India has 1/3 of the world’s extreme poor people. The priority
of the Congress governments has been on programs of political expediencies. The
large bureaucracy created by the Socialist First Prime Minister eats away about
two thirds of the GDP both at the centre and in the states. These government
employees, like the political leaders, are corrupt to the core and they swallow
whatever little that is earmarked for the poverty alleviation programs.
The average income in India was not much different from South Korea in 1947, but South Korea became a developed country by 2000s and India remained one of the world’s poorest. ‘The License Raj- a decision of Nehru-(requiring elaborate licenses and regulations) and the accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run business between 1947 and 1990 doomed our fate. He made all aspects of the economy controlled by the state and licenses were given to a select few. Corruption flourished under this system. The labyrinthine bureaucracy often led to absurd restrictions - up to 80 agencies had to be satisfied before a firm could be granted a license to produce something. With a new mind set Oxford educated economists under Narasimha Rao started adopting free market policies and India advanced industrially. But by far the Congress rulers continue to be the same (interested only in power and wealth to control the Indian media and thereby the middle class.) They know the poor can be swung easily and they (Nehru, Indira, Rajeev, Sonia, and now Rahul) are adept in the game. The cries of the poor under pangs of hunger and pain go unnoticed. They are powerless. And, after all, their death is not that far.
The growth achieved has been uneven and states like UP,
Bihar, MP, Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh house the poorest of the world. They
have the largest and the fastest growing population too. The bureaucracy eats most of the welfare measures which have failed to penetrate the underlying causes. The contours of
inequality survive with the fierceness of a dagger. There are 85 million (7%of
the total population) tribal adivasis living in regions where (due to extreme poverty
levels and non-development) Naxalite movement is strong.
There are conflicting reports of poverty levels in the
country. The Tendulkar Committee says 37% live below the poverty line but the
Arjun Sengupta Report states that 77% of Indians live on less than Rs.20 a day!
N C Saxena Committee states that 50% of Indians live below the poverty line. World
Bank estimates the “below-the-poverty-line” households may total about 100 million (or about 456
million individuals). Presence of a
massive parallel economy in the form of black money stashed in overseas tax
havens is the main cause. That is how the wealth of this nation is plundered by
the rulers! The leaders drain the wealth of India.
It is safe to assume that 50% live below the Poverty Line.
Nobody expects a person who is totally absorbed in prolonging his existence to
know what is going one in an election! Of
these more than 25% cannot even read or write. (Indian illiteracy is more than 25%
today- India has the highest illiterate population in the world). The female literacy
is much lower and they do not know what is going on either. They can be easily
swung with favors, or by exploiting religious or parochial sentiments. There is
no true democracy here.
The average income in India was not much different from South Korea in 1947, but South Korea became a developed country by 2000s and India remained one of the world’s poorest. ‘The License Raj- a decision of Nehru-(requiring elaborate licenses and regulations) and the accompanying red tape that were required to set up and run business between 1947 and 1990 doomed our fate. He made all aspects of the economy controlled by the state and licenses were given to a select few. Corruption flourished under this system. The labyrinthine bureaucracy often led to absurd restrictions - up to 80 agencies had to be satisfied before a firm could be granted a license to produce something. With a new mind set Oxford educated economists under Narasimha Rao started adopting free market policies and India advanced industrially. But by far the Congress rulers continue to be the same (interested only in power and wealth to control the Indian media and thereby the middle class.) They know the poor can be swung easily and they (Nehru, Indira, Rajeev, Sonia, and now Rahul) are adept in the game. The cries of the poor under pangs of hunger and pain go unnoticed. They are powerless. And, after all, their death is not that far.
Poverty will end only when each one of us want it to end. More than governments, institutions, organizations, ending poverty depends on each one of us, because governments, institutions and entities are not without their own life. Are formed by human beings, by people, for us. But are we really ready to end poverty? Humans lost the ability to feel the other, their sorrows and needs, isolated in a compartmentalized life itself and do not see anything but your own desires. If every day, get up in our warm bed, before taking our coffee well prepared, we thought we felt and what not to eat, which is starving, which is to see children crying without having to give to them, so if this was also our pain, will consume us and not leave us alone until we do something. That has nothing to do with charity, which today has become synonymous with discharge of conscience. We give here a basket, donate an outfit there and think you've done your part. Não.Precisa more.
ReplyDeleteWe must first change our values, say no to excessive consumerism, rampant materialism and put the encounter with the other, and that the end is the encounter with ourselves, as a priority. Realize that it is part of us, but we are part of it. But do we want? Will we give up our gym, shopping at the mall, the cineminha of our great career working for it? While poverty is not part of us, while not feeling in us, we will not do anything. And if we do nothing, everything will
Unfortunately to end poverty in the world should be a change in human consciousness. Where should we let our longings and desires in the background fighting for collective desires. This change is envisioned by few and hardly a person to accept losing a little of what she has, even though a lot. But we have to believe in global awareness, where people who deal with large masses of people can and should try to improve people, with debates and attitudes. Let's change the world with love and not war, just so we will end poverty and human misery.
For any country that wants to grow economically and provide your
society's perception of an economic and social development, the path is
investment in education. For it is through this that children and adolescents form their
character, his personality, becoming citizens,
The family is the first environment in which the personality is formed and creates principles of
responsibility, discipline and ethics.
Education is one of the ways to guarantee a profitable future for all and
any country.!