit even more as access to educational facilities in agriculture, food processing, business, manufacturing, and marketing are increased to all rural and farming areas of India in a nondiscriminatory, nondivisive, and nonredistributive way.

Another reader lamented, "Do something or shut up." It is too bad the reader missed the link to a women's college Web site (www.helenakaushik.org) at the bottom of my article. I invite him and all others to visit the women's college I established in a small village in 1999; the college has already graduated 239 students with BA, MA, and MS degrees from the University of Rajasthan.

We have invested more than $2 million in creating opportunity for women of all castes, economic and social status, and religions in the area—without any quota system—where none existed before. I wish more Indians abroad would get involved and get their friends in India involved in their ancestral places or any place they wish to be helpful.

Other Voices

Regarding the importance of education for Americans, especially black Americans, let me close by quoting New York Times columnist Bob Herbert: "There is no way, in my opinion, for blacks to focus too much or too obsessively on education. It's the fuel that powers not just the race for success but the quest for a happy life. It represents the flip side of failure….For anyone deluded enough to question whether education is the ticket to a better life for black boys and men, consider that a black male who drops out of high school is 60 times more likely to find himself in prison than one with a bachelor's degree" (The New York Times, Mar. 5, 2007).

Likewise, Nicholas Kristof, in his Mar. 6, 2007, New York Times column, relates a recent conversation he had with Senator and Presidential candidate Barack Obama (D-Ill.): "So how would an Obama administration differ from the Bill Clinton presidency in foreign policy? One way, [Obama] said, would be a much greater emphasis on promoting education, health care and development in Africa and other poor regions—not just for humanitarian reasons, but also with an eye to national security."

Kaushik is Professor of Finance at the Lubin School of Business of Pace University in New York and founder of Mrs. Helena Kaushik Women's College (www.helenakaushik.org) in his native village in India.