by Aarti Mohan
[box]Aarti Mohan is the editor of The Alternative, an online platform that strives to chronicle and support social development in India.[/box]Stand at any busy traffic signal in an Indian city. More often than not, at least 8 out of 10 people will open their wallets or empty their pockets of change for the beggar who pleads with outstretched arms. Yet as a nation, we rank among the lowest in the world, with only a 10% share of India’s annual donation corpus coming from individuals.
We are “hand-me-down” lovers; everything from clothes to baby cots, furniture, utensils and what you have gets preserved in lofts and dusty trunks or almirahs and handed down across generations; used and re-used till it disintegrates. Yet very ironically, food that could feed 14 million people currently rots untouched in godowns and under tarpaulins, whilst over 200 million go hungry. We recycle judiciously – an old saree becomes a blanket, a worn saree a curtain and a torn saree a mop cloth! The rags, paper, plastic or furniture we throw out is lapped up by an informal market that makes a living out of recycling every bit of scrap. Yet our greenhouse gas emissions are going to triple in the next 20 years.
The good part is that a social conscience has been unconsciously ingrained in our core culture and value systems. The bad part is that the inequity in India is only growing wider by the day. 400 million live below $1.25 a day, 142 million children don’t go school, and half of India’s women are illiterate. And worse still, we as a collective and a nation seem to be faring rather badly on the same counts that we excel in as individuals.
Our hearts are in the right place though. 3.3 million NGOs (a few million more than necessary if you ask me, but that’s a different discussion altogether!) work in India for the cause of the underserved. The Government allotted a whopping 39,100 crores just for one scheme – the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), in 2009. Corporates are increasingly striving to place people and planet before profit.
With so many people, money and intentions chasing the bottom of the pyramid, we ought to be getting closer to solving the problem, though that is still an oversimplification in a country of 1.2 billion very diverse people. What we need to focus on is implementation and the big picture. And I can only think of two sections, principally free from vested interests, which can engage with the system and ensure that a democracy functions not just in letter but also in spirit: civil society, backed by an independent media.
Ensuring that there is no corruption all over India may be a pipe dream, but as an informed public, we can collectively ensure that our local wards are clean. Our communities can be free of child labourers, abused women and homeless labourers, if we can only act together to empower them. We are all a part of the same system, and a balance is vital to ensure the health of society.
No one can witness poverty in the innards of our country and be immune to it. A friend who is a photographer and spends most of his life in conflict areas once said, “More than a desire, I have a responsibility to tell the stories of these people.” Development needs a dedicated mainstream space in our media; it needs constant attention, context and relentless follow up. The right information in the hands of the people can empower them to question status quo and force change.
In a country that has one of the most progressive Right To Information laws, where it was possible for a Jessica Lal to get justice due to public outcry and media attention, social change is not just possible, but imminent. We need to just become a part of the movement.
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