Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.
- Dr. Thomas Fuller
Let’s go straight to the facts of our society today. In today’s so called shining and growing India there is an ever increasing gulf between the two classes – the rich class and the poor class. And in between is the middle class, always trying hard to be classified as ‘rich class’ in the shortest possible time, with all its efforts focused on improving its own conditions. This self-serving attitude of the middle class and the intentional ignorance of the policy makers towards the poor or marginalized class, are continuously dragging this class to its worst conditions. The fact that middle-class forms the majority of the lot in the country, its contribution to the overall development of left-out issues, not only of marginalized class but its own class, becomes highly important. All the stages for the development issues are to be based on the significant application of middle-class’s resources, justly so because it will be the biggest beneficiary in the process of development of the key issues, with the involvement of other important sections of the society.
However, before going further on the issue of ‘Who contributes What?’ let’s first understand the Key Development Issues facing us today.
Key Development Issues:
The development issues of a nation may vary from country to country and are the result of various factors such as social structure, involvement of people in the decisions making process, short and long term history of the country, people’s outlook towards such development issues, etc.
The key development issues for India (read marginalized class in India) today are in the form of health, education, economy, politics and social. Furthermore, these development issues within India vary region wise and class wise.
Education:
Where education is a major development issue in rural India, the situation is not so bad in urban areas even though the cost of education in urban areas is ever increasing, more so because of the private sector participation which is making it further difficult for the poor and lower middle class to get their children educated in urban India. It is debatable that whether the participation of private sector is improving the quality of education or simply leading to the sale of degrees at a high price?
The problem of education is multi-faceted. On one hand we see the failure of the Primary Education System and the haplessness of the government to fix the problems of various education schemes destroyed by corruption. On the other we witness the onslaught of private sector on the higher education system by making the education ever costly. This way, the majority of people either fail in the beginning to find their feet in education because of low quality primary education or they get strangled by the soaring cost of higher education provided by private players, if at all they reach there.
The problem is not limited to this only. With the kind of poverty that faces India, people consider their children as source of income and get them employed in unskilled jobs at a very young age thereby depriving them of even the basic education.
Health:
Similarly, health has been a major issue of concern for India. According to WHO, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
India is a country which is facing the challenge from communicable diseases. Even the non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes are increasing in India. Being the second largest country in terms of population, next only to China, India’s human health status is still not satisfactory when compared to China or any other developed country. The health scenario is further aggravated in the case of poor and marginalized population because of negligible access to the quality health care services, non-availability of proper drinking and sanitation facilities, etc.
Economy:
Another challenge for us is at the economic front. More than economic backwardness, the issue of skewed economic development in regions is leading to the real problems. Ever since the Indian economy has been opened for the global market it is growing with an impressive rate for reasons of cheap and quality manpower serving the global market, favorable government policies for different sectors, movement of global players to tap Indian resources, etc. However, when the sun of growth is shining on us it is also witnessing some horrible shadows of concern for all of us. The growth has been in patches, with some regions growing exponentially and some going down miserably, leading to an increasing economic discrepancy among the regions within India. Hence, the regions with the economic might are dictating their terms at the time of policy formulations to earn more favors to augment their growth further at the cost of the growth of not-well-to-do regions. If not addressed immediately, this issue may flare up and may lead to various political and social issues.
Indian economy has been known as an agricultural economy with agriculture sector being the highest contributor to the GDP of the country. However, this sector has not seen the advantageous policies comings its way from the government on the lines of what other growing sectors are getting. With highly fragmented agricultural lands in India and poor earnings, the farmers have always found it difficult to apply modern tools to improve their productivity, receive loans from financial institutions, paying off their expenses of water and electricity, further spiraling up their problems. I am sure not long time ago you would have heard about a farmer committing suicide as he did not have money to pay back his loan taken from the local money lenders. The recent step of the government to waive off the agriculture loans taken from the banks is highly welcome. However, the fact that the agriculture loans taken from the organized banks form only the miniscule part of the overall agriculture loans, makes this initiative look insufficient to solve this problem. Furthermore, waiving off the loans is not the solution to the problem. The solution lies in enhancing the productivity of the agriculture sector by coming up with enabling policies for this sector at the national as well as state level. This sector has been the back bone of Indian economy and we must not leave it aside because of the glitter of recently growing sectors. It doesn’t, however, mean that we should not give due importance to the new economy sectors because these are the sectors which will pave our way to ever growing success as an economy.
