Every year India adds to its population, the population of countries such as Cameroon (14.7 mn), Kazakhstan (15.4 mn), Madagascar (15.1mn) and Netherlands (15.8mn). UN demographers estimate that by the year 2016, India will have more people than in Europe and in the next 3 decades we will overtake China as most populous nation.
You will be surprised to know that India was the first nation to have a population policy but the policy has not achieved the target it was supposed to. It is very important to rework on the policy to control the population. The uncontrollable population is the root cause of various problems engulfing our nation. There is problem of water, power, housing, diminishing forest area, global warming, depleting natural resources, healthcare, unemployment etc. Let me try to explain you how the population is hampering the infrastructure development of our country.
1. Imagine that the government plans to open a new University in region X for Y students. By the time University gets functional after few years, we have (Y+Z) students but the seats available are Y only. Thus Z numbers of students fail to get seat despite scoring high percentage of marks.
2. Government plans a bridge/fly over for A Vehicles to reduce traffic. By the time the bridge is ready, we have (A+B) vehicles on street ready to use the bridge. Result, the problem of congestion continues.
3. The population is constantly increasing but the available natural resources are limited. So this leads to scarcity.
4. The production of wheat in our country has stagnated for last 4-5 years but the population has not. Hence their is more demand but the supply remains same. Result- Impending wheat crisis.
5. The ratio of increase in population and creation of job is not linear. Hence there is rising rate of unemployment.
If I try to imagine a step further. Then with growing population and limited resources, a tension will creep in various states of India. Already, we have seen similar cases in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The states having large number of jobs will be forced to have reservation for locals. There will be laws to prohibit influx of population from other states. This will lead to chaos among people from other states. We will be pushed on the verge of civil war where there will be fight over food and water. We will never be able to beat poverty.
Today also, if you compare American or European poverty line, you will find that 85 per cent Indians are living below poverty line as per American or European standards of Germany and America. With this population growth rate we will never be able to achieve the vision of being a developed nation.
So what is the solution?
The solutions lie in reworking the policies and motivating people to have smaller family. There is need to have more awareness among masses. The literacy rate should be improved. Moreover, if our government seriously tries to solve the problem then it must ensure better standard of living for the current population. The religious leaders should also ask the people to focus on better living than bigger family.
Few more ways can be:
1. A candidate can not contest election if he has more than two children.
2. Tax benefits
3. Poor families who agree to have two kids only should be given some special incentive in form of ration or job.
4. Reservation benefit should be given to only those families who have only two kids.
These are my suggestions. Proper policies on this regard can be framed and we must be able to evolve something.
But will it happen?
It can happen only if the political parties are determined enough to implement the policies stringently. As of now, I cannot look at any party, which will be interested in this. But I want to make one point very clear that a democracy won’t be able to survive the large population. There will be total discord and anarchy if this growth is not controlled.
DALITS, THE caste which was subjected to the humiliation for years play a huge role in Indian politics. There have been several leaders within the community and outside the community who focused on empowering them. One such leader in today’s time is Mayawati, Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. The state has large population of dalits and is staunch supporter of her.
There has been lot of furore over the erection of statues of Mayawati along with other icons of Dalit in the various part of the state especially in Lucknow. A survey was conducted by a private news channel and over 70 per cent of people were against such extravaganza on part of the state government. But if you voice your opinion, Maywatiji will come on camera saying that upper caste people are conspiring against her. Even today they consider upper caste people as the one ready to annihilate them.
The biggest problem is that even the leaders try to feed them the same. True, that the atrocities on Dalits is a matter of concern and must be dealt stringently. But these sorts of behavior on part of community leaders will only aggravate the problem. The dalits in the state are happy though with the recognition that their leader is getting. But I term it as narcism. Whatever be the case, it is not going to stop Mayawati from erecting more memorials and parks in the name of development.
