Why India is Still Part of Third World?

Why we are still part of third world after 65 years of independence? How long we will be in the list of developing countries? These questions probably would have come to every one's mind one or more times. We have our own answers to these above questions. We are over populated, we are a poor country, no education, too much corruption both in public and private sector, no proper infrastructure, etc..,

Yes, these are the reasons which are surfacing / evident for the current vulnerability of our motherland. But, in fact, there are many other reasons which give push to above mentioned reasons. Let me put forth few such points before you and discuss the possibilities to overcome this "Third World" stigma.

Our Education System

The Indian definition of Education is “a combination of moral + values + character development + knowledge to lead Life using the goods and grain available around us + vocational knowledge + freedom to choose specialization.

Whereas western (current) education system is just centralized on one point that is "Earning Money, more money and most money". So, are the techniques or skills required for earning  money are taught in these schools. So, it is not education, it is just training. It is training someone the skills of making/accumulating wealth. The people (educational institutions) who are teaching how to make money, how can they themselves be left behind in making money? They charge heavily and unaccountably in terms of fees, donations, etc… At last, what they make us / our kids? a skilled horse, for the race of Life.

We might say that, "Yes" this is what we expect from educational institutes. Think of the mentality of the people who come out of these kinds of training institutions. When since our birth till the completion of our education only making money or accumulation of wealth is ruling our mind, we cannot think anything else. That means it kills our power of imagination, power of discovering things, inventing new thing. All our capabilities are narrowed down to get a job and make money.

On the other side, moral less, valueless, education will make us insensitive, like insensitive towards other's problems, lack of the national feeling / feeling of brotherhood, importance of building an ideal character, which our next generation / our children can follow. Can we expect that the new breed will work towards the upliftment of the country and its social, economical, cultural conditions? No, we cannot. We cannot even blame them, because we sowed the seed. These are the people who get involved in corruption and we all better know the consequences of corruption.

Do we ever tell our children's moral stories, like Panchatantras, Vikram-Betal stories, Ramayana, Mahabharata, etc...? No, we don't. We have our own race everyday to be won. But, we need to understand one thing that these moral values act like fertilizers, which will make the kids morally and physically strong persons.

We need to understand that being intelligent person is different from being good intelligent person. Intelligence without good manners is like an unguided missile, which is very dangerous to the society.

To overcome the shortages of training, we need to teach the kids the values and provide freedom of choice, which will develop confidence and develops responsibility in them and make them fearless. Fearlessness is an important quality when combined with moral and social responsibilities, which our generation lacks. The fearlessness is the quality essential to bring a big change in the society.

Associating Skills with Degrees

Associating skills with degrees/certificates is another menace of our country. This trend was introduced by Britishers to kill the groups of highly skilled laborers in different industrial sectors. They made us to think that a person who does not possess a degree is not much skilled. Their research or specialization did not have any recognition unless it was being certified by some organization. They did not get jobs and honor like others possessing same skills.

This was there during the period of foreign rule. But, we still continue the same system. We admire a person based on the degrees he or she possesses, though they are not perfect in their skills. It shows the sense of the society is not evolved with time to accept all types of works and workers equally. This collapses the very spirit so Indian social structure. When we are of this mentality, we lost and still losing lot of skilled people in different fields, which are so called today’s major industries.

India was number one exporter of goods and food stuffs till the early 18th century. India had more than 1,00,000 small and medium scale steel and cotton producing industries. The quality of the steel produced here was known all over the world, which never used to get rust. There are still many such highly skilled people there across country, who have the knowledge of producing A1 quality products compared to the world class brands. But, now, all these technicians are all left to fight for their livelihood and deprived from the opportunities, just because they do not possess a certificate.

Though the products these people develop are ready in half the price of big brands, we doubt about the quality of their product. But, the same product when sold by a big brand we buy it blindly. However, if the persons are provided same lab and infrastructure, they could produce it still cheap and with higher quality.

