Beech ka Raasta

Practices in the Primary Education Bureaucracy

Ashwin (ashwin.vs13@apu.edu.in) is a graduate of the Azim Premji University and works with the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai.

This field study from Sirohi district, Rajasthan, reveals that, faced with staff shortages, resource constraints and mountains of paperwork, officials and teachers of the primary education department employ a variety of innovations that they term beech ka raasta to deal with challenges and meet targets. This article examines the strategies employed by the lower-level bureaucracy to get the job done in the jugaad framework, suggesting that these tactics are not employed to subvert policy but rather to implement it in the spirit of seva.

You can read the full article on EPW.