A change of social attitude and mindset is required for inclusive growth in India
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| Sick children in Patna hospital |
From a PR point of view, the release of Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen’s
new book An Uncertain Glory couldn’t have been timelier.
With Indian elections less than a year away, and a gloomy economic climate
looming over, the book is going to stimulate intellectual debates and a‘reasoned
public engagement’ on India’s socio –economic policies.
The book is already being invoked: last week Meghnad Desai writing for
The Sunday Express cited the authors, and endorsed (from what I gather
from reading the first couple of chapters of the book) that the story of Indian
growth has been elitist and the vast majority of the population hasn’t
benefited from India’s 20 years of economic growth.
Meghnad Desai also makes a very valid point: the Indian society has no
sense of “equality of respect”, and asserts that social equality is
needed for inclusive growth.
How do you achieve social equality in India? Can concerted government
policies alone bring in social equality? The answer is 'no'. There has to
be first a social acceptance for social equality. Whilst it is true that one of
the primary reasons for India’s lack of social and physical infrastructure, and
high levels of poverty is bad governance and corruption, but on the other hand,
India’s highly conscious caste and class based society, i.e. we the people of
India are equally responsible for the gross deprivation of a vast majority of
India’s population.
Class and caste divisions
Let’s consider the following:
Since centuries, casteism and economic inequality have created a
master- slave relation in India, with the poor serving the rich and the
middle class. By and large most Indians don’t want this social status quo
to change. How many urban educated Indians actually allow their maids and
domestic help to eat with them on same table and sit on the same sofa? What do
we do for the welfare of the families of our maids, gardeners, security guards
and drivers? Should this sector not be formalized to give them a sense of
dignity and some rights for their professions?
Upward mobility in India is a race. Even when people from the
economically weak section make it to the ranks of middle class and above, in
most cases, they themselves become indifferent to he plight of others.
The attitude of indifference coupled with extreme arrogance of the novae-rich
reinforces social inequality with much more vengeance and force.
We lack the dignity of labour. Since most upper class
Indians grow up believing that some types of work are for people who are poor
and illiterate, when someone from that background makes it big, we immediately
question their social credentials.
In terms of education, compare a student from a rural government
school and a well to do private school. The difference in quality of education
and even the very basic facilities are so huge that the race is decided even
before it is run. It is not that the government is not spending on education,
but again the people running the show don’t want that the schools of the
poor are at par with the well to do.
In Bihar, where the death of 20 children after eating mid-day meal
could have been averted if the people in charge had systematically monitored
the meals or even a simplest protocol in regard to the management of food by
headmistress was followed.
Finally, there is always a structural relation between poverty,
illiteracy and politics. Keeping people poor and illiterate serves the purpose
of the politicians, as it is easy to fool the poor.
The list could go on, but the point is that social inclusion in India
requires a change of mindset of the people, and unless
we ourselves open up and take ownership of our duties, any
efforts for inclusive growth will be an illusion.
For the harsh reality is that believe it or not
we are one of the most racist society on the planet in more than one ways. This
is unfortunate and is against the spirit of the constitution of the
world's largest democracy.
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