Independence ~ Part I

Such a beautiful sunny day. It seemed like even the sky was celebrating freedom today, freedom from the daily overcast and incessant downpour of the seasonal monsoon. There seemed something different today; I woke up to patriotic melodies coming out of a neighbourhood speaker. Come on! It's the Indian Independence Day ,  that one day we all acknowledge the "Indian-ness" in us ( or so we like to believe).

The Indian National Flag

The entire neighbourhood looked beautiful, resplendent with little Indian flags. Almost every neighbouring apartment I could lay my eyes on had the tricolour fluttering high above in the air. A sudden pride does take over your heart, you got to admit. As Lata ji's voice echoed , filling the air with chants of "Jana Gana Mana", I decided to glance through today's headlines. The Prime Minister's speech was the highlight for obvious reasons.

"PM Modi Keeps His Promise With Shortest Independence Day Speech In 4 Years", read the headlines on one site. Our Prime Minister is an amazing orator, and has indeed made some good points. It's our 71st Independence Day : A journey of seventy one years marked with glories and pitfalls alike. The following is a young Indian's take on the current scenario of her motherland .

PM Narendra Modi delivering his 4th Independence Day speech

RUPIYAH : ECONOMIC DIVIDES AND BRIDGING THE GAP

Seventy one years and the ameer-gareeb (rich-poor) divide continues to haunt the dreams of a unified nation. It's a shame that not every Indian has accessibility to a basic standard of living. A large population of the nation resides in slums which have very poor sanitary and hygiene conditions. A lot of it is directly related to it's booming population count. Number of jobs is limited while there is unlimited work force waiting to be utilized to it's true potential. But is the work force adequately skilled? Children dropping out of schools to work so that they can contribute to their family funds is still not a very rare sight.The point brings us back to equity and proper monetization of the nation. 

While 500 and 1000 rupees notes were banned, 2000 rupees notes were introduced during the Demonetization phase in India.

While saying that, it is also true that the current government has made some serious attempts to redistribute wealth in the nation. The wave of "demonitization" hit the country strong and sound. Demonitization may be a topic open to debate but it sure has caused a stir in the country, retrieving a  lot of India's smuggled wealth. An attempt to digitize transactions and money as much as possible; it has helped bring in transparency, track black money and also track funding of terror organizations. Bravo India, on that move. 

SWADESH AND THE "MAKE IN INDIA" INITIATIVE : EPIC OR FAIL?

While demonitization was a bold move, another government venture that called for a lot of appreciation was the "Make in India" move.  "Devised to transform India into a global design and manufacturing hub, Make in India was a timely response to a critical situation: by 2013, the much-hyped emerging markets bubble had burst, and India’s growth rate had fallen to its lowest level in a decade.", cites the official website of Make in India. While this is a novel approach, can it be called a success story?

The above image shows the top 10 sectors that attracted direct foreign inflows into the nation. And the statistics clearly show the non-manufacturing sectors emerging to be the absolute favourites. The real goal for our nation would be to widen the manufacturing sectors, to create a set of skilled workforce so that imports could be reduced and the economy could be strengthened by using products mainly manufactured within the country. Just like the "Swadeshi Movement" that our forefathers had launched 71 years back, boycotting British goods and using only Made in India products. 

But sadly, even after 71 years, India quite hasn't been able to acquire a strong foothold in the manufacturing industry. While most of the products globally available are "Made in China", giving our Chinese neighbours a huge economic advantage; the few Made in India products that are "manufactured" in India primarily have their parts manufactured some place else and are mostly , merely assembled in India. According to some of the leading economists of our country, including Mr. Raghuram Rajan, former Reserve Bank of India governor, Make in India cannot be a strategy for import substitution. In Mr.Rajan's words, "an import substitution strategy or an incentive driven export led growth mechanism will not work for India." 

