Independent India and poverty

Coming back to blogs in regular interval is a challenge these days. Professional job and personal life takes all productive time leaving a narrow room for creative activities. Well! Blogging is more of a way to voice my opinion for me than creative activity....this time it got triggered by two small issues one being an advertisement by NDTV requesting viewers to contribute to their movie on independence day and the other was watching the famous Anil Kapur starrer NAYAK.

When NDTV wanted to know what 15^th August means to common Indians, NAYAK featured many socio-political reason for poor being kept poor. I am just trying to put my point of view on both....

Independent India was a dream for the half billion Indians (who were not even citizen of one federal nation). Freedom from the British was achieved after a 200 year old struggle but for most of Indians, its just a transfer of power from the British to the rich, corrupt and powerful Indians whom I can call the ‘domestic firangis’.

We all feel extremely proud on 15^th August remembering our past and watching the Tricolour fly high with the blowing wind but unfortunately for half of the Indians, it matters nothing! Their worry is how to survive, how to keep their kitchen warm 2 times a day and how to ensure a good education for their kids!

What I derive from the scene of the PDS shop from the movie NAYAK is; the poor always pays more and gets less. Poor gets cheated as he lacks bargaining power. What the reality today is; the urban poor pays Rs.35-45 for 1 litre of kerosene which he was suppose to get at Rs.9 from PDS. The challenge for him is to get basic amenities and identity.....for our Govt. the slum dwellers do not exist! The question is why do slums exist in this country? If we can focus on economic development of our villages, then slums ll not grow as fast as it is.... then accepting the truth of slums and not just avoiding them may solve the problem to some extent.

If you look at our consumer market, how much a poor pays for a shampoo sachet? Vs a rich buying a 200 ml bottle? The 200 ml. Bottle is comparatively much cheaper than the 20 ml sachet! The poor pays 24% to 36% interest on a loan in the name of microfinance along with processing fee and huge fine on default! Where a rich guy ends up paying 8% interest on a home loan from a nationalised bank. There are many such examples.... who pays more gets more bargaining power and unfortunately half of the population of this country do not have that power!

Its not only consumer goods, Its also the health care and judiciary which has become too expensive for the poor! Judicial system demands a good lawyer which comes with an extremely unaffordable price tag. Ultimately justice goes to those (except some rare incidents) who have money! The poor pays more to a fake doctor in the village which in most cases are the only option for them where the rich gets cashless treatment in high-tech hospitals in our cities!

If independence has no value for half of Indians, then how can just celebrating 15^th August have any significance in India?

I personally get very emotional watching the tricolour fly high with ‘Jana Gana Mana’ in background. It reminds me of the basic responsibilities I have towards this nation as a citizen. My last independence day celebration was in a African country Ghana.... my Indian friends and I were mad looking for a tricolour in the posh market of Accra for one week without success.... We went to the Indian embassy at Accra to mark the flag hoisting ceremony early morning and you wont believe, for the handful of Indians there, it was a real proud moment! But just feeling proud is not the need of the time....need of the time is to stand up to the need of our fellow citizens. Stand up to the fight against corruption and political dirty games.... We don’t necessarily need to go on the street banging buses and burning taxis.... being honest to the nation when doing our job should make a huge contribution itself. If each of the educated Indian can take responsibility of spreading the message of ‘Being Indian’ we can make the whole country aware about it’s need! Just making money for ourselves can not make us proud Indians.... Achievement in science and technology can not make us global power if millions of kids still work as child labours. Establishing T3 at Delhi airport does not make sense when our women are not safe in the city and migrants to the city still live in the worst possible living conditions! Making SMS cheaper do not fill empty stomach of our poor farmers neither introducing a new Rupee symbol makes any difference to the farmers who are going to commit suicide due to debt!

The day this country takes genuine care of its poor and underserved, it will be the most powerful in the world! We will be genuinely proud of being Indians......

ACCESS DENIED

Neither naxalism nor terrorism are new to India. Both of them co-exist from last 4-5 decades in different forms and in different areas. Now the viruses of violence have spread all over the country ruining its chances to become a global super power. The story of Punjab terrorism is not unknown to anyone, neither to ongoing battle in J & K.... at 8% economic growth we are made to believe that India is world’s 2^nd fastest growing economy! But we still wake up to incidents of innocents being killed by terrorists and Maoists every day. All of us common man is feeling the same: what the hll is wrong with these people?? Why are they bloody spreading violence???

Yet we have not been able to find any answer. Naxalism started as a revolution in late 60s in west Bengal to see the end of Jamindaari and give equal wrights to the poor. It went silent for decades and have come back with a bang to destroy peace! I look at naxalism from two different angles...one which is fighting against poverty, against the corrupt administration and the exploitation of tribals by the so called babus. The other is different...its only using the same name as naxals but has a very different agenda! Supported by opposition political parties practically in every state, they have grown and grown and grown beyond control... they are simply not interested with any ideology or peace! They talk about toppling the democracy by force of AK 47.

Ironically the rise of both these naxals are due to same reasons! We often blame USA for giving birth to muslim terrorism during the cold war against USSR. Today’s global terrorism is just the result of that which the Americans understand well after 26/11. India has done the same in its own land.... overlooking corruption and even encouraging exploitation of tribals sometime! When all means of getting access to your wrights are denied then violence becomes the last option! Whether violence is the appropriate weapon or not is matter of debate but it definitely gives power to the people who use it.

To tell you a real and recent story: I was travelling to KBK districts of Orissa in the first week of this month for some work. Those who don’t know KBK; Its the poorest part of Asia and has a tribal population over 70% and extremely mineral rich. On my way from Rayagad to Kashipur, got caught up on the way by a bandh called by locals and naxals. It was to protest the Aditya Birla group owned Utkal Alumnia’s injustice towards the local people. Utkal Alumina has a huge plant nearby where thousands of workers are employed but only a handful of them are locals. When the company is utilising resources from local areas, isn’t it their responsibility to employ locals? Isnt it the responsibility of the Govt. to ensure that the locals get trained and equipped with appropriate skills to get job? Nobody has done their job properly thats why people are taking support from naxals to get their wrights.

The next day, visited a village in Kalahandi district’s poorest taluk, i.e T. Rampur. The village had nothing 3-4 months back, no water, no power and no roads. No kerosene and ration on time...every family is under the poverty line! But things have changed drastically in last 3-4 months! Thanks to the naxals...they came here and organised a meeting with the villagers, made a list of works to be done and put a poster in the block office with a warning that ‘If the works are not done’ then people responsible will be killed! Now I could see a PMGSY road under construction, a school building coming up, people getting ration and kerosene on time and even the BDO has visited the village 3 times from then.

Why will the people not support naxals then? Can we blame the naxals in this case?

Yes, there are elements who name themselves naxals but are pure politicians who are not able to take the democratic route and win. All the violence are to be blamed on them....Its happening with active support from all the political parties! Can you believe Mamata Banerjee and Budhhadev babu not knowing where Kishenji is hiding?

Who knows the train accident that happened yesterday is not the work of political contractors? The logic is the west Bengal panchayats and municipal elections tomorrow! Make your own conclusions...

Everybody is talking about tough action, military force , air power etc etc but is that the only solution? Answer is a BIG NO!!! Why? because the problem is not single sided....so how can be the solution be single sided one? Those who are taking extreme violence route should be identified and killed....no trials! And those who are just taking route of violence to teach a lesson to the corrupt babus should be invited for talks and given stake in the development decision making of their respective areas.

A strong suggestion is to create a naxal type force of the Govt. to tackle corruption in the tribal regions. The force should be authorised to punish the corrupts with extreme punishments on the spot and ensure that the whole administration is cleaned and made efficient. If this is done with legitimacy, then naturally the genuine naxalism will come to an end and the state can regain the lost faith among people. The non-genuine naxals can then be tackled with toughest possible manner....

Access of tribals to their own wrights can not be denied anymore!