Taking the easy route

I am guilty of optimism, probably over-optimism, as this article proved. It does keep me grounded to reality, that while certain figures look good on the blackboard, they may not convey the real picture. And the real picture is....

• The poor do not get justice, the Nithari killings just prove that point. And yes, most of the country carried on with their daily activities once the initial debate was over. The Nithari killings are just the tip of the iceberg, convicting the murderers does not solve the underlying problems with our judicial system. Every citizen of the country, rich or poor, has a right to justice. Do we provide it? No. Guilty!
• Our children's right to education. All the developed countries and a few developing countries, mandate free and compulsory education for their children for a minimum number of years(UK-12, China-9, Venezuela - 9, Germany -10, Sweden -9). Our constitution too had mandated compulsory education for every child up to the age of 14, which had to be achieved by 1960. But successive governments have failed to uphold their constitutional responsibilities, and coupled with poor population planning, securing this right for our children remains a distant dream. Around 50% of our country's children-of- schooling-age are out of school. Have we failed them? Yes. Guilty on second count!
• Poverty. 30% of our people live below the poverty line, as per the World Bank, that's every individual who earns less than a dollar a day. An offshoot, India has more undernourished children than Africa. Since Africa's plight gets more attention on global media and the failure of Indian media to highlight this statistic, it largely goes unnoticed. Is the rest of the country to blame? Yes. Guilty again!

The well-to-do remain mostly numbed when faced with the plights of the poor. Pictures of poverty, uncommon deaths are no longer new to us, and doesn't evince the sympathy it ideally should.We cannot ignore the plights of large sections of our populace, in our rush to view India as an increasingly successful nation. Those marginalised cannot and should not be marginalised further, as we plod ahead. A nation is not built by governments, armies or bureaucrats, the fabric of a nation is it's people, a people tightly woven together. It is our responsibility to alleviate the the conditions of the underprivileged, it is our responsibility to bring the lower sections of our society on par with the rest of the nation.

As much as we fail to realize it, each one of us is indebted to the nation, indebted to our countrymen/women, an exposition of which I shall reserve for my next blog.