Asian Development Research Institute

Asian Development Research Institute

Since 1991
Abbreviation ADRI
Headquarters BSIDC Colony,
Off Boring-Patliputra
Road,Patna-800013,
Bihar
Location
Member Secretary
 Shaibal Gupta[1]
Website www.adriindia.org

The Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) was established in 1991 as a registered body by a group of social scientists in Patna, Bihar. It focuses on social sciences including economics, politics, development issues, and culture.[2]

Research

The organization conducts and supports both empirical and theoretical studies in different areas of social sciences. This research has included examinations of the imperatives of a knowledge society, the forces of liberalisation and globalisation, issues of good governance and civil society, poverty, state finances in Bihar and other states, and evaluation studies of various social and economic programmes sponsored by national and international development agencies. The Institute holds seminars and workshops and publishes research reports and papers.

Apart from conducting its own research, the Institute also runs a database for development researchers and agencies across the country. The Institute also provides research support to the State Resource Centre (SRC) on adult education and other agencies.

After the state of Bihar was bifurcated into Bihar and Jharkhand, the Institute established another centre at Ranchi to take adequate care of the research needs of the newly created state.

Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance

From the founding of the Institute, it has provided professional support on issues of development strategy or public finance. During 2006-07 and 2007–08, the state government outsourced to the Institute the responsibility of preparing the Annual Economic Survey (AES) for Bihar. In 2008, ADRI established a dedicated centre for the regular preparation of the AES and conduct other research studies related to the economic policy and public finance of the state as well.This centre, called the Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance (CEPPF) provides research support to the state government for evolving a framework of improved management of public finance. Such research includes studies on resource mobilisation, quality of state government spending, management of deficits and debt, framework of centre-state financial relations, and policies for economic and social development. Besides undertaking such studies, the CEPPF also maintains a Data Bank on the state’s economy. The Centre also organises seminars and workshops on various issues.[3]

International Growth Centre

The International Growth Centre (IGC)[4][5] is based at the London School of Economics (LSE) and functions in partnership with the Oxford University. It is initiated and funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK Government. The IGC has 16 country offices in partner countries and one of them is located at ADRI. The IGC India-Bihar Programme started in December, 2009 when the Government of Bihar invited IGC to come to the state and help sustain the growth of the Bihar economy. The IGC accepted the invitation and agreed to provide demand-led policy advice based on frontier research. For Bihar, the IGC has identified two key research areas through an ongoing consultation process with policy stakeholders and researchers — economic transformation and resource mobilisation. The IGC Programmein Bihar currently focuses on five key sectors — agriculture, education, state finance, health, and water resources. Having identified these focus areas, a variety of products — rapid response notes, research and analytic work, training and dissemination workshops, and events — were commissioned to fulfill the need for independent, policy-oriented academic research on Bihar.

Jan Shikshan Sansthan

Keeping in view the growing number of new literates to be covered under the Saakshar Bharat Programme, of which skill development is an integral part, the National Literacy Mission (NLM) supports a number of Jan Shikshan Sansthans (JSS)[6] or Institutes of People’sEducation (IPE) across the country. The Institutes organise vocational and skill development programmes for neo-literates in both rural and urban areas. Through a polyvalent approach, each JSS ensures a continuous access to the need-based vocational training. Since the needs vary, each JSS has the autonomy to design their courses that have flexible content, duration and instructional arrangements. ADRI was entrusted with the responsibility of hosting a JSS in 2000. Every year,about 2,500 persons attend various vocational courses of the JSS, ADRI. At present, besides the main centre on the ADRI premises, JSS runs 12 rural centres in Patna district, some of them in collaboration with local NGOs.

State Resource Centre for Adult Education

The National Literacy Mission (NLM) started an innovative programme for adult educationin 1988. The programme had to be organised in a mission mode, where the active participation of the people and non-government organisations (NGO) was very essential. In this context, the NLM established a number of State Resource Centres (SRC), each of them hosted by a reputed NGO. In 1995, the NLM entrusted ADRI with the responsibility of hosting one such SRC in Patna[7] to support the literacy campaign in selected districts of Bihar, the campaign being supported in the remaining districts of the state by another SRC. In 2000, Bihar was bifurcated and the NLM then entrusted ADRI with the responsibility of organising another SRC at Ranchi[8] to support the campaign in the newly formed state of Jharkhand. Till 2007, the NLM used to be implemented in three phases —Total Literacy Campaign (TLC), Post-Literacy Programme (PLP) and Continuing Education (CE). When nearly all the districts of the country completed the first two phases of the programme and entered the Continuing Education phase, the NLM restructured the programme and named it as Saakshar Bharat programme. The responsibilities of the two SRC's under ADRI include — development of teaching-learning and training materials for literacy programmes; production and dissemination (including translation) of literature for adult education; training literacy functionaries; undertaking motivational and environment-building activities for adult education; multimedia works; running of field programmes; action research, evaluation and monitoring of literacy projects; and undertaking innovative projects to identify the future need of literacy programmes. One of the innovative initiatives of SRC has been to organise the Akshar Bihar and Akshar Jharkhand functions annually to honour dedicated literacy functionaries. The SRC at Patna also organises, along with the Akshar Bihar function, anannual lecture in memory of Myles Horton and Paulo Freire, doyens of adult education.

