From shanties to school: a silent movement

Invisible to many, the 1991 Economic Reforms unleashed a silent revolution in the festering city slums. Migrant workers saw the possibility of a large number of white-collar jobs being available to their children once liberalization opened up many sectors of the economy. With some education, they knew, their children would be able to land low-level jobs in sectors like telecom, civil aviation, retail and automobiles.
Buoyed by such prospects, they sent their children to school, often private schools, paying hefty tuition fees. Without any government intervention a quiet social movement took off with far-reaching consequences.
As a result, the country’s literacy scene got a new boost, the blows of child labor were softened and within a generation the migrant community moved up socially and economically with their children becoming part of the organized sector. This untold story has been traced, meticulously researched and chronicled in From Shanties to School with a wealth of data and case studies.
This is till date the only scholarly work combining the fields of economics and education to establish the deep linkages between India’s economic liberalization and the new wave of literacy in the soft underbelly of a metropolis. Researchers, policymakers, legislators, NGOs and activists will benefit from this book.

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