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Ssc SOCIAL STUDY CIRCLE di (ESTD
1982) www.dalitindia.com ssc@dalitindia.com *********************************************************************** |
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October
13, 2002
A View from the Weaker Sections
Social
infrastructure and planning
Amidst an impressive galaxy of top intellectuals and giant
professionals, actively engaged in the progress of national planning, Let us
think by a rank of outsider. How does planning appear to the weaker sections?
What do they think of the planners? What do they look forward to? What
recommendations do they have to make? Today, no one in the country can remain
unconcerned with national planning - Five Year Plans and Annual Plans.
Who are the weaker sections? This is a question that is
repeatedly being raised by many. This question appears to arise out of the
national dilemma of identifying them. In fact, a suggestion for introducing an
economic criterion was made in the Approach to the Seventh Five Year Plan
1985-90, brought out by the Planning Commission and approved by the National
Development Council and the Government.
This caused a lot of controversy and the Government has
willy-nilly promised in the Parliament to drop the same. Hence, this may be
dropped for the present. These academic exercises and controversies apart, the
weaker sections are all those classes and groups who are today in search of an
identity, security, and basic amenities of life. They are the powerless and
resource less people and, therefore, victims of oppression and exploitation.
One may take different views about planning. One may
blindly praise it. Another may condemn it outright. A third view could be make
a reasonable and honest attempt to view it objectively.
As the weaker sections see it, our society is oppressive,
exploitative, unfair and often criminally unjust. It is a feudal society,
hopelessly divided into small water-tight compartments. This is more so ion the
rural areas in many parts of the country where the writ of the Government
apparently does not reach and the wishes of the feudal lords are the last word
and the rule of the day.
We call ourselves a developing nation. For the members of
the weaker sections 'developing' is another name for exploitation. The majority
of the people in our society are illiterates and suffering from malnutrition,
hunger and medical help. They lack the basic amenities like food, clothing, and
safe drinking water. Members of the weaker sections feel that they are being
kept under control, that they are being silenced through ingenious means of
threat and religious explanations, that they are being cheated, suppressed and
kept away from having share in the resources of the country and from planning
for their own future. Sooner or later they will wake up to realise that their
problems have become acute and sufferings unbearable, and that the contrast
between them and the 'elite' has grown so wide choose a peaceful or a violent
alternative would depend on what the planners decide today.
Like many other countries, we too claim that we are a free
and democratic country where power is drawn from and sovereignty rests with the
people. But after about forty years of the 'democratic' experiment, poor people
are still not able to vote and the gap between the rich and the poor has been
becoming wider and wider. Promises and forecasts are made year after year and
at the beginning of every Five Year Plan and before every election, but the day
of deliverance has kept on shifting like a mirage and going further and further
away with the passage of time limits are being repeated with marginal changes.
Where is the flaw? It is not that we have achieved nothing. The Nation has
developed. It had taken significant steps in many areas. It can claim to be a
industrial giant with the second largest manpower, a large body of trained scientific
and technical personnel, largest professional standing army, and a lot of rich
national resources. But at the same time, the gap between the rich and the poor
has also been widening.
The conflict between the rich and the poor, especially in
rural areas is getting sharper. The weakest of the weak like the Scheduled
Castes and the Scheduled Tribes are often violently suppressed. The numbers of
atrocities committed against them are increasing. The police take little notice
of these incidents and often refuse to record them, both out of prejudice and
out of a desire to keep the umber of recorded offences.
The reasons for all this are not far to seek. Basically,
our society has been unjust and unfair towards the poor. It has shown a great
tolerance and indifference to the sufferings and miserable conditions of the
poor and the weak. It has shown a cruel sense of intolerance against the rights
and liberties of the weaker sections. There are many numbers of examples. It
suffices to say that the Indian society and intellectuals have a tradition of Egalivan. Political power, planning,
administration, the law and order machinery and academic institutions - are all
being controlled by few, in spite of a democratic framework and eight general
elections during the last 40 years of our experience as a politically free,
independent Nation. Our philosophers and intellectuals have been traditionally
suffering from the problem of split personality. They have been generally
practising double standards throughout their life. The most important effect of
this is that while they can do wonderful works - reasoning, assessment,
analysis and theorising - when it comes to drawing up conclusions and, most
important of all, putting forward remedial suggestions and implementing them,
they withdrew themselves into their shells - they suddenly stop short, and
become irrational and conservative. Their prejudices and reactionary attitudes,
it appears, suddenly surface. Though with considerable efforts on their part,
they manage not to show them off or spell them out openly, one can still feel
it in their intellectual pursuits to their logical ends. This is our biggest
intellectual dilemma today, standing in the way of any social breakthrough.
This is likely the doctors who and are willing to examine but prepared to
diagnose, or who can diagnose all right but are not willing to treat the
sickness. No one in power, including those responsible for planning, appears to
be free from these. These naturally affect the effectiveness of our politicians,
bureaucrats and other important people.
Under these circumstances how can one expect that the lot
of the poor will improve? This is something, which could never happen
revolutionary changes, in the administration, in the political scene and in the
economic front. We can have an administration and economic system that truly
reflects the stratification of society. They reflect the national tradition to
sustain the relative pre-eminent positions and privileges of a few, and keeping
them as islands of prosperity, with relative superiority in areas of influence
and control. The thinking and actions of the entire Civil Services are
basically feudal in character. They waste much of their time, skills and energy
instead of utilising them for the welfare of the people. They frequently and
constantly indulge in inter-service rivalries, politicking and consolidating
their respective positions and gains. Thus the administration is not committed.
Co-operation and team spirit appear to be lacking everywhere. Basically it is
the world of a minority elite whose basic aim is to sustain themselves and
preserve their own interests and elitist values. Anything that do not fit into
this and serve the elitist interest is either run down or rejected. In such a
framework it is hard to believe that any development can take place for the
weaker sections.
In a democratic form of government subject to pulls and
pressures, powerful pressure groups of large land-owning classes, business
communities, industrial houses and big money groups constantly exercise their
influence over the government, political executives, the bureaucracy, the party
in power or likely to be in power at a future date, or has the potential to
challenge and checkmate the party in power. The weaker sections remaining weak,
poor, suffering from illiteracy, and every other conceivable drawback will on
the government administration and executive machinery or the party in power.
Even their own leaders fail them very often - since they are very susceptible
to pressures and influences of both the vested interests and the government.
The weaker sections suffer from a double disadvantage - growing pressure from
vested interests and the lack of resources and bargaining power for themselves.
Some enlightened and progressive individuals and sections
have been showing their concern for the plight of the weaker sections. But here
again the attitude often remains feudal and paternalistic. Also, these
progressive, national bourgeoisie are, and could be only very few in number. And,
these few individuals here and there themselves cannot escape the pressures
from the vested interests and are handicapped at the same time, by lack of
pressure from the weaker sections.
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