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This book has been written in view of the existing inner social conflicts and the living conditions of the majority of common people of my country whose lives have been adversely affected by certain wrong policies, misplaced priorities for the areas of development and poor governance of successive governments of India since independence of my country. Despite good economic growth of my country, the beneficial effects of development have failed to percolate down to the masses with lack of even minimum basic civic amenities required for a decent living. The above basic facts have compelled the author to write some true facts about the living conditions of the majority of poor common people of my country in this book. Dr.Vinay Kumar Chadha Author
Citation preview
MY COUNTRY INDIA
And
FEELINGS
of
A COMMON MAN
By
Dr. Vinay Kumar Chadha
All rights are reserved
2
Preface
This book has been written on basis of my personal feelings about inner
conflicts of the existing social set up and prevailing living conditions of
people of my country and also on the basis of personal interaction, over a
period of many years, with people of different sections of the society of my
country ranging from poor human beings to high Government officials &
businessmen with social tags of scheduled cast (SC), scheduled tribe (ST),
other backward class (OBC) and general category (GC).
I hope this book will be helpful for all members of “Sarvochaya Serva Manav
Samaaj”, the highest Creation of the God, of my country in enhancing feelings
of oneness, brotherhood and social harmony among different sections of the
society irrespective of their identification caste, creed, religion and region.
I would also like to mention that the character “Ram Niwas” in this book is
totally imaginary and does not relate to anyone living or dead.
The views expressed in this book do not intend to hurt the feelings of any
individual and in case the feelings of anyone are hurt, then I extremely regret
that.
The author of this small book is a medical graduate from Institute of Medical
Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and has taken voluntary
retirement for a social cause after putting in 35 plus years of glorious central
government medical service.
Author
Dr.Vinay Kumar Chadha
3
CHAPTER ONE
A COMMON MAN versus GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION
This is my country India with a population of about 121 crore people. Here I
always feel that I have my own people. My country is known by many names
as India, Hindustan, Bharatvarsh or Bharat and its people are known as
Indians, Bhartiya or Hindustani world-wide who speak different kinds of
languages and have diverse culture.
I am known in my country as a common man “aam aadmi”, the term that
includes crores of poor and middle class people of my country, you can say
whom nobody knows or recognizes as a prominent citizen. I can be a Hindu,
Muslim, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsi or anybody who remains as an unknown
identity for other crores of people of my country except for one’s near and
dear ones.
I generally live only on hopeless hopes and dreams that one day, time will
come when my circumstances, my life, my family’s life, my living conditions
will also change for better in my country. When I will have sufficient potable
water to drink, sufficient food to eat for myself and my family, will have good
school for my children, will have minimum basic civic amenities in my area,
improved sanitation conditions, a house away from choked and stinking
drains, when there will not be any water, mosquito, housefly and food borne
diseases like gastroenteritis, worms infestation, typhoid fever, jaundice,
malaria, dengue, filariasis. When there will not be any mixing of potable water
with sewer water. When health authorities will do their job sincerely and
regularly to supply safe drinking water to the helpless people of my country.
When the kitchen, attached with hotels, restaurants, eating joints and catering
service providers, where food is prepared will be regularly checked for
maintaining hygienic conditions in preparation of food. When food handling
staff and venders in the market will be regularly and sincerely checked
medically by the health authorities to exclude any contagious or
communicable diseases in them. It is pitiable to see some small restaurants,
food venders in cities, towns and villages selling snacks and sweets in totally
unhygienic conditions just near open and choked drains with plenty of
houseflies around and with moving traffic on side of restaurants and food
venders releasing lot of contaminated dust getting settled down over the
snacks and sweets and the poor people unknowingly buying that contaminated
food stuff without realizing the consequences adversely affecting their health.
I fail to understand why sale of such contaminated food stuff is allowed by the
health authorities.
I do not know when the health and education delivery system for the people of
my country will be considered a top priority by my government
administration. When the people of my country will have continuous supply
4
of electricity in agriculture sector, industries, commercial establishments and
residential areas and when all roads of my country will be well maintained and
adequately lit.
When agriculture produce in my country will not get rotten and wasted in
open for want of adequate cold storage capacity where millions of poor people
are facing problem of hunger.
I also do not know when no one will dare to manufacture and sell adulterated
milk, milk products and other eatables. When no one will dare to manufacture
and sell spurious medicines in the market. When no one will dare to play with
the health and life of the people of my country. When no one manufacture and
sell fake and duplicate spare automobile parts. When law enforcing agencies
will do their job sincerely and my country will be free from crimes and
criminals. when I will feel safe and secured for myself and my family in my
house, in my village, in my city and anywhere in my country.
But unfortunately I have yet to see the implementation of required minimum
basic needs of a common man of my country being fulfilled for one’s decent
living and these living conditions make me sad and frustrated.
As if above factors are not enough for my sufferings, I am also being
frequently exploited by different political parties and their leaders for political
sponsored “bandhs”, “dharnas”, agitations, strikes and very importantly my
vote at the time of periodical elections of corporations, state assemblies and
parliament. It is me who is tortured mentally in all walks of my life in one
way or the other by the attitude and policies of the same political leaders and
their representatives who are voted to power generally by this very poor
common man.
These days a common man is a very popular term and is being used by the
leaders and their political parties alike in election manifestoes and election
speeches. Since it is me in this poor common man who gets easily lured by the
hopes and dreams shown by the leaders of different political parties, hopes
which are never meant to be fulfilled. Many of these political leaders are
always eager to exploit the caste, religious and regional sentiments of a
common man through media and other existing propaganda methods with the
basic aim to divide these classes of common man for the purpose of
polarization of different sections of the society on the basis of caste, creed,
religion and region for the sake of so called vote bank politics. Apart from
this, a common man is also being targeted fearlessly by the notorious elements
in the society involved in cheating business by floating fake companies, by
doing cloning of credit cards and by doing different types of frauds.
In the name of poor common man or for the sake of common man, our leaders
of various political parties are promising one thing or the other to alleviate
their sufferings which are in fact the creation of their own political deeds and
5
policies. In a way they first mentally hit a common man and put him under
stress and then pretend trying to find out remedies. A very good example of
this was recently seen in very important northern state of my country where
first authorities allowed very large number of unauthorized colonies, with
population of about 50 lakh, to flourish for many year without any provision
of basic civic amenities, without any system of sewage and garbage disposal
forcing the people of the unauthorized colonies to live in totally unhygienic
conditions in constant company of foul stink, plenty of mosquitoes &
houseflies for years together. This was done without any concern for the
residents about creation of unhygienic living conditions for them and then for
political gains the leaders of the ruling party sympathized with the residents of
those unauthorized colonies and announced regularization of the unauthorized
colonies near the times of elections by doing wide publicity. I fail to
understand why at all these unauthorized colonies were allowed to flourish
without providing the area with basic civic amenities. Have the authorities
taken any punitive action against the responsible officers and staff who
allowed the residents to build unauthorized colonies without provision of
basic civic amenities thus forcing the residents to live in a deplorable
unhygienic conditions resulting in many of the preventable water borne,
mosquito borne and food borne diseases in those particular colonies with
spread of these diseases to other parts of the state. Such a situation seems to be
totally appalling & disgusting.
Innocent children living in deplorable conditions in my country
I fail to understand why people do not understand that only by keeping their
houses clean, without any concern for surrounding areas and other colonies
with deplorable sanitary conditions, will not prevent the breeding of
mosquitoes and houseflies and the occurrence of diseases like dengue,
malaria, typhoid fever and jaundice. All cities, towns, villages in my country
are dirty with filthy and unhygienic conditions prevailing all around and are
required to be kept clean with laying of proper sewerage system with a system
6
of proper disposal of garbage and supply of safe drinking water along with
other measures to prevent all preventable diseases.
I fail to understand why sincere efforts were not made by the concerned
authorities to prevent all commonly occurring preventable diseases. I feel
application of knowledge of preventive medicine has not been sincerely put to
use in my country.
