Date:13/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/13/stories/2008021354401001.htm

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Efficiency & dignity

The article “Of technology, efficiencies, and human dignity” (Feb. 12) is thought-provoking. Job-creation and protection through sustaining inefficient technology is not a solution for anything. Even today, scavenging and the like are “reserved” for the unprivileged strata, which we do not consider as part of our rich human resource. To create a technologically vibrant and responsive workforce, the government should concentrate on primary education. The efficiency and productivity of Chinese labour, skilled and semi-skilled in manufacturing, can be attributed to state-sponsored free education for all in China.

However, some degree of inefficiency prevails in every economy. In the U.S., it is the highway lobbies which prevent the replacement of inefficient hydrocarbon technologies with efficient and eco-friendly green technologies. Therefore, in capitalism too institutions that nurture inefficiency prevail.

Pleasa Serin Abraham,

Hyderabad

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The article is, in many ways, an eye-opener to the people who may overlook some aspects when they think of the term “underprivileged and social backwardness.” As the article points out, even reservation has not helped as it has accentuated social backwardness. What is needed is a change in mindset and a serious rethink on employing people in jobs that are an insult to civil society. When technology can do away with the employment of people in such jobs and universal access to quality education can actually lift people out of backwardness, the perpetuation of age-old stereotypes surely calls for some introspection on our part.

N. Sivaraman,

Bangalore