An appeal to my young friends
This morning at 6 AM, I tuned into the All India Radio to listen to Vande Mataram, the Morning song of India that has been greeting Indians for several years now.As the first streaks of sunlight emerged from behind the clouds just as the National song ended and the announcer started listing out the programmes for the day, I proudly planted a Khadi Tricolour atop my Balcony, for the first time ever in my life.I should be swelling with pride and in a jubilant mood, but im actually more sombre.
So what prompted me to put up a national flag on my house? A couple of days back I was at the traffic signal at the intersection of MG Road and Brigade Road - at one time one of the symbols of Bangalore for the travelling Indian Public. About some 100 ft in the air the concrete beds for the metro rail flow from left to right in what will soon add Bangalore to a select list of Metrorail running cities in India.Below, on the road, are more B-Class and C-Class cars than two-wheelers, which is a good sign of the new bourgeoisie and the purchasing power of young Indians.Just as the signal turned red and vehicles start piling up, street children as young as 8-9 years old and not even as tall as the hood of some cars began hawking National flags of all sizes and lapel-pins and badges etc.This in itself is disturbing enough for me, but what was more disturbing for me was the fact that no-one with the Purchasing power of these new age cars bothered to spend as little as 5 rupees to pick up something from the child in the spirit of independence.I even had the misfortune of a witnessing a lady roll-up her power windows to discourage her child who was asking for a lapel-pin, while the child outside the car stood watching expectantly through the tinted windows of the car.So much for purchasing power.
Of what use is it to be the fourth largest economy in the world when 41% of Indians are still below the poverty line.Despite almost 15000 farmer suicides in 2008 and several thousand of them having to sadly give up unsustainable agriculture, we are the second largest wheat,rice and sugarcane producing nation in the world and yet we will let these grains rot away in godowns while an officially estimated 217 million are undernourished in India and thousands of starvation deaths occur.We are the largest milk producing country in the world and yet the cost of litre of milk is more than the defined poverty income of 17.953 rupees per day in urban areas and 11.878 rupees per day in Rural Areas.Despite all this we will still be gathering bio-metric data for the census on caste enumeration, there will be a Right to Education for all children wherein the only time street-children will have a roof over their head is when they go to school.There will be a Unique Identification Number for every Indian which will help him/her swipe above or below the poverty line.But will all this guarantee the basic value of human dignity to all, which is undeniably lacking in our country.
A common arguement that many of my friends always tell me is that look at all the things that we have achieved and how we are growing.But all of us know that what we have achieved till now is only a far consolation to what we could have been by now.So my dear friends, I humbly and earnestly appeal to all, that let us, in the prime of our youth be more significant in our efforts to eradicate poverty from the country.Let us make a more conscious and ambitious effort to participate within our own limitations and on rare occassions adventorously beyond our limitations to mitigate suffering.Let us garner the strength and resolve to ask uncomfortable questions to ourselves.In the midst of all your dreams, let no one die of hunger in this country. I look forward to teaming-up with all of you in this goal.
Jai Hind and Vande Mataram.
So what prompted me to put up a national flag on my house? A couple of days back I was at the traffic signal at the intersection of MG Road and Brigade Road - at one time one of the symbols of Bangalore for the travelling Indian Public. About some 100 ft in the air the concrete beds for the metro rail flow from left to right in what will soon add Bangalore to a select list of Metrorail running cities in India.Below, on the road, are more B-Class and C-Class cars than two-wheelers, which is a good sign of the new bourgeoisie and the purchasing power of young Indians.Just as the signal turned red and vehicles start piling up, street children as young as 8-9 years old and not even as tall as the hood of some cars began hawking National flags of all sizes and lapel-pins and badges etc.This in itself is disturbing enough for me, but what was more disturbing for me was the fact that no-one with the Purchasing power of these new age cars bothered to spend as little as 5 rupees to pick up something from the child in the spirit of independence.I even had the misfortune of a witnessing a lady roll-up her power windows to discourage her child who was asking for a lapel-pin, while the child outside the car stood watching expectantly through the tinted windows of the car.So much for purchasing power.
Of what use is it to be the fourth largest economy in the world when 41% of Indians are still below the poverty line.Despite almost 15000 farmer suicides in 2008 and several thousand of them having to sadly give up unsustainable agriculture, we are the second largest wheat,rice and sugarcane producing nation in the world and yet we will let these grains rot away in godowns while an officially estimated 217 million are undernourished in India and thousands of starvation deaths occur.We are the largest milk producing country in the world and yet the cost of litre of milk is more than the defined poverty income of 17.953 rupees per day in urban areas and 11.878 rupees per day in Rural Areas.Despite all this we will still be gathering bio-metric data for the census on caste enumeration, there will be a Right to Education for all children wherein the only time street-children will have a roof over their head is when they go to school.There will be a Unique Identification Number for every Indian which will help him/her swipe above or below the poverty line.But will all this guarantee the basic value of human dignity to all, which is undeniably lacking in our country.
A common arguement that many of my friends always tell me is that look at all the things that we have achieved and how we are growing.But all of us know that what we have achieved till now is only a far consolation to what we could have been by now.So my dear friends, I humbly and earnestly appeal to all, that let us, in the prime of our youth be more significant in our efforts to eradicate poverty from the country.Let us make a more conscious and ambitious effort to participate within our own limitations and on rare occassions adventorously beyond our limitations to mitigate suffering.Let us garner the strength and resolve to ask uncomfortable questions to ourselves.In the midst of all your dreams, let no one die of hunger in this country. I look forward to teaming-up with all of you in this goal.
Jai Hind and Vande Mataram.
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