Always it is me in a common man who suffers during rainy season on broken
roads sometimes even putting my life in danger of drowning by walking on
water logged streets with invisible deep drains without manhole covers. It is
me who suffers from many preventable diseases like dengue, malaria, typhoid
fever, gastroenteritis, jaundice etc, It is me who has to constantly bear the foul
stink from the open and choked drains near my residential colony. It is me
who has to live in company of plenty of mosquitoes and houseflies in my
house and in my locality. It is me who always suffer regarding issues relating
to insufficient basic civic amenities like water, electricity, schools, roads and
poor sanitation. It is me who suffers for want of safety, security of self and
family members. It is me who suffers from poor education and health delivery
system, poor housing, rampant corruption and from fear of being cheated
anywhere in money matters or in purchase of adulterated consumables like
milk, milk products, oil, cereals or even spurious medicines required for the
sick members of one’s family.
Sanitation has so far been totally neglected by the authorities for the last 65
years and no sincere efforts have been made to reduce the human sufferings in
my country from the preventable diseases being spread through contaminated
water, mosquitoes, houseflies and food. The authorities are not making any
sincere efforts to eliminate breeding of mosquitoes & houseflies, supply
clean potable water to the people of my country and do not have any effective
concern for food safety. No one in my city, town or village knows who will be
the next target of dreaded gastroenteritis, dengue fever, malaria, typhoid or
jaundice. I feel that the priorities of the government administration for
required areas of development are totally misplaced.
Life in Slums in my country
7
I feel, in fact, our leaders don’t want that the sufferings of a common man
should ever be mitigated. That is why that most of the time their policies are
without looking into the common problems of this common man of the
country, who constitutes majority of population of our country as a whole.
The policies of our existing leaders have a clear motive of dividing the
different sections of society of a common man of this country on the basis of
caste, creed, religion or region for achieving their personal goals in politics. I
feel our leaders always work to increase their vote bank through dubious ways
of polarizing the society on the basis of caste, creed, religion region and by
excessive use of money power for on the spot purchase of vote of poor people
of the society by distributing small amount of money in cash, alcoholic drinks
and other intoxicants making the poor people addicted to the intoxicants for
each vote rather than by working positively for common man of the country to
alleviate one’s sufferings.
Why our leaders do not make sincere efforts to make our country worth living
place where no one is scared to drink water anywhere, where there will not be
any need of mineral water, where everyone feels safe and secured for self and
one’s family, where sanitary conditions are of highest order in villages, towns
and cities, where all preventable diseases as mentioned above are totally
prevented by effective preventive measures by concerned authorities to reduce
unnecessary human sufferings, where each and every citizen of my country is
respected and treated with love, care and sympathy and not with neglect and
apathy irrespective of one’s identification caste, creed, religion and region.
But it is not happening as expected by a common man of my country and
being a common man is a sort of mental torture in my country which varies
from individual to individual depending upon the economic condition of one’s
family. Poorer the economic condition, more and more numbers of mental and
physical tortures one has to face in my country and this is for sure that no one
is there to listen to one’s grievances.
_______
8
CHAPTER TWO
A COMMON MAN VERSUS SOCIETY
I live with my family as an unknown entity since many years in a village on
the periphery of one of small city of my country. You can say I am part a
larger group of people whom only very few in society recognize. Almost
similar is the story of every one in of my area.
I belong to a very poor family. My father was an illiterate and worked as a
laborer in fields of a landlord of my village with a meager earning of about
Rs. 100 per day. To meet the two ends meet, my mother used to work in
landlords house as a maid doing all household petty works with all attached
humiliation. The total income of the family varied from 3000-5000 per month.
I have two brothers and two sisters. I am the youngest child in my family. My
age is about 34 years and my name is Ram Niwas. May be my parents kept
my name as Ram Niwas as they might have thought that what can be more
beautiful and powerful than the name of God Ram and what can be more
beautiful than the house of God. But they must not have ever imagined that
the whole life of their beloved son is going to be passed in state of poverty in
a one small room house in 24 hours company of mosquitoes and houseflies
near constantly stench emanating blocked open sewer drain full of filth and
dirty water. Sanitation around my house and in a village is very poor with
open drains and pools of dirty stagnant water all around with constant stink
emanating from them. Only few houses have their own septic tanks and toilets
but others probably do not have money to have their own septic tanks and
toilet facility in houses and therefore going to the fields for natures call. There
are terrible living conditions prevailing in my area. The basic civic amenities
are totally lacking in my locality. There is no tap water, no street light, no
system of disposal of garbage, no sewerage system and no roads but many
poor people are also using cell phones may be the communication with cell
phones has become much better. There is one hand pump for fetching water
for the people in my locality, the water of which has never been tested for its
quality by the health authorities. There is no school in the vicinity and
children have to go to a school far away from their houses for studies. Every
time some big promises are made by the politicians during the election period
by the leaders of various political parties but once election is over nobody
bothers to address the grievances of the poor people residing over there.
Sometimes some people are tortured by the winning or losing political party
for their known political inclinations that is why everyone is scared of
speaking about their political inclination. I have seen over the period of time
that whether you vote or do not vote, whether one’s chosen political party
wins or loses but there seems to be no improvement at all in living conditions
of poor common people.
9
Living conditions of members of ‘Sarvochaya Serva Manav Samaaj’ in my
country
Despite extreme difficulties and poor economic condition of my family I
could study and pass class 12th at the age of 19. I tried my level best to fulfill
my dreams. I started doing hard work to achieve my goals without any
guidance or coaching because of poor economic conditions of my family.
Anyhow despite poor economic condition of my family I could do graduation
in BA from a private college. Following which I started applying for the
competitive examinations. I took competitive exams for group ‘C’ jobs in
Nationalized Banks, Railways, state subordinate services continuously for 3-4
times with a hope to get selected but I could not make it. But as the destiny
would have it even after a lot of hard work and even with social tag of OBC
belonging to a very poor family I failed to get selected anywhere in the
desired Government job and ultimately started doing a petty job of a caretaker
in a factory at the age of 27. I failed to understand the advantage of this social
tag of OBC for poor people with meager income, whom many leaders and
people even call as belonging to “pichchri jaati,”.
I still remember that like many other children of my school I was not aware
of my social tag till class 9th in school when my class teacher asked each and
every child to stand up and tell about his or her social category while filling
up forms for 10th class Board examination. Though I could not answer same
day but next day I confirmed from my father that we belonged to Other
Backward Class (OBC) also called as “pichchri jaati” by many people and
political leaders alike and told my category to my class teacher the next day.
Later on I came to know that the social category of OBC of people are further
divided into Creamy and non-Creamy layer and it is non-Creamy layer of
OBC who are eligible for some reserved seats in education and Government
jobs. But what was the relation of my knowledge and examination with my
social status? At that point of time I really felt degraded and humiliated when
10
class teacher asked about my social category but could not say anything.
Similar was the story of other students belonging to Scheduled caste (unsuchit
jaati), Scheduled tribe (unsuchit-janjaati) and General category when they
were also asked to stand up in class to tell their category. At that point of time
I failed to make out why these people talk about the category of human beings
but certainly now I understand that these categories are associated with certain
discriminatory benefits for the socially tagged people in the fields of
education, government service and reserved constituencies in elections to
various constitutional bodies but at the cost of self-respect of human beings.
The leaders of my country have classified the members of “Sarvochaya Serva
Manav Samaaj” of my country into four categories of SC, ST, OBC and GC
for certain negligible discriminatory benefits to them thus humiliating and
degrading the human beings and the humanity in the society before any kind
of help is rendered to those socially tagged members of the society.
I came to know through government advertisements for the various
government jobs and for admission in higher education that 15% vacancies are
reserved for SC and 7.5% of vacancies are reserved for ST category of human
beings without any ceiling on income for the beneficiaries indicating if the
person is earning even more than two lakh per month still one’s children are
entitled to the benefits of the reservation, on the other hand 27% vacancies are
reserved for non-Creamy OBC category of human beings with ceiling of
annual income up to 6lacs/year (50,000/month).
But I always feel is the government really interested in helping poor people or
already well off people? I feel that because of wide disparity of financial
status among different sections of socially tagged SC, ST and OBC category
of people, this reservation policy is just a mirage “MIRIG TRISHNA” for the
majority of eligible poor class of socially tagged people and I feel it has
become a recurrent cycle of advantage for the children of economically and
educationally well off socially tagged SC,ST and OBC category of people.
On the face of it, it seems to be a good percentage of reservation for the
socially tagged people but looking into about 85crore of 121 crore people of
my country being socially tagged how does it make a difference for those
majority of socially tagged poor people who still live in a miserable conditions
without even minimum basic civic amenities in comparison to those negligible
percentage of already economically and educationally well off socially tagged
people with all facilities and privileges at their door step resulting in
absolutely negligible advantage for majority of socially tagged poor people.