Politics:
India is a democratic country where the freedom to elect representatives is exercised by its people. However, this freedom, many a times, is annulled by the existence of a very tight compartment of choices. The political issues of the country could be divided into two perspectives – a) From the voters’ point of view, b) From the election candidates’ point of view.
a) It is well known that people in India do not always vote to elect somebody but to reject somebody. The anti-incumbency factor is perhaps one of the major factors which influence the decisions of the voters to vote for someone or not. With the lack of right candidates and political parties the problem is only aggravating. It is not surprising then the voters’ turnover is decreasing over the years since their interest in the whole political affair is diminishing as they do not find the right candidate to represent their cause. This makes the big parties and the powerful candidates win the elections whereas the already small number of genuine candidates loses for want of support.
b) Of late we have started hearing the importance of young political leaders and their induction in almost all political parties. It is, no doubt, a good sign. But just look at all the young political leaders that come to your mind and you would find that most of them are from the existing political families and not from the common masses. It looks as if the aging political leaders have found the mantra of “young and talented political leaders” an effective way of infusing their own family members in the mainstream politics without drawing the flakes from the common man for favoritism. However, the problem comes for the aspiring political leaders who find it difficult to first establish themselves and then get into a political party. The problem is only more severe if the first generation political leader wants to join the mainstream politics without being attached to any political party.
Politics is possibly the only profession which does not yield any earning unless you are elected as a representative. Because of the huge time involved in being elected as a representative in the current context of the country, people do not wish to join politics and rather go for other professions. Moreover, the not-so-good image of the politicians in general also influences good people to keep away from the politics. All these factors lead to the formation of a political class which consists of long time politicians, their kith and kin and newly inducted politicians with no different outlook to the issues. One of the agendas of this political class is to ensure that common man does not reach to the political power and surface the issues important to the common people. To address the issues of marginalized people it is only important that there is political representation from this section of the society.
Social:
The social problems of the marginalized class are in the form of lack of education opportunities, lack of medical care services, lack of proper transport and communication facilities, etc. These are more pronounced in the case of Muslims as more than 80% of the minorities (marginalized class) constitute Muslims and hence, any relevant social issues of the minorities in general will have direct and major impact on the Muslim population. The Sachar committee has presented these issues as cause of concern for Muslims in its report to the government.
With low or no level of above facilities at their disposal they find it difficult to compete with others in this increasingly competitive environment and gradually go back to their own shell. Unless a parity is brought about with respect to these issues, the marginalized class, especially the Muslims, will continue to live in their present deteriorated state which will only become worst.
The way out
The development issues for the marginalized classes in India, as discussed above, are many in numbers, too complex in their nature, too strong in their intensity and certainly need dynamic solutions to see the light of the day. One institution or one approach may not be sufficient to change the fortunes of the marginalized class which is marred by the continuous ignorance of the government towards their needs.
The involvement of key stakeholders such as intellectuals, professionals, social activists and the youth of the day, is to be effected sooner than later to combat any further deprivation of the marginalized class and reverse its poor state. Nevertheless, the whole process will take time to yield desired results and the stakeholders of this process will need to demonstrate patience and maturity as they will be standing up against the well established machineries which will always attempt at killing the voice of the marginalized, including any of its supporters.
The success of the mission will lie in effectively identifying the resources (including human resources) which form part of the existing establishments – government, bureaucrats, policy makers, ministries, etc. and utilizing them to reach out to the goal of brining marginalized class at par. The process will also involve diplomatic alliances with the already established institutions and organizations to build tactical pressures on different state machineries to perform their tasks with integrity.
Let’s look at the important approaches to bring about a change in the current poor state of the marginalized class.
