India has been considered as one of the emerging economies in the world. The recent changes in reforms and the introduction of new schemes for the development of the rural areas have proved to be a boon for a large number of families in some parts of the country. More and more people have started joining IT companies and in Research and Development which has led to a better standard of living. A general view sees India as moving forward towards a better developed nation. However what the general public oversees is that in many of the areas, government is still not able to tackle even the basic problems of the people. In this blog, I will give a few instances of the situations to make my point.
First, the Right To Education act which states that every child in India below the age of 14 years is entitled to receive education free of cost at any recognized government school. A bold and a very noble move, it has been handled in the most dreadful manner by the officials in some places. For providing education, you need schools which have good sanitation facilities, notebooks and pencils, blackboards and above all, good qualified teachers. Some of the government schools in the national capital Delhi are notorious for the kind of teachers they have been provided with. I lived in the old part of the city in the north and I used to teach some students in a private coaching institution. Even the high school students are not provided with a Chemistry teacher for the whole academic year, which is one of the main stream subjects for students in Science. The story is not limited to people in my area but it is common in many government schools in Delhi. I used to go to such schools for giving some national level exams and I was disappointed the way classrooms were kept. Damp walls with abusive language written all over the place, some fans not working and it seemed like they cleaned up the rooms for the sake of having the exams. I even fell off the desk in the middle of the exam because a screw was loose. I have been to some schools in remote villages as well and the situation there seems to be more desperate. They don't have any table or chair, so children have to sit on the floor and there is no electricity most of the time. In a place like that village (which was near the east coast of India in the southern part of the state of Andhra Pradesh), it becomes very hard to survive in 40 degrees heat without a fan and no lakes nearby. When the government cannot provide any basic necessities to the schools, then why do they pass such an act for which they are not prepared at all?
Second, India is known for its diversity. It has such a rich culture and it could be considered as a continent in itself. When you move from one state to the other, you feel like you have entered a different country as the language and the geographical features become different from state to state. We also have the very debated Caste system which is a form of social stratification where people are divided on the basis of their occupation, lifestyle, culture, religion among many others. During the medieval period, the caste system restricted each group to a particular duty and the highest rank was given to the Brahmins, the priests. Such a system still persists in some villages in every part of the country. Even the untouchables exist (yes! they are literally considered untouchable). Even the vedas, the ancient Indian scriptures mentions the caste policy in some of the excerpts. However, the vedas never deferred anyone from being untouchable and neither restricted anyone to do any sort of job. Vedas do treat everyone alike. It is an irony that most of the Indians are proud of the vedic scriptures and proclaim that they follow its culture. Today, such a caste system has even entered in the process of admission to various Schools and Universities and even high profile government jobs. There are a fixed percent of seats reserved for schedule castes and schedule tribes and these people easily get admission to the best universities in the country leaving some of the bright students of the "general" category lose the opportunity to be among the elite groups. The problem is not with the reservation system, but to whom the reservation is given. Some of the families in these reserved categories have a better quality of life than the ones in the general ones. They can even afford to spend a vacation abroad while some of the general ones can hardly afford to be a tourist for a day in his own city. Moreover, the reservation extends to the job sector and even in places like hospitals where the selection of doctors should be made on the basis of their qualification and not the caste. In my view, the reservation should be change on the basis of the family income rather than the social status. And this reservation should be discontinued after some level when the individual has had adequate benefits from the program that he is able to compete in the society with the skills he attained. An economy can grow only when we have a skilled labor and not a work force selected on the basis of a century old social divisions.
