Is India fit for democracy

Having walked all way through the bridge, I saw an old man sitting at the end and babbling with
himself. I confronted him and asked,” Baba why are you sitting here?” He looked at me with his
clumsy eyes and perplexed expression and said,” I am wondering what will I say when the National
Population Statisticians will ask me my ‘caste’, I never thought myself to be something other than
an Indian”.
I was awestricken by his answer and realized how ill equipped our democracy was. Our country has
been developing rapidly economically but it still lags behind in the Social developments. When
China started its economic reforms, India was a larger democracy. But now we are far behind the
Chinese in almost every aspect of development. Despite china being the most populated country in
the world, it has soared to the second fastest growing economy in the world behind Japan just on
the model of export oriented growth. It has yet to tap its huge potential in the domestic market which
is estimated to increase its GDP by a quarter percent of the present growth.
In the paradigm of recent times, we generally come across different facets of our country with every
passing hour. From having the first mover advantage to being a laggard, we have redefined our
democracy in a more subtle way.
Now the thing to ponder is what is that they have done right and we have not? Despite being a
communist ruled country till date, their growth and advancement has been phenomenal. Most
importantly I would say the lack of conviction on the part of the politicians have led to the downfall of
India. The division on the basis of Cast, Creed and Sex has inherently made this country a hollow
dump of false hopes and promises. The most devastating and the prominent cause of this downfall
of democracy has been corruption which is so widely spread across the sectors in India. From the
Ministers to the Peons, everybody has in some way or the other shown the signs of corruption which
has stalled the progress of this nation. Now even the people of the country have lost faith in its
leaders which can be accounted by low turnover of votes during the Elections. Nobody wants to get
into Politics thinking it to be a manhole in which one who falls gets corrupted. The tonnes of Food
Grains that are being left to rot in the stores depict the condition of democracy in India
A Communist or Military dominance would have augured well for the country seeing the present
State of Affairs. The richer are becoming more rich and the Poorer and getting more poor. Is this the
justice of a democracy? My view says it’s certainly not. It’s a strangulation of the core basis of
democracy which is equality of rights and freedom. The government should have certain
consideration towards the lower section of the society to make this country a successful democracy.
Just running the various incentive schemes won’t change the situation unless they are monitored
and guided well. The infrastructure planning and execution should be on par with the proposal of the
Planning Commission for a rapid growth. A change in the attitude and a more concrete way of
taking responsibility and handling issues can take this country to a higher level of democracy
otherwise it will soon turn into a curse.
Tusheet Saraf

Indian Education System: concentrating on lucrative careers or

developing intellect
At approximately 65% literacy rate, India lags much behind other developed and developing
economies in terms of adult literacy. Hence much of the government’s policy effort is towards
universalising primary education and boosting the admission rates to secondary schools and
graduate colleges. However in this debate, an aspect emerges whether the Indian education system
truly fulfils the objective of “education” or rather it just helps people meeting their needs of a decent
lifestyle.
The true goal of education transcends much beyond just awarding degrees to students. Education
aims to develop the intellect of the learners. It seeks to free the human being from parochial
mindset. Education is not just a tool to earn money to make the ends; it is the way to liberate the
mind and soul of a person. The real product of a true education system is a rational mind which
works towards building an intellectual society. India is home to brilliant minds with immense
potential. However the education system has not been able to produce many intellectuals. The
inability of the system to nurture great minds is quite disheartening when the number of researchers
in India is compared to countries such as USA, Finland. While India produces 46 PhDs every year
per one lakh students, almost 4000 doctorates wear the laurel in USA every year. Even China has
left India far behind; so much so that we could only produce two indigenous noble laureates.
However the blame can’t only be placed on the education system or the government policy towards
it. Education, being the face of the society, reflects the impact of the social, cultural and economic
phenomena of the society.
