Tuesday, 6 March 2007

Poverty and Education - India


We got our Independence from the British in 1947. We are in the Sixtieth year of Independence. From then we have managed to gallop with a pace; I would call a "Lame Horse Pace". While the Indian industry has moved at some pace, this could have been much faster. We should have, by now had 100% literacy, but we still lag behind. We only have 59% who can read and write. The rich are getting richer but there is no respite for the poor.

The political system of our country has deteriorated, with cheap vote bank dependent ideologies sprayed all around. Most of the politicians look for opportunities to pull the rug from those in authority. While the ideology of the leaders during the early period was to abolish caste and maintain a harmony between different religions, the vote bank politics has created a divide between sections of the society. After sixty years of independence we should have forgotten what a low caste is; however the identification of individuals by caste is only increasing. And communal divide is getting stronger. In every application that we fill in, we still have that caste and religion titles to be filled up. This is worsening day by day and a time seems very near, of another division of this great country unless something positive is done in this direction. While we should have taken incomes as criteria for giving concessions, we have been encouraging this divide of caste and religion. Unfortunately every government has been shortsighted. The extent of corruption is visible every where right from the politicians to the babus. But yes there are regions where development is seen…Do we attribute it to the Governments? Or the credit worthy are the industry leaders and the common man who works for the industry.

41% uneducated…25% Indians live below the poverty line. And there are these politicians who live and travel in luxury, gift cars and gizmos to rich, spend millions in marriages of their kins, and have the best of security. That is what India is. It’s a shame we carry.

How do we educate the uneducated? How do we eradicate this poverty? How do we change this India?

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