Third, the last example and probably the most important of all is the empowerment of women in the country. It is shame that even in such a globalized era, India has a disastrous record of female foeticide. About 500,000 abortions happen annually on the basis of the sex determination. The government has come up with schemes such as "ladli" among others to ensure reduction in such crime rates. However the government is not totally loyal to the general public when it comes to women empowerment schemes. In the year 2012, a popular show by one of the best actors of the country revealed a horrifying truth about an incident in Rajasthan, a northwestern state. Two journalists caught on camera a statement of a doctor who advised them to abort a girl child and that the hospital records would be cleaned and the fetus would be thrown in place where no one will ever know about. The news went viral on the television channels soon. The sad part is none of the people in India gave a damn about it and the incident was forgotten (it is still forgotten even after the show revealed the situation). Today the two journalists are fighting against cases which were registered against them by the Rajasthan government. As for the doctor, "she" is freely practicing the crime openly without any interventions. REASON? Corruption and bribery. People in this country easily get away by paying bribes to the government officials.
The Women Reservation Bill which reserves about 33% of the total seats in the Lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women, is still pending to be passed by the Lok Sabha for the past 17 years. How long does it take for a bunch of people to pass such a bill? Does it really take 17 years to come to a definite conclusion? India has a dismal figure when it comes to number of women in the lower house of the parliament. Only 11% seats are occupied by women and it stands at 109th rank around the world. Girls are married before the age of 21 or as soon as their graduation is over. This is not a rare situation, neither does this happen only in rural areas. It is happening in every urban city and even the education Indians indulge themselves in such activities. Even I have been a witness to many such incidents and as a young boy, one cannot do much to fight against the whole society. Even the girls are left helpless when the whole society turns against them. This summer vacation itself I an encounter with three of my own friends in such situation and it depresses me to see such bright minds go waste all for the sake of marriage. The problem does not stop with the parents but even some of the young generation support this notion. This mostly happens because people think they would not get a better match for their girl in future or that she is "manglic" (which is another useless horoscope prediction) or because of the mentality of parents to think that if a young girl stays unmarried for a long time, then it is bad for their respect in the society.
If India wants to grow, it must first address these basic issues and then move on to the other developmental ideas. Even if the government is able to tackle the above problems effectively, the country will automatically see a progress in its economy and development. Rather than spending money on useless division of states (I do not understand why people celebrate the creation of Telangana? Millions of people in the state still die of hunger and you are happy about creating and line which further divides your people). If we get such a government who thinks rationally and not for the selfish needs of the party, then we can definitely say India as an emerging economy in the world!!
First, the Right To Education act which states that every child in India below the age of 14 years is entitled to receive education free of cost at any recognized government school. A bold and a very noble move, it has been handled in the most dreadful manner by the officials in some places. For providing education, you need schools which have good sanitation facilities, notebooks and pencils, blackboards and above all, good qualified teachers. Some of the government schools in the national capital Delhi are notorious for the kind of teachers they have been provided with. I lived in the old part of the city in the north and I used to teach some students in a private coaching institution. Even the high school students are not provided with a Chemistry teacher for the whole academic year, which is one of the main stream subjects for students in Science. The story is not limited to people in my area but it is common in many government schools in Delhi. I used to go to such schools for giving some national level exams and I was disappointed the way classrooms were kept. Damp walls with abusive language written all over the place, some fans not working and it seemed like they cleaned up the rooms for the sake of having the exams. I even fell off the desk in the middle of the exam because a screw was loose. I have been to some schools in remote villages as well and the situation there seems to be more desperate. They don't have any table or chair, so children have to sit on the floor and there is no electricity most of the time. In a place like that village (which was near the east coast of India in the southern part of the state of Andhra Pradesh), it becomes very hard to survive in 40 degrees heat without a fan and no lakes nearby. When the government cannot provide any basic necessities to the schools, then why do they pass such an act for which they are not prepared at all?
