Pondering and Wondering

Pondering and Wondering

Sometime raising a right question is more important than a wrong answer. It is in this process I raise some questions in the hope that your responses will enhance my understanding.

Think of these questions assuming India is a family and we are its siblings. What should be the criteria of apportioning priority to the different needs and demands of the various members of the family?

Do you think it is acceptable to go and buy a TV or home theatre while one of your brothers or sisters is dying of hunger? Can anyone indulge in anniversary celebrations leaving his/her children suffering from some acute illness that demands immediate attention?

I would like you to consider the following:

1. The disproportionate expenditure our country spends on 'nice things', sports, recreation etc;
2. The disproportionate expenditure our government spends on critical things, like educating its sons and daughters;
3. The exorbitant expenditure on post-colonial celebrations like Independence Day and Republic Day etc;
4. Why there is such disparity in already scarce funds: 14 % expenditure on defense versus a measly 3.2% of GDP on education.
It seems that we cannot, or do not wish to, learn from history. When Westerners were building Oxford, we were building the Taj Mahal. When they were building airplanes we were founding the Muslim League (1906 in Shimal) and Hindu Sabha (1908 in Punjab). There are hundreds of such examples. And now when they are building space shuttles and going to Mars and other planets we are busy in mobilizing and dividing people into religions factions so they can gain 'access' to heaven. I ask you: just where are we going?

I have nothing against the Taj, or mosques or temples per se, I simply do not understand the prime objective of our ruling class. Where are the projects for the masses?

The budget allocation for different sectors tells us that our father and mother are clearly lethargic about educating us. This is not acceptable, given the most critical change agent is in society is EDUCATION.

A question has been haunting me ever since I read two news items in a magazine - one about death by hunger and about the exorbitant price- more than Rs.100 crore- to get one Olympic silver medal. The one event.

Rs.100 crore was spent on organizing things for and in Athens. Grooming sports people took months and years of preparation to reach eligibility for entry to Athens Olympic Village. Think of other sport events where so many rupees are being spent.

If we dare to surf the web and do some pretty rudimentary analysis of events in the year 2004 we can amass many mind-boggling facts such as the one above.

Don't get me wrong. I am not against sport. I have been a basketball player and represented my school and university teams on many occasions. But here with the help of arkitectindia group I am trying to understand a very basic question.

Where should a family head?
How should our Mother and Father spend money specifically allocated for its children?
What are their priorities? And for whom?

I think Mum and Dad have some favourites. Consider the following:
· In West Bengal people were dying of hunger after eating some roots of trees. The roots may be of poisonous in nature but they had no option as there was no food supply. Why?
· Several members of a tribal community in Orissa fell sick after eating mango kernels and a few of them died. It was reported that there was a shortage of food but mango kernels were the only option left with them. NDTV reported that the grains were being eaten by rats in the government godowns because of the lack of and inefficiency of communication and transportation facilities. Why?
· Thousands of farmers in Andhra Pradesh and adjoining areas committed suicide. Why?
· Every year we witness hundred and thousands of people who die either of hot wind (loo) or cold breeze. Don't say that the government does not know that every year summer comes, every year winter comes and also every year rain comes. But still there is no provision or programme to tackle this menace. Go out on the streets of Delhi and you will find people lying on the pavements waiting for the sun or death. But will the government built night shelters in different parts of the city? It does not require much - just a covered hall. It comes down to priorities: night shelters Vs. one medal, or you could read it this way: unwanted poor lot Vs. elite sportspersons. Is anybody listening right there in the sport ministry?
· We belong to a country whose government even can't provide primary education to its children. What a shame! January 26th is coming. There is a huge budget to celebrate Independence Day and Republic Day. If we make it a simple affair and invest all the money in building schools and industries the government can create lakhs of job opportunities for its unemployed citizens every year. But again it is a matter of priority. Who cares?
· There is no commitment to provide adequate funds for fulfilling the cumulative gap built up since the Education Commission’s recommendations in 1964-66 within a ten-year timeframe. In case of elementary education, it was to fulfill this cumulative gap that the Tapas Majumdar Committee (1999) recommended an additional funding of Rs. 13,700 crores per year for the next ten years which amounts to about 0.6% of the current level of GDP. This investment will be required for bringing all out-of-school children to formal school system. Is 0.6% of the GDP is too high to invest in primary education?
· We conducted a survey in Dhapo Colony Slum, New Delhi where we were running an education centre there. One question concerned patterns of expenditure. We were shocked to discover the responses of sizeable numbers of respondents whose daily average income was less than Rs75. For them, drink was an important item on the shopping list. And any extra money would be spent on boozing or other sorts of non-productive activities. But like the government of India they also don't have money to send their children to school. There is no concept of saving or investment. Of course there are some exceptional mothers and fathers who think about the future of their children. But not enough.
· The government has introduced Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) which provides low quality parallel educational streams. It is, in the words of Prof. Anil Sadgopal, anti-child, anti-poor and anti-education, for which we are paying for with a loan (remember it is a LOAN) from the World Bank, a loan laden with their conditions. Is there no shame in this? The fact that we cannot, will not, spend our scarce financial resources on educating our children? Where is the spirit 'development' in all this?
· Do you think our government has the right to be such frivolous conspicuous consumers? We are a republic, we're independent, let’s throw a party! These are expensive, one-day PR events, VIP soirees for the elite, and propaganda for the dumb masses that we've got something to smile about, as tens of thousands of children turned up to school the day before the party to find that their teacher simply decided not to get out of bed.
· Shall we demand the Government of India to stop these celebrations till, at least, we are able to give the future of India a decent education and employment to those who can and will work?

God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake "the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of Gentle Revolution" (Michael Leunig)

I ask members of this e-group to enlighten me, and others like me, who can't understand the 'simple' logic of our Mother and Father who leave some of us to die in one place and invests so much to nurture others. I am confused between necessity and luxury. Kindly throw some light on it - because I know darkness is nothing but the absence of light.

Thanks for patiently reading and considering.
Kind Regards,
Shaheen