This was the top award winning essay, written by me in 2003 for a competition which was part of Brainwaves 2003. Brainwaves is an annual national level festival of talent, organized by Finolex Academy of Management and Technology, Ratnagiri.
India’s biggest problem:
Underutilization of resource
One
striking difference between the developed and least developed
countries is that while many things may divide us like political
differences, economic competitiveness, ethnic divisiveness etc. in
the particular area we have shared common concerns that is we all
need resource development. Resources are both means and end of the
economic development. When we talked about means of development in
economics we often meant investment capital. And yet resource
capital, which made critical difference, was measured neither
qualitatively nor quantitatively, nor received the kind of attention
that it deserved. If we need to elaborate this India’s biggest
problem it can be as follows:
“Deliverance comes not from electoral forms but informed
franchise, not from the mystic
authority of franchise but from the enlightened participation of the
populance in the public affairs” – Justice Krishna Ayyar.
The
belief of the government is that active participation of the people
through the institution of Gram Sabha would ensure transparency and
accountability of the system and there fore the “Gram Sabha”
should be strengthened. The studies have attributed ineffective
functioning of Gram Sabha:
1.
Lack of awareness among rural people about the functioning of sabha.
2.
Dominances of sarpanches and absence of proper understanding of
village Panchayats and gram sabha.
3.
Lack of commitment on the part of the officials to educate the
members of the Gram Sabha as to their functions and responsibilities.
4.
Gram sabha should have full powers for determining the priorities for
various programmes in the village and approval of budget.
The
73rd constitution Amendment Act, 1993 for the first time
created a statutory imperative for the establishment of legally
empowered Gram Sabha or village assemblies in India. Almost all the
state governments have provided for the Gram Sabha but its functions
and authorities have not been spelt out in detail. Consequently,
these institutions continue to function ineffectively. The absence of
women folk in the meetings of Gram Sabha has become a common feature.
The participation of people belonging to weaker sections is also
minimal. The entire exercise thus becomes formal and incapable of
yielding the expected results. Thus it is needed to
1. Recognize Gram Sabha as the heart and soul of Panchayati Raj system
2.
Developed as an institution where common people can get an
opportunity to participate plan and implement their basic needs.
3.
Encourage to exercise its authority for taking up any development
program at village level.
4.
Allowed to evoke its own procedures within the legal limits for
conducting its business.
5.
Motivated to absorb the philosophy of grass root democracy.
“Our rural women have a very great part to play in the progress
of our country, as
the mental and physical contact of women with life is much more
lasting and comprehensive than that of men. For nothing was it said
that ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’. In the
apron string of the woman is hidden the revolutionary energy which
can establish paradise on the earth” – Dr.
Rajendra Prasad
The
term empowerment is often used to describe the process where by the
powerless peoples gain a greater share of control of resources and
decision making. The term ‘employment’ is rooted in the
theories of Paulo Freire who put forward the notion of
‘conscientisation’ as a process by which the poor could
challenge the structures of power and take the control of their
lives. By expanding this analysis and giving gender an integral
place; feminists put forward the concept of women’s empowerment. It
is the process is one where women find time and space of their own,
being to reexamine their lives critically and collectively, enable
women to look at there old problems in new ways, analyze their
strength and situation, recognize their strength, alter their self
image, access to new knowledge etc.
Indian
scenario says that access of information is the key for economic,
social and political empowerment of women. Reforms should poses new
forms of learning, education, health services, livelihood options,
governance mechanisms and commerce which would lead to the ultimate
goal. This Un-empowerment becomes part of India’s biggest problem as
although the rural woman population is 30% of the total, this hidden
energy is not utilized yet. There were fewer efforts to empower them
through reservations in elections, access to loans, participation in
local level banking, creation of credit societies.
Agriculture is no doubt a leading sector which provides major part of
employment needed. But no government yet has made a significant
reform after the green revolution. “Every country can revolt
once against bad government but every farmer should make revolt
against the less crop production every year.” When drastically
increasing population is considered the only way to provide them food
is a new revolution not only for Wheat but also in case of rice,
cotton, cereals etc.
