India has all potential to grow

Prof Javed Mughal  

China has ever tried to set its affairs right with the help of iron-rod and consequently suffered so badly. We can no longer survive on the strength of arms and ammunition but to live successfully and comfortably we need to have a sustained social structure. If at random we make a triangular contrast among three nations i. e. India China and poor Egypt, we shall come across a very interesting reality about all the three.

India's potential to display spectacular growth in all the domains of life and society is outstanding and can create the mind-blowing strides in the arena of multidimensional progress if it sticks to the path of truth and honesty. The major problem with this nation is that it has developed a habit of doing wrong things at the right moment and right things at the wrong time with both being counter-productive. It has a tendency to sacrifice the collective interest for the privy preferences. But despite all that is being done by the corrupt lot of political stratum; the unwanted and non-justified patience of the masses and the extremely corrupt administrative structure, we have all reason to anticipate a better future for this country because its civil society is prolific enough to bring about a formative revolution if it comes to the point of realization of its actual stand in a democratic structure. The nations sans a potent civil society are deplorable but the nations with a competent civil structure are likely to come back on the rails one day when with the divine interference they realize their rights and duties. We are better than China since we have a stronger civil society than that of China. China has ever tried to set its affairs right with the help of iron[1]rod and consequently suffered so badly. We can no longer survive on the strength of arms and ammunition but to live success[1]fully and comfortably we need to have a sustained social structure. If at random we make a triangular contrast among three nations i. e. India China and poor Egypt, we shall come across a very interesting reality about all the three. India has a weak central government but a really strong civil society, bubbling with elections and associations at every level. China has a muscular central government but a weak civil society that is clearly straining to express itself more. Egypt, alas, has a weak government and a very weak civil society that was suppressed for 50 years, denied real elections and, there-fore, is easy prey to have its revolution diverted by the one group that could organize, the Muslim Brotherhood, in the one free space, the mosque. The poor civil society is palatable and can be motivated very easily by a bunch of political manipulators and that is what happened in Egypt; the nation where central government is stronger than its civil society, the suppression and the bloodshed takes place and the same happened in China and where the civil society has a potent voice and a clear under-standing of the facts and figures, one day the upheavals take place and that is what happened in Del[1]hi and is expected to widen its circumference in future too. But there is one thing all three have in common i.e. gigantic youth knob under the age of 30, increasingly connected by tech[1]nology but very unevenly edu[1]cated. Of these three, the one that will thrive the most in the 21st century will be the one that is most successful at converting its youth bulge into a demographic dividend that keeps paying off every decade, as opposed to a "demographic bomb" that keeps going off every decade. That will be the society that provides more of its youth with the education, jobs and voice they seek to real[1]ize their full potential. And that's all about leaders, parents and teachers creating environments where young people can be on a quest, not just for a job, but for a career - for a better life that doesn't just surpass but far sur[1]passes their parents. Countries that fail to do that will have a youth bulge that is not only unemployed, but unemployable too. They will be disconnected in a connected world, despairing as they watch others build and realize their potential and curiosity. If your country has either a strong government or a strong civil society, it has the ability to rise to this challenge. If it has neither, it will have real problems, which is why Egypt is struggling. China leads in pro[1]viding its youth bulge with edu[1]cation, infrastructure and jobs, but lags behind in unleashing freedom and curiosity. India is the most intriguing case - if it can get its governance and corruption under control. The quest for upward mobility here, especially among women and girls, is palpable. India today has 560 million young people under the age of 25 and 225 million between the ages of 10 and 19. So for the next 40 years we should have a youthful working[1]age population at a time when China and the broad industrialized world is aging.

The average age in China today is around 38, whereas in India it's around 28. In 20 years, that gap will be much larger. So this could be a huge demographic dividend -provided that we can educate our youth - offering vocational training to some and university to others to equip them to take advantage of what the 21st-century global economy offers.

If we get it right, India becomes the work-horse of the world. If we get it wrong, there is nothing worse than unemployable and frustrated youth. Indeed, some of India's disaffected youth are turning to Mao[1]ism in rural areas. We have Maoists among our tribal popu[1]lations, who have not benefited from the opportunities of mod[1]ern India. There have been vio[1]lent Maoist incidents in 165 of India's 625 districts in recent years, as Maoists tap into all those left out of the Indian dream. So there is now a huge push here to lure poor kids into school. India runs the world's biggest midday lunch program, serving 250 million children free lunches in schools each day. But on the ground the picture is extremely dismal. More than

fifty percent midday meal satiate the hunger of the teachers and the concerned authorities. Hence it could not serve the desired purpose. All plans and programs are chalked out and all funds are generated to make India a progressed nation fall flat on the ground when not implemented practically and honestly. All projects and programmes and slogans and uproar will be for naught without better governance and proper implementation of the developmental schemes.

 

The aspirational India has no one to vote for, because no one is talking the language of public goods. Why should it take us 15 years to get justice in the courts or 12 years to build a road? India at the moment dwells on the culture of public failure and private success. That is what Gurcharan Das means by "India grows at night, when government sleeps". But India must learn to grow during the day. If India fixes its governance before China fixes its politics that is who will win. ... You need a strong state and a strong society, so the society can hold the state accountable. India will only get a strong state when the best of society join the government. The formative brains and the rational approaches must be allowed into the system so that the things, derailed for a long time, can move back on a line avoiding all turns and twists propelling the nation into a ditch of confusion.

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Courtesy: Prof Javed Mughal and The Daily Excelsior: 17th January 2014