A few days back I was coming back from Rourkela to Kolkata by train. I was lying down in my berth when a person selling pens walked by. He was handicapped and I actually needed to buy a pen, but I did not call him. When he walked back, I asked him to stop and purchased a pen. Immediately he took out an unrecognizable photo and started talking about some treatment for somebody. He was actually proclaiming the fact that he was disabled to sell pens! I said I was not interested and asked him to leave. He only left when I threatened I would return the purchased pen. Some might judge me to be insensitive, but the question is should sympathy be deserved or demanded?
All over India we see children, men and women of all ages and physical abilities begging. I do not know what they were actually doing, but I once saw some children actually restraining a foreigner in Kolkata. Why does the government never do anything about them? There are a few schemes like the NREGS which might seem good intentioned but again are aimed towards garnering votes. If the beggars had been part of a vote bank I am sure that the government would have started schemes for them. There is always a lament against any developmental scheme - about funds. Imagine how much money would be available if only our babus and netas sacrificed their unnecessary perks for the benefit of others! I shall give but one example here. In India the President's post has been a largely ceremonial one, and the less said about our current president, the better. The central government has recently doubled the pay for the president. Why? Because the MPs were drawing a larger salary!
Sikkim is one part of India where you will not find any beggars on the road and the citizens there are rightly proud of the fact. In a lot of cases one only needs the resolve to live with dignity to do so. I once saw a disabled person walking on all fours and selling gutkha and pan masala in a train.
There is a well-known sayin - "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach him how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.
Extending the logic a little further, why is there always a knee jerk reaction to farmer suicides? I am in no way comparing farmers with beggars. I am only extending the logic of the saying. The government has decided to write off debts of a lot of farmers after the suicides. But a better alternative would be to ensure that the conditions that cause farmer suicides do not arise in the first place. For this probably one of the most important things to do would be to improve irrigation facilities. Leaving aside the stock exchange slump, the economy is doing well. At least some of the money required for improving the agricultural sector can be mobilized from them. But the question is - what about the political will required?
All over India we see children, men and women of all ages and physical abilities begging. I do not know what they were actually doing, but I once saw some children actually restraining a foreigner in Kolkata. Why does the government never do anything about them? There are a few schemes like the NREGS which might seem good intentioned but again are aimed towards garnering votes. If the beggars had been part of a vote bank I am sure that the government would have started schemes for them. There is always a lament against any developmental scheme - about funds. Imagine how much money would be available if only our babus and netas sacrificed their unnecessary perks for the benefit of others! I shall give but one example here. In India the President's post has been a largely ceremonial one, and the less said about our current president, the better. The central government has recently doubled the pay for the president. Why? Because the MPs were drawing a larger salary!
Sikkim is one part of India where you will not find any beggars on the road and the citizens there are rightly proud of the fact. In a lot of cases one only needs the resolve to live with dignity to do so. I once saw a disabled person walking on all fours and selling gutkha and pan masala in a train.
There is a well-known sayin - "Give a man a fish, and you have fed him for today. Teach him how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime.
Extending the logic a little further, why is there always a knee jerk reaction to farmer suicides? I am in no way comparing farmers with beggars. I am only extending the logic of the saying. The government has decided to write off debts of a lot of farmers after the suicides. But a better alternative would be to ensure that the conditions that cause farmer suicides do not arise in the first place. For this probably one of the most important things to do would be to improve irrigation facilities. Leaving aside the stock exchange slump, the economy is doing well. At least some of the money required for improving the agricultural sector can be mobilized from them. But the question is - what about the political will required?
2 comments:
totally agree with u..only when the politicians stop playing vote bank politics and make sure that better living standards are made available to every one irrespective of their social cader and voting status, development can be achieved in totality.
Man,
I disagree, well, somewhat....
As financially secure youth we have some responsibility.
Also we should not forget that we are in a pretty much stable democratic country where we even have the freedom to publicly criticize those who rule us.
I would not tell it is an Ideal govt, or the best possible solution. But these 50 years of rule has only improved India's situation and more and more of India's youth are getting financially secure. We should be comparing with any other 50 year old country.
Now its our turn to take the responsibility and take it forward.
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