Proceedings of the 19th International Academic Conference, Florence

EDUCATION TO BRIDGE SOCIO-ECONOMIC GAP: IN THE CONTEXT OF NAXALISM IN INDIA

AISHWARYA DIWAN, RAJNANDINI SHUKLA, AISHWARYA DIWAN

Abstract:

Education and learning is one of the most important aspects in any society. Being indispensable and cohering, society and education cannot be ever separated into two distinct entities. India, having one of the fastest growing economies in the world, and being the most populous democratic country has a great potential to become a future superpower. However, in this increasingly globalised environment, India faces several threats to her security, and the question is whether the greatest security threat is external (i.e. terrorism) or internal – naxalism - the Maoist communist groups in India. Naxalism which originated as a rebellion against marginalized poor forest dwellers and gradually against the lack of development and poverty in the rural parts of eastern Indian, today have declared themselves a terrorist organization engaged in unlawful activities with a goal to destroy government functionaries. These groups use local illiterate villagers- who are eager to escape the system of oppression- to strengthen their hold and exploit the gap between government and local villagers. This gap apart from highlighting various underlying weaknesses of India’s governance, political institutions and socio-economic structure, also makes India vulnerable to external threats and the solution which the present paper focuses on is – providing education. The present paper talks about importance of developing education as an instrument for the eradication of Naxalism and to position it as a major engine of economic growth, poverty elimination, job creation and eliminating extremists. The Government looks into the issue as the issue of law and order however, the root cause is neglected by them –socio-economic disparity and illiteracy. The paper, as a solution in this regards also put the steps which the law making body should follow to curb this problem.

Keywords: Education; Social Disparity; Economic disparity, India, Maoist communist group

DOI: 10.20472/IAC.2015.019.036

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