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USHA's CORNER
by Usha Rashmi Bhaskara Sastry
This month: "Challenges facing India in the 21st Century" In March this year, I visited India after three long years in Europe. From the very minute I got off the plane, I was eager to assimilate the sights and sounds of India. Wide-eyed, I saw the high-rise buildings, flyovers, fancy cars, and the pizza eateries around me. I saw vegetable sellers and auto rickshaw drivers with cell phones and I was surprised. It wasn't like this when I left not so long ago. The fact that I could fill petrol and buy a pizza in a petrol station in India was globalisation to me. Driving through the centre of Bangalore, except for the chaotic traffic, I felt it could have been Frankfurt for all you care. Wednesdays I would browse through the newspaper employment section and find advertisements by Banks, IT companies, Colleges, BPOs offering jobs. I was felt awed by the five figure incomes of some recently passed out college graduates. On sort of a touring spree, I visited Rameshwaram, a small coastal town in Southern Tamil Nadu known for it temples and mythical connection to Ramayana. It 's most famous export has been the father of India's missile program and present president, Dr.APJ Adbul Kalam. The local guide took my companions and me to the popular landmarks of the town (included in the itinerary was the primary school where Dr.Kalam had studied). Travelling though this small town in sweltering heat, I noticed that technology had reached out its hands here as well. Solar powered street lamps on few pavements, and windmills dotted the landscape at some distance. With its vast, cheap and skilled manpower, India has a distinctive edge over its competitors. Having made progress by leaps and bounds in science and technology, India, however ranks only 63rd out of 72 in United Nations Development programme's (UNDP) index of technological achievement. The economy of India is one of the largest in the world, despite having said this; India ranks 115 among 165 countries in the Human development index. Why and where are the areas that India lags behind? Will Dr.Abdul Kalam's vision of having a developed India by 2020 be realised? What are the key challenges that India faces in the 21st century? India over the last century has witnessed the worst kind of floods, cyclones; earth quakes (droughts and epidemics in the early part of the century). Despite the 7 % GDP growth annually, about 25 % of the population live under the poverty line. Other major concerns are child mortality rate, diseases such as HIV, literacy, air pollution from vehicle emission and industrial effluents, religious fundamentalism etc. India has also had to deal with Bangladeshi, Tibetan and Sri Lankan refugees due the strife in their respective countries as well as with internal violence in the form conflicts with Naxalities, Naga, Bodo and Mizo separatists and communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. Within 23 years of our independence we have had three wars with Pakistan and a short border war with China. What future does India hold considering we have so many inner battles to fight? India has faced extensive terrorist activity at its border region in Kashmir, militancy in Punjab in the 80s and from separatists in North East. Harakat-ul-Mujahedeen, Jaish-e-Muhammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba, the three Islamic militant groups active in Kashmir, have been fighting for what they call the 'Azad Kashmir'. In the last decade we have had communal riots in Gujarat, Ayodhya, and Mumbai etc. There is an imminent danger that Hindu vs. Muslim militancy could raise towards greater proportions in the near future. The Gujarat carnage, the worst religious conflict since the independence has indeed made us realise the sensitive and complex social fabric of Indian society. India is home to 350 million people below the poverty line. Mumbai, India's largest and richest city is home to the country's largest slum dwellers (which is 60 % of Mumbai's population). India's literacy rate stands at 64.8 % as compared to China's 91 %. Though Indian government
has a strong commitment towards education however it still has one of the lowest female literacy rates in Asia. Sanitation and access to safe water, child labour, gender disparity, poverty, infant mortality rates, literacy, and prevalence of HIV, environmental protection and conservation are key challenges in the coming years. The future of India without having to say lies in continuing economic reform, resolution of conflicts, planning for sustainable development, etc. These aren't sufficient. In the next decade, we have to have changes more at a fundamental level without which the dreams of a developed India cannot be realised. There has to be paradigm shift in the way the government functions. It has to do away with bureaucracy and corruption (India stands as the 8th most corrupt country in the world). These are two are the biggest hindrances (which are a deterrent to foreign investors as well) in any programme being implemented at any level and strata of a governing body. The government must ensure aid and subsidies reach the people at the grass root level. The world's largest democracy has to stand true to its definition but with efficiency, accountability and transparency. It is a daunting task, but this can be brought about by changes in the administrative structure. As for me, I have been at the receiving end of corrupt officials many a time. I have borne the brunt of the bureaucratic system. Out of sheer frustration, I had even made up my mind to start greasing some palms if required after this visit, because when you can't beat the system, you better join it. As far as I know corruption is a way of life at most offices. The charm of India is sometimes lost when you have to deal with buffoons (sitting at the other side of counter), who exercise the little power they have over hapless people at every opportunity they get. I hope we all see a developed India by 2020 or at the turn of next two decades (as Dr. Kalam leads us to believe), the India that was envisioned when our leaders won the independence for us. © copyright www.theinder.net 1-2006