But this blind support of the dalits to their leaders is something that they must introspect. I feel that they are utilized as mere vote banks. To a certain level, their leaders show interest in their upliftment but then they get busy with themself. Even Mayawati has accumulated huge wealth. The money which she has spent on statues of herself might give them “sense of dignity” but they would have been far more benefited if Mayawati could have assured them better living standard. There is some problem with this statue thing as well. Dr BR Ambdekar, Godly figure of the Dalits and a national icon said that “India is still par excellence a land of idolatry. There is idolatry in religion and in politics. Heroes and hero worship is a hard if unfortunate fact in India’s political life. Hero worship is demoralizing for the devotee and dangerous for the country.” The hero worship of Ambedkar has perhaps been the greatest failing of the modern Dalit movement.
The under privilege section must be empowered and it would be far better had the state government focused on the main issue. Their would have been no problem in erection of Mayawati’s statues if it would have been done by someone else as a tribute to her work done for marginalized. But this narcist behavior must be questioned. The other example being the way she celebrates her birthday.
The response by the government on the statement of Rita Bahuguna Joshi (July 2009) was also presented as an insult of Dalits. We appreciate Mayawati then it is only her appreciation and if you say anything against her then it is against Dalits. The comment made by Joshi was not casteist. Vir Sanghvi has written in his piece “If Mrs. Joshi has, as a woman, insulted all women by talking so loosely about rape then hasn’t Mayawati, as a dalit, insulted all dalits by taking on the mantle of caste victimhood to settle a few political scores? India’s dalits deserve better than leaders who misuse their suffering for their own gain. UP deserves better — at the very least, it deserves a functioning government.”
It is time that the community starts questioning its leaders on valid points raised. It will be beneficial to the community and state as well. I say so because the leaders are certain of the votes of this section and that needs to be shaken up.
Tell me what is common in the list given below.
BS Yedurappa, Amar Singh, A Raja, Madhu Koda, Suresh Kalmadi, Pappu Yadav, Kalpnath Rai ….. and list continues.
You guessed it wrong. They all are politicians involved in some scam or criminal cases and were arrested. But the point common is that within hours of their arrest, they had “CHEST PAIN.”
From the self proclaimed “Lions” they become their true self i.e “Bheegi Billi.”
This is a curious case involving the politicians of this great democracy. These leaders when on chair used illegal methods to accumulate wealth. The day when their arrest becomes inevitable, they will surrender or sit in police van with a smirk on their face. The smirk is because they know that the judiciary can do no harm to them. They will hire best lawyers who will “fight for truth” and first get them bail and then let the case carry on forever. There have been hardly any cases where politicians have been proven guilty.
I wonder how come they get chest pain as soon as they enter the boundaries of so called jail. You will be surprised to see the facility that they get while being in jail. BS Yedurappa was fine and clamoring his inncoence till his arrest became inevitable. And the very next day of arrest we found him in hospital after he complaint of chest pain. Similarly, Amar Singh expelled Samajwadi Party leader continued blabbering about his ill health and finally managed to get hospitalized. A Raja, the 2G champ also went through similar process. They go to hospital and use their muscle/money power to settle the case.
Isn’t very funny that these politicians are so “weak hearted” when it comes to spending some time away from home in a five star jail. They get royal treatment as if they were some saint. If the common man complains of chest pain he will probably be given a “lathi” from police but not hospitalization. It is such a true fact that morality has reached nadir for these politicians and they have no nuts or guts to face the consequences for the deeds they have done. I wonder if they are so weak hearted then their reaction during times of emergency in country will also be as pathetic if they were on to be the chair. Sometimes, I feel that these politicians must undergo a medical checkup before standing for elections.
Somewhere we all know that this “chest pain” is just a gimmick. But the pity thing is that despite knowing the very fact we are unable to do anything. This shows the weakness of our law and need for overhaul of judiciary.
“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.”
