Dehradun, May 12 -- Book Review

From Shanties to School - A Silent Movement

When the British left India in 1947, we were an impoverished nation. Our poverty ratio was an abysmal eighty percent, and not more than twelve percent of our people, predominantly upper caste males living in urban centres, had some modicum of literacy. From then to now, there has been a sea change. While governments, denominational institutions, civil society organisations and corporates have made significant contributions to the spread of literacy, the core argument of Manimala Roy's excellent study From Shanties to Schools: A Silent Movement is that the main driver of this change has been the economic liberalisation of 1991.

The Metropolis of Delhi

Taking th...