Higher Education in India: Access, Equity and Inclusiveness

Abstract

The most common meaning of the term "inclusive” is "not excluding any section of the society”. Inclusive growth is defined as new economic strategy which takes into account the betterment of every section of the society. The approach paper of the Eleventh Five Year Plan stressed the need for inclusive growth in India. It was argued that growth must be inclusive so that mass of the people have access to basic facilities such as health, education, clean drinking water etc. Inclusion in education is the most important instrument to enhance human capabilities and to achieve the desired objectives of socio-economic development.

In spite of concerted efforts were made by the government in the 11^th FYP with respect to access and equity in higher education, their educational status is still far from satisfactory. With a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 19.2 per cent, India is still below the world average. Further, disparity also exists in terms of inter-regional, inter-social group, gender and urban and rural areas and points out that educational disparity are major threats to the process of "inclusive education”. Removal of these disparities, however, is pre-requisite for making the "inclusive education” to succeed. It is argued that a strong equity enhancing and inequality reducing thrust to the education plan is an imperative, particularly in view of the emphasis on "Inclusive Growth”. Provision of access to education at all levels i.e., from primary education to higher education is essential to achieve the goals of inclusive growth. Thus, the present study analysed the issues of access and equity in higher education in India.