No doubt there are various welfare schemes run by central and state
governments for socially tagged people of SC,ST,OBC category and
minorities but I totally fail to understand why there seems to be no positive
effect of these beneficial welfare schemes on the poor socially tagged people
of this country who still are forced to lead a miserable life without even
minimum basic civic amenities. These poor people are still living in an
11
absolutely unhygienic conditions without potable water, electricity, toilets,
sewerage system in constant company of mosquitoes and houseflies adjacent
to blocked open drains and pool of stagnant dirty filthy water.
But certainly many people fail to understand that I like others, belong to the
highest and the best creation of the God, the “sarvochya rachna” constituting
“Sarvochaya Serva Manav Samaaj” of which I am also a member like any
other human being all over the world. I don’t understand why has this best
creation of the God the “Sarvochaya Rachna” has been labeled and
categorized by the leaders of my country.
Now since quite some time “common man” has become a very popular term
and is being commonly used and almost always exploited on the issues
concerning common man like inflation, fuel prices in my country for the sake
of political gains by organizing politically sponsored agitations, bandhs,
dharnas, strikes by various political parties for their political gains. The
majority of crowd of people taking part in the agitations, “dharnas”, “bandhs”,
strikes is always formed by the common man and is also at the receiving end
of police “lathi” charge, police firing and arrests. But unfortunately it is this
common man, in whose name these political agitations are organized, suffers
much more during such large scale agitations at local or national level than
without them. During these “bandhs” and strikes at national level all transport
system comes to standstill with undue stoppages of trains mid way between
stations putting traveling people of all age groups to suffer a lot for hours
together who eagerly and desperately wait to reach their destinations without
water, eatables in scorching heat without any fault of theirs. Government
transport buses are unnecessarily damaged and burnt which are meant for
these very common people who burn them. During such agitations daily wage
earners like “rehrri walas”, “rickshaw walas” and daily wagers like them are
hit hard without any earning whose families survive on little earnings on daily
basis. Sometimes serious patients cannot be taken to hospitals as roads leading
to hospitals are blocked. Many office goers cannot reach their offices. Normal
life gets virtually paralyzed with the resultant huge financial loss and the
height is when sponsoring leaders from political parties term the strikes and
“bandhs” as successful with broad smile on their face without even a little
concern for the poor daily wage earners and their families who survive on the
daily earnings and whose bread they have snatched for a day, serious patients
who could not be taken to hospitals, children who could not reach schools and
colleges and those who got seriously injured or killed during police action
with huge economic loss to the nation. This is all very unfortunate for my
poor developing nation where all round poverty with high hunger index is
very much visible without any concern of those leaders.
But unfortunately there are no strikes, agitations, “bandhs” and “dharnas”
organized by any of the political parties for real concerns of the common
man regarding insufficient basic civic amenities, unavailability of potable
water, insufficient electricity, lack of sanitary conditions with poor sewerage
12
system, absent surface drainage system, very poor roads, frequent stagnation
of water here and there, mosquitoes, houseflies and food borne diseases like
dengue, malaria, filaria, typhoid fever, jaundice, diarrhea etc, frequent thefts
and frequent occurrence of heinous crimes like rapes, murders, dacoities, road
hold-ups etc. There are no protests by the political parties for very important
concern of common man regarding one’s safety and security in day to day life.
I fail to understand why these political parties do not protest regarding main
basic issues concerning common man? May be they do not have solutions for
those basic issues or there is no deliberate attempt to solve these basic issues
of much concern to poor common man. The issues of poor basic civic
amenities and poor sanitation related diseases, poor health and education
delivery system are giving much more problems to a common man.
But the political parties are always eager to misuse the common man for the
purpose of mass agitations, “dharnas”, “bandhs” and valuable votes. Common
man is always seen as a vote bank by the politicians of various political parties
alike as it has been observed over a period of time that it is mainly the poor
common man who votes in majority in each election and constitutes majority
of vote share. More over it is me in this poor common man who easily gets
lured by some money and alcohol as on the spot bribe apart from mostly false
promises of getting jobs, water, electricity, roads and overall development of
the area by the politicians of different political parties during times of election.
The political parties are always eager to exploit the caste, religious and
regional sentiments of a common man through media and other existing
propaganda methods with the basic aim to divide these classes of common
man belonging to same “Sarvochaya Serva Manav Samaaj”. It seems to be
very unfortunate for my country. It is totally surprising and troublesome for
me as a common man as to why my politicians and leaders don’t function in
the larger interest of all round prosperity and progress of people of my
country.
I certainly appreciate some good development in field of science &
technology in my country but either the development is just not sufficient for
a very high population of my country or your development filter is so
microscopic that the effects and the benefits of development have failed to
percolate down to the masses or the priorities for the required areas of
development are wrongly placed that the common man “aam aadmi”, is still
facing lot of problems in one’s day to day life. Everything seems to be done in
the name of this poor common man by our national & state leaders but
nothing seems to be working for him who unfortunately continues to survive
only on hopeless hopes and dreams and is still very much suffering from the
ill effects of poor governance.
______
13
CHAPTER THREE
EDUCATION –THE FUTURE OF MY COUNTRY
Right from the time of independence of our country or even before that there
was no bar of any kind on taking education by going to the schools and
colleges. But the access to the education was available to the very few
percentage of our population because of the good economic condition of their
families. Education to majority of the children was in a way intentionally
denied by their parents for the probable reasons of Poverty, lack of schools,
gender based education with preference to educate male children, lack of
safety and security to a girl child or the far distanced schools.
At present also almost same factors are responsible for contributing to lack of
education and illiteracy. These factors are lack of 100% quality and
meritorious teachers, lack of good teaching in schools with stress on private
tuition and coaching by school teachers, poor infrastructure of schools without
separate toilets for girls & boys, play ground, higher cost of education and
lack of job oriented education in the schools resulting in knowledge without
its practical and economical utility.
Other factors are lack of uniform syllabus in the country excluding regional
languages, categorization of the different social groups of human beings
resulting in social discrimination of children in schools, gender based
discrimination with preference of son’s education,
I feel the “Right To Education Act” with education only up to 14 years of age
and with inclusion of existing policy of reservation will not make any
difference till above mentioned probable factors are solved in the larger
interest of children and future of the country by following ways:
1. Imparting vocational training in different skills: There is an availability of
only about 20% skilled work force in my country and remaining about 80%
work force is unskilled. This is because of lack of job oriented education in my
country resulting in low employment capabilities and poor economic conditions
of the people of the country. It is pertinent to impart job oriented skills to the
school going children in vocational courses at school level by introducing at
least two vocational courses in schools which will function in collaboration with
existing industries, Industrial Training Institutes, Vocational Training Centers or
the best artisans of the area. At least 90-120 minutes of total school timings need
to be utilized for training in vocational courses from 8th class onwards twice or
thrice a week and during vacations. The children are likely to learn at least
14
50-60% trade in various vocational skills by the time they pass out 10th or 12
th
standard. This training at school level to the children will be very useful in
certain professional jobs with increase in rate of employment. The children are
likely to get jobs in the same industry or with same artisan where they have
learnt skills during 5 years of vocational training from 8th-12 class of their
schooling and industries and artisan will get the skilled workforce from among
the same group of children trained by them. It will be a win-win situation for
both industries and children. This way in a long run about 80% of our unskilled
workforce can turn into a skilled workforce resulting in almost 100% skilled
workforce in our nation.
This will certainly help to uplift the poor members and youth of my country in
getting economically self dependent in the society, training industries will get
more skilled workforce, employment rate will increase, crime rate will be
remarkably reduced with employment of more and more skilled workforce,
hunger index will go down, human development index will go up, gross
happiness index and social harmony at national level will increase thus making
the nation much stronger and more peaceful.
2. Capitation fee: It is a curse in my country where unmeritorious children
with sound economic condition of their families can also acquire degrees in
different professional fields by paying hefty amount in lakhs resulting in
flourishing business of opening private colleges in various fields of education.
This business has spread all over the country with output of likely
substandard professionals in fields of even medicine and engineering hence I
feel this kind of education with capitation fee is required to be curbed in the
larger interest of the nation.
3. More schools with Good infrastructure: there is need to improve the
infrastructure of the existing schools with separate toilets for girls and boys,
supply of sufficient water, play ground and opening of more and more schools
where children don’t have to move a long distance from their residences.
Budgetary allocation for education sector needs to be increased to impart good
comprehensive education to the children in an effort to make strong nation.
4. Appointment of quality teachers: the importance of teacher in making
fruitful future of the children thus resulting in strong future of the country
must not be undermined and only quality and meritorious teachers are
required to be appointed at all levels of education. The teaching profession is
required to be given higher respect, status and emoluments at all levels to
attract good quality professional teachers. There is need to start State
Teaching Service and Central Teaching Service for appointing meritorious
teachers at school level for building a strong foundation for the growing
children.
5. Safety and security of girl child. Safety and security of girl child needs to
be ensured through tougher laws to allay fear in the minds of parents sending
15
their daughters to the schools and punishment of the culprits by fast track
courts need to be ensured.
6. Affordable fee as per economic status:
Slab system of fee structure for children as per the economic status of their
parents needs to be put in place instead of uniform fee system in order to make
education affordable for the majority of common poor children of my country.
7. Uniform syllabus: Uniform syllabus except for optional subjects in
regional languages in different states needs to be put in place all over the
country far imparting uniform job oriented education in era of competitive
examinations at state and national levels to make self dependent citizens.
8. Apart from teaching moral values, efforts to control crime at school
level by imparting the basic knowledge of different kinds of punishment, their
associated stigma and consequences against committing a crime of any kind
needs to be inculcated in the minds of children to induce a sort of fear
psychosis in an effort to make them law abiding and disciplined citizens from
the very beginning.
9. Education to all children till 10th class, as against education only up to the
age of 14 years as per Right To Education Act, needs to be ensured by the law
and made a low cost affair to enable the willing children to have good
education as long as they want to study with limited financial resources of
majority of people.
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CHAPTER FOUR
YOUTH POPULATION VERSUS
UNEMPLOYMENT PROBLEM
With about 60-65 Cr youth population (about 50% of total population) of my
country, public & private sector has failed to provide enough jobs and
employment opportunities to the youth population resulting in unavoidable and
vital problem of an unemployment of mostly unskilled but educated and
uneducated youth population of my country, who could contribute remarkably
in economic growth of my country, needs to be tackled on a priority. As this
vital segment of my country has been constantly ignored by the successive
governments, the signs of perceptible increasing levels of frustration, irritation
and intolerance in the youth of the country is leading them to committing
heinous crimes like attempt to murder, murders on just slightest provocation in
day to day life and other criminal activities of road hold ups, looting of banks,
kidnapping, rapes & more importantly they are getting entrapped by the anti
national forces into more dangerous field of terrorism for certain monetary
gains.
I always used to feel about how to solve this unavoidable and immediate
problem of an unemployment in such a high percentage of youth population of
my country which in turn is linked to various acts of different criminal activities
in the society, thus disturbing peace in the country, so that the youth of my
country is absorbed in meaningful productive employment.
I feel that the jobs in the public sector are very few in relation to large
percentage of unemployed youth population and it should not be the prerogative
of only very few percentage of total population to serve the country till 58,60,62
and 65 years of age. Therefore I feel that as an immediate measure the
retirement age should be reduced to 55 years for all future employments in
government sector with exception of teaching profession in higher education
and judiciary. There is also an urgent need to reduce the retirement age from 58,
60, 62 & 65 years to 55 years in two slabs of equal years in two years duration
in Central government, State governments, PSUs, Nationalized Banks and
Union Territories in existing strength of employees except teaching profession
in higher education and judiciary by giving some extra incentives in proportion
to the remaining duration of service so as to create at least about 1.5 Cr of jobs
of total working strength of the serving population between age group of 55-65
years in Central and State governments, PSUs, Nationalized Banks and Union
17
Territories. In addition to creating about 1.5 crore jobs for more energetic youth
population of the country over a period of two years, required posts against the
existing vacancies in various departments of Central and State governments,
PSUs, Nationalized Banks and Union Territories need to be filled up on urgent
basis.
In addition to above urgent measures, there is a need to create more job
opportunities by creating infrastructure on priority in energy and other sectors.
Apart from this, imparting vocational skills in children by continuous
training in vocational courses at school level from 8th class onwards as explained
above in chapter three of this book will go a long way in making the youth
economically self dependent and in solving the problem of unemployment in the
youth population of my country.
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18
CHAPTER FIVE
HEALTH –THE ECONOMIC LIFE LINE OF MY COUNTRY
Life of the nation is determined by health of its people , the better the health ,
the longer the life line of the country with resultant robust economic strength
and poorer the health of its people ,the shorter the life line of the country with
resultant weaker economic strength due man days loss. Everyone knows that
only the healthy person can contribute economically in the development of a
country and sick person only adds to the man days loss leading to economic
loss. In one of the recent survey conducted by international agency the total
expenditure on small infections in our nation was Rs.69000 crore in one year
while the annual health budget outlay was only Rs. 34500 crore. The man
days loss was very high with huge economic loss. I feel there is an urgent
need to prevent about 70% of commonly prevailing preventable water borne,
mosquito and housefly borne, food and sex borne diseases to reduce the
human sufferings and man days loss. Moreover I feel that effective health
delivery system should be the responsibility of the government to take care of
the health of the people with stress on prevention of commonly occurring
diseases and make the health services affordable to all citizens irrespective of
their economic status.
In my view following measures need to be taken urgently if we really want
that all our members of “Sarvochaya Serva Manav Samaaj” remain healthy
and happy and our nation remains economically strong for all times to come.
1. Application of preventive measures: Everybody knows prevention
is better than cure but this has remained as a mere advice and neither people
nor government followed the principal of prevention which could have
checked unwarranted human sufferings and casualties resulting in huge man
days loss with resultant economic loss. Our almost all cities, towns and
villages are virtually dirty with open stagnant drains, broken sewers lines or
no sewerage system at all with inadequate number or none of Sewerage
Treatment Plants. There is stagnation of filthy water here and there, an
excellent place for mosquito breeding with heaps of garbage scattered here
and there along with intolerable stink without any effective garbage disposal
system. The citizens are forced to live in a totally unhygienic conditions and
with unhygienic habits of many people, the spread of preventable diseases
remain totally unchecked. It is a very common sight to see the street food
venders and sweets shops selling sweets and eatables in open with
surrounding open dirty water drains with dust all around being emanated by
19
moving traffic thus exposing the eatables to contaminated dust and houseflies
causing many of food borne diseases.
All water, food, mosquito, housefly borne and sexually transmitted diseases
are easily preventable and need to be prevented by all means and I am totally
surprised that as to why we fail to follow what we preach and why appropriate
preventive measures are not in place to effectively check all preventable
diseases by municipal authorities which at present are causing unwarranted
human sufferings.
Life in slum-a cause of my diseases
Prevention of preventable diseases can be effectively achieved through health
education at school level making it a part of curriculum and through media as
an immediate and long term measure apart from measures to be taken by the
government and other agencies to lay down effective sewerage system with
installation of STPs and proper disposal of treated effluent into streams and
rivers in cities and towns. The construction of common septic tanks in villages
with provision of toilets in all houses of the villages, towns and cities is a
necessity. Effective measures to eliminate breeding places of mosquitoes and
houseflies by preventing stagnation of water and accumulation of garbage
dumps are required to be taken vigorously to check mosquito and housefly
borne diseases apart from other measures of eliminating adult mosquitoes,
houseflies.
Effective steps need to be taken to check the manufacturing and sale of
adulterated eatables and spurious medicines with serious health hazards. This
is causing big concern in the minds of poor common man but nothing much is
being done by the concerned agencies as there seems to be no fear at all in
minds of the culprits.
The good and sound health of the people of a country can prove to be a never
ending economic life line of a country but unfortunately in my country health
care delivery system is not effective for the poor common man or else lot
many of preventable diseases like gastroenteritis, jaundice, typhoid fever,
malaria, filaria, dengue and Kala-azar would have been vanished from my
country long ago remarkably reducing the sufferings and deaths from these
20
dreaded diseases. The absence of preventable diseases would have also
improved the economic condition of crores of our families whose earning
capacity is much reduced due these crippling diseases. But due to negligent
and lackadaisical attitude of the concerned authorities, millions of common
men in our villages, towns, cities are suffering from these dangerous
preventable diseases thus remarkably reducing their life span and adversely
affecting even their little earnings.
