Dr. Ravi Prakash Tiwari
Speaking in broader terms, India has persevered to reel under poverty, hunger, and ailments for the past 75 years. The country is mired in corruption and social inequities. Social fissures are allowed to remain intact by the courtesy of parasites called politicians.
What we have not learned since independence is tantamount to writing an epic, whereas writing on what we have learned will be like writing a short story.
The govt. has been spending crores on educating the masses on family planning and dispensing contraceptives, but we have been obdurate enough to neglect them. Consequently, there has been a massive population explosion.
Problems caused by high population
Despite the humongous population, people are hell-bent on making a big family. They rue about a girl being Paraya Dhan and asseverate the need to have a son to carry on the family lineage. The birth of a daughter is frowned upon and people go to any extent to beget a son.
Not only does population entail the difficulty of feeding more mouths, but also brings about the travails of
unemployment, illiteracy, overcrowding, insanitary
conditions, and congestion-conditions that severely constrict the development of human mind and body.
But not only our people, but also our politicians have turned a blind eye to this incubus. For their trivial political gains, they are averse to taking stern measures like making the ‘one-child family norm’ legally binding and encouraging celibacy lest they should incense the masses.
It is unfortunate to see that every political party abuses money power, muscle power, and media power to put the voters off the scent. Elections are contested in a polarised atmosphere to woo the electorate.
Vitriolic statements are made against other communities and leaders on the eve of elections to score brownie points. One community is pitted against another one just for the sake of votes. Becoming an MP and consequently a minister has become a status symbol, and
public service has taken a back seat. Criminals win elections with flying colours and that too from behind bars.
Nepotism and favouritism are the order of the day. More than 30% of elected representatives have a criminal background. Swindlers and adulterers work hand in glove with the police and the elected leaders. We can do better in the sports sector
Neither is the sports arena a cause to boast of. A nation of a billion and 20 crore people struggle to win a single gold medal in the
Olympics. Certainly, the problem lies with the sports administrators.
The sports administration puts the cart before the horse. It furnishes the requisite equipment and cash prizes to the internationally established sportsmen. But it does not provide basic facility to players at the grass root level, leading to the wastage of deprived talents at the nascent stage of their careers.
Flaws in our education system
Our education system is an ‘Inverted Pyramid’ with astronomical sums being spent on higher education, and a pittance spent on primary education and at the
undergraduate level. Lakhs of schools don’t have the requisite number of teachers.
To top it all, a large number of
professionals particularly from IITs and IIMs abandon their
motherland in lure for lucrative jobs and other privileges, leading to the waste of colossal sums of money on higher technical education in the
country.
This ‘brain drain’ effectuates a serious collapse in the Indian skilled man-power structure. Instead of setting up technical institutes and sports institutes at the grass root level, we construct temples, mosques, skyscraper-statues. We beautify graveyards, parks, roads etc. to appease vote banks.
Lack of civic sense
Indians as a race are segregated from hygiene and civic sense. They spit even inside and outside national monuments. They urinate everywhere. Public toilets and lavatories have been filthy for aeon. Despite lakhs of lavatories constructed by the current incumbent government, Indians are obstinate enough to defecate in the open.
There is gender disparity in India. Girls are still considered a liability. The sex ratio is a testament to this fact. A bridegroom’s family deems it his inalienable right to demand a whopping amount to marry a girl. Brides are put through the mill in case their demands are not met post-marriage.
This medieval demonic mindset exists even today. The British and the Mughals thrived in India by implementing the policy of Divide And Rule. Our politicians and foes like China, Pakistan, and other secessionist groups have taken advantage of such a congenial atmosphere to bleed India umpteen times.
Bad infrastructure in many regions
The dilapidated condition of roads is in a stark contrast to all-weather roads in other developing countries. We get flabbergasted to see if roads exist among potholes or potholes are present on roads. The traffic system is not well equipped to check reckless driving and infringement of traffic rules in most places.
The problem is further compounded by the venal and inefficient traffic police. The issue of reservation has emerged as the humongous silent assassin of merit and talent in not only ordinary spheres but also in significant ones like space, medicine, telecom, atomic energy etc. Reservation has proved to be detrimental to the nation.
Poor health infrastructure in many regions
Serious eyebrows are raised when we contemplate the health infrastructure. With the ratio of doctors and patients being one of the lowest in the
world, it is not a surprise that India figures as one of the lowest-ranked countries on the Human Development Index. Almost every govt. hospital is ill-equipped to deal with a plethora of ailments.
Will Indians ever ameliorate by learning from developed nations? The reverberating answer is in the negative. We are following the templates set by the foreign rulers. We are politically free from the foreign clutches. But we are mentally slaves. Millions share this pessimism. We need to build national character to take our nation on the glorious path of progress and development.
(Dr Ravi Prakash Tiwari is the author of the book Pun is Fun)