There are so many such skilled people exist in the country. We need to recognize them and their talent and utilize them for the growth of our nation.

Higher Studies in Foreign Language

It is half truth to say that the introduction of a foreign language has removed all the barriers of development and put India on the development path. On the contrary foreign language is a road blocker on the road of growth. How?

If we had studied in the countryside, small towns, we understand it better. Friends who were giving stiff competition to us in studies, suddenly disappeared after their 10th or 12th. Where did they go? Few of them were running a small grocery shops in village or their town, few were helping their father in fields, and few others were doing some other jobs or had decided to study vocational courses to get jobs.

When asked, why they changed their path, when they were very bright in studies? Few answered that it is due to inability to afford the fees, where as few others said "It is all in English... and we did not understand it properly, it was getting tough."

Yes, it is true. I have few of my engineering and post graduate friends who tried for jobs in big cities but failed to get rewarding jobs. Because, they are not fluent in English. If we count all such people, then it is a considerable percentage of people's life squashed just due to a foreign language. Why can’t we have few colleges where the higher studies (like medicine, engineering, etc…) can be delivered in local/regional languages (Chinese, Japanese, Germans, French study in their own language)? If we cannot take this step at least now then we might lose still many people, who have the potential and zest to contibute better to the society to make India proud.

We might think sometimes that why there is a scarcity of Nobel laureates in India, though being such a big country. The reason is simple. We have money in the center of our mind, we weigh all intelligence against number of degrees one possesses, and our thinking is not in our mother tongue, where one can be more productive.

We have to give equal facilities and chances to everyone to prove themselves and to expect high contribution from them.

Brain Drain

This is one of the most important points, which we need to understand in detail. As we discussed earlier that from the days of school, we are taught only that we have to study well and get good marks so we can get rewarding job/career. That means we have only one path and we have to prove ourselves only on that path. There is no scope for creative thinking, research and development in any sector, arts, out of box thinking, sports, etc...

R & D also should be based on our needs, which help our people, like, how to increase agriculture productivity, develop machinery to ease any work, or inventing some thing innovative which touches our lives, but, which are not hazardous to health. Not like studying the soil and stones of moon. Let the developed countries carry such research. They have time and money and basic infrastructure and better living.

We are poor, deprived; we need to act for our better future. This we lack. We always follow the western world blindly. We look west for any new technology. This should be stopped.

We consider IITs and IIMs and few other educational institutions exist in the country as premier institutions. We believe, students studied in these institutions are the best brains of our country. Where do they disappear after their graduation? What happens in these institutions? The students are repeatedly questioned that after completion of their course, where do they want to work? Which company? Which country? These questions are asked several times by their families, friends, professors, etc... Above that they themselves would have decided to mint money.

2%-5% of these students will get the campus offer from so called world class companies. Other 15%-20% will join the multinationals in India itself. All their research, innovations are directed by the companies, who hire them for their profit. They cannot think independently, out of box, because they are paid by those companies. In this scenario, how can we expect any new research/invention/discovery from these knowledge labors?

In fact, if they wish, they can do wonders. It might take time. Initially, they have to arrange their own laboratories, incur research expenses, but, can give an assured success, long lasting satisfaction and rewards. But, we always think of immediate money, so, it is not possible to work as leader and lead the world. We avoid taking risks. Of course, there is very less support from government as well. But, unless we take strong and independent steps, we cannot think of development. The remaining people are hopping everywhere unless they go to these countries.

We feel proud when someone tells us that, 20%-30% of doctors, engineers, scientists, etc... are Indians in western countries. Yes, that is true. But on the other hand, many leaving motherland are satisfied with sub-standard jobs compared to their degrees, skills and capabilities. For e.g. People who can be professors here are working as lab assistants in western countries. People who can be owners of big hotels are working as butlers, chefs. People who can do any other white color jobs are working on petrol pumps, working as taxi drivers. Above all they feel proud working there, even though they are blue color jobs. They feel that whatever it is, this country is better than India. This mentality has to be changed, for that we need to feed national pride in ourselves as well as our next generation. Unless such steps are taken to change in thinking, there is no guarantee of India getting into the list of developed countries. Believe we can do it! Stop Brain Drain!

