The status of health and education in Odisha has not improved much and continues to remain poor. The available opportunities still serve a very limited people and keep the majority at bay. The current trend in the State can be marked by its low budgetary allocation, not filling up the huge vacancies in education and health sector, and non-implementation of laws such as Right to Education Act.
Along with this an open process of privatisation has been initiated by the State, while hundreds of Government run schools are getting closed.
The ongoing process of the Government withdrawing from its basic responsibilities and involving market forces in health and education sector has hit the poor section of society. The rural poor, low wage earners, Dalits, Adivasies, PVTGs, agricultural workers, sharecroppers, migrant workers and people in interior parts remain neglected and fail to access quality education and health service.
Now the present quality of primary education, syllabus, and medium of instruction in Government run vernacular schools is a matter of concern. There has been no new appointment of teachers though the vacancies stand at above 30,000. The salary of teachers is one of the lowest in the country with poor service condition. The teachers are burdened with midday meal management and other administrative works. There have been continued presence of untrained, contractual teachers and also the presence of single teacher schools.Various survey reports show a very discouraging picture of state of education and healthcare in Odisha without any sign of Government making efforts for improvement. The children of a large majority of rural poor and marginalized sections depending on these schools are not aware about ongoing condition of schools. The State Government has no data about the number of child labour and school dropouts to know exactly how many are out of school ambit. On the one side, hundreds of Government run vernacular schools for poor are getting closed due to nshortage of students and on the other, there is a mushroom growth of private run English medium schools to meet the growing demand by parents. The condition of Government schools in interior parts and schools predominantly run for students of SCs and STs are struggling with many issues. Odisha must look at other States such as Delhi in the country taking initiatives in brining significantly change in their school environment by construction of good building and other required basic infrastructure, investing on teachers training and paying good salary and other benefits, along with making school affairs transparent. Many States such as Karnataka, Telangana and WB in recent times have changed their curriculum at par with national syllabus and shifted to English as medium of instruction that best suit to the demand of current globalized environment. It is fact that people glorifying mother tongue as medium of instruction are not encouraging their own children to go to vernacular Government schools. This hierarchy must be stopped to build an inclusive Odisha. Education must be free and universal without any discrimination whatsoever. But schools in Odisha are hierarchical and location specific which ranked as per the capacity of payment of the parents. Universalisation of primary education is a Government programme implemented in vernacular schools but not in English medium schools. This perpetuates inequality and deprivation in terms of access to quality education for all. The health sector in the State reels under various handicaps, including inadequate doctor and health staff. There is a vacancy of over 16,000 posts in the Health Department. The vacancies are not being filled up for a long time affecting the health service delivery system. A number of PHCs in interior parts run without doctors. Most of the Government doctors are busy with private practices. The common people have no access to generic medicines while price control mechanism of essential medicines and life saving drugs is very weak. The health related infrastructure is not adequate in interior parts to meet the needs. The health services provided by private hospitals are not being monitored by the Government as with increasing privatization of health sector, the monopoly of private hospitals are not under control and lack transparency in their functioning. Lack of healthcare facilities and awareness on health issues among the people make them vulnerable to meet the health related challenges. The Middle Age health practices are practiced in different parts of the State. The issues of witch hunting, blind belief relating to health of women and children and the most brutal and ancient forms of treatment are not addressed properly. Along with physical health, the social and mental health of the people also needs equal amount of attention.
It is the poor and marginalized section which is prone to diseases because of their poor living conditions. Most of the State health support goes to the organised sector employees whereas the 98 per cent of the unorganized sector workers are deprived of getting healthcare support from the State. There is no universal health insurance scheme for the daily labourers and their family. In order to create a very strong foundation of economic development, the Government must invest more on universal health and education. It will improve the quality of life of the masses and dispel inequality. But unfortunately, a very insignificant percentage of SGDP is spent on health and education and in spite of developing its source for such vital sector, the State has become more dependent on Central Government grants.