English Language Fluency Augments Income and Reduces Inequity in India
Strange as it seems – knowledge and fluency of English were found to augment lifetime income and reduce inequity in India. Dr. Abusaleh Shariff and Asrar Alam analyzed data from a national sample survey to estimate income differentials according to socio-religious communities (SRCs).
In India, the knowledge and fluency of the English language generate better incomes over the lifetime. Empirical research of a recent all-India household survey suggests that knowledge and fluency of the English language is the most ‘secular income augmenting and inequality reducing’ factor in the nation. It benefits all types of SRCs in India. Note that fluency in English provides an opportunity to earn within a narrow band of income for all communities. Surprisingly enough, the 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 the medium of instruction policy; such as choice of early education in the 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 that 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 the 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’. Overall, only 4.8 percent of individuals in India are fluent and another 20 percent know English a little. The High caste Hindus (HcHs)’ are twice the level of average fluency and they constitute 43 percent of all those who are fluent in English while their share in the 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, the highest income per capita is earned by fluent English with Rs. 62,306 (2011-12 prices) compared to little knowledge with Rs. 31,763 and with no English knowledge with a meager Rs. 19,214. Thus, earning amounts to a 40 percent jump in income with little English and another 50 percent when fluency is achieved. Compared no knowledge of English fluency increases incomes by 69 percent. The virtuous side of this income growth is the fact the knowledge and fluency of English affect uniformly at a 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 their impact according to SRCs. At any level of English education, the ‘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 fluency in English has introduced an additional 25 percent income increase for the ‘all others-HcHs); that is a total of 74 percent increase in income.
These relationships for the SCs/STs are of similar levels and scale which suggests that it is only the ‘all others-HCH’ who gain substantially from the relative advantage of the English language. First, they are the ones who have better access to English education and on top of that, they also have better access to the English-favored labor 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 the English language has emerged as the most secular factor that benefits all youth irrespective of SRCs. Surprisingly enough, the English language has a huge role to play in both augmenting and affecting 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 the national, as well as the political leadership of the nation, shows so much hatred and callousness against the 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 recent years. The absence of government support in the promotion of English at elementary and high schools has resulted in a proliferation of unscrupulous English language educational institutions all over India.
A fresh understanding of the role of the 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. In this context, it is useful to mention the 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 Schools, 9 Pre-University residential colleges, and 5 Muslim residential Schools in operation in the state of Karnataka. Other states especially Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Bengal, Maharashtra, and Gujarat can emulate creating similar modern educational institutions which will generate higher income and bring equity amongst the youth of India.
Download the report here.