Passive Thinking

We always consider ourselves less in knowledge, science and technology, medicine, artillery, research, etc... in comparison with western world. Why so? We are forced to think like that by our government, our elders, our friends, teachers, ours society from childhood. That is the reason for laziness, no creativity, no hope, no new thinking. We never think that we can be a developed nation by taking the road not taken by many. We should be confident about it. Thinking, confidence and patience and hard work are only few tricks rest everything is magic. So, we have to change our negative thinking to positive. Don't ever think that technology, invention and discoveries have only one door and that opens in the developed countries. Our ‘strong determination and creative thinking' would disprove this in just few years.

We are the Creations of Media

Media is another reason to push us down in the list of developed countries. Television has a heavy impact on our growth. The addiction of television, paralyzes our body, halts our thinking capacity or our power of imagination, and kills concentration. It is the mother of many social problems. More than providing information it injects absurdity, insensitivity in the public.

Concentration is very important for everybody. In fact, in India it is said that 'how much ever we are able to concentrate our mind that much successful we will be'. That is true. Any big invention or discovery is the outcome of one's own need, concentration, dedication and toil. Television is the main device/attraction which kills it the most. How? Think how many channels we change in a minute? How many movies, programs we watch without changing the channel? None. Remote in our hand will not let us be silent and the noise it creates in our mind is very damaging.

In the olden days, people used to prepare condiments, pickles, papads, etc... at home during their free time. This used to give people physical work and most important it used to give self sufficiency and used to add to our GDP. Now-a-days we get everything ready made. Need not to worry at all. We need to worry only about  on-screen (from daily soaps) characters' problems, cry for someone loosing on a reality show. I feel, we act like as the TV directs us.

Its impact on children is still more. It fills all unwanted, uncensored, vulgarity and violence in their innocent minds. Then how can we expect them to become a great person or do productive work for our nation? We know they are going to become like us "Sheep". A great personality told that "If you want to be famous, want to do creative work, concentrate on anything, feature on media (especially TV) switch off your TV”. How true it is!

Be Indian, Buy Indian

Last but not least, it is "Be Indian, Buy Indian". This might look odd or even something too much in this world of free trade and globalization and liberalization. But, this is the mantra for any developing countries. All major economies like, Chaina, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Germany, France, tried it before opening markets for global players. That is the reason they are able to survive even in recessions and come out of aftermath of World War 1 and 2.

Yes, when we say that "Be Indian, Buy Indian", we should have alternative quality products available in the market. We have lot of good quality alternatives available (specifically in daily  use categories), only thing required here is, we need to explore for few days, that's it. We even need not to target for high end electronics, automobiles at the first instance. It is low-end products and groceries and cosmetics have the capacity to turn the money flow inwards.

Why we buy foreign or multinational products? We purchase them neither because of quality nor because they are the best in their category. We buy them because of myth and hype created through heavy advertisement.  For instance, If any cosmetic or soap is going to make us look fair glowing then there should not be any one left black or whitish in the world. We know it is not possible. But, still we buy because of the false notion created in our mind that they have the best quality, they are definitely going to make me look smart. We need to understand the conspiracy and stop yielding to these ads. This will save our money from flowing to foreign countries, which will strengthen our nation down the line. Collective boycott of foreign products has the major strength to put our nation on the path of speedy development.

To discuss these reasons is as easy as to blame politicians or bureaucrats for all the bad things exist in current scenario in India. But, taking independent, positive, constructive, creative, and nationalist steps only will ensure best future for our Mother India.

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Kalyan Kulkarni