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Saturday, December 21, 2019

English Language Augments Lifetime Income in India



Strange as it Seems - Knowledge and fluency of
English augments lifetime income and reduces inequity in India

Abusaleh Shariff and Asrar Alam


In India, the knowledge and fluency of English language generates better incomes over the lifetime. Empirical research of a recent all India household survey suggests that knowledge and fluency of English language is a most ‘secular income augmenting and inequality reducing’ factor in the nation. It benefits all types of Socio-Religious communities (SRCs) of India. Note that the fluency in English provides an opportunity to earn within a narrow band of income for all communities. Surprising enough, English language has a huge role to play to augment and effect income equity in India.

Demographic Dividends can be reaped mostly through access to better quality higher-level education and proper implementation of a well-conceived pan-Indian education policy framework. Since, education sector development is the responsibility of state governments, there is a wide diversity in medium of instruction policy; such as choice of early education in mother tongue, regional languages and Hindi as the national language. This situation is the result of India’s diversity, multiple languages and dialects, and the very foundation for the formulation of the States was based on languages. There is no country on this planet which has such a large diversity of languages and associated literature and culture leading to unique social value systems. Yet English, considered a foreign language is the most sought-after medium of instruction without which youth cannot make it to the higher levels of learning and associated higher levels of earnings.

It may not entirely be the legacy of the British Raj that in contemporary India imparting literacy and education in English has become a mechanism to overcome serious socially differentiated (motivated) economic differentials; and that contemporary globalizing economic system is anchored in this language. Today’s internet revolution, supported by technological innovation, is largely anchored upon the English language.

To capture the prevalence and impact of the English language, the authors estimate income earning differentials associated with the ‘knowledge’ and ‘fluency’ according to SRCs. A rare data from a national level sample survey of the NCAER is the source of estimates in this article.

‘English language ability’ is measured in two categories - ‘little’ and ‘fluent’.  Over all, only 4.8 per cent of individuals in India are fluent and another 20 per cent know English a little. The High caste Hindus (HcHs)’ are twice the level of average fluency and they constitute 43 per cent of all those who are fluent in English while their share in population is around 20 percent. Communities with low levels of fluency are the SCs/STs and the Muslims.



English and augmented Income: As indicated earlier, highest annual income per capita is earned by fluent English with Rs. 62,306 (2011-12 prices) compared to little knowledge with Rs. 31763 and with no English knowledge with a meager 19214.  Thus, earning amounts to a 40 per cent jump in income with little English and another 50 per cent when the fluency is achieved. Compared to no knowledge of English the fluency increases incomes by 69 percent. The virtuous side of this income growth is the fact the knowledge and fluency of English affects uniformly at similar scale within each of the SRCs considered in the analysis.

It has become clear that the knowledge and fluency of English is one the most dominant discriminatory factor in India in terms of the ability to earn higher incomes. Yet such discriminatory incomes get compounded when distinctions are made about its impact according to SRCs. At any level of English education, ‘all others-(HcHs)’ category earns considerably more than any other category. For example, the OBCs earn 36 percent less compared to this group even when English is not a factor. When the fluency of English is introduced an additional 25 per cent income increase for the ‘all others-HcHs); that is a total of 74 per cent increase in income.

These relationships for the SCs/STs are of similar levels and scale which suggest that it is only the ‘all others-HCH’ who gain substantially from the relative advantage of English language. First, they are the one who have better access to English education and on top of that they also have better access to English-favored labour market in India.

Interestingly for the SC/STs and Muslims, the income growth from ‘none’ to ‘little’ and ‘little’ to ‘fluent’ is a secular increase suggesting the fact that providing English education among these communities will bring considerable income growth which will even help them to come out of poverty.  The dominant finding of this research is that English language has emerged as the most secular factor that benefits all youth irrespective of SRCs. Surprising enough, English language has a huge role to play to both augment and effect income equity in India.

Quality English Educational Infrastructure: Let us consider these findings in the backdrop of a statement made by the current Vice President of India Mr. Venkaiah Naidu on the Hindi Divas-2018 - “the English language is a ‘disease’ left behind by the British”, stressing that Hindi was the symbol of ‘socio-political and linguistic unity’ in India. It is unfortunate that national as well political leadership of the nation shows hatred and callousness against English language, whereas English is also a constitutionally recognized language of governance and business. Further, while English has always been a well-respected and most sought-after medium of instruction in South India; the trend is catching up in the north Indian states in the recent years. The absence of government support in promotion of English at elementary and high schools has resulted in proliferation of unscrupulous English language educational institution all over India.

A fresh understanding of the role of English language in India is urgently needed and only through this process will the Indian youth be able to reap the demographic dividends on which the economic growth of the nation is so dependent on. In this context it is useful to mention creation of quality school infrastructure with an emphasis on English in the states of Telangana and Karnataka. Telangana has built 204 residential schools during 2016-17 for imparting quality education to the Minorites. Similarly, there are 64 Morarji Desai Residential Schools, 4 Minority Model Residential School, 9 Pre-University residential colleges and 5 Muslim residential Schools are in operation in the state of Karnataka. Other states especially Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat can emulate creating similar modern educational institutions which will generate higher income and bring equity amongst the youth of India.
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Shariff is with the US-India Policy Institute, Washington D. C and Alam works at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.

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