1) Collaboration:
Indeed, one important step in controlling further deprivation of marginalized class will be in collaborating the efforts of key sections of the society. This will be a group of like-minded people drawn from various walks of life – intellectuals from different areas, practicing professionals of varied functions and NGOs including social activists. The agenda of this group will be to brainstorm on key development issues of marginalized class and address the same by way of collaborating with similar groups, building pressure on relevant departments, sensitizing the masses through media coverage, educating people about the issues, etc. The formation of this kind of a group will also help in looking at issues from different perspectives as the members of this group will come from different sections. More the perspectives better will be the handling of issues. Each member of the group will be responsible to bring awareness of important issues at individual level.
However, forming this group will not be an easy task. The first challenge will be to form the group itself, since not many people will be willing to associate with this cause owing to the sensitivity of this group’s functioning and perceived notions about it. At every stage there will be pressure from different sources to dismantle any kind of initiative of this nature as this will not only challenge the status quo in the government’s outlook towards the development requirements of the marginalized class but also push the government to come up with policies enabling the marginalized class to enjoy equal opportunities available to others.
Further points will be the consequence of the formation of this group and taken forward by it for shaping them appropriately.
2) Utilizing media
In a country like ours where freedom of expression has been enshrined in the constitution, media plays a very significant role in the formulation and modulation of policies and systems. However, to what an extent this freedom of expression is exercised by the media is debatable in the wake of heightened indirect pressure on them to tweak their stories to meet the specific requirements. We know how a particular private channel was targeted by the government for bringing uncensored stories post the Godhra riots.
So the challenge in front of this group will be to not only utilize the services of media but, much before that, also positively influence media to partner in this cause. One of the ways to do so will be by directly engaging the media personnel in this group and take their views on how to ensure media’s support. As mentioned earlier in this write up, the group has to be tactical in its approach in dealing with various challenges. Garnering the support of media and utilizing it, is one such challenge.
3) Educating people
Any kind of revolution requires support of masses – masses which are not located at one particular place or region but scattered all across. The irony today is that the down trodden people are not even aware of their level of living and their rights. In the absence of any awareness among people about their rights and responsibilities they are left with no other option but to accept what comes their way. This is exactly what is happening with the marginalized class, especially the Muslims. With a very low (or no) level of awareness among Muslims about their conditions (regarding various development issues) vis-à-vis other classes they do not raise their voice and continuously get trapped by the inferiority complex which further deteriorates their conditions.
Hence, it is important that the marginalized class, especially the Muslim, is made aware of its rights and privileges provided to it by the constitution of the country. This kind of awareness can be spread by holding seminars, lecture sessions, TV programs, nukkar natak, etc.
4) Identifying and networking with national, state and local agencies
There would surely be agencies which would be working on the issues of development for the marginalized class, at all levels in the country. Further, these agencies might be focusing on specific but different issues which, if brought together, will represent the collective and broad development issues for the marginalized class. The benefit lies in bringing such organizations or agencies at one platform at regular intervals to ensure exchange of ideas on various issues.
Moreover, a network of national, state and local level agencies will help in comprehending the issues at these three levels and addressing the same accordingly. This network will ensure quick communication of concerns across these three levels and the immediate support from each level to address the same. This network will also help in rolling out various programs for educating people about their rights and privileges as mentioned in the point number 3.
Concluding remarks
It is said in the Management that the best performance of an individual happens when he is under optimum pressure levels. The underlined word is different from “maximum”. The current conditions of marginalized class, particularly the Muslims, could be considered as either bad or worst, depending on how we look at them. My own view is that the conditions for this class are not worst, though they might be continuously deteriorating. This outlook will help me in at least one way. We have the optimum pressure to relinquish our apathy towards our conditions (since they are bad and not worst) as the situation has still not gone out of our hands. The pressure would have been “maximum” when we were left with nothing to change our fortunes.
This is, in fact, an opportunity for us to bring unity among various marginalized castes and religions by making them work for a common cause i.e. uplifting them. If achieved, this will present a successful model of people involvement in effecting national unity as the people would be working not for their religion but for a reason which is common to other religions as well. However, as mentioned above, this entire exercise will require great amount of patience, maturity, persistence and sacrifice from people involved in this mission.