Key Events

ADRI Foundation Lecture

The founder-members of ADRI were aware of the fact that its agenda of social science research cannot be convincingly pursued if it was restricted to a rather small academic community. For the agenda to be socially and culturally rooted, it required the participation of a wider section of society, with whom the academia should interact constantly. The dream of a knowledge society could be achieved only through such interactions. It was this understanding of the social science research that had led the ADRI to institute the ADRI Foundation Lecture series in 1993. Till date, these lectures have been delivered by some of the most distinguished scholars in their own fields. They have covered issues that span nearly every dimension of social challenges, both national and international, and have been a rare source of the frontier areas of social thought for the intelligentsia of Patna. Needless to say, as the city happens to be located in a peripheral region of the country, the participation of its intelligentsia in ADRI Foundation Lectures has been enormous. During this important annual event, ADRI also utilises the opportunity to inform the audience of the organisation’s progress and challenges.

Myles Horton & Paulo Freire Memorial Lecture

The genesis of the idea of instituting a lecture series in memory of Myles Horton and Paulo Freire can precisely be attributed to their book 'We Make the Road by Walking', a Hindi translation of which was published by the Asian Development Research Institute. Horton and Freire’s book essentially argues that the strategy of ‘enabling from below’ is possibly the only one that could change the status of a marginalised community. The speaking book is a gripping sociological narration: it not only records the state of the deprived, but also outlines a strategy that the deprived must adopt to alter their status quo. The narration is fully contextualised, in the context of both the USA - a very rich country, and Brazil - a moderately rich one. In terms of country and social background, Horton and Freire were so different, yet their ideas converged on the question of enabling the deprived,rather than writing a script on behalf of the provider.

After reading the book, it is not difficult for those involved in the campaign of adult literacy in Bihar to recognise the striking similarity between Bihar and the Appalachian region of USA where Horton had worked, and Brazil, the concern of Freire. ADRI has first published the Hindi translation of their book to ensure a wider readership and then started the Lecture Series in their memory in 1999 to engage in a continuous dialogue on literacy and development. Since then, it has been an awesome and rewarding experience.

Akshar Bihar and Akshar Jharkhand

When ADRI was entrusted with the task of setting up the State Resource Centre (SRC) for adult education in Bihar by the National Literacy Mission (NLM), it was felt that the working of the SRC should combine both traditional and innovative programmes. It was also felt that if Bihar was to transcend into a ‘knowledge society’ in the 21st century, the banishment of illiteracy should be the key strategy. This required a proactive role not only on the part of the government, but also of the people in general and civil society organisations in particular. While the NLM was playing the role of a proactive government agency, ADRI tried to enthuse the other two segments – the people and the civil society.

The traditional agenda of all the SRCs has three dimensions – material preparation, training, and monitoring. However, right from the beginning, the SRC, ADRI has understood the need of making innovative interventions. For example, it was realised that the prime reason behind a poor literacy rate in Bihar was the indifference of its small intelligentsia to the adult literacy campaign. One of the activities of SRC, ADRI was, therefore, to sensitise the local intelligentsia on literacy concerns. With this goal, SRC, ADRI established Akshar Bihar, the forum which has been organising several meetings in different districts of Bihar and a regular annual gathering in the state capital for about two decades now. After the bifurcation of the state, the forum opened its second office in Ranchi for Akshar Jharkhand. These forums are being run in association with a leading Hindi Daily (earlier Hindustan, now Prabhat Khabar) which ensures a wider dissemination of informationon forums’ activities. All these efforts have indeed elevated the status of the campaign in the minds of the local intelligentsia. The initial idea to involve the media with the literacy campaign emanated from the absence of any academic foundation in society, particularly in the context of Bihar, which could transcend from information to knowledge growth. Though the movement for social liberation in Bihar was egalitarian and democratic, it was devoid of 'knowledge' foundation. It was, thus, felt that if Bihar was to be brought back on the rails of a 'knowledge' civilisation, particularly in the background of competitive electoral populism and in the absence of authentic social movement, it was only the media which could lead Bihar to a ‘knowledge society'.

Akshar Bihar was started with these very aims to recognize the efforts of thousands of volunteers committed to the cause of literacy. Awards under four categories – Akshar Shri, Akshar Ratna, AksharBhushan, and Akshar Vibhushan – are presented to the volunteers.

References

  1. ↑ "Shaibal Gupta, noted economist and member-secretary, Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI), reacting to the Union budget said that the 18% increase in allocation for agriculture was inadequate considering the fact that inflation has been around 10% and resource gap in agriculture is huge. - The Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 2012-03-16. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
  2. ↑ "The Telegraph - Calcutta (Kolkata) | Jharkhand | NGOs focus on ailing state". Telegraphindia.com. 2008-11-18. Retrieved 2014-04-10.
  3. ↑ Centre for Economic Policy and Public Finance
  4. ↑ The IGC India-Bihar
  5. ↑ India-Bihar | IGC
  6. ↑ JSS Patna
  7. ↑ SRC Patna
  8. ↑ SRC Ranchi