2. That availability of potable water is becoming a very big problem
in my country and is slowly getting inaccessible. Those who can afford are
forced to drink mineral water and have RO system installed in their houses as
the authorities have failed to supply clean potable water but I always think
about crores of poor people who do not have any access to clean potable water
and cannot afford buy mineral water or install RO system in their houses and
are forced to drink contaminated water with e.coli bacteria and other
contaminants responsible for many ailments. Whose responsibility is to supply
clean potable water to its citizens?
3. The widely prevalent business of manufacturing and supply of
adulterated eatables and spurious medicines in bulk and their sale through
retail in various parts of our country, without even a slightest regard for
human lives, is posing a constant danger of health hazards to human beings.
This is happening possibly due to lack of any kind of fear of law enforcing
agencies probably due to prevailing corruption and very slow justice delivery
system in the minds of greedy businessmen or else no one would have dared
to indulge in such a heinous crime of slow poisoning of human beings.
The big business of manufacturing and sale of fake or duplicate automobile
parts on cheaper rates is putting many innocent citizens on grave risk of road
accidents and needs to be checked by educating the citizens about the grave
risk associated with use of fake parts in their automobiles.
I fail to understand why government is unable to implement the tough laws to
prosecute such bad elements in fast track courts.
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CHAPTER SIX
ELECTRICITY: THE ESSENCE OF LIFE, ECONOMIC GROWTH and PROSPERITY
Although much work has been done to generate this essential component of
life for sustaining economic growth by making it available to the industries,
agriculture sector, daily needs of various commercial establishments and
residential colonies but it still falls remarkably short to meet the daily
requirement and expectations of the people of my country. Efforts seem to be
totally insufficient in view of very large population of my country and ever
increasing demands of electrical power for daily needs, agriculture, industries
and commercial establishments etc. as without this important source of energy
everything, which runs on this, comes to a standstill. Unfortunately sincere
efforts are not seen to be made to generate sufficient electricity through
conventional and unconventional sources. Many power plants are not working
to their full capacity or not working at all for want of coal and gas but why?
This shortage of electricity all over my country has resulted in use of large
quantity of generators to run the commercial establishments, hospitals and
occasionally during celebrations in cities and towns and villages leading to lot
of pollution due to emission of green house gases in already polluted
atmosphere affecting adversely health of the people of my country.
The electrical energy generated by hydro, thermal, gas and nuclear power
plants seems to be quite insufficient to meet with daily needs, therefore the
need to produce electricity through non-conventional renewable sources of
energy from solar power and wind-mill need to be encouraged at all levels
wherever possible. The perennial problem of shortage of power generation
needs to be tackled on a priority failing which all round development and
economic growth seems difficult in my country.
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CHAPTER SEVEN
SOCIAL CATEGORIZATION OF HUMAN BEINGS-
THE HIGHEST and THE BEST CREATION OF GOD
I think everyone knows that we, the human beings, belong to the highest and
the best creation of God among all living beings and are known as belonging
to “Sarvochaya Rachna” as told by our “Dharam Gurus”. This “Sarvochaya
Rachna” constitutes “Serva Manav Samaaj” and it is also a truth then where
is the question of one belonging to a upper and lower caste or forward and
backward caste. I feel it is only the "karma" or deeds of someone which makes
a human being forward or backward, upper or lower in status in the society
and not one's mere identification by caste which is only a part of one’s name,
our true caste remains that highest creation of God the so called “Sarvochaya
Rachna”.
If one wants to help some poor member of our “Serva Manav Samaaj” then I
think no one should have any objection to such a help but if one wants to help
someone after labeling that poor member of “Serva Manav Samaaj” with tags
like Scheduled caste(SC), Scheduled tribe(ST) and Other Backward
Class(OBC) and General category(GC) then it appears to be humiliating and
should not be acceptable as no one has any right to humiliate and degrade any
member of "Highest Creation of God" before helping that member.
I feel these tags of SC,ST, OBC and GC are humiliating social tags and need
to be removed from the constitution. Let every human being first feel being
equal to all others in the society and not have any kind of feelings of
inequality and guilt of being “lower or backward” in relation to the so called
“upper or forward” caste people.
I fail to understand why is there any social categorization of human beings at
all? It is humiliating and shameful to socially classify the highest & the best
Creation of God into different categories just for negligible discriminatory
benefits in form of reservation in education and Government jobs etc.
But the fact of the matter is that because of wide disparity of economic status
among different sections of socially tagged people, it has become a recurrent
cycle of advantage for negligible percentage of economically and
educationally well off members of socially tagged people of SC, ST and OBC
category resulting in total neglect of majority of poor members of socially
23
tagged people of the society irrespective of their identification caste, creed,
religion and region for whom any advantage from the reservation policy is just
a mirage or “mrig trishna”.
Moreover it is so humiliating to indicate one’s category whenever one is
required to fill up forms either in opening bank account in public sector banks
or for admissions in schools, colleges or for filling up bio-data in government
jobs. It is a big embarrassment to see and fill up the column “To which
category do you belong to” in required forms in schools, colleges and in
government sector. I feel this humiliating column "TO WHICH CATEGORY DO
YOU BELONG TO" should be removed from all formats in schools, colleges,
banks and government sector or where ever in use.
I feel that we should love and take care of that child who when born did not
know to which family, to which caste, religion and region he belonged to and
that innocent child exists in everyone of us. The moment that innocent child
came to know about his identification caste and religion inherited from his
parents in the society, the division among the members of highest creation of
god started resulting in divided human society which surely is detrimental to
the national unity and integrity. So much so that this highest creation of God
is so much divided on basis of one’s identification caste and religion that
prospective candidates choose their seats for fighting elections on the basis of
percentage of population of particular identification caste and religion
seeking advantage in polarization of “Serva Manav Samaaj” without realizing
that this attitude weakens the country as one should be known by the ideology
of one’s political party & ones past record, if any, and not by one’s
identification caste, religion & region.
The strength lies in unity and not in the divided society and I feel we must
remain united as one family irrespective of one’s identification caste, creed,
religion and region in order to have enhanced feelings of oneness,
brotherhood, social harmony and happiness among different sections of
society leading to a very strong nation.
The identification caste is just part of one’s name and the religion acts like a
cushion against stress and strains of life. One can follow any religion for
attaining mental peace and one should be respected for that.
But one must not forget that we all belong to the highest creation of God and
we should treat each and every member of this “Serva Manav Samaaj” with
love, care and sympathy not with neglect and apathy.
I always feel what kind of leader is one who by his actions and policies
divides the people of my nation on the basis of one’s identification caste,
creed, religion & region leading to feelings of bitterness and disharmony
among different sections of the society resulting in a weak and divided nation,
a situation which is being constantly exploited to the maximum by invisible
24
enemies of humanity for their advantage. Let us not allow such a situation to
develop and keep united irrespective of our identification caste, creed, religion
and region.
I, as a common man, feel a true leader is one who makes all out efforts to keep
the people of his country united and always work to create feelings of love,
brotherhood and oneness among different sections of the society and at the
same time achieve targets aimed to enhance economic growth, human
development index and human happiness index for the people of the country.
It is totally surprising and mentally troublesome for me as a common man to
feel as to why our political leaders function by policy of “divide and rule” and
why not by a policy of “unite and work” in the larger interest of people of our
country?
I feel that we can all collectively undo the already done damage to the fine
fabric of highest creation of God of our nation with full cooperation and
support of all 121 Cr family members of our nation.
I feel that we all should do sincere efforts to help and improve the living
conditions of all poor people irrespective of their caste, creed, religion and
region. To achieve this, I feel all those poor people with monthly total income
of up to Rs.12500/-per month in a nuclear family be extended all BPL
services, their children should be given free education and coaching if
required, till they want with facility of reservation of Group- D jobs in public
sector for only their children with minimum qualification of 10th standard.
Apart from this, minimum two vocational courses are required to be
introduced in schools which will function in collaboration with nearby
existing industries, Industrial Training Institutes, Vocational Training centers,
or the best artisans of the area. At least about 90-120 minutes of total school
timings twice or thrice a week and during vacations needs to be devoted to
vocational courses from 8th class onwards so that by the time child passes out
10th or 12th class the child knows about 50-60% of trade which will help the
child in becoming economically self dependent in future. This way in a long
run about 80% of our unskilled workforce can turn into a skilled
workforce resulting in almost 100% skilled workforce in our nation.
This will certainly help to uplift the poor people in getting economically self
dependent in the society, training industries will get more skilled workforce
from among the trained children of the schools, trained children will get jobs
with the industries or with the best artisans of the area, employment rate will
increase, crime rate will be remarkably reduced with employment of more and
more skilled workforce, hunger index will go down, human development
index will go up, gross happiness index and social harmony at national level
will increase thus making the nation much stronger and more peaceful.
These days, demands are mounting high for religion based reservation in
education and government service. I fail to understand where this policy of
25
reservation is taking us except for repeated cycle of advantage to the
negligible percentage of economically and educationally well off socially
tagged people and at the same time increasing the level of frustration in poor
class of unequally placed socially tagged people who feel humiliated because
of these tags and get nothing in return except for creating unpleasant feelings
without any fault among different sections of society. This all is happening in
my country at the cost of prime national interest and without thinking a bit for
the nation that needs well qualified and meritorious professionals in all fields
for all round development of the nation down to the level of masses who have
yet to appreciate the meaning of development.
This is high time that our policy makers think about abolishing this socially
damaging factor of categorization of human beings of my country with
resultant negligible, discriminatory and unequal benefits to the members of
the highest creation of God thus unnecessarily creating feelings of bitterness
and disharmony among different sections of society.
The policy makers should strive hard to improve the living conditions of all
those 50-60 Cr or more poor people of my country irrespective of their
identification caste, creed, religion and region by providing them with
minimum basic civic amenities. Efforts are required to make them self
dependent and self sufficient through the process of education and training in
different vocational courses rather than government-dependent through the
process of categorization of human beings with associated negligible
discriminatory benefits.
In my country the word “dalit” is used exclusively for the class of socially
categorized people of scheduled caste (SC). Everybody knows that the word
“dalit” means one who is oppressed and suppressed but I really feel surprised
and fail to understand why this word “dalit” is used as a prefix even before
head of constitutional bodies, ministers and government officers belonging to
social category SC as they are not at all oppressed or suppressed socially,
economically or educationally at such posts. It seems that certain elements in
the society with malicious intentions want this tag to continue even if one has
attained high position in the society. This seems to be done for the purpose of
polarization of members of different sections of society of “Serva Manav
Samaaj” merely as a vote bank politics.
In my view any human being irrespective of caste, creed, religion and region
is a “dalit” or oppressed if one is forced to live near chocked constantly
stinking open drains in company of plenty of mosquitoes, houseflies, garbage
dumps amid numerous diseases and is denied of minimum basic civic
amenities, potable water, sufficient food, good education and health services
required for a decent living.
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CHAPTER EIGHT
AGRICULTURE –THE ECONOMIC LIFE LINE OF MY COUNTRY
Agriculture with employment of about 50% work force contributes only about
17% to GDP. But everyone knows there is a considerable loss of food grains
due to existing poor infrastructure in form very poor storage capacity, lack of
proper and scientific preservation of food grains resulting in several tons of
food grain getting rotten and wasted every year when millions of poor people
are living in a miserable condition of severe under nutrition without a single
food grain. This looks totally unfortunate and pitiable even after 65 years of
independence.
About 30% of farmer’s produce go waste due to spoilage of harvest because
of rodents and lack of cold storage facilities, inadequate irrigation system,
crop failure due to lack of water in draughts or during regional floods, very
poor roads , poor seed quality and absence of organized retail where excess of
agriculture produce, if any, can be sold .
About 72% of vegetables and fruits in India go waste due to lack of proper
retailing and storage capacity as per Ministry of Agriculture in one of its
report. I feel there is a need of cooperative societies for different agricultural
produce who in turn should have the responsibility of selling the produce to
wholesale markets or retail markets thus giving maximum benefits to the
farmers.
Hence it is all the more necessary to increase the proper and effective storage
capacity with multi storey cold storages if possible for preserving agriculture
produce in a scientific way so as to efficiently check unwarranted loss of
valuable agriculture produce.
The Indian farmer gets very less income for his agriculture produce, the rest
going to losses, middle man and retail traders. All efforts are required to be
made to increase income for the poor farmers by eliminating middleman
involvement for sale of agriculture produce.
Due to lack of knowledge and application of advanced technology in the field
of agriculture the current agricultural practices are neither economically nor
environmentally sustainable with high and unnecessary use of chemical
fertilizers resulting in more than acceptable levels of toxic elements in
agriculture produce causing many health problems.
27
India's yields for many agricultural supplies are low due to poorly maintained
irrigation systems with about 50% loss of irrigation water and with absence of
drip and sprinkler irrigation in most of the Indian states with absence of
concept of rain water harvesting and conservation is leading to disastrous
consequences for the nation. Water table is continuously going down and
farming is almost totally dependent on annual monsoon. Access of farmers
produce to markets is hampered by absence of roads or poorly maintained
roads, poor market infrastructure, and excessive government regulation with
restriction on inter-state movement of food grains.
Water preservation and recharging of ground water:
Availability of water for irrigation purposes has always remained a perennial
problem and agriculture in my country depends mainly on monsoon. The
excess of rain fall causes floods and shortage of rain fall causes draught and in
both the cases poor farmer suffers from crop failure and a huge economic loss.
Therefore it becomes pertinent to make the available the required quantity of
water as and when required for the Indian farmers. The water table, which is
going down at a very fast pace and is making it difficult to construct effective
tube wells need as to be brought up by all means.
Hence there is an urgent need to raise water table all over the agricultural
fields, villages and cities for making easy availability of water for agriculture
purposes, industries, commercial establishments and daily basic needs.
It has been observed that very large volume of rain water and the water
through government supply is being wasted for want of concern for such a
precious element required for sustaining life by the citizens of my country.
This wasted water flows into severs and surface water drains annually which
needs to be saved by water harvesting, a step to be made compulsory in all the
states and implemented at ground level as it has been observed laws of my
country are not being sincerely implemented by the government authorities
and people have no concern for the existing laws.
Water, being an essential component of life, needs to be potable in addition to
being readily available in sufficient quantity for minimum basic needs of
human beings. Water is becoming a scarce commodity with ever increasing
requirement for daily needs due to increasing population, agriculture and
industrial growth sometimes resulting in fights over issue of water availability
in different areas. The increasing demands and wastage of water through
different sources is resulting in continuous depletion of underground water
with water table going down continuously.
It has become very pertinent for all of us and the government to implement
certain known measures of rain water harvesting, recharging of ground water,
implementation of drip and sprinkler farming all over India so as to preserve
the invaluable water.
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CHAPTER NINE
CORRUPTION and VIP CULTURE
A SOLID WALL BETWEEN LAW and ITS IMPLEMENTATION
No doubt there are many effective laws in my country and if used effectively,
can cure many anti-people and anti-social ills prevailing in my country but
unfortunately corruption and VIP culture of favourtism is a prevailing norm in
the law enforcing agencies and these two factors work as a solid wall between
laws and their implementation.
Instead of judicious implementation of existing laws, most of the time they are
being misused, ignored and exploited by law enforcing agencies, people in
power, bribe givers and bribe takers to get away from the clutches of law for
their wrong deeds or to make money against illegal works thus benefitting
much more the bribe giver than the bribe taker and causing huge losses to the
government revenue.
There is a feeling among masses that one is unable to get one’s legal and
rightful work done from the government departments without paying some
kind of bribe to the concerned staff or official in my country. Rather it has
become a concept of the millions of people of my country that without bribe
in government functioning nothing can be done. This kind of feeling is very
unfortunate however there are many honest staff and officials too but at many
points of time they are being harassed by unscrupulous elements in the
government machinery. It seems as if money has become more important than
anything else even the human values. It appears that no one is concerned with
the national progress and prosperity but only money.
But at the same time over a period of time it has become very obvious that
suspected huge bribes to our elected leaders and the government officials or
staff in any form is being used as an effective tool by very few percentage of
our highly placed rich people in my country to get their wrong deeds approved
by the government and in the process poor and middle class people of my
country so called common man is getting entrapped and is forced to pay bribe
to the habitual government official/staff to get even one’s legal and rightful
work done.
Every other day there is news of a new scam worth crores of rupees involving
politicians, government functionaries, firms and industries resulting in huge
loss of revenue which could have been used for the public welfare. This is
happening as certain government functionaries are not sincerely doing their
29
work and implementing rules and regulations for pecuniary gains from
unscrupulous elements in the society.
The corruption has three elements 1.bribe taker 2. bribe giver and 3. money
and if any one of these elements is absent there cannot be any corruption .Of
these three elements, two elements of corruption money and bribe giver are on
one side and play an important role in all illicit deals hence it is the bribe giver
who should be held more responsible and punished much more than bribe
taker for the act of corruption for inducing greed of money in government
functionaries to deliberately ignore rules and regulations.
I feel certain tough laws are required to be made to instill a sense of fear
among the bribe givers who have a feeling of purchasing anything in the
world by their money power even the consciousness of the political leaders,
government officials and staff by inducing greed of money for getting their
suspected illegal deeds approved for making huge profits at the cost of
government revenue. And if at the same time citizen charter is imposed over
government functionaries to deliver the services within a stipulated time after
submission of required documents to the government by the concerned people
then it may be possible to check corruption to a large extent. It will also
ensure effective implementation of rules and regulation as the government
functionaries will be doing their jobs sincerely without any illicit monetary
gain.
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CHAPTER TEN
CRIME and CRIMINAL –A DARK CHAPTER OF MY COUNTRY
All types of crimes are being frequently committed by criminals and anti-
social elements in my country without any fear of any kind of punishment by
law enforcing agencies. I always feel why so many heinous crimes are being
so commonly committed when country’s laws and law enforcing agencies are
very much in place. In my view following may be the reasons:
1. Lack of interest shown by the citizens of my country even if crime is being
committed in front of them for fear of becoming a witness in a police case and
subsequent fear of threats and harassment from the criminals and their
associates with a result no one wants to be a witness as no protection under
law is guaranteed to a witness. As such, many criminals go scot-free without
any sentence for want of any witness. The citizens of my country do not
realize that the same kind of crime can be committed against them also. I
strongly feel that there is an urgent need to make witness protection and
confidentiality law to make law abiding citizens of my nation to be more
responsible and courageous.
2. There is no time frame to deliver justice after filing of charge sheet.
Availability of unlimited adjournments sought by the concerned lawyers for
causing unnecessary delays seems to be a major cause in blocking the
finalization of a case. Delay in finalization of criminal cases has results in
bails to the dreaded criminals and in huge backlog of pending cases making it
more and more difficult for the judicial system to deliver justice in time. I feel
there is an urgent need to make law to limit adjournments to expedite the
finalization of criminal and civil cases.
3. Corruption and VIP culture of favourtism again plays an important
role in not getting the laws implemented with suspected involvement of
people in power, certain law enforcing agencies and the criminals.
4. Lack of inbuilt sincerity and commitment in certain personnel of law
enforcing agencies in discharging their duties.
5. Probable pressure tactics by politicians on law enforcing agencies for
deciding the course of action in particular cases involving their men resulting
in demoralization of force.
31
7. Lack of pre-crime incentive schemes without provision to maintain
confidentiality of the informer for providing any kind of information in
catching criminals and anti-social elements in their vicinity or any where well
before crime is committed.
Combination of above factors give a very congenial atmosphere for the
criminals in my country to commit crime of any kind like rape, dacoity,
robbery, road hold ups, murders to terrorists attacks etc. without any sense of
fear of any kind. This all is happening as possibly the criminals have full faith
in some elements in law enforcing agencies easily manageable by suspected
corrupt practices and judicial system where justice is more or less always
delayed by many years.
I fail to understand why a criminal with multiple crimes on his head is again
and again allowed to commit multiple heinous crimes without any fear of law
enforcing agencies? Is it that our laws and law enforcing agencies are so weak
and helpless? That they are unable to catch the habitual criminals and control
the occurrence of frequent heinous crimes at the hands of same criminals who
keeps on committing crime after crime without any apprehension of law
enforcing agencies.
Punishment for those indulging in acts of slow poisoning through manufacturing
and sale of adulterated food stuff, and spurious medicines should be life
imprisonment for whole of the remaining period of life of a criminal.
Punishment for all heinous crimes like mass rape or rape with attempt to
murder and punishment for murder and attempt to murder with intention
to kill committed in a planned manner should only be a death penalty.
I think the mercy petition is being used as a political tool to delay or pardon the
death sentence or life imprisonment to the criminals upheld by the highest court
for their acts of heinous crimes and should not be allowed to be delayed or
changed by the politicians in the larger interest of the justice. I strongly feel the
provision of “mercy petition” should be deleted from the constitution once
death sentence or life imprisonment is upheld by the supreme court of India
in any of heinous crimes. The President of India should not have any powers to
pardon or alter the sentence to the convicts of heinous crimes in the larger
interest of justice.
I feel the system of parole or bail to hardened criminals in jail with charge of
heinous crimes needs to be relooked into and as a rule bail or parole needs to
be denied to the hardened criminals as they are known to commit the same
heinous crimes even on bail or parole.
I feel there should be a wide publicity of the different types of commonly
occurring crimes, punishments against those crime and consequent effect on
the family and future of criminals through mass media, in all schools and
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colleges. This will definitely have the feeling of scare in the minds of children
and the people with criminal mindset and they will be forced to think twice
before committing any kind of crime.
In my view there should be no distinction between a criminal and a terrorist as
anybody even local known anti-social element who creates fear and terror in
the minds of law abiding citizens by any kind of threat of committing crime of
any kind against them needs to be termed as a terrorist and should be dealt
with accordingly.
Our trains, buses and markets have turned in to terror spots with lurking fear
of terrorist attacks which do take place off and on with loss of precious lives
and valuable property. May be the police and government intelligence
agencies are not alert or sufficient to unfold the likely terror attacks in time. It
seems that red alert notice has become merely two words notice and its
meaning is lost and desired action is missing in the minds of security agencies.
Moreover I also strongly feel that if all the citizens of my country remain alert
and work as an alert policemen at whatever place they are and not only take
care of their own goods and family but remain vigilant about the activity of
surrounding people with timely alert to the people around and the police in the
case of any suspicion about the suspicious looking person, may be most of the
terror attacks, where many of innocent precious lives are lost, are prevented.
I don’t understand why there is no continuous mechanism where people
informing about suspicious people and anti social criminal element are paid
good incentives while keeping their confidentiality before crime is committed
rather than putting prize on the head of terrorists or anti social criminal
elements after the crime or terrorist attack has already been committed causing
loss of many invaluable lives and property?
Then if fear of terrorist attacks and theft of house hold goods is not enough,
there is fear of about the safety of grown up daughters, girls and women
whenever they go out for their studies, markets or any other place because of
freely roaming anti social elements in the cities, towns and villages. The
constant fear of anti social elements of the area harming anyone in the city
always lingers on.
I feel we should inculcate fear of punishment against each of commonly
committed crimes in children and adverse consequences affecting their future
at level of schools.
Law enforcing agencies need to be used in a very judicious way and not to be
wasted as a status symbol to the politicians and others so called VIPs as to
make trained law enforcing personnel available for fighting and controlling
various types of crimes in the society.
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_______
CHAPTER ELEVEN
SUMMARY OF THE FEELINGS OF A COMMON MAN:
In a nutshell I shall try to explain the mind of a common man living in cities,
towns and villages as to what one thinks of his country, political leadership
and his central or state government’s governance. This can be summarized in
first lines of an old movie song as “Kabhi khud pe kabhi haalaat pe rona
aaya,baat nikli to har ik baat pe rona aaya”
A common man is shouting at peak of his voice, will someone in the
government listen to me and says I am not concerned with that:-
Whether my government is single Party or multi-party coalition government.
or
Whether my government is a secular or communal government.
or
Whether my government is this or that party’s Government.
BUT
Certainly I am totally worried and concerned with
1. That after so many years of independence of my country, at subconscious or at
conscious level I still feel very unsafe and insecure about precious life of
myself and my family members in my own house, in my own village, in my
own city or in my own country where ever I go.
2. That almost all national and state political parties give tickets to the known
antisocial and criminal elements with criminal cases pending in the court of
law to fight elections on their symbols.
3. That even after 65 years of independence I have been denied minimum basic
civic amenities required for a decent living.
4. That there is no proper sewerage system, no system for collection and disposal
of garbage in my area and I am forced to live with my family in the constant
company of mosquitoes and houseflies and have to bear unbearable stink
constantly emanating from nearby chocked and stagnant open drains.
5. That there is no respite from water, mosquitoes, houseflies and food borne
diseases.
6. That I am still scared to send my daughters to school and college for the fear
of anti social elements in the society who openly and fearlessly roam around
in my area.
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7. That even after 65 years of independence there is no good school with
adequate number of good teachers near my house for my children where I can
afford to send my children for education.
8. That I am not able to pay tuition fee for my children and I remain disturbed
that teachers in school are more concerned with private coaching than
teaching in the school and I am not that much educated that I can give
coaching to my children.
9. That there is no toilet in my house. That myself and my family feel ashamed
and have to face lot of problem and humiliation in going to fields or along the
railway lines in company of dogs and pigs for nature’s call. I do not have
enough money to construct one toilet and septic tank in my house.
10. That there is no electricity in my house and my children have to study in light
of lantern during evening hours.
11. That I am forced to pay some kind of bribe to the concerned staff in
government for my right legal works also.
12. That I have not been supplied sufficient potable water for daily needs by the
civic authorities and I am so poor that I cannot afford to purchase mineral
water or have water filter or RO system in my house.
13. That one has to go out for some distance to fetch water in buckets for daily
needs while standing in long queues. The fights over water have become a
usual feature but there is no sufficient response from the municipal agencies
and the government.
14. That garbage dumps are lying here and there in my villages, towns and cities
without being getting removed for days together causing unbearable stink in
the areas.
15. That there is no sewerage system in cities, towns or villages and if system is
partially laid they are in a bad shape and sewers are broken at various places
resulting in occasional mixing of dirty water with drinking water. One can
have a usual sight of pools of stagnant water here and there all over the cities,
towns and villages in my country, an excellent breeding place for mosquitoes
leading to various mosquito borne diseases.
16. That sewage water and effluent from chemical industries is being directly
thrown into rivers without treatment making them highly contaminated as
either STPs (Sewer Treatment Plants) are insufficient or out of order. The
same contaminated water from the rivers after some ineffective treatment is
being supplied to the hapless citizens. This state of affairs makes me very sad
as to why my government is so insensitive?
35
17. That poor street lighting in small towns and cities is a norm resulting in
increasing number of road accidents, thefts and road hold ups and other illegal
activities.
18. That the roads are totally ill maintained and are in a very bad shape all over
the country except in VIP areas.
19. That there is not enough electricity to sustain daily requirement in agriculture
sector, industries, residential areas and commercial setups etc.
20. That I do not understand who will provide at least sufficient water and
continuous supply of electricity to each and every citizen of my country?
21. That It is me in a common man who gets killed or seriously injured in bomb
blasts in trains, buses, markets carried out by terrorist.
22. That there is always fear of theft of my hard earned household goods even
when I go out to market with family for even 2-3 hours.
23. That as our government machinery has seemingly failed to deliver
effectively on all fronts of life, the insurance companies are doing a great
business insuring citizens of my country in sectors of health, road
accidents, thefts of vehicles and other house-hold goods etc. taking
advantage of government’s failures. The common man is paying hefty
amount as premium of his hard earned money to the Insurance
companies for making up expected loss on account of anticipated various
diseases, accidents, thefts of his house-hold goods and vehicles for the
failure of the government in controlling and preventing preventable
diseases, in ensuring safety and security of common man, his family and
his household goods.
24. That one lives in a constant danger of being cheated in my country in the
matter of anything from fake currency to availability of synthetic milk,
synthetic milk products, spurious medicines and duplicate products by fake
companies in the unsuspected markets.
25. That even certain inhuman and anti-social elements for the sake of making
huge profits, don’t hesitate to manufacture and sell spurious medicines in the
market being purchased by millions of poor people of this country in a hope to
get cured of diseases. And this all is being done by the unscrupulous elements
in my country without any human values and slightest fear of law enforcing
agencies. This is probably happening in the absence of either stringent laws,
or very slow justice delivery system in shadow of suspected corrupt practices
in the law enforcing agencies. The system is almost totally ineffective in
convicting these antisocial and inhuman people and the conviction rate is
abysmally low.
36
26. That law in my country is sparingly and unequally enforced on the citizens
with catching of a common poor man and leaving other influential people.
Sometimes law seems to be used by the law enforcing agencies as a tool to
make money to let the defaulter or criminal off the hook of legal tangle.
27. That one has to commute to one’s working place on poorly lit and ill
maintained roads, may be as one’s area of living and working place do not fall
in the VIP areas.
28. That one is bound and forced to stay in slums with one’s families due to one’s
poor economic condition next to the open choked drains with constant stink
emanating from it in company of plenty of houseflies and mosquitoes without
slightest effort by the civic authorities to improve the surrounding of these
poor common people.
29. That at most of places for one’s children there are no schools within
comfortable distance from their homes and government schools are in a
dilapidated condition without even qualified teachers and basic needs like
separate toilets for girls and boys, clean drinking water and play ground etc.
30. That government schools where our millions of children of poor common man
go for studies have about 50% of not so qualified teachers selected on the
basis social justice without even thinking that it is the teachers who help in
making the bright future of children by imparting good all round
comprehensive education.
31. Why should the poor man pay the same price for fuel for his two wheelers of
50cc to 100cc power as the rich man for his high end expensive cars.
32. That after about 65 years of our independence and after choosing the
governments of our choice at centre or state level over the large period of
time, we are now forced to think about the democracy, elections and our
leaders and the deplorable way in which many of the leaders conduct
themselves in public life, parliament and assemblies.
33. A common man is in dilemma, whenever the election is held in any part of
the country irrespective of the fact whether the election is at District level to
choose municipal committees or corporations, State level to choose State
government or general election to choose Central government, about which
political party to vote as now a common man seems to be fed up with all the
political parties and their leaders. Following points always confuse a
common man:
a) Which party to vote to power? As all political parties are seen to
behave almost in the same deplorable manner during their tenure.
37
b) Why should one vote if the problems and difficulties of a common man
are going to remain same?
c) The perception of a common man is that all political parties are only
interested in making big money out of misuse of their power and no one is
interested in the welfare of people of their country.
d) That if all political parties are infested and infected with members of anti-
social and criminal elements to varying extent, then what good can be
expected from such councilors, legislatures and parliamentarians ?
But at the same time the common man is also ignoring certain duties
towards nation. If one has the right to criticize the policies of the
government then one is also expected to do certain duties towards nation.
As a common man I always think that
Why the people of my country do not cooperate with laws of their
country?
Why should they vote for known criminals in elections against whom
charge sheet has already been filed in the court of law.
Why the people of my country have no concern for their co-citizens?
Has money become the only desire for the people of my country?
Is money generated only through illegal means?
Is my country, a country of an individual or is it a country all 121
crore nationals?
Is there an element of consciousness “atma” left in some people of my
country who are bent upon making money through unscrupulous
means by manufacturing and selling synthetic milk, milk products,
spurious medicines, adulterated fuel and automobile parts without
slightest regard for human lives?
Why should they spit, urinate, defecate, throw litter anywhere they
like in the public areas making the villages, towns, cities and their
country dirty?
Why all citizens of my country not try to create environment friendly
nation?
Why should not they try to reduce noise pollution, a cause of mental
distraction and hearing loss, during their celebrations taking into
38
consideration studies of school and college going children, old and
sick people?
Why should not they follow traffic rules?
Why should not they be always alert about the anti-social elements,
criminals, terrorist and inform the police immediately on seeing their
presence in their vicinity or anywhere they go to reduce the dangerous
threat to the citizens? Why the confidentiality of the informer is not
maintained at all cost by the police so as to avoid harassment of the
informer at the hands of the criminals?
Why is government not thinking about the causes of such a public
behavior? Why efforts not being made to remove those reasons so
as to make the people more cooperative.
I feel the parameters of Human Development Index, Human
Happiness Index, mental peace, economic growth, rupee value,
water table & electricity power generation are going down
and need to be brought up and the parameters of Inflation, Hunger
index, corruption, greed for money, stress level, unemployment,
crimes & criminals are going up and need to be brought down to
bring smiles & happiness for all members of Sarvochaya Serva
Manav Samaaj.
. _______
MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE MEMBERS
OF
“SARVOCHAYA SERVA MANAV SAMAAJ”
OF
MY COUNTRY
WITH
GOOD HEALTH, HAPPINESS, PROSPERITY
AND
MENTAL PEACE
JAI BHARAT
Dr. Vinay Kumar Chadha
Author
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