Let’s go straight to the facts of our society today. In today’s so called shining and growing India there is an ever increasing gulf between the two classes – the rich class and the poor class. And in between is the middle class, always trying hard to be classified as ‘rich class’ in the shortest possible time, with all its efforts focused on improving its own conditions. This self-serving attitude of the middle class and the intentional ignorance of the policy makers towards the poor or marginalized class, are continuously dragging this class to its worst conditions. The fact that middle-class forms the majority of the lot in the country, its contribution to the overall development of left-out issues, not only of marginalized class but its own class, becomes highly important. All the stages for the development issues are to be based on the significant application of middle-class’s resources, justly so because it will be the biggest beneficiary in the process of development of the key issues, with the involvement of other important sections of the society.
However, before going further on the issue of ‘Who contributes What?’ let’s first understand the Key Development Issues facing us today.
Key Development Issues:
The development issues of a nation may vary from country to country and are the result of various factors such as social structure, involvement of people in the decisions making process, short and long term history of the country, people’s outlook towards such development issues, etc.
The key development issues for India (read marginalized class in India) today are in the form of health, education, economy, politics and social. Furthermore, these development issues within India vary region wise and class wise.
Education:
Where education is a major development issue in rural India, the situation is not so bad in urban areas even though the cost of education in urban areas is ever increasing, more so because of the private sector participation which is making it further difficult for the poor and lower middle class to get their children educated in urban India. It is debatable that whether the participation of private sector is improving the quality of education or simply leading to the sale of degrees at a high price?
The problem of education is multi-faceted. On one hand we see the failure of the Primary Education System and the haplessness of the government to fix the problems of various education schemes destroyed by corruption. On the other we witness the onslaught of private sector on the higher education system by making the education ever costly. This way, the majority of people either fail in the beginning to find their feet in education because of low quality primary education or they get strangled by the soaring cost of higher education provided by private players, if at all they reach there.
The problem is not limited to this only. With the kind of poverty that faces India, people consider their children as source of income and get them employed in unskilled jobs at a very young age thereby depriving them of even the basic education.
Health:
Similarly, health has been a major issue of concern for India. According to WHO, health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
India is a country which is facing the challenge from communicable diseases. Even the non-communicable diseases such as cancer and diabetes are increasing in India. Being the second largest country in terms of population, next only to China, India’s human health status is still not satisfactory when compared to China or any other developed country. The health scenario is further aggravated in the case of poor and marginalized population because of negligible access to the quality health care services, non-availability of proper drinking and sanitation facilities, etc.
Economy:
Another challenge for us is at the economic front. More than economic backwardness, the issue of skewed economic development in regions is leading to the real problems. Ever since the Indian economy has been opened for the global market it is growing with an impressive rate for reasons of cheap and quality manpower serving the global market, favorable government policies for different sectors, movement of global players to tap Indian resources, etc. However, when the sun of growth is shining on us it is also witnessing some horrible shadows of concern for all of us. The growth has been in patches, with some regions growing exponentially and some going down miserably, leading to an increasing economic discrepancy among the regions within India. Hence, the regions with the economic might are dictating their terms at the time of policy formulations to earn more favors to augment their growth further at the cost of the growth of not-well-to-do regions. If not addressed immediately, this issue may flare up and may lead to various political and social issues.
Indian economy has been known as an agricultural economy with agriculture sector being the highest contributor to the GDP of the country. However, this sector has not seen the advantageous policies comings its way from the government on the lines of what other growing sectors are getting. With highly fragmented agricultural lands in India and poor earnings, the farmers have always found it difficult to apply modern tools to improve their productivity, receive loans from financial institutions, paying off their expenses of water and electricity, further spiraling up their problems. I am sure not long time ago you would have heard about a farmer committing suicide as he did not have money to pay back his loan taken from the local money lenders. The recent step of the government to waive off the agriculture loans taken from the banks is highly welcome. However, the fact that the agriculture loans taken from the organized banks form only the miniscule part of the overall agriculture loans, makes this initiative look insufficient to solve this problem. Furthermore, waiving off the loans is not the solution to the problem. The solution lies in enhancing the productivity of the agriculture sector by coming up with enabling policies for this sector at the national as well as state level. This sector has been the back bone of Indian economy and we must not leave it aside because of the glitter of recently growing sectors. It doesn’t, however, mean that we should not give due importance to the new economy sectors because these are the sectors which will pave our way to ever growing success as an economy.
