Promise Bell Rings Again!

 

The new dawn of democracy has blossomed with a bunch of new promises to rekindle the diminishing hopes. The phenomenon is not new. Since independence, citizen of India has been witnessing these sorts of words. In a hope of some ray of light they keep wading their lives for five years only to be showered with some new promises with the advent of every new government. The promises made at the time of independence are still waiting to see the light of the day and by now the list has become so long that one wonders whether the dreams woven beautifully by our leaders could ever be able to get place other than the white sheets. This time around though, with the unveiling of 100 days programme - to woo the aam aadmi- the government has announced through the words of the President that the wait is now no longer of five years but of 100 days only. Sounds really musical to the ears but the question is- are these words really going to see the light of the day? Are they really going to be beneficial for the aam-aadmi as it claims? Towards the benefit of the poor, the most stunning amongst the promises is that people living below poverty line as also called BPL whose daily income is less than a dollar- will now get 25 kg wheat or rice a month at Rs. 3 per kg. Sounds delicious but who will decide who belongs to BPL and who belongs to APL(above poverty line) and if the condition of an APL is better than the BPL? Suppose, a BPL person whose daily income is less than a dollar i.e. earns Rs.40-50 a day has two members in his family and an APL person who earns Rs. 60-70 a day and has six members in his family then who is more poor and more needy-APL or BPL? How could the scheme be able to affect the right target then? Moreover, is rice or wheat the only necessity of life? are not there other necessities like clothing, shelter, proper sanitation and clean drinking water too beside fuels and utensils to cook and eat the given rice or wheat? These days when one has to pay even for safe drinking water how could these needs of theirs be fulfilled, has the government ever given a grain of thought in this direction? Every human being has the right to live with dignity and without these basic needs his life is no better than animals who just fill his stomach anyway and sleep anywhere-on the pavements or under the trees. Doesn’t the government want to help them live their life with dignity or does it wish to keep a section of people always in poor state to rule them without any hurdle and keep their vote-banks alive, keep an issue alive for the next elections. If progress and development of nation is in the minds of the government should not the measures have been taken for the uplift of the poor instead of giving them benefits for being in the state of poverty so that they could never think of coming out of their downtrodden- condition. Should not there have been provisions to generate employment opportunities, provisions to make every people employed, provisions to increase lower minimum wages so that there could not only be more employed people but also they could earn better hence enjoy their life with dignity and decency, shedding off the tag of poor and wanting. Authorities should see to it that not a single person remains poor and in want of basic necessities of life. A nation will develop only if its citizens are developed - financially, physically and mentally. A good employment, the only arms to eradicate poverty, comes with better education only. Effective measures are required to be taken in this direction too. It's not that nothing has been done so far. National Literacy Mission is running for years, there is provision in our constitution for free and compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age. But despite having these measures it's an irony that according to 2005 Global Education Monitoring Report, every third illiterate person happens to be an Indian, India has the dubious distinction of one of the highest levels of illiteracy in the world. The government is now going to launch and execute National Female Literacy Mission- how effective this scheme is going to be- could be better apprehended from the present stats. The authorities have to realize that only words in air and ink on paper will not bring any change. It requires proper implementation with honesty and firm determination which unfortunately our executive bodies are in lacking. Moreover, only literacy will not do anything, there should be a provision for proper education facility which enables one to get a decent job with decent earnings hence living life enjoying all the basic human rights. Most important step in this direction is to make the poor understand the benefits of being educated. A common belief among them is that more hands means more jobs hence they keep increasing their families giving birth to children and engaging them in work since their childhood or may say since their infancy. Efforts should be made to make them aware of their basic rights as a human being and their right to live with dignity and decency. They should be realized that having proper education they could be able to get jobs which helps them earn more and keep their family in better condition, they should also be counseled to have smaller families which would ultimately help cut the expenses and instead of sending their wards to work they could send them to schools to study and make their future better. But these unfortunate souls have access only to government schools which demonstrate a condition not less than pathetic. Besides the lack of basic infrastructure like, walls, roofs, sanitation facility and drinking water, the other most important element rarely seen in government schools are teachers. Either there is no teacher or one teacher has to teach the whole school. When we talk of female literacy and express concern over female student drop-outs we don’t even bother to think that it could be lack of proper sanitation facility that blocks their way to school. These shortcomings must be erased. Before executing any plans, one should analyze all the aspects of it if one wants a good result. Moreover, the need of the time is to strengthen the root first because without a concrete foundation no structure can ever be erected. And what happens to these 100 day dreams- only a day after 100 will tell. Until then, good luck to aam-aadmi.