What are the key issues to be dealt by the next Government?
The election to the 15th Lok Sabha has been successfully conducted and the results have been announced.. It is very important that the electorate analyses the present state of our country and makes it clear to the various parties and politicians what exactly India needs, what should be done for a brighter future and what are the key issues to be handled.
Before jumping to hasty conclusions, each citizen should educate himself/herself about India, and what we urgently need to catapult India to sustained and inclusive development, as soon as possible.
A recent survey by The Week shows that, Economic slowdown is the issue that worries the most number of people. Internal security and terrorism scares a chunk of 17% of the people who participated in the survey. Corruption is the most important issue to be dealt with, say 14% of them. Employment opportunities, stability of government and good leadership, farmer indebtedness, NREGA( National rural employment guarantee act), Indo- US nuclear deal, Secularism/Hindutva etc are found as key issues by others.. it was quite shocking to learn that a mere 4% feel that education is a key issue, in a country with around 50 crore people who cant even write or read.
The number of people who have taken part in this particular survey, may be, at the maximum, a few thousand, and so, its results, I believe, do not represent the interests of India as a whole. The huge chunk of India, living in the rural areas, has little participation in such surveys.
In the same weekly, I have read certain shocking and extremely saddening facts about our country. in rural Karnataka, children from the age of 6 work for daily wages at beaten rice mills, in inhuman conditions. Above 60% of our rural areas don’t have proper sanitation facilities; thousands live as scavengers, collecting human excreta from house to house, getting a pittance. There are farmers who starve to death or commit suicide due to rapidly increasing debts almost every day.
The literacy rate of women is still deplorable. The rapidly ageing population is deprived of any social security- India is the only developing country in the world which provides no social security/benefits to senior citizens. The rural India lacks infrastructure like electricity, roads, proper sanitation and health systems in our villages. Drinking water and proper transportation facilities are scarce in most of the rural areas. The country is still in the grip of social evils such as dowry, honour killings and unscientific methods of curing diseases.
The education system in most of the schools and colleges are outdated. Corruption is looming large. Terrorism is yet another burning issue. Growing number of slums, unemployment and inefficient bureaucracy and administration system adds to the thousands of other problems of our country. Harassment and attacks against women brings up the question of security of women. Even today, a woman is not safe in the streets of our country.
The infrastructure of our country is still very poor, compared to other developing countries such as China, South Africa, Brazil, Malaysia etc. Due to this, India still lacks an investor friendly environment despite the cheap labour and human resource available here. Proper economic reforms and moves are to be taken to shield the country from further effects of the recession and heal the harm already done.
Analysing the whole situation, it is clear that for the country to progress, development activities should reach even the most remote areas. For that, I believe, prime focus should be laid on infrastructure development- roads, railways, electricity etc. Once these issues are taken care of, an industry- friendly environment will be created throughout the country and agricultural goods of the local farmers can be easily transported to the other parts of the country. As new industries prop up, employment opportunities will naturally increase, thus empowering more and more rural Indians with financial security, which will in turn improve their standard of living.
Schools should be set up in rural areas such that there is one school in every 3 square kilometres, and education for children under 14 should be made compulsory. Also, female literacy camps should be set up to educate women. Empowering women, who constitute almost half of the population is inevitable for any county’s progress, moreover, a child’s 1st teacher and guide is always its mother.
Another area to be highlighted is agriculture. Majority of Indians still depend on agriculture for a living. But it is seen than, unlike other sectors, agriculture shows very little growth annually. This is due to the fact that over 90% of the farmers still depend upon the age-old methods for cultivation. Agriculture is still a gamble in our country, which depends on weather Gods and a minor change in the usual pattern will cause huge damage to the crops. Indian farmers lack proper irrigation facilities and modern technology like tractors, tillers, high yielding variety seeds, effective modern fertilizers etc. I don’t believe that loan waivers are going to give more than a temporary consolation to a very few farmers. The recent loan waiver project of the government, which failed to create much of a difference, is a testimony to this. Farmers should be empowered with latest technology and infrastructure. The money allocated for such loan waivers should be used to distribute newly developed crop varieties and machinery at a subsidised rate.
Another area that requires reform is the administrative system of each ministry. More transparency should be brought in to each department of the governing system. The Hong Kong model could be adopted for this. A new department or agency, independent of the government should be set up to keep an eye on each ministerial department, decisions taken and deals made. And the mode of operation should be thoroughly scrutinized and made available for public opinion and debate. This, I believe would reduce the corruption in each department.
For vast country like India, that has separate departments and administrative institutions for every single sector with educated bureaucrats at the helm of each, it wouldn’t be much of a problem to take care of all the development activities mentioned above parallelly.
This is what India needs urgently. This is what we seek from the next government.
Jai Hind.
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