Politics:
India is a democratic country where the freedom to elect representatives is exercised by its people. However, this freedom, many a times, is annulled by the existence of a very tight compartment of choices. The political issues of the country could be divided into two perspectives – a) From the voters’ point of view, b) From the election candidates’ point of view.
a) It is well known that people in India do not always vote to elect somebody but to reject somebody. The anti-incumbency factor is perhaps one of the major factors which influence the decisions of the voters to vote for someone or not. With the lack of right candidates and political parties the problem is only aggravating. It is not surprising then the voters’ turnover is decreasing over the years since their interest in the whole political affair is diminishing as they do not find the right candidate to represent their cause. This makes the big parties and the powerful candidates win the elections whereas the already small number of genuine candidates loses for want of support.
b) Of late we have started hearing the importance of young political leaders and their induction in almost all political parties. It is, no doubt, a good sign. But just look at all the young political leaders that come to your mind and you would find that most of them are from the existing political families and not from the common masses. It looks as if the aging political leaders have found the mantra of “young and talented political leaders” an effective way of infusing their own family members in the mainstream politics without drawing the flakes from the common man for favoritism. However, the problem comes for the aspiring political leaders who find it difficult to first establish themselves and then get into a political party. The problem is only more severe if the first generation political leader wants to join the mainstream politics without being attached to any political party.
Politics is possibly the only profession which does not yield any earning unless you are elected as a representative. Because of the huge time involved in being elected as a representative in the current context of the country, people do not wish to join politics and rather go for other professions. Moreover, the not-so-good image of the politicians in general also influences good people to keep away from the politics. All these factors lead to the formation of a political class which consists of long time politicians, their kith and kin and newly inducted politicians with no different outlook to the issues. One of the agendas of this political class is to ensure that common man does not reach to the political power and surface the issues important to the common people. To address the issues of marginalized people it is only important that there is political representation from this section of the society.
Social:
The social problems of the marginalized class are in the form of lack of education opportunities, lack of medical care services, lack of proper transport and communication facilities, etc. These are more pronounced in the case of Muslims as more than 80% of the minorities (marginalized class) constitute Muslims and hence, any relevant social issues of the minorities in general will have direct and major impact on the Muslim population. The Sachar committee has presented these issues as cause of concern for Muslims in its report to the government.
With low or no level of above facilities at their disposal they find it difficult to compete with others in this increasingly competitive environment and gradually go back to their own shell. Unless a parity is brought about with respect to these issues, the marginalized class, especially the Muslims, will continue to live in their present deteriorated state which will only become worst.
The way out
The development issues for the marginalized classes in India, as discussed above, are many in numbers, too complex in their nature, too strong in their intensity and certainly need dynamic solutions to see the light of the day. One institution or one approach may not be sufficient to change the fortunes of the marginalized class which is marred by the continuous ignorance of the government towards their needs.
The involvement of key stakeholders such as intellectuals, professionals, social activists and the youth of the day, is to be effected sooner than later to combat any further deprivation of the marginalized class and reverse its poor state. Nevertheless, the whole process will take time to yield desired results and the stakeholders of this process will need to demonstrate patience and maturity as they will be standing up against the well established machineries which will always attempt at killing the voice of the marginalized, including any of its supporters.
The success of the mission will lie in effectively identifying the resources (including human resources) which form part of the existing establishments – government, bureaucrats, policy makers, ministries, etc. and utilizing them to reach out to the goal of brining marginalized class at par. The process will also involve diplomatic alliances with the already established institutions and organizations to build tactical pressures on different state machineries to perform their tasks with integrity.
Let’s look at the important approaches to bring about a change in the current poor state of the marginalized class.