These lines aptly describe the governance of Mayawati in most populous state of the country Uttar Pradesh. She recently inaugurated 685 crore Noida Memorial Park and used the platform to settle the scores with her political rivals. Mayawati has special love for these parks and she has spent thousand of crores on building these parks. She has even said that if she gets fresh mandate she would like to have such parks in each and every district of UP. But the basic question remains that does the parks in any ways solve the problems being faced by the people of the state. A state which has shortage of power, schools, infrastructure, industries, hospitals, road networks, etc would have been happy if these problems would have been addressed. She brazenly says that she has spent just 1 pc of the budget on the park. This would have been ok if the remaining 99 pc would have been spent on the welfare measures and development of the state. But sadly that has also not happened.
Now let me take you 750 km away from the park to Gorakhpur in eastern part of the state. More than 430 people have died of encephalitis virus and mostly children. This is not the first time that epidemic has struck in this part. It has been active for last 33 years and yet the state machinery and health dept has failed to check. The hospitals are overcrowded and there are no beds available for admitting new patients. At least 2 multispecialty hospitals would have come up with the amount spend on the construction of park. And even if they would have been named after Dalit icons or Mayawati herself it would have done a world of good for the people and state. This is where the chief minister has faltered. It is the simple case of wrong pririties. In her term also she is witnessing 4th outbreak of this virus and yet she and her government is as inefficient as it was a year prior. Now if someone tells her she says that she has been targeted for being a Dalit and would point out the mistakes of earlier govt. I wonder how long she can get away by giving these lame excuses and how long the people will fall prey to her reasoning. There is no denying that Dalits have been ill treated and it is very much required to uplift them but i have doubt if that can be done by building parks and installing own statues. They need more than just statues and CM who is self obsessed.
The point is that sincerity is missing and thus she has failed the people of UP. SARVJAN HITAY SARVJAN SUKHAY is as hollow as UTTAM PRADESH slogan of previous government. She was lucky to have got absolute majority in last polls and has golden chance to work for development of state but failed miserably. She had opportunity to work for oppressed section of the society by opening schools, improving connectivity, tackling law and order chaos, higher education, providing health care and employment. It would have helped in building better image of the state and would have established her credibility as a CM.
Apart from parks and her kitty she hasnt added anything significant in her tenure as CM of Uttar Padesh in last four and half years. I just hope that people of the state will look for someone who delivers on the development and solves core issues when they go out to vote next year.
These days if you will observe, you will notice that you are hearing news of rampant corruption and malpractices going on which undoubtedly is suffocating the system. Every day you hear new news which makes you feel sad about sorry state of the country and we blame it on our politicians, bureaucrats, etc. But do you ever wonder that despite all this how come our system is surviving?
No, you would have not.
The fact is there are few people still existing who are doing their duties in a manner in which it should be done. If not for people like these the system would have eventually collapsed. Unfortunately, these people are not in limelight because they are silently doing their good job and holding the system together. You will find such people in every organization and department both in govt and pvt sector. Be it Satendra Dubey or S Manjunath or SSP Arun Kumar, everyday these real unsung heroes are facing all odds to keep nation moving. You won’t be able to imagine the sacrifices which is being made by them on borders and inside the main land. Lt Archit Verdia, Lt Navdeep, Lt Sushil Khajuria, Tukaram Omble and the list is endless who have laid down their life for the well being of the people. With them their family also suffers but then there has to be someone who feels not like remaining 99.5% of the population.
It is a fact that only 1 out of 100 dares to challenge the system, not bogged down the odds, fearlessly discharging the duties and serve the people. Rest all tend to adjust with the situation and do lip service during tea time by blaming and suggesting but not doing. But this is how a society is and this is main reason that people who do good work without becoming the part of wrong system are tagged as “fools”. But the one who do it don’t care as they know that their conscience is clean and what they are doing is in best interest of society and nation.
