UPSCPORTAL Open Essay Competition "March 2014"

"Essay Topic: India of my dreams"

Attaining Independence was just one of the several hurdles. The battle is yet to be won”

15th August 1947, the day when all Indians were blessed with Independence from 200 years of British rule, every Indian was filled with enough joy and happiness. The happiness was so much that they considered this success as their ultimate destination. But the fact is that seeking Independence was merely one of the several challenges. The destination is yet to be reached. According to my perspective, there are yet several hurdles on our way to be cleared to build INDIA OF OUR DREAMS.

World’s 7th largest country with 4th largest army, 3rd largest railways, 2nd highest man power, 2nd fastest growing economy, largest democracy and largest work force is still counted as a developing nation. Sounds strange, but that’s the fact. The main reason behind this is the corrupted politics. There is an illusion in India that politics is the worst profession and all politicians are corrupt. Politics is a blend of both good and bad. We the citizens of India should understand the basic point that politicians are the servants and we are the rulers. We have the right to choose the right person. The strings of this show of politics are in our hands. Politicians are merely the puppets. They could act only if we allow them. But the present scenario is totally opposite. The corrupt politicians are ruling us. In order to change this scenario we should first develop an educated India. The literacy rate in India should be 100% and every individual should be aware of his/her rights. Only then we could choose the right person.

The educated India will not only give a break to corruption but also solve several other issues. It will know the power of women and help them showcase their talent. 49% of Indians are women and this number could prove to be a game changer not only in politics but also in leading India towards development. But this is possible only if women in India are motivated towards education and building their career. Women education in India will double India’s strength. Instead of identifying women talent and power, we are trying to continue the trend of male dominant society. It’s high time to take strict actions against sexual harassment and domestic violence on women. There should be fast track courts to handle such cases and one stop rape crisis centre should be established for providing a better environment to victims. Women security should be given highest priority in our system. This will assure parent of every girl that their child is safe and is going to have a bright future. The day when every citizen will know the value and power of women, India will be free of social issues like female infanticide and dowry system.

As said above, India is 2nd highest populated nation. There are two kinds of perceptions regarding India’s huge population. One is good and the other is bad. Unfortunately, we all concentrate only on the disadvantage out of the huge population in India. I considering the 2nd perspective would say that populated India could be proved as a strength gifted by our ancestors in disguise. We can consider it as 2nd highest manpower rather than 2nd highest populated nation. Every nation hire outsiders for their organizations because of less man power. Fortunately, India is gifted with this asset. The only thing required is the encouragement and financial support from government to youngsters who want to step towards becoming entrepreneurs. If entrepreneurs in India are encouraged then it will solve the problem of unemployment. We can open our own companies and hire our own people for our company. This will even help in improving India’s economy.

As we all know India’s economic status is going low with time. Besides lack of support to young entrepreneurs, one more reason behind this economic condition of India is the number of subsidies provided by politicians to public for improving vote bank. There is nothing wrong in providing subsidies to public. The problem is in the type of subsidies provided. The subsidies should not be about giving items like tablets, laptop, food grains, etc... at low cost or totally free. These all are short term pleasures. The subsidies provided should help public earn for their family and even indirectly contribute to nation’s development by their work. In a much simpler manner, subsidies should be provided at the cost of their work. Encouragement to entrepreneurs and this type of subsidies may lead a hike in India’s economic status.

Clean politics, 100% literacy rate, women empowerment and good economic status are not enough to build INDIA OF MY DREAMS. Though this small list will solve several major issues, we still have a big list of issues to be solved. Issues like proper medical facility, manual scavenging, education system, reservation system and management of solid waste are equally important for a shining and rising India. Let us now have a glance over these issues and a possible solution to these problems.

The scenario of first paying for the operation and then being treated by doctors is experienced by many Indians. The family of the patient in India will first have to arrange the money to get the patient treated. There is a simple solution to this problem. There should be an amendment passed into the constitution which would involve every family paying the medical tax based on their annual income. This tax will be used by the government in paying all the hospitals which in turn will provide free medication to any patient visiting their hospital. This method is already adopted by few nations and these nations are doing extremely well in this sector. One more issue to be highlighted is branded medicines being prescribed by doctors for their commission instead of generic medicines. Generic medicines should be promoted by doctors as they are available at very cheap cost when compared to branded medicines. These medicines should be available in every hospital and medical shops. These few implementations can change the big picture of Indian medical facility and make India much more healthy and strong.

Manual scavenging and lack of management of solid waste in India projects the worst image of our nation before the whