Whenever there is talk or writing about India’s great strides as an emerging superpower I get upset. A patriotic Indian likes to hear and read this so called greatness of ours and you may not like what I write. The sheen of prosperity one sees is mostly confined to metropolitan India. The shopping malls, eating and drinking places are full of well dressed young people spending freely. These are not our people. The Indian I talk about has not set his foot in any of these places and he forms the majority, some sociologists put this percentage to be 90 out of 100.This must be 98 out of 100 in rural India. But this 10 percent is what the other world sees. It also sees the Indian who is more visible and successful abroad and many make the mistake of his success as his country’s. These expatriates are runaways and escapees from the real India.
The real India exists in utter misery. It is malnourished, disease stricken, poor, and roofless with no body to look up to for help. The delivery mechanism of our so called welfare state is virtually nonexistent and the benefits that should reach these people generally end up lining the pockets of those who are supposed to deliver. Our primary and secondary health care systems are in shambles. We have no social security worth the name. We have no food reaching the needy and malnourishment is rampant. And these poor children end up as stunted adults. The politicians and beurocrats who are supposed to get us out of this morass are busy in participating in one type of scam or the other and care a damn as to what happens to the 90%.
The silver lining is some Individuals like the Drs Amte [many such], business houses like the Tatas and other NGOs. But the work that is being done by these is a drop in the ocean for a vast country like India.
So please stop talking about the country’s progress.
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