During 26/11 we had lakhs of citizen on street demanding change in the system but when the day of VOTING came they were enjoying the holiday. Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime and the day we understand this we will be able to come up with the possible solution to the problems we are facing now. We need to get out of our comfort zone. A nation is as good as its people and thus I consider myself lucky to have people in my country who are facing danger for my survival. But my endeavor does not ends there and I will ensure that I take considerable steps in nation building.
I salute all the unsung heroes and their families for struggle they have gone through in making nation a better place. Their loss is irreparable but we will always remain indebted to them.
In current scenario if you want to get admission to various colleges/universities then you might have to appear in many entrance examinations. Let us say that you want to get into an engineering college then you will write many entrance exam for various colleges. The autonomous colleges/deemed universities conduct their own exam. This is perhaps only the money making exercise as the cost of form is around thousand rupees. This in turn not adds pressure on students but also financial burden.
The best way out should be that their should be only one entrance exam per course. Eg: one for Engg, one for medical, one for law, etc. Consider that a student wants to get into engineering after 12th. Then there should be single entrance for admission into all engineering colleges in India and the syllabus of this entrance should be based on class 12th. The marks scored in this entrance should be the sole qualifying criteria for admission into all colleges. This will reduce the reliance on coaching institutes and also save on the time for many students who drop year or two to get into best college. If the syllabus is made common then the playing field is also made level for students belonging to various section of the society.
The government has intended of making common entrance examination from the year 2013 onwards.
If it is implemented in the best spirit then it will be a step towards reforming our education system.
We have observed and known that our teachers are paid meagre compensation. This is one of the reasons for not getting talent to train the future generation of the country. It is not that we don’t have talent. We have few best brains teaching world in few of the best Universities across the world. We have failed miserably in retaining the talent which can redefine our nation. We make lot of fuss of having biggest pools of doctors and engineers but equal fuss should also be of not being able to train this pool by the best brains. The meagre salary which we pay to our teachers from primary to higher education leads to brain drain and private teachings. This is one of the reasons of the boom of coaching institutes.
This is worrying trend because the advantage which we have in terms of youth may become our biggest disadvantage if our students fail on bigger stage or lose out to other students of the world. Quantity and quality of highly specialized human resources determine their competence in the global market.
- Why is that we don’t have any Nobel prize after CV Raman?
- Why is that our best institutes fail to deliver world class researches and papers?
- Why is that there has been perhaps no reckonable contribution from our country in any stream of education in past 3-4 decades?
The simple reason is that our students don’t get requisite guidance and support which is quintessential for them to do research and other things. India needs to wake and pump in funds to retain the best talent in teaching and creating world class infrastructure.
An idea of having Indian Teaching Services (ITS) on similar lines of IAS/IPS is also worth giving a thought. If we can have ITS on similar lines of civil services then we can attract best brains and teach them to deliver a punch to growth of the country. This also can solve the case of paying low salary to our teachers. The idea may appear naive but if worked out properly is very much possible and can set a trend of attracting and retaining the talent to our educational institution. It may take some time to give results but we should make a start at the earliest. This can also be one of the solutions to the problem of having uneven teacher student ratio in our colleges. The shortfall of teachers can also be countered by investing more money into education. The biggest challenge faced by higher educational institutions in India is the acute shortage of qualified and competent faculties. “Lamenting the shortage of high quality faculty for prestigious management and technical educational institutions in the country, a mechanism should be devised to enrol and retain quality faculty by providing them more incentives and research facilities. (N R Narayana Murthy).” The returns of the educational investment are may be late but it is cute and best for the nation building process and personal development also.
I would like to end with a line by MK Gandhi-
“Hesitating to act because the whole vision may not be achieved or others do not share it is an attitude that only hinders the progress.”
