The President's concerns - I

By Muchkund Dubey

THE NATION owes a profound gratitude to the President for his Republic Day address this year. He has drawn attention to the deplorable social situation the nation is facing today and served a timely warning against ignoring social and moral aspects of development. It is the first Republic Day address which focusses almost entirely on social and governance problems. An increasing number of social scientists and activists have long come to believe that these problems constitute the most serious constraint to development and that their solution is the precondition for India emerging as a major economic power. The issues raised by the President deserve the most serious attention of all sections.

Some people have made a deliberate effort to belittle the significance of the address by portraying it in a controversial light. A section of the media has depicted it as yet another example of growing differences between the President and the Prime Minister. The zealots of liberalisation and globalisation have taken the address as a veiled attack on these processes. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The President has acknowledged the higher rate of growth achieved after the introduction of economic reforms. However, he has asked us not to be carried away and to ponder over the deeper social and moral malaise besetting our society, which can frustrate all our efforts on the economic front.

The President has reminded us that India harbours the largest number of illiterates, poor people and children suffering from malnutrition in the world, and that more than half of the population has no access to clean drinking water. He has drawn our attention to ``great regional and social inequalities,'' ``violence in society,'' particularly against women, children and the under-privileged, and development-induced displacement and ``ecological and environmental devastation.'' He has warned us against ``unabashed vulgar indulgence in conspicuous consumption of the noveau riche'' and lack of accountability in the delivery of public services. He has talked about our ``stony-hearted society'' in which individuals and groups pursue self-interest in callous disregard of the hurt it causes to fellow citizens and to the nation as a whole. By far the most poignant part of the address depicts the pitiable and inhuman plight of women, Dalits and tribals whose security is imperilled at every step and whose dignity is outraged every now and then. In this connection, the President has significantly stated that India's privileged classes are spearheading a ``counter-revolution'' against the ``affirmative action provided by Constitutional provisions.''

Everything he has said is in conformity with the average citizen's daily experience and is borne out by statistical data as well as numerous empirical studies. In 1991, nearly half of the population above the age of seven was illiterate. Illiteracy among women was about 60 per cent and among rural women nearly 70 per cent. It is now widely recognised that literacy has not only the intrinsic value of being a fundamental right and basic need but also the instrumental value as a major contributor to the process of development and improvement in the quality of life. Illiteracy, on the other hand, is degrading and a perpetual source of exploitation. Our recent phenomenal march towards a position of leadership in the information technology industry will soon reach a dead-end in the absence of a wide educational base.

The Dalits and the tribals have a lower per capita income than other classes. Around 50 per cent of them are below the poverty line as against the figure of 33 per cent for others. Moreover, the intensity of poverty is severer among them than among others. In 1991, only 40.8 per cent of them were literate as against the national average of 53.5 per cent. Female literacy among them was less than half that of the general female literacy. Rural female literacy among the tribals was only 16.2 per cent; it was as low as 4.73 per cent in Rajasthan, 5.5 per cent in Bihar and 8.47 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.

The Dalits and the tribals were also in a disadvantageous position in regard to health care. The rate of immunisation among them was the lowest; and so was the proportion of births which received attention from trained personnel. Their access to modernity in educational and health services was much more limited than that of the other classes. Recent studies show that during the 90s these classes, particularly the Scheduled Castes, improved their educational and cultural status and they were also empowered politically, but there is no evidence of much upward economic and social mobility.

The Dalits and the tribals are preponderant among those displaced by development. Over the past 50 years, some of them have been doubly displaced. The compensation paid has been too little and has often come too late. A substantial part of it still remains unpaid. Much of the compensation paid has, because of middlemen and other vested interests, been wasted in drinking, gambling or illegal property transactions, leaving the victims in utter destitution. There has hardly been any land-for-land compensation. Because of their being largely illiterate and unskilled, alternative job offers have been negligible. Blind pursuit of profit has prompted companies to ignore alternative methods of implementing the projects, which would have caused minimum displacement and loss of land. In the name of liberalisation and industralisation, the Government has been increasingly acting as an ally of the companies rather than as the protector of the people.

Development is being pursued in wanton disregard of its consequences for environment. In this also, the Government has become an ally of the profit-seekers. As the President has very rightly pointed out, conspicuous consumption and rampant violation of every norm of social behaviour have played no small part in causing environmental degradation.

Environmental clearance for projects has often been given on the condition that prescribed environmental conditions will be applied during implementation. However, partly due to corruption and partly in the absence of an effective monitoring system, enterprises have got away without fulfilling these conditions. There is hardly any example of the project-affected people being associated with the arrangement for monitoring.

There is often tall talk about India emerging as one of the four major economic powers in the next 20 years or so. This will remain a fantasy until the social and moral issues raised by the President are addressed urgently and adequately. For, no country has made the grade on the economic front without providing the minimum must in the social field and without good governance. The Western countries have one of the most elaborate social security systems in the world, which constitutes the hallmark of their civilisation. Germany spends nearly 15 per cent of its national budget on public health and education there is free up to the university level. The East and South Asian countries which, till the June 1997 melt-down, were often cited as examples of economic miracle, went through the painstaking process of human capital formation, including the provision of almost universal literacy and access to public health services, before embarking upon liberalisation. In China, another example of success, the economy was opened up long after the completion of thoroughgoing land reforms and after ensuring the provision of basic educational and health services.

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