Social Issues & Indian Solutions

SOCIAL ISSUES AND INDIAN SOLUTIONS

Social issues are arguably the most complicated problems ever faced by mankind. Issues ranging from war to drought, all come under this title. India faces a unique challenge in coming up with feasible solutions to these problems. “Unique” in the sense that the receiving end is often suspicious and the bureaucracy is often polluted.

One should agree that, since independence, it has been a slow but decent progress. The time ahead could be the worst phase we could ever think of. Even though it is being termed and projected in a much more attractive way, coming ahead is an era of social crisis, an era of misunderstanding and mismatch of the need and the supply in every means.

In the present context, there is a war building up. A war between sensible citizens, corrupt political circles, environmentalists, social activists, media and so on. Everyone is contributing their part to this mess up. Everyone feels that they are right and their issue is of more importance and needs to be addressed. Even small issues are often blown out of proportion which gives rise to unrest elsewhere.

Only thing we can do is to try to build up a society which is self-sufficient at the lowest level. Self-sufficiency in every sense should be the goal. From water for irrigation to income generation to help in case of calamities everything should be taken care of. The solution seems quite difficult to achieve but with careful planning it is possible and has been proved to be successful in quite a few places.

As a general thought it can be accepted that multi-centered development could always be a success story. This confidence in the idea will help in taking the plan a step forward. As it said a work once started is half done. The whole idea behind this proposal is the thought that prevention is better than cure.

Water management in India can be seen as one of the biggest problem. The first thing that has to be analyzed here is the cause. Cities tend to use more water than they have, in fact more than what the adjacent areas can also supply. It is for the governing bodies to realize that and act responsibly. But the governments tend to show more importance (quite unnecessarily) to the comfort of these income generating pockets and often try to divert river waters and thereby denying the people in the lower basins of the water for agriculture, the very source of income for rural India. The Government has made an effort to implement the rain water harvesting plan in a few of the cities but it has never been taken seriously. The industrial sectors should be made to setup their own water purifying units to put the water to better use

Construction of micro-projects for water management is a wonderful solution for this problem in dry agricultural lands. But the Government seems to be negligent of this fact and the best example of this is the Narmada valley. At a few places the micro-projects have been constructed and are also being run quite successfully. But these are soon going to be submerged. Among other questions to be answered there are also environmental concerns. There was no attempt ever made so far to study the possible disasters of having such a large reservoir of water in that area (those districts are considered delicate points on the earth’s tectonic plates… remember the earthquake of Lathur??).

The relocation of the people for the sake of construction of a water project for the urban people and RELIANCE Industries is a foolish idea in this context. They are submerging thousands of hectares of cultivated land for the sake of cities and industries which are very poor in their water management. Doesn’t it sound ridiculous?? While the government claims to be building this project for the farmers of the dry districts of Gujarat, according to Medha Patkar only 4% of the water that will be diverted will reach the farmers (even if she is not right, the truth is the same).

Well this is just one example of the strategies that often go wrong. But there are a few things that can be appreciated. The plan of the SEZs is an example. The government wants to create centers of self-sufficiency. But there is a problem even with this, they are sacrificing fertile agricultural lands, instead they could go for the utilization of the waste lands. It’s all a matter of clever utilization of the resources we have.

Now how can this be achieved?? Each of these centers should be made autonomous in terms of money and judiciary. For this the governing bodies at the lowest level should be strengthened and be made answerable to the local people. This has the following advantages: (1) the people can answer their needs in a better manner and faster, (2) the people will have a feeling of satisfaction that their money is being put to use for their upliftment. The second point is the main cause of this Telangana controversy, people in coastal regions feel that their money has been poured into Hyderabad which was never of any use to them. But this idea has to be kept under constant check; the people have to be alert and should feel their responsibility.

Every system has its pros and cons, it’s just a matter of how responsible we feel and how sensibly we act. One could always ask me, “There are many great minds at work in the governing bodies, how can you blame them?” I would say, “these great minds are often overpowered by uneducated, politically anxious idiots. Do you think a great mind proposed ‘the free electricity plan’? Do you think a great mind signed off Rs440 millions for water projects without having any idea of where to build a dam? All these are political manipulations for personal gains, which will turn out to be disasters in the future.”

There are many more issues to be argued about… pollution, militancy and terrorism, liquor, reservations in educational and government organizations, taxes, crimes... this list is endless…

You are the best judge for your deeds… think!! Are you eligible to use the water you waste? land you use for constructions? There are many things you will have to answer…

DO THINGS FOR THE RIGHT CAUSE AT THE RIGHT MOMENT.

Jai hind

--buddi
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17-06-2007