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| The village school in Southern Andhra Pradesh |
Second, India is known for its diversity. It has such a rich culture and it could be considered as a continent in itself. When you move from one state to the other, you feel like you have entered a different country as the language and the geographical features become different from state to state. We also have the very debated Caste system which is a form of social stratification where people are divided on the basis of their occupation, lifestyle, culture, religion among many others. During the medieval period, the caste system restricted each group to a particular duty and the highest rank was given to the Brahmins, the priests. Such a system still persists in some villages in every part of the country. Even the untouchables exist (yes! they are literally considered untouchable). Even the vedas, the ancient Indian scriptures mentions the caste policy in some of the excerpts. However, the vedas never deferred anyone from being untouchable and neither restricted anyone to do any sort of job. Vedas do treat everyone alike. It is an irony that most of the Indians are proud of the vedic scriptures and proclaim that they follow its culture. Today, such a caste system has even entered in the process of admission to various Schools and Universities and even high profile government jobs. There are a fixed percent of seats reserved for schedule castes and schedule tribes and these people easily get admission to the best universities in the country leaving some of the bright students of the "general" category lose the opportunity to be among the elite groups. The problem is not with the reservation system, but to whom the reservation is given. Some of the families in these reserved categories have a better quality of life than the ones in the general ones. They can even afford to spend a vacation abroad while some of the general ones can hardly afford to be a tourist for a day in his own city. Moreover, the reservation extends to the job sector and even in places like hospitals where the selection of doctors should be made on the basis of their qualification and not the caste. In my view, the reservation should be change on the basis of the family income rather than the social status. And this reservation should be discontinued after some level when the individual has had adequate benefits from the program that he is able to compete in the society with the skills he attained. An economy can grow only when we have a skilled labor and not a work force selected on the basis of a century old social divisions.
Third, the last example and probably the most important of all is the empowerment of women in the country. It is shame that even in such a globalized era, India has a disastrous record of female foeticide. About 500,000 abortions happen annually on the basis of the sex determination. The government has come up with schemes such as "ladli" among others to ensure reduction in such crime rates. However the government is not totally loyal to the general public when it comes to women empowerment schemes. In the year 2012, a popular show by one of the best actors of the country revealed a horrifying truth about an incident in Rajasthan, a northwestern state. Two journalists caught on camera a statement of a doctor who advised them to abort a girl child and that the hospital records would be cleaned and the fetus would be thrown in place where no one will ever know about. The news went viral on the television channels soon. The sad part is none of the people in India gave a damn about it and the incident was forgotten (it is still forgotten even after the show revealed the situation). Today the two journalists are fighting against cases which were registered against them by the Rajasthan government. As for the doctor, "she" is freely practicing the crime openly without any interventions. REASON? Corruption and bribery. People in this country easily get away by paying bribes to the government officials.
The Women Reservation Bill which reserves about 33% of the total seats in the Lower house of Parliament of India, the Lok Sabha, and in all state legislative assemblies for women, is still pending to be passed by the Lok Sabha for the past 17 years. How long does it take for a bunch of people to pass such a bill? Does it really take 17 years to come to a definite conclusion? India has a dismal figure when it comes to number of women in the lower house of the parliament. Only 11% seats are occupied by women and it stands at 109th rank around the world. Girls are married before the age of 21 or as soon as their graduation is over. This is not a rare situation, neither does this happen only in rural areas. It is happening in every urban city and even the education Indians indulge themselves in such activities. Even I have been a witness to many such incidents and as a young boy, one cannot do much to fight against the whole society. Even the girls are left helpless when the whole society turns against them. This summer vacation itself I an encounter with three of my own friends in such situation and it depresses me to see such bright minds go waste all for the sake of marriage. The problem does not stop with the parents but even some of the young generation support this notion. This mostly happens because people think they would not get a better match for their girl in future or that she is "manglic" (which is another useless horoscope prediction) or because of the mentality of parents to think that if a young girl stays unmarried for a long time, then it is bad for their respect in the society.
If India wants to grow, it must first address these basic issues and then move on to the other developmental ideas. Even if the government is able to tackle the above problems effectively, the country will automatically see a progress in its economy and development. Rather than spending money on useless division of states (I do not understand why people celebrate the creation of Telangana? Millions of people in the state still die of hunger and you are happy about creating and line which further divides your people). If we get such a government who thinks rationally and not for the selfish needs of the party, then we can definitely say India as an emerging economy in the world!!