The flawed government policy of not offering any incentive to higher research carries a large chunk
of blame for this. India simply does not have the educational infrastructure to promote research
oriented education. Successive governments have given little thought to it and instead focused their
energies on improving the literacy rates. Development of intellectual requires a highly conducive
environment with the unequivocal support of a willing state. While an engineer or a doctor earns
tens of thousands rupees per month, a PhD student gets meagre stipend. Though the motivation of
developing intellect does not come for money, it is certainly required for his subsistence, as
hertzberg’s motivation-satisfaction theory suggests. Because of unavailability of technological
opportunities, thousands of students move to USA, UK or Australia for higher studies; some of them
turned out to be leaders of innovation in future. That justifies the fact that we have no dearth of
potentials, it just needs to be nurtured in a proper environment with incentives.
The education system tends to promote competition among the pupils instead of developing their
aptitude. It is highly focused towards scoring marks in examination rather than building concept. The
methodological study approach ends up making the students disenchanted and the degree is used
just a tool to enhance the academic profile. It is a greater impediment to skill development. Lack of
interaction with industry keeps the research study aloof from the recent trends and makes higher
studies unimpressive. Continuous communication with industries helps the researchers understand
the emerging trends and develop their intellectual capabilities to seek answers to the recent issues.
Absence of definitive policy for promoting innovation is also a barrier to students following their
innate desire for higher research thereby developing ground-breaking ideas. India is yet to place an
intellectual properties right law in place.
However government policy is not the one reason for lackadaisical attitude among the students
towards research oriented studies. The education system, being a much broader aspect than
literacy, is heavily influenced by social, cultural and economic phenomena of the society. In order to
perform their social duties, people tend to take up jobs at early age, get married and settle down. A
rigorous research oriented study sometimes demand complete devotion from the students. Due to
less returns in the initial stage, people tend to discourage their wards from taking up research as a
carrier option and instead want them to settle down with lucrative career option which is valued as a
social status. Family constraints sometimes force the students to abandon their aspirations aptitude
development through higher studies. As teaching is no more a prized profession, the best minds are
not available to encourage deeper thinking among students. Along with that the availability of easy
money in lucrative careers has played against people developing their intellectual tracts.
Earning money instead of developing intelligence is now treated as the yardstick to measure
success. But the society is not entirely at fault for this. Indian society is in a transition state where
sudden availability of opportunities is helping thousands of poor families to middle class. While their
disposable income has seen a sudden increase, they want to play it safe. The Maslowvian theory of
motivation suggests that people tend to want to fulfil their immediate survival needs before climbing
up the hierarchy of motivation to achieve their intellectual capability. Only professions such as
engineer, doctors, MBAs are values in Indian society as they offer a fat package and a decent
lifestyle. When compared to western education system, one can easily notice the difference. Their
social, cultural value tend develop the trait of independent thinking which is basic to develop interest
for deeper understanding of a subject. Instead of limiting a student’s options, their education system
offers wide range of choices to select their areas of interest. Our technological education does not
give due to importance to courses of humanities and vice versa. It limits a person’s ability to think
beyond what is obvious. Whereas American universities offer auxiliary subject which a student can
get credit from along with his or her major.
At one side social constraints discourage students to take up research work, at the other hand the
economic liberalisation in 90s’ not only opened the Indian market to the global players; it brought a
sea of opportunities to India. Boost in Indian exports, IT & ITes outsourcing, financial reforms
created lot of job opportunities for educating Indians. The fat money offered by those sectors
attracted the young Indians to those jobs which now fulfilled their dream of a good lifestyle. Most of
the huge numbers of technological and management institutes opened after the economic
liberalisation aim to cater to the industry’s requirement and instead of imparting education to the
students they just end up being a grooming schools for them. The institutes focus on job placements
rather than research publications. All their education is revolves around placing their students in
lucrative jobs rather than inculcating analytical ability among them.
But everything is not lost. The institutes like IISc, IITs, and IIMs continue to produce minds who
have been contributing to the cause of our country. The government now plans to consult IITs to
make the Ganges river basin pollution free by 2020. Anna University students have launched a
nano satellite called ANUSAT.