If we
study latest general budget for the year 2003-04, it proves to be
meaningless for the productive agriculture. Even the finance minister
said that “Farming is most important but we are using fewer
resources in the farming”, lessen the subsidies over
fertilizers, levied Cess over cash crops. The most interesting thing
is that out of 4,38,795 crores Rs. only 50 crores are reserved for
the irrigative fertilizers, crop diversity, biotechnology, precise
farming, in all. Even after fifty years of independence insurance
policies for agriculture sector is not strong so that a poor farmer
can rely on. No proper schemes are provided to lend the money to
farmers and its recovery, development of wastelands, processing and
storage etc. Not
about this budget, but all the budgets after India has decided for
strengthening its privatization and Globalization policies budgets
are going away from agricultural reforms. It looks such that all
theses budgets asks common farmer should turn towards business of
construction.
There is need to organize the rural artisans and provide them
improved technology based on the existing tools and skills. The
development and usage can vary. The best technology is that the poor
should be able to handle it. For better and efficient utilization of
technologies at various levels of industrialization, an ideal
organizational structure which can take care of linkages between
production, marketing, processing, materials etc. The focus of
appropriate technology should concentrate on:
1. R &
D which has to play a vital role in providing right kind of
technology.
2. It
should deal with upgrading of skills and productivity and optimal
utilization.
3.
Technology should not be only confined to mere expansion of
traditional technology but also cover large scale industries.
4.
Should be profitable.
5.
Search of suitable technologies with major objectives of increasing
employment, output and reducing capital requirement and saving
foreign exchange.
In
the present rural industrial structure there seems to be deficiency
of all the above things discussed. The transfer is following
‘Trickling theory’, i.e. appropriate technology is not being
transferred to the farmers although it is invented in the various
Laboratories. This is also because of the less number of agricultural
related institutes actually interested in field studies and imparting
education in agriculture. For example in Maharashtra there are 47
engineering colleges, 25 medical and uncountable art and commerce
colleges, but only four agricultural colleges. This imbalance has
lead to improper and inappropriate technology transfer.
Government has declared year 2002-03 as IT year. It decides to take
every advantage of IT sector to empower the e-governance, e-commerce,
e-medicine basic communication network. Certainly taking the
initiative, states like Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamil Nadu had started
projects for such reforms. But this digital fever is not throughout
the country. North-Eastern states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and
Bihar etc. are far behind where IT is badly required. Our country has
got many IT experts, next generation is favoring digital reforms,
will to fill up digital divide is also present. But schemes are still
on the paper. If these reforms are taking place then the local
governance can be made strong removing barriers of literacy, jugglery
due to red band, and frauds.
In rural areas electricity supply is erratic in terms of availability
and poor in terms of voltage regulation. Still rural people are dependent on the fuel wood and biomass available locally. This
destroys man hour to meet energy needs, poses serious health risks
due to smoke. Installed capacity in the country increased from 1300 MW at the time
of independence to about 102,000 MW as December. The studies by
Central electricity Authority (CEA), December 2002, show that
natural resources are underutilized. The following table shows
potential and installations of renewable energy technologies:
Sources
|
Units
|
Potential
|
Installed
|
Wind Power
|
MW
|
45,000
|
1,507
|
Small Hydro power
|
MW
|
15,000
|
1,406
|
Biomass power
|
MW
|
19,500
|
358
|
Solar PV
|
MW/sq. Km.
|
20
|
7
|
Solar power heating
|
Mn. Sq. m
|
30
|
0.59
|
Biogas plants
|
Million
|
12
|
3.26
|
Improved cook stoves
|
Million
|
120
|
34.3
|
If these resources will be used at optimum basis, stress of
increasing load over power system will get reduced; Power to the
local user will be provide locally, Industry will get uninterrupted
and required power. This requires energetic initiative by power
ministry.
These measures are suggestive. India can make its functioning
effective by using its extensive human resources, agricultural
richness, and vast natural resources. To enhance utilization
functioning and central role Gram Sabha in local planning, services
of NGO, empowerment of women, technology transfer, research
organizations and use of IT for faster access to knowledge. Then only
the legislative imperative becomes a reality, otherwise the ideas of
real democracy and powerful nation remains on paper. Ultimately,
“It is perfectly said that
that Government is best which governs
least
It is equally true that
that government is best which provides
most”
- Walter Lippmann
