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How to
retain the inclusiveness and secular fabric of India
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How to harness potential of of youth for
innovation
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How to empower women to have a greater say in
the household decision
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How to increase transparency in the governance at
all levels
Let me make it clear here that so
far as first three topics are concerned, in
my view Education
& Economic Independence hold key to all the three areas.Let me first
take the education.
Education is the
most important tool for making of a nation with equal playing field and
empowerment of all the sections of society, including the underprivileged,deprived
and minority sections ,women as well as youth of the society. Education in our country
is suffering from following diseases-
·
For many marginalized sections of the society
,specially in the remote corners of nation, there are no educational
opportunities at all.
·
For many, educational opportunities have been
made available but it is not quality education. As a result many a times we find such students at the H S Level who
don’t have basic language skills and mathematical ability.
·
Education has to fulfill the objective of
producing responsible citizens . If we
find that the secular fabric of the country is under strain, it means education is not helping our national
objectives.
·
There are such educational institutions in the
country which have fundamentalism as one of their objectives.
·
Education is not employment oriented therefore it is producing unemployable
graduates. It is also failing in the
objective of making people economically independent.
Solutions- (1)
Education has to be universal in the country available to everyone within 5 Km radius of his house and within 2-3 Km radius of a house at the primary level.
(2)Education means quality education with the help of
committed and qualified teachers.In the educational field Govt. offers better
salary structure and therefore boasts of better qualified teachers yet their
performance is lackadaisical and those who can afford, prefer private
educational institutions. To make teachers of Govt. Schools performance
oriented, carrot and stick policy should be adopted whereby good performance has to be rewarded with incentives whereas penalties have to be
imposed for non-performance. Govt. Schools should become model
institutions with high standards . These should be utilized as Nodal Agencies for achieving educational
objectives.
(3) Curriculum should be such that it inculcate moral and national
values including democratic values, secularism, tolerance,equality of gender
,religion and caste as well as mutual
respect for different sections and
communities,shunning stereotypes & prejudices.
(4)All the educational institutions whether Govt., private
& dependent on Govt. aid or totally private have to abide by core
values of the nation and make efforts to
inculcate these in the students. Schools which don’t follow it and
encourage fundamentalism of any kind have to be penalized and ultimately to be shut
down if don’t fall in line.
(5) After imparting
basic and middle level education only those should be encouraged to go for
higher education who are really interested. Others have to be diverted towards
Skill development so that they can have some gainful employment or become able for
self employment. I.T.I.s (Industrial Training Institutes) have to be made
nodal agency for skill development.
A lot of changes have taken place in the society in last twenty years
and many new professions have come into being so new trades like mobile
repairing have to be included in the curriculum of I.T.I.s.
(6) I.T.I.s impart skill training to only those who have a
minimum level of education. But there are many who don’t have even minimum
level of education ,yet they acquire some skill in the unorganized sector by
their private efforts like as automobile repairing,tailoring,embroidery etc. This
has contributed a lot in gainful as well as self- employment. Such efforts have
to be encouraged and some sort of institutional support should be given for the
purpose . NGOs can be included in a
scheme to encourage and streamline such efforts.
Emphasis on growth of
manufacturing sector-
As a corollary of skill development we have to put emphasize upon growth of manufacturing sector. For a robust
growth of manufacturing sector we have to create suitable business atmosphere with
the help regarding planning, know how, capital arrangement,tax rebate and other
appropriate policies . Further we have to look for export opportunities in
addition to our own internal market . We should look for exploiting even small
opportunities for export. China has successfully been doing this.
The above mentioned educational
reforms along with the growth of manufacturing sector will help in retaining inclusiveness and
secular fabric of the nation as well as harness potential of the youth for
innovation and help in increasing women
have a greater say in the household decision as economic self dependence is the key for
all the above.
Inclusiveness and secular fabric
of India can also be strengthened by
ensuring that everyone has same opportunity in the nation and no one is
favoured or discriminated against. For this purpose procedures and system has
to be clear & transparent in every
sphere of life and a fair mechanism for grievance redressal should be available to every one.Local
citizenship participation in Law & Order machinery has to be ensured so
that lumpen,troublesome and communal elements are continuously under watch and their activities are curbed at the initial
level itself. Special Police Task Force should be constituted to tackle the
hardened among such elements who are not amenable.This will check communal
activities along with other law & order problems.
For harnessing the
potential of youth for innovation apart from making economic opportunities available to them we
have to increase their participation at the decision making level. For this
purpose in every elected body specially those at the local level, a percentage
of seats be reserved for them or as an alternative every political party ensure
a particular percentage of their candidature.
Measures
which have been discussed earlier, will ensure a better say for the women also as
they will be equipped with education , skill and economic self dependence .Women
specially in the villages have to face many a times health problems but there
are no proper facilities to take their care.So the number of Primary Health
Centers has to be increased along with better facilities , preferably there
should be at least one P H C within a 5 Km radius . A category of diploma holder
medical practitioners should be prepared
and given permission to practice in the
rural areas only to solve the problem of paucity of medical practitioners in
these areas. Patriarchal mindset will change as education with sound values is spread and
women gain economic independence. This is already happening, albeit on a small
scale.Domestic violence and violence against women should be curbed with strict
laws and their more strict implementation.
As intoxication is a major source of violence against women-domestic as well
as outside , it is better if prohibition is imposed or some other kind of
measure like increasing number of dry days is taken.
How to increase transparency in the the governance
at all levels
(1)R T I
regime should be strengthened with strict punishment for non compliance.
(2)
One day per week( may be initially per month) be fixed in every office when
people should be allowed to see the files and documents themselves if they desire
so.
(3)
Maximum of the office working be online and accessible to people ,for example:
exam & result procedure of U P S C or Income Tax Assessment by an ITO be
available online
(4)Judicial
process has to speed up and judicial remedy should be time bound.
(5)Every
member of the Govt.machinery whether a
peon or a higher up or even the highest one has to be accountable for his each
& every official action.
The
above is all that I could think about and offer as a solution.
Thanks!
