How the youth will shape India
The condition of our children and the values our youth will conduct their lives by, as they aspire to have more and get ahead, will determine what shape our country will be in 25 years, says Arun Maira
MOTHERS matter. And children matter. Because they create our future. Therefore the recent report on the State of the Worlds Mothers by Save the Children, the international organisation, should concern those envisioning Indias future. India is 66th out of 71 developing countries in the Mothers Index ranking a composite of healthcare, education, and economic status of mothers in these countries. And with over 53% of children in India under five years without basic healthcare facilities, the country also ranks very low, alongside Ghana and Eritrea, in childcare. Indians aspire for their country to be a large, rapidly growing economy, and also to be respected as a great nation. Therefore these numbers should be of immense concern because the condition of mothers and children is fundamental to realising those aspirations.
India, according to several economic forecasters, is on its way to becoming the third largest economy in the world by 2040. Recently a few Indians began to appear in the lists of the richest people in the world. Now Forbes, the international business magazine, projects that by 2017 India will have the most billionaires in the world! These could be signs that the economy is on its way to achieve its forecasted size. However, one wonders whether such spurts within the countrys economy are sustainable amidst the poverty around.
In India, 480 million are less than 19 years old. Economic forecasters have calculated the demographic dividend for Indias economy the boost it will receive from these young peoples incomes and savings in the next decades. In their math, well-fed and well-educated and under-nourished and uneducated children are the same. The math does not distinguish the girl with a baby in her arms begging at the street corner from the two kids driving by in an air-conditioned sedan oblivious of the other two in the heat and dust. These add up to four Indian children in economists estimates of the demographic dividend.
India has 20% of the worlds children: but it also has 40% of the worlds malnourished children. Since 45% of Indian children (a number higher than most African countries) are malnourished and likely to grow up with health issues later in life, and since over 50% of Indian children do not have an adequate education, a large proportion of Indian children are unlikely to be the productive assets they are presumed to be in those estimates.
According to several international commentators (amongst them Kishore Mahbubani in The New Asian Hemisphere and Bill Emmott in Rivals) Indias future greatness will arise not merely from its large economy, but mainly from the moral leadership that India, with its diversity and democracy, can provide. The world needs a new model in which relentless economic growth does not destroy the planet, and that also is more equitable and inclusive. They expect Indias path to be different to Chinas and hope it will be a good example.
While singling out India as a potential role model for a great society, these observers invariably point to the values that Mahatma Gandhi lived by. Gandhi had asserted that the best test of any major decision is the benefit it would give to the poorest person one could think of. And he insisted that the ends never justify the means. Bad means, he said, would corrupt society. He was a great role model.
FOR example, though passionately committed to his goal to free India, he would not allow any violence to achieve it and even suspended the freedom movement when some of his followers turned violent. Moreover, amidst increasing concern with the impact Chinas and Indias economic progress will have on the environment as they adopt the patterns of the west, Gandhis observation that nature has enough for all our needs but not enough for our greed has become prescient.
The type of society we want to be and the values we will live by must be essential facets of our vision for India. The size of our GDP, the numbers of billionaires we will produce, and the number of Indian MNCs in the Fortune100 list will not be enough. Greed is good. Greed makes the economy grow, said Gorton Gecko in the movie Wall Street. He tells an aspiring apprentice that the ends are what matters: get rich quick, no matter how, and no matter whom you hurt.
The young in India are aspiring to get ahead and make more money. Their drive will push the economy to grow. But, do they have compassion for those left behind? And cynically accepting corruption as a way of life, do they care about what rules they break in their drive to succeed? Gandhi, Gecko, and Guru the hero of the Indian movie with that eponymous title were all great achievers. And none of them made any bones about their values. Like Gecko, Guru also defended his corrupt practices at a shareholders meeting, because they produced wealth.
Who is the role model that Indian youth admire most Gandhi, Guru, or Gecko? Whose values are they emulating? The answer to this question will deeply affect the type of society we will become in the next 25 years. Unlike health and education, statistics about our youths values are not available. Non-violent Gandhigiri a la Munnabhai was merely a passing fashion. Whereas anecdotal evidence of increase in violence by young people against women and old people, of road rage, and other violent actions to get whatever they want is alarming. The values our youth will conduct their lives by, as they aspire to have more and get ahead, will determine what shape our country will be in 25 years.
Mother India is not in good shape. Nor are millions of young Indians. While the mantle of leadership into the future must pass on to youth, older citizens cannot abdicate responsibility for nurturing the bodies, minds, and especially values of children. Children are not merely resources for an economic machine. Saving children, especially girls, is saving humanity. It must be central to the agenda for the development of India in the next ten years.