Education is another area which I'm extremely passionate about. I am a strong believer in Swami Vivekananda's words - EDUCATION IS A MAN MAKING MISSION. What real education can do to a man is truly remarkable. It is ironical that some of the best minds of the world (past & present) have barely been thru' basic schooling & not beyond. While addressing education, it is necesasary to realize the purpose of education. While imparting skills to make a living is obvious, there are some truly very subtle and profound purposes behind education as a mission. What exactly does man making as a mission of education mean? Man making in the context of education is to build character. Afterall, what use is education without character? While character building is indeed the purpose of education, it is not necessary that the same can or should be achieved thru' what is regarded as formal education in a school, college, or university. It is unfortunate that over the last few years, formal education has turned out to be a platform that promotes rote learning & not impart understanding. Education, in my opinion, should ignite minds. Education should impart knowledge of the "whats & hows", & motivate the students to seek answers to the "whys" so that eventually they can set the world on fire by thinking of "why nots"...Only such education will be of true value, in the sense that, such education will bring about phenomenal transformation to the way we think, live, & interact. True education inculcates fearlessness in the student by making him / her a strong character. Such education also inculcates the discrimination of right and wrong, which perhaps is of utmost need now than ever before.
True education should impart understanding, compassion, clarity of thought, character, and a sense of responsibility to the larger good of society. In India, such a system of education did indeed exist during the Vedic period. It is called as the Gurukula system. This system of education strived to inculcate character as well as impart skills to lead decent and dignified life. Contrast this with the present system where there is neither character nor decent / dignified life? True education makes the person independent, it sets the person free from all bondages & thereby makes him responsible for the larger good. Such an education alone qualifies to be called MAN MAKING MISSION. To sum it up on education, as Swami Vivekananda rightly said - EDUCATION IS NOTHING BUT THE MANIFESTATION OF THE PERFECTION ALREADY EXISTING IN MAN.
Healthcare in India is far from being even abysmal. On the one hand, our rural parts don't even have access to primary healthcare facilities, while our urban centers boast of some of the most sophisticated hospitals in the world which charge patients so exhorbitantly that the hapless fellows will be rendered penniless after a visit to these sophisticated healthcare centers. The poor are so vulnerable & powerless, they cannot even take names of these hospitals, should there be any emergency or other needs.
In the 64 years since independence, if we have not been able to have primary healthcare centers in every District Head Quarters of the Nation, how do we expect progress to happen? Thru' a very robust primary healthcare center, along with good education institutions, water supply, drainage etc., most of rural India will be self sufficient. Achieving rural self sufficiency should be one of the most important objectives in any policy decisions. Such a policy initiative will also stop large scale human migration from rural to urban areas & thereby leading to sustainable, equitable growth across the country.
The lesser said about justice, the more just we'd perhaps be. At every step, we see roadblocks to justice delivery. The rich, famous, & powerful literally get away with the crimes, while the common man struggles to get a fair deal from the justice delivery system. Open the newspaper, & on most normal days, there will be at least 1 heinous crime on the front sheet, at least 1 politically backed incident, at least 1 crime against women / children / elders. When such is the state, it calls for investment in technology, manpower, & infrastructure to strengthen the justice delivery system, & also in the police system which systematically enforces law of the land. Beating the law, or better still, hoodwinking the law is rampant everywhere. You just have to go on the roads, & you'll notice umpteen cases of beating the traffic rules. And, it is startling to note that most of these are thanks to the "educated class". The ordinary folks still follow the rules mostly. Why is it that we have this inexplicable penchant for breaking the law / rules? Is it such a big deal to ask for, to follow the law of the land? Answer to this question can perhaps be answered to a certain extent by the manner in which our political leaders behave. To put it bluntly, the lawmakers are themselves the best of law breakers. Their attitude can be summed up thus - the law they have made is for all except themselves. When such crass behavior is observed by the rest of us, what motivation will we, the common folks, have to respect & follow the law?
Come to think of it, even judiciary (barring perhaps very few in higher judiciary) is being suspected of having been corrupted. Now, in such a scenario, who or where does the common man turn to for justice? It is said - while power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The point is, our lawmakers and other Government officials are taking power not as a means to discharge public good, but their own selves' good. This is nothing but taking power bestowed upon them to discharge their duties to be absolute. Democracy is best served when the judiciary is above all suspicion & is regarded as a beacon of hope for the common man. A case in point is the recent 2G scam where the Supreme Court passed orders to the executive that it would monitor all cases pertaining to the scam & that the Government agencies have to regularly report progress in the case before it. Nobody in the executive has raised a voice on such strong strictures by the Apex Court. What is important is that, not only in such hi-fi cases, but also in every case that comes to the judiciary (whether it is Civil Court, Sessions Court, District Court, High Court, or Supreme Court) for adjudication, the same level of seriousness has to be attributed. Only then will all other law enforcement agencies fall in line to enforce laws / rules, & endeavor to make a just society. It calls for tremendous churn and transformation of the entire Government machinery - law making, law enforcement, & judiciary.
A well educated, healthy, & just society will undoubtedly go a long way in making the economics of life affordable to one and all, & thereby herald an equitable society.
With this part 5, I end the series of my thoughts & ideas on "The Economics of life".
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