Sudhansu R Das
No doubt, China is not making fun on our border after building massive military infrastructures. Both China and Pakistan have secretly built roads, signed pacts for mutual benefit at the cost of India. As usual, India wakes up late like mythical Kumbhakarna and makes too much noise before it goes back to sleep. India is being circumscribed due to land hungry China, Pakistan sponsored terrorism, Bangladesh scheme to push its people into the Indian side. Finally, the minnow, Nepal has tampered with the Indian map and started bashing India. In the present circumstances, India has little option but to work hard in order to build its intellectual as well as military muscles, as the nation has to secure its borders, its people, culture, traditions as well as its economy.
Time to mitigate hunger
India was ranked 102 out of 117 on the Global Hunger Index in 2019. As per the Index, just 9.6 percent of all children in India between 6 to 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet. India is home to 46.6 million stunted children which is the highest in the world followed by Nigeria and Pakistan as per the Global Nutrition Report 2018. According to an analysis of the country’s food and nutrition security, 31.4% of Indian children under five years will be stunted by 2022 if the current trend continues. The Global Nutrition Report 2016 ranked India 170 th in terms of anemia among women. Poor health conditions of people is the stumbling block before India becomes a strong nation. With so much natural resources and crop diversity, India should be in a position to mitigate its hunger and malnutrition.
India tops the global output in milk production with more than 176 million tons per year. But, the bumper milk production has not addressed the malnutrition in the country; milk adulteration is being reported in many states. The Food and Drug Administration in Punjab in a statewide crackdown seized huge quantities of spurious milk products and harmful chemicals used for milk production. Such kind of raids on food processing industries across the country in regular intervals will deter food adulteration. India should revive the defunct lakes, rivers, ponds, and wells for multiple crops and fish production; and to meet the drinking water need of people. Scores of edible herbs and shrubs grow on the banks of the water bodies and on the farmland which once met the nutrition need of people. Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has developed a mechanism to monitor water bodies through satellite imagery; it will help the country to take corrective measures. Water scarcity needs urgent attention. Political parties should distribute election tickets to candidates on the basis of the status of water bodies in their localities. No small economic activities in villages are possible without water.
Over decades, aggressive cultivation of cotton, maize, paddy, tea, rubber, sugarcane, and coffee etc have depleted the crop diversity; it has aggravated malnutrition in the country. Extensive rubber, tea, coffee, and teak plantation have made the once food sufficient state Kerala to depend on Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh for food supply. Assam lost much of its crop diversity due to aggressive tea plantations. The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra became the suicide capital of India after its farmers were lured to convert more than 70% of their crop area into cotton cultivation. Preservation of crop diversity, water, and soil will make India nutrition sufficient.
Quality education is the backbone
Quality education builds the foundation of the country. India has neglected this aspect for decades. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) points out half the students in Class V in Indian schools can read a paragraph or do an arithmetic sum from a Class II text. In the international PISA test for reading, science, and arithmetic, India’s children ranked at bottom 73rd from 74 countries. Between 2011 and 2015, enrolments in the private schools rose by 1.6 crore, according to the Government’s DISE data. The majority of parents get disappointed with the private schools. Rote learning continues to spoil children’s mental ability. Our children are crushed between the greed of the private schools and the lethargy of the government schools.
“Nearly 11 percent Indians hold a graduation degree. Of this, in rural areas, the numbers were staggeringly low at 6%, while in urban areas it was higher at 22%,” as per NSSO recent survey. In rural areas, about 70% of the individuals aged 15 years and above could not complete their secondary education and in urban areas, about 40% of individuals were not able to secure the same education level, according to the latest data by the National Statistical Office (NSO). Out of the total number of graduates, only a small percentage of graduates acquire the desired knowledge to be employable. The Times Higher Education (THE), World University Rankings 2020 has not put any Indian University among the top 300 universities for the first time since 2012. As per the Economic Survey, India had spent 3% of the GDP on education in 2018-19. NITI Ayog has advised at least 6% of the GDP should be spent on education. The education sector should be attractive enough to net bright young people.
India’s low medal tally in the Olympic game vis-à-vis its population and the country struggling for an Oscar award shows a lot has to be done in the field of health and education. Indian industrialists do more trading and assembling job than inventing new products. The country was the second-largest importer of major arms in 2014-18; it imports more than 70% of the high-end defense hardware. Indians’ immense talent, skill, and imagination should be tapped to build a strong India.
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