The future of a society, state lies in innovation, new ideas and ground-breaking approaches. And
only the intellectual can champion the path of innovation. An independent original thinker is the only
one capable of creating new opportunities for the society. Recent government policy changes in
higher studies are a welcome step for this. Programs such as establishment of model universities,
Nalanda Asian University, promoting higher medical research in IITs will help India to establish a
knowledge based society. As India progresses in her journey from a developing country to a
developed state, the need of developing intellect will continue to assume more importance. While
the society much change its attitude towards education, change in government policies are
fundamental for changing the former’s outlook. Because intellectuals can create jobs with lucrative
careers but a lucrative job does not guarantee development of intellect.
Biswajit Pattanayak

Effects of Technology
So often these days we hear and speak of ‘the conquest of nature’, ‘the taming of a river’, ‘the war
against insects’ and so on. Often these phrases are used without consciously attaching any value to
them, but they have underlying them an attitude of hostility towards Nature & it’s creatures, a
viewpoint which seems to assume nature as an enemy that needs to be vanquished. Alternatively,
nature is seen merely as a ‘resource’ to be exploited to take the maximum out of it, regardless of
what this does to natural processes & to other creatures which depend on these processes. It is this
attitude which sees fellow humans too as a resource to be exploited or other human communities as
enemies to be conquered.
Well, most of this destruction of nature is mainly because of the fast-running human mind and the
more rapidly increasing advancements in the modern day technology. Science and its inventions
over the centuries have made life easier & enjoyable. Its application has proved to be a blessing in
more ways than one. The first significant advancement in technology was the invention of fire
around 1 million years ago, this enabled humans to cook food, and create other items such as
spears and utensils. Technology now has improved sharply, and with TVs, MP3s, Computers etc.,
our way of life has changed. We have become the people of modern ideas and innovations & this
shows our stinking richness.
With the introduction of Mp3s, TVs and computers, life for humans have become easier but also
lazier. Obesity in children is at peak levels in India, United States, etc. Kids are preferring to stay at
home and play computer games rather than going out and socializing like they used to. Quite simply
kids are losing their social life, getting fatter and are having low academic achievements all because
of their addictive games on Xboxes, Play Stations etc.
But not only the children, it has also affected lives of adults.Cell phones can cause brain tumors and
computers cause problems with your hands and fingers, and posture. So is technology really
helping us? Are the pros outweighing the cons. Should we take the risks? We have probably heard
that listening to music at high volume levels from iPod can damage our hearing capability but
have we cared how other gadgets are also causing damage to our overall health? Cell phones,
microwave ovens and even the little Bluetooth device that we have attached to our ear causes
radiation that might cause harm to our natural health.
Technology has helped the nature as well, as it helps us to determine when disaster is going to
struck, also when earth will vanish and many other theories, but Technology is necessary but not
always a positive influence in modern life. This issue has especially come into vogue in the last
decade due to the mind-boggling pace of technology. Technology has really been very hazardous to
the environment as well.
The modern world gadgets use technology of radiations and other harmful rays that have immense
affect on the environment. They imbalance all the processes in turn causing a great affect on the
entire living world and also the eco-cycle. Now, coming to geosciences. It has largely affected the
earth and the environment as it involves digging up of the earth to extract various resources of one’s
daily need. This in turn has led to over-exploitation of the resources all around the world. These
resources take millions of years to be converted from the fossil fuels, organic matter. But due to
extreme usage of them they are getting depleted.
“Technology, when misused, poisons air, soil, water and lives. But a world without
technology would be prey to something worse: the impersonal ruthlessness of the natural
order, in which the health of a species depends on relentless sacrifice of the weak. ”
The fastest growing network of Google is not too far away from this destructive activity. The search
engine which has won the hearts of many with its speed has created various problems as well. The
problem lies in the way Google works. Using a search engine generates CO2 emissions because
the search request goes to more than one server that can be thousands of miles apart. Google have
servers in the US, Europe, Japan and China. According to a recent study reveals that doing a
Google search can emit anywhere between 1 and 10g of CO2 depending on whether or not the
computer had to be switched on.
Thus the need of the hour is to adhere to more environmentally friendly practices such as switching
to fluorescent bulbs and driving electric cars which is referred to as Going Green. Recycling material
goods, using alternative energies and buying local goods are all components of the Green lifestyle.
Nowadays, jute & paper bags are encouraged rather than plastic bags to carry various materials.
Green Games (Commonwealth Games) will also be held in India & their motto would be to reduce
environmental degradation. The purpose of this overhaul of lifestyle is to heal the environment of the
damage that has been done to it by human existence. A noble cause indeed, but one that could
possibly have negative side effects. So are we going to stop using Google for our searches?
Technology will inevitably continue to grow, but we have to ask Is technology doing more harm than
good?
Mayank Gupta

Globalization and the Pollution

Globalization can be defined as the process of making the world smaller and keeping it connected
with one another. It is only through globalization that now in the present scenario we can come to
know what’s happening in the other part of the world. Indian markets were allowed to enter global
market in the 90’s.these led to drastic changes in the thinking, standard of living of people, and also
in the economic scenario of India. It sort started a new type of industrial revolution in India or it can
be said that it gave a new start to the already existing industries in India.
There as also been an increase in the rate of pollution at an alarming rate in the past decade. It can
be said that the rate of globalization and the rate of pollution are inter-related, as the rate of
globalization increases, the rate of pollution also increases Due to globalization the competition
among nations to become the super power has become at a very high rate. This as led to fast
development of the nations. The development is not being done in a proper way which for time
being won’t show it’s effects, but in the long run will cause a major damage to the world.
The degradation of ecological system can be defined as pollution. As the world progresses, it is
destroying the wonderful fauna and flora that exists directly and indirectly. Large pieces of land
covered with trees are being wiped out to make way for industries, residential complexes etc. As the
trees provided for the habitat to large variety of birds and animals, these animals could not survive
the change in the environment and got extinct. Many of the industries are situated near water bodies
to release their chemical effluents in the water. but this in turn effects the flora and fauna in the
water bodies, also making the water unfit for any use ,specially for drinking. There also has been an
enormous increase in the air pollution, through increase in vehicular movement, poisonous gases let
out from industries as waste gases and through many other ways harm is being caused to the
nature.
The damage due to this destruction has already started showing. It is seen in the form global
warming. But this is only the starting of the damage, if we continue in this way we have to be ready
to witness a lot more changes and that will for the worst.
Globalization is not harmful; it is one of the best ways to improve the country, if followed in a proper
and systemic way. We should try to improve our country by utilizing the facilities of the other
developed countries and our resources in a well planned manner, so that the future generations
also have the resources to utilize for their better development.
Shruti Garg

Empowering Women Rebuilding the Society

“To awaken the people, it is the women who must be awakened. Once she is on the move, the
family moves, the village moves, the nation moves”.-Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
In India, today, women appear to rule the roost. India as a nation is revered in a feminine form i.e.
‘the Bharat Mata’, the first citizen of our country presently is a woman, many important government
posts are occupied by women and educated women are pouring into the professional workforce with
profound implications for national and multinational corporations. However, ironically, these are
accompanied by news about dowry killings, female infanticide, domestic violence against women,
sexual harassment, rape, illegal trafficking and prostitution and myriad others of the same ilk.
Gender discrimination prevails in almost all areas, be it social, cultural, economic or educational. An
effective remedy for these evils needs to be sought in order to ensure the Right to Equality
guaranteed by the Constitution of India, to the fairer sex. Gender equality facilitates the
empowerment of women. Since education begins at home, the upliftment of women would be
accompanied by the development of the family, the society and in turn, would lead towards a holistic
development of the nation.
Among these problems the foremost that needs to be addressed is the atrocity committed against
females at birth and during childhood. Female infanticide i.e. killing of the female child is still a
common practice in many of the rural areas. Further female foeticide is common in some parts of
India, despite the passage of ‘Prenatal Diagnostic techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act in
1994. In case they survive, they are subjected to discrimination throughout their lives. Traditionally,
since sons are thought to take care of their parents during old age and daughters are considered a
burden because of dowry and other expenses that have to be incurred during their marriage, female
children are neglected in the matters of nutrition, education and other important aspects of well-
being. The Sex ratio in our country is abysmally low. It was only 933 females per 1000 males
according to the 2001 census. The Sex ratio is an important indicator of development. Developed
countries usually have Sex ratios above 1000. For instance, the USA has a Sex ratio of 1029, Japan
1041 and Russia 1140. In India, Kerala is the state with the highest Sex ratio of 1058 and Haryana
is one with the lowest value of 861.
During their youth, females face the problem of early marriage and childbirth. They are not cared for
properly during pregnancy leading to many cases of maternal mortality. The MMR (Maternal
Mortality Rate) i.e. the number of females dying during delivery per one lakh persons, in India is
437(as in 1995). In addition, they are subjected to harassment for dowry and other forms of
domestic violence. Further, at the work place, public places and elsewhere, acts of violence,
exploitation and discrimination are rampant.
Various steps have been taken by the government to prevent such abuses and to empower women.
Criminal laws against sati, dowry, female infanticide and foeticide, ‘eve teasing’, rape, immoral
trafficking and other offences relating to women have been enacted in addition to civil laws like the
Dissolution of Muslim Marriages Act 1939, the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 and other Matrimonial
enactments. The Prevention of Domestic Violence Act has been passed in 2005. A National
Commission for Women (NCW) has been set up. Other measures by the government include
provision of reservation in representation and education, allocation for the welfare of women in the
five year plans, provision of subsidized loan facilities and so on. The year 2001 has been declared
as the ‘women empowerment year’ by the Government of India and 24 th January as the National Girl
Child Day.
The 108th Constitutional Amendment Bill, popularly known as the Women’s Reservation Bill which
seeks to reserve one-third of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative
Assemblies has been a highlight in the recent times. It was ‘passed’ in the Rajya Sabha on March
9th 2010. Though well intended, it can have little, if any, tangible consequences for the real
empowerment of women since it does not touch upon the core issues which plague them. The
solution must envisage a two-pronged attack, on the one hand, on tradition which is responsible for
assigning a low status for women in the society and on the other hand, the outrages perpetrated
against them. The proposed ‘Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace’ Bill, 2010
is a good move in that direction. Mass campaigns need to be organized especially in the villages in
favour of survival of the female child and provision of human rights for her, including education and
health. It is essential to dispel the ghosts of the past and place women on an equal footing with men
in order to pave the way for their empowerment, social, economic and educational. Empowering
women and thus rebuilding the society would take the nation on a path of greater development, as
Swami Vivekananda says, “Countries and Nations which do not respect women have never
become great nor will ever be in future”.
Dr.Purvaja Mahadevan

Do Schools Put Too Much Pressure on Kids

The rising population over the world has made the intraspecies struggle of human wider than
before. Its implications are uglier than expected. Parents and guardian are putting much effort to
transform their offspring a fitter individual to persist this survival race. The ancient gurukul system of
India considered a child mentally fit enough to get trained, at the age of seven, but today’s
globalised education system lowered the bar to two years and not only that, a kid before it starts to
speak is taught a variety of things beforehand in order to get into school and handle the pace and
pressure generated during the course.
The childhood that is juncture of amusement and relaxation has now become an old story. The kid
of twenty first century has to learn, the tactics to face the burden brought forward by the schools.
The nursery school that is aimed at physical, social and emotional development of the kid through
ways that is meant to give the kid far reaching enjoyment is now diminishing. The toys like elephant,
horse, truck, doll, bus and helicopter are now replaced by big letters of English alphabets,
geometrical figures like square triangle, cube and mathematical symbols like plus, minus, into and
divide. These new methods are only emerging intellectual portion of the kid rather than overall
development. These education systems in the race of being the best have only become a centre of
business. They are snatching the pleasant moments of kids and substituting it with weight of study
which their delicate brains are incapable of handling. Parents too are not considerate that what their
kid will lose today will never come back again-“the hassle free moments”. But in spite of all these
parents are unable to judge the precise school which doesn’t threaten their kid of the upcoming
higher education. All these kindergartens that are meant only for business purposes may be quite
detrimental for the growth of the kid into a successful person. Rather schools should understand
that education should be a balance between skills and creative expressions-between the head and
the heart.
For the kids, the primary school is like a new world. Here they first learn the principles of discipline
and that is in no way bad. But happens when the moderate level of discipline turns into excessive
level of discipline; it not only pressurizes the kids but also make them rude internally which bursts
out in their later life. The kids who are unable to do the home works are harshly beaten up with stick,
which tortures them physically. Neither the teacher nor the principle ever tries to look into the matter
why the kid was unable to do the homework. Instead of making the kid understand the concepts and
clear his doubts in solving the problems, the teachers approach to his parents complaining “your
kid does not study”. This creates mental pressure to the kid not only from the school but also an
added pressure from their parents.
At the secondary school level the kid, who was already facing the pressure of strict discipline and
moral values, feels the pressure of higher studies. He feels the competition between his other class
fellows who are getting better rank than him. He labors hard day and night, and in this race he
hampers his health. But let me ask “why he feels the competition?” everyone knows that all of us
have different capacities. Some are good in sports and some are good at studies. But the main
problem is our education system-the teachers praises those students who get better rank while they
criticize and underestimate the one who are poor or average at studies. This mental pressure
reaches its peak when the student appears for board examination. It has now become a remarkable
truth that students getting poor marks in the board exams are criticized by the school, the parents as
well as by the society. These extremes of pressure force the students to do suicide.
The level of pressure experienced by the high school students is no less. They now become more
alert towards the choice of their future profession. They also feel the stress of advanced studies in
the stream they are pursuing-science, commerce or any other stream. The evils of increased
criticism preexisting from the secondary school are inherited to the high school. The students have
to prepare for entrance exams to get a fine college. While the school is focused at receiving better
percentage in board, the student aims at getting better rank in entrance exams. As the syllabuses of
both are different, the student feels loss in his confidence level. The teacher trains him shortcut
methods for entrances which if he uses in his board is sure to get reduced marks. Hence the school
confuses the student. If he doesn’t do well in his board then the school is ready to criticize him, and
if he doesn’t do well in his entrances his parents rather than supporting him in this delicate situation
are going to add extra mental pressure. This results in students of high school getting into grave
depression.
The kid of nursery, by the time he reaches high school becomes completely tired and exhausted by
the pressure generating system i.e. “the school”. The schools of present era should use innovative
strain free techniques to make the kid learn. They should understand that their aim is “To educate
students” but not “Pressurize students and educate them”.
Nishant Kumar Shekhar
Should Students Be Allowed To Grade Their Teachers
Alas! The prominent bonds of Central Board of Secondary Education exams have been broken
down by Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation grading system. The introduction of
Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation grading system is one way of reduction of overload over
students during the reign of final exams in order to introduce a hidden personality to his own strange
potential powers. Anyway I opt for this peculiar grading system only during the professional
curriculum and at the beginning of the school age
Even though the overload on students had reduced embarrassingly. But, the CCE grading system
will not be a great success if the teachers are not well trained actually training and everything are all
done systematically. After all teachers should treat the students as friends without any drop of
selfishness. Anyway all the homosapiens posses a mind of selfishness and also could emulate a
particular personality.
Introduction of the Comprehensive and Continuous Evaluation system must be done in a systematic
and exegesising manner otherwise it would be a great failure for the mighty Indian education
system. Hence, it is the most observant fundamental duty of the administrational set up to train the
assigned teachers to realize their students potential strength inorder to lead them into greater
achievements.
Even though , Kapil Sibal, Federal Human Resource Development minister has introduced this
breath taking system along with suffering for its fame. The CCE grading system has adamantly
proved that there were no provision that gave an opportunity to the intrepid students to grade their
teachers. Miserably, some students believe in this fallacy of the Comprehensive and Continuous
Evaluation system.
Our teachers are honorable elders who play the insignificant role of our guardians in the school.
Since, they are elder than students they possess a better knowledge and lot more experiences.
Providing the rights to the students to grade their valuable teachers is an act of embrocating which
will only aid in emasculating the teachers from their honored responsibilities.
A large mob of students in schools may be eagerly urging for such a fascinating provision for
establishing a feeling of hatred towards the teachers.
At all cost, grading teachers by the intrepid students contains many ill effects including the formation
of a revengeful cloud on the teachers. Hence, I sternly oppose any of the provisions that allow the
students to grade their teachers with an alarmed warning.
Ajay Sethu