The Mughal era followed by the Colonial rule have trained us well to create and live in a feudal system. The mindset matured to a level that a non-feudal, participative and a non-hierarchical system makes us feel jittery. Even at a very individual level we tend to behave as lords of our limited constituency. E.g even in an underprivileged family, the “man” derives a sense of power and behaves unconventionally with his family members. He rules them. As the constituency of the individual grows, he/she tries to derive more and more power from his/her constituents.
The very nature of our society has developed norms to divide ourselves into different classes and behave accordingly. Any deviation from classified behaviour is treated as unnatural and foolish. This behaviour itself leads to assuming a position where we derive pleasure by brandishing power and affluence and create an unbridgeable gap in our society. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The poor on the other hand also are complacent about their own growth. During my interaction with villagers, I was surprised to note that their aspirations are either limited or they do not have the knowledge of growth. They derive a sense of satisfaction from within their small community and its affiliation to somebody who as per them is powerful.
Thus we may attribute this peaceful coexistence in the society to the inherent behaviour of each class unless; there is an additional force which disturbs this equilibrium. These forces could be market, government, and knowledge. The modern era is influenced by all the three forces leading to confusion in each class about their role. Each class knows that their existence is dependant on the other class and therefore make more efforts to maintain the disparity.
Almost in every development forum, people make efforts to teach the capitalists to take care of the poor and ironically, the more equity gets discussed the more inequality we see.
Therefore rather than looking at resolving poverty we should look at how can we create an environment where each class (privileged and underprivileged) is respected in its identity, its culture, its work and the privileged rise above the petty issues of exploitation and look at a more robust way of participation of underprivileged in the society. This would give them dignity, it would get them an urge to acquire knowledge, it would give them avenues to grow and build society. So, how do we do this?
First, each class of the society have to realise that their existence is dependant on the other. Every individual has to make a conscious choice of what he/she wants to do and achieve. Each one has to also articulate as to what they need from others in the achievement of their objectives. The society should play the role of the facilitator in this activity. This may sound theoretical but it is achievable by imbibing these principles and skills in our education system – elementary, secondary, graduate and post graduate levels. Education system in Netherlands has adopted this technique.
Second, the work of each section of the society is to be regarded as high as one’s own. It is easy to imagine and draw up a list of people/ professions without which existence of any individual would be difficult. The people should also be mentally prepared to change roles without any conditions, in case of eventualities.
Third, the state should ensure nothing but minimum standards of sustenance for every individual. The state should disengage from certain services which unnecessarily consume its energy, time and resources and force it to face the brunt of non-efficiency. Such services could be easily handled by private sector. The Govt. therefore should focus its energies in regulation rather than implementation. Once the day to day rut is out of its domain, the govt. could actually launch innovations and systems to look at larger issues of growth, development and equity.
Fourth, the agenda for policies has to be rightly identified. An overview of various policies indicate that the basic agenda or the topic of policy is wrongly identified e.g. in education, more than a policy on formation of PTA, a policy on working of PTA is required considering the realities of how their working at village levels.
Fifth, knowledge creation should be centre of all schemes and innovations. Knowledge creation is an essential component of nation building. In fact national feeling also comes from knowledge creation. It is immaterial to talk of national feeling at public forums. If we focus on building the learning curves of people, national feeling would automatically emancipate from such an effort.
Finally, the poor also have a responsibility which has to be acknowledged. They have to build their own bargaining power. Collectives or Cooperatives is a healthy way to enhance their bargaining power. Many more collectives are required in every profession they are engaged in. The govt. and private sector could come together in facilitating and incubating the cooperatives in India.
Power derives its strength from poverty. It is important that power also provides strength to poverty. The most important is a mindset and a behaviour change which has to be brought about in every class and every individual of that class. Benchmarking of our society has to be done with developed nations and not within the nation or other developing or under-developed nations. If we want a developed society our society has to develop first.