1) Collaboration:
Indeed, one important step in controlling further deprivation of marginalized class will be in collaborating the efforts of key sections of the society. This will be a group of like-minded people drawn from various walks of life – intellectuals from different areas, practicing professionals of varied functions and NGOs including social activists. The agenda of this group will be to brainstorm on key development issues of marginalized class and address the same by way of collaborating with similar groups, building pressure on relevant departments, sensitizing the masses through media coverage, educating people about the issues, etc. The formation of this kind of a group will also help in looking at issues from different perspectives as the members of this group will come from different sections. More the perspectives better will be the handling of issues. Each member of the group will be responsible to bring awareness of important issues at individual level.
However, forming this group will not be an easy task. The first challenge will be to form the group itself, since not many people will be willing to associate with this cause owing to the sensitivity of this group’s functioning and perceived notions about it. At every stage there will be pressure from different sources to dismantle any kind of initiative of this nature as this will not only challenge the status quo in the government’s outlook towards the development requirements of the marginalized class but also push the government to come up with policies enabling the marginalized class to enjoy equal opportunities available to others.
Further points will be the consequence of the formation of this group and taken forward by it for shaping them appropriately.
2) Utilizing media
In a country like ours where freedom of expression has been enshrined in the constitution, media plays a very significant role in the formulation and modulation of policies and systems. However, to what an extent this freedom of expression is exercised by the media is debatable in the wake of heightened indirect pressure on them to tweak their stories to meet the specific requirements. We know how a particular private channel was targeted by the government for bringing uncensored stories post the Godhra riots.
So the challenge in front of this group will be to not only utilize the services of media but, much before that, also positively influence media to partner in this cause. One of the ways to do so will be by directly engaging the media personnel in this group and take their views on how to ensure media’s support. As mentioned earlier in this write up, the group has to be tactical in its approach in dealing with various challenges. Garnering the support of media and utilizing it, is one such challenge.
3) Educating people
Any kind of revolution requires support of masses – masses which are not located at one particular place or region but scattered all across. The irony today is that the down trodden people are not even aware of their level of living and their rights. In the absence of any awareness among people about their rights and responsibilities they are left with no other option but to accept what comes their way. This is exactly what is happening with the marginalized class, especially the Muslims. With a very low (or no) level of awareness among Muslims about their conditions (regarding various development issues) vis-à-vis other classes they do not raise their voice and continuously get trapped by the inferiority complex which further deteriorates their conditions.
Hence, it is important that the marginalized class, especially the Muslim, is made aware of its rights and privileges provided to it by the constitution of the country. This kind of awareness can be spread by holding seminars, lecture sessions, TV programs, nukkar natak, etc.
4) Identifying and networking with national, state and local agencies
There would surely be agencies which would be working on the issues of development for the marginalized class, at all levels in the country. Further, these agencies might be focusing on specific but different issues which, if brought together, will represent the collective and broad development issues for the marginalized class. The benefit lies in bringing such organizations or agencies at one platform at regular intervals to ensure exchange of ideas on various issues.
Moreover, a network of national, state and local level agencies will help in comprehending the issues at these three levels and addressing the same accordingly. This network will ensure quick communication of concerns across these three levels and the immediate support from each level to address the same. This network will also help in rolling out various programs for educating people about their rights and privileges as mentioned in the point number 3.
Concluding remarks
It is said in the Management that the best performance of an individual happens when he is under optimum pressure levels. The underlined word is different from “maximum”. The current conditions of marginalized class, particularly the Muslims, could be considered as either bad or worst, depending on how we look at them. My own view is that the conditions for this class are not worst, though they might be continuously deteriorating. This outlook will help me in at least one way. We have the optimum pressure to relinquish our apathy towards our conditions (since they are bad and not worst) as the situation has still not gone out of our hands. The pressure would have been “maximum” when we were left with nothing to change our fortunes.
This is, in fact, an opportunity for us to bring unity among various marginalized castes and religions by making them work for a common cause i.e. uplifting them. If achieved, this will present a successful model of people involvement in effecting national unity as the people would be working not for their religion but for a reason which is common to other religions as well. However, as mentioned above, this entire exercise will require great amount of patience, maturity, persistence and sacrifice from people involved in this mission.
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