Although this initiative is absolutely not a failure, it carries the burden of 1.3 billion dreams. Whether it emerges to be a success story or not, only time shall tell. As of now, it's neither. To read more about "Made in China" vs. "Make in India" , this article over here , I found to be an interesting read.

SWACCH BHARAT ABHIYAAN : THE CLEAN INDIA MOVEMENT

India? Oh my God, it's so dirty! Accept it or not, but apart from all those praises that foreigners usher on us regarding food and hospitality and yada, yada, yada, cleanliness and hygiene of the country have always invited raised eyebrows and a fair amount of criticism. And it is fair since we can't exactly boast of the cleanest cities and roads in our country either. 

The Swachh Bharat (Clean India) logo

"Cleanliness is next to Godliness" , they say. To deal with the hygiene conditions of the nation, on the occasion of the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary,  the Swachh Bharat Mission was launched on 2nd October, 2014. The largest cleanliness drive to be conducted in India ever, it surely has created a lot of awareness about cleanliness and hygiene in the nation. In fact, I have actually found average Indians around me a bit more conscious about public cleanliness than they were before.But I still believe, that for this to be effectively implemented, heavier fines should be levied on law offenders and the law enforcers need to be extremely strict about it. With this mission, the government aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2 October 2019, the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, by constructing 12 million toilets in rural India, at a projected cost of ₹1.96 lakh crore (US$30 billion). What better way to clean the country than by involving each citizen into the drive? Kudos!

AAROGYA : THE PLIGHT OF THE INDIAN HEALTH SECTOR

The health sector in this country is one such sector that probably personifies Chaos, herself. Steeped in dishonesty and fraud, it is a shame that a country's hospitals which are supposed to be equivalent to shrines of human faith are simply warehouses of malice which take undue advantage of innocence , ignorance and trust put in them. And India happens to be the home of Sushruta, one of the first physicians the world has ever known( he lived centuries before Hippocrates, in and around 1000 - 800 BC ).

Patients and their relatives on the floor at Government hospitals

The government hospitals are a sorry sight altogether. Hygiene doesn't exist in these hospitals. Often one can find patients lying on the floor if there is shortage of beds in a ward. Strays can freely roam in and out of the hospital rooms. By providing free treatment or treatment at subsidized costs , the government isn't doing the nation a favour. In fact. it is it's duty. But it is failing to provide even basic treatment in a clean, hygienic environment quite miserably.

In fact a blaring example, is an incident that took place just a few days ago : The Gorakhpur tragedy. Death of almost 60 infants because of shortage of oxygen supply, with 23 infants dying under 24 hours. The first question that arises here is, how did the shortage occur? Well, the hospital authorities hadn't cleared the dues of the oxygen supplier for months, with dues amounting to Rs. 70 lakh. Amidst political hassles, money laundering authorities and dishonest doctors, it is the common people who are suffering the most for the vested interests of a few. One wonders, how long?

A cartoonist's satirical take on the Gorakhpur tragedy

A cartoonist's take on hospital bills.

Don't be under the impression that the private hospitals are absolute meccas of honesty and integrity. Dishonesty peaks at such places where the innocent patient is billed for tests, medicines they probably have never even undergone or taken. In fact, at times, patients are made to take painful tests which have no connection with their actual ailment. Say, you have a stomach ulcer, they ask you to get a brain scan done. Patients are exploited of their ignorance. And there is absolutely nothing to stop these right now : It's an industry now, a business. The Health Industry is a better name, perhaps?

We freed ourselves from the British Raj 71 years ago. In these seventy one years we have achieved a lot and are yet to achieve more..from a developing country to a super power, India dreams to reinstate herself to it's former glory that her glorious history boasts of. A country with the highest youth population, India surely has a long way to go treadstoning the ungodly elements in house. Listing a few of the ups and downs above, and shall be enlisting a few more in my next post, I'd like to conclude this post with one of my favourite poems on my motherland by Henry Loius Vivian Derozio :