So nothing new has happened on Wednesday, 07 September 2011! Just a blast at Gate No 5 of Delhi High Court with 9 dead and 91 injured. The news and reactions which is being poured is so very similar and seems that old tape is being re-run. As far as those who have lost their loved ones, loss is beyond any repair but with nation of having second highest population, these numbers are minuscule and hence no action will be taken to book perpetrators. We are not Israel or US for that matter so we will do lip service and then forget it in next week.
As always our dearest and one of the most prolific PM, Dr MMS has condemned the blast and has roared like tiger saying that we are not going to succumb. We will not be bogged down by this cowardly act of the terrorists. Our Home Minister pointed finger to our friendly neighbouring state. Few VIPs have visited the injured at hospitals with lot of media.
All said and done but they have not said that they will act but only react. Few days of coldness with our neighbour and then extend the hand for FRIENDSHIP because that is the best way out as per Indian Govt is concerned because these blast have happened to derail the peace process which has given tremendous output ever since beautiful Pakistan Foreign Minister met ours in New Delhi.
But few points linger on my mind:
1. Why is that we have become so dud in doing anything of national importance?
2. Why is that our govt is spineless?
3. Why is that specialist investigating agency NIA has failed to solve any of the cases till date?
4. Why something happens when govt is in some trouble? I just hope that this may not be a diversionary attack.
5. Why is that we cannot do justice by punishing “few” perpetrators we have captured and spending crores for their security but not a penny for the citizens of this nation?
6. Why the victims are always common people and never one from political class?
And above all, what credibility do we have to show the world when we can never act to safeguard our national interest. Perhaps, the life of a common man is very cheap! We are being governed by shameless and submissive set of people who have no guts and nuts to act. This is the fate of world’s largest democracy. and who’ll change it.
None but we can only bring the change!
Marva Collins once said, “Don’t try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed.”
The parallel and commercial education in the form of tuitions and coaching has made deep inroads in our education system and is really detrimental for the future of the youth and nation. I still remember my school and engineering days when we use to rely heavily on the coaching given by some renowned teachers from various colleges as private tuitions for which they charged a handsome amount. The attendance at school and college was merely for fun and getting admit card to sit in examination. The professors and teachers were also aware of this attitude of students and they will also teach during lectures for the sake of it. Very few teachers showed the interest in making their students learn.
This is where a student coming from a economically backward section looses out and eventually hampering his growth as an individual and professionally. Moreover, majority of the students who go to private classes also succeed by rote learning and not understanding of the concepts. Due to this reason majority of our graduates are considered unemployable by the industry. The practical application of the concepts has taken a back stage and the success merely depends on the “guess papers”. Even Narayan Murthy has said that IITs are no longer the quality institutions they were in the 60s and 70s. Stating that the IITs and IIMs have had very few world-class researches coming out of them in the decade gone by, he said, “In 2004, China produced 2,652 PhDs in computer science and in that year the figure was 24 in our country. Attributing the drop in the high standards of IITs to the boom in the number of coaching classes for joint entrance examinations, he said, “Today, students prepare hard for a year solving sample questions for IIT-JEE. One of these samples matches in the entrance examination and they crack the test.”
This is perhaps the biggest drawback of this commercial education where education has become a business and is looked upon as a “golden egg laying hen”. Historically imparting education was considered as most pious and noble profession, but over the period, this system too has got influenced by commercialization and now teaching is no longer a profession of dedication and devotion towards building better people and country; it is all about money and status.
At this point, I would like to ask the teachers,
- Is it correct on their part morally? I believe that most of the teachers choose this profession because teachers hold the candle of enlightenment, knowledge and prosperity. And if the money lures you away from your duty then the very meaning of word teacher diminishes.
- Why is it that a teacher who takes so much effort and pain in private classes doesn’t show that much interest while delivering lecture in colleges and schools?
- Isn’t a failure on your part if a student has to join private classes to succeed?
- As a morally responsible teacher, aren’t you playing with future of our nation for the sake of money?
My respected teachers whatever India will be in the next generation will depend upon what you do to your students today in the classrooms!!!!