Funny while I am thriving on the capitalist world, my thoughts have suddenly turned left. I am one of the examples of ’shining India’. While I walk through the representatives of ‘wealth’, ‘progress’ in the countries I have lived for the past couple of years and then compare it to home, I wonder – ‘Is this progress really worth it?’
The GDP in India has grown by 9% while the people below the poverty line has remained steady. More Maybachs and Rolls Royce rolling on the street while same number of farmers committ suicide every year.
Capitalism is a dangerous thing when social security does not exist in a country. If progress of a country is reveled by noting the increase in the number of sales of coke bottles or detergents, we are missing something fundamental. While I was in the B-School, I was glad to know that we were the 4th largest economy and rested on the fact that we will be the second by year 2050 (or whichever). Would being the top GDP company make us any better country? Seeing the direction we are going, the answer is no.
We rank in the bottom 10 percentile in HDI, Woman Rights and all the related indices. A country cannot advance if the wealth is not evenly distributed. Dont mistake that I am propagating the message of communism. We need a more socially conscious market. The public-private partnership should give a (now famously proven) ‘headstart’ for the poorer masses in terms of better health, education and exposure.
We should stop forgetting that India, as Gandhiji said, ‘ is the land of villages’. Notwithstanding the fact that my family income must have increased by 15-20 times post-liberation, I wonder if we really made any progress over these years. The same number of people die out of starvation, 1/3rd of our people are still illiterate.
It helps to look a little left while riding the mammoth of capitalist economy!
mpaign! If you are planning for a Malaysian trip for long, nowz the time!