The very nature of our society has developed norms to divide ourselves into different classes and behave accordingly. Any deviation from classified behaviour is treated as unnatural and foolish. This behaviour itself leads to assuming a position where we derive pleasure by brandishing power and affluence and create an unbridgeable gap in our society. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The poor on the other hand also are complacent about their own growth. During my interaction with villagers, I was surprised to note that their aspirations are either limited or they do not have the knowledge of growth. They derive a sense of satisfaction from within their small community and its affiliation to somebody who as per them is powerful.
Thus we may attribute this peaceful coexistence in the society to the inherent behaviour of each class unless; there is an additional force which disturbs this equilibrium. These forces could be market, government, and knowledge. The modern era is influenced by all the three forces leading to confusion in each class about their role. Each class knows that their existence is dependant on the other class and therefore make more efforts to maintain the disparity.
Almost in every development forum, people make efforts to teach the capitalists to take care of the poor and ironically, the more equity gets discussed the more inequality we see.
Therefore rather than looking at resolving poverty we should look at how can we create an environment where each class (privileged and underprivileged) is respected in its identity, its culture, its work and the privileged rise above the petty issues of exploitation and look at a more robust way of participation of underprivileged in the society. This would give them dignity, it would get them an urge to acquire knowledge, it would give them avenues to grow and build society. So, how do we do this?
First, each class of the society have to realise that their existence is dependant on the other. Every individual has to make a conscious choice of what he/she wants to do and achieve. Each one has to also articulate as to what they need from others in the achievement of their objectives. The society should play the role of the facilitator in this activity. This may sound theoretical but it is achievable by imbibing these principles and skills in our education system – elementary, secondary, graduate and post graduate levels. Education system in Netherlands has adopted this technique.
Second, the work of each section of the society is to be regarded as high as one’s own. It is easy to imagine and draw up a list of people/ professions without which existence of any individual would be difficult. The people should also be mentally prepared to change roles without any conditions, in case of eventualities.
Third, the state should ensure nothing but minimum standards of sustenance for every individual. The state should disengage from certain services which unnecessarily consume its energy, time and resources and force it to face the brunt of non-efficiency. Such services could be easily handled by private sector. The Govt. therefore should focus its energies in regulation rather than implementation. Once the day to day rut is out of its domain, the govt. could actually launch innovations and systems to look at larger issues of growth, development and equity.
Fourth, the agenda for policies has to be rightly identified. An overview of various policies indicate that the basic agenda or the topic of policy is wrongly identified e.g. in education, more than a policy on formation of PTA, a policy on working of PTA is required considering the realities of how their working at village levels.
Fifth, knowledge creation should be centre of all schemes and innovations. Knowledge creation is an essential component of nation building. In fact national feeling also comes from knowledge creation. It is immaterial to talk of national feeling at public forums. If we focus on building the learning curves of people, national feeling would automatically emancipate from such an effort.
Finally, the poor also have a responsibility which has to be acknowledged. They have to build their own bargaining power. Collectives or Cooperatives is a healthy way to enhance their bargaining power. Many more collectives are required in every profession they are engaged in. The govt. and private sector could come together in facilitating and incubating the cooperatives in India.
Power derives its strength from poverty. It is important that power also provides strength to poverty. The most important is a mindset and a behaviour change which has to be brought about in every class and every individual of that class. Benchmarking of our society has to be done with developed nations and not within the nation or other developing or under-developed nations. If we want a developed society our society has to develop first.
1 comment:
Quote "The poor on the other hand also are complacent about their own growth. During my interaction with villagers, I was surprised to note that their aspirations are either limited or they do not have the knowledge of growth. They derive a sense of satisfaction from within their small community and its affiliation to somebody who as per them is powerful"
Couldn't have agreed more on this Saurabh ....
I clearly recall my failed attempts of educating a Raju and a Guddan through books .... which they never cared for ..... the only factors exciting them was a job of a Driver and a chaat thela ...
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