Redeeming the suffering masses of our country from the mire of pecuniary disadvantage

   My friend and colleague, Sridhar, in his blog ‘thoughtspossible’ has presented an exhaustive plan model for alleviating poverty from our country. His presentation indicates an unselfish concern of a humane heart and its deep contemplation about a gnawing problem that is plaguing our country. I bow my head to the nobility of his intentions. He has stirred my thoughts. As asked by him I would like to share my views on the issue of poverty and the means that he has recommended to eradicate it.

           What has been suggested by him in a nut shell is to create an army like organization of unemployed citizens of our country so as to apply this manpower resource pool into various public works of infrastructural value.  He also advocates that this plan would kill poverty, provide employment and promote economic development. Financial implications are also worked out by him to support this idea. 

             Before going into the technicalities of the schemes that he has proposed, I would like to delve into the root cause of the problem. History would help as to diagnose the roots of any present day situations and to project their pulsating trends.

            India was a land of plenty. Hence it was a source of inspiration for invaders and colonial explorers alike. Particularly food surplus was achieved by our forefathers by effectively utilizing the arable lands with ample irrigation sources and sufficient Sun shine. Surplus achieved in food stock was converted by the civilizational values as creative energy resulting in spiritual refinement of the society, development of skills, promotion of arts and literature that furthered the gyration of this cycle.

            Food was the centrality of our civilization. The systems, our ancestors created to produce more food and share it is an important area of study. ‘Annam bahu kurvita’ i.e. ‘grow food in plenty’ is an Upanishad saying. A book with this very title contains research findings of one Chennai based study group on the ancient system of growing surplus food grains and sharing.

    Exhaustive British survey data of 18^th century ‘Thondaimandalam’ i.e. the region comprising the present day Tiruvalluvar District, greater Chennai and Chengalpattu District of Tamilnadu has been brought out by this Research Centre revealing a comprehensive system of agricultural production and sharing pattern. The system was essentially locality based. There was inter- locality arrangements within the same region. The system sustained intricately interwoven social fabric of that time. It also supported great institutions of social and spiritual importance of the region.   

           The ancient society of this country ensured availability of essential needs such as food, education, medical care and judicial remedy, almost at no cost to all the deserving people in a dignified manner. These basic needs only have in fact pushed up the cost of living of our households to an alarming proportion now.

  One of the main aspects of our ancient system was that it was confined to a particular region with unique geo, climatic and other features though the inherent values and features of the system were certainly pan regional or I would say National. The regions were further decentralized into several localities. The regions had also need - based inter-locality transactions.   Thus the system was not totalitarian but locally managed and evolved with inherent features for self actualization. It was least interfered by any far away seats of political power. The polity which in fact nurtured this system i.e. in other words ‘dharma’ was actually left to concern only about the external threat. So the system was self propelling until not disturbed by alien interventions.   

  

          The essential socio - economic principles and civilizational ethos which supported this unique system were brought out and portrayed in details by Gandhiji and the great Gandhian economist Prof. Joseph Chelladurai Kumarappa. The British economist E.F. Shumacher names this conceptualization as ‘Buddhist economics’. He is an advocate of small and appropriate technologies to empower people.

         When this land was jolted by the invading armies and colonizers, the civilizational structures and supporting systems slowly started giving way to the present situation. This transformation happened not in one day. Tracking this trend is an important need of the hour and would require a great deal of research.  

            What is the present situation? Scarcity in the place of plenty, unemployment in the place of creativity, rule of money in the place of dharma, reckless consumerism in the place of contentment, pollution in the place of spiritual attachment with the natural environment, material interpretations in the place of spiritual perception, greedy accumulation in the place of charity and sharing and so on.

            I consider the massive demographic shift towards few urban clusters as a singularly important phenomenon and as the cause of this decaying trend. Un-planned urbanization poses a serious threat to the future of this land.  For example the Greater Chennai alone suffocates with 1/6^th of the entire population of Tamilnadu which keeps growing into cataclysmic proportions.  A quarter of this population virtually lives on the platforms. This is a human tragedy. Human beings are not mere cogs in the wheels of massive mechanisms of urban based mass production and mass consumption. Tamilnadu undergoes a massive demographic shift towards few urban centers. The hinterland is drained off all it’s resources including the human capital to support this phenomenon. The localities or village clusters which supported the traditional systems and nurtured life for centuries are now considered as economic burden.   

           Even in the midst of the present mess, there are illustrious efforts which almost go unreported. One such achievement is the complete restoration of 175 kms long rivulet called ‘Bein’ in Punjab from its near ruins by a Sikh Sanyasi, Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal by organizing local voluntary efforts. Revamping the core values which drove this ancient civilization would help rehabilitation of this country from the mountainous problems it suffers from at present.              

           My friend’s plan with its lofty intention is flawlessly logical. However the implementation presumes a centralized and totalitarian political set up which is not a reality. Totalitarian ideas such as Marxism have been dumped into the archives long back. World has marched far away from Stalin and Mao. Moreover the scheme does not address the attitudinal prerequisite. Furthermore the plan is purely in the materialistic plane. The suggestion is just akin to the collective labour based settlements of Israeli kibbutzism.   

           The idea suggested is basically of Keynesian economics. There are few schemes already in place in the line of his suggestions such as Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, the Public Distribution System, Third tier governance systems like Panchayats,  Free / cheap rice schemes, Temple based feeding scheme, Noon Meals schemes in Schools. The benefic impacts of the above schemes need to be assessed by studying their related data.

           In our country, rekindling the inherent values of the society and thereby channelizing the creative energy into locality based entrepreneurial efforts is a key requirement of economic emancipation of the society in mass scales. The stories of Anand Cooperative Milk Society of Gujarat and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh are to be noted in this context. A poor is poor because he has no access to capital is the poverty cycle mechanism which is  addressed in the above efforts. Ideas propounded by the former President, Dr.Abdul Kalam in his book, ‘India 2020: a vision for the new millennium’ need attention in this regard.

            Nadars from the South, achieved entrepreneurial heights by applying the inherent strengths of the traditional core values such as dedication, simplicity, strong family system, and locality based social relationship systems like mahamai. The unique ‘mahamai’ system of the Nadar community needs to be taken into account. They have created remarkable charities for educational and religious institutions.

            Small is beautiful. I earnestly request my able friend to come out with more realistic and locality based models to bring in real and perceivable changes. Such lamps need to be lighted from every corner of the country. Ralegan Sidhi of Anna Hazare is a glaring example in this regard.

           On the other hand one can pluck out several brilliant ideas from the scheme plan of Sridhar to brain storm separately and to formulate spin off models for application in the present situation itself. One such is, training and enabling self help groups to take up public works. Another one, may be is to advocate inclusion of students’ participation in National public tasks or in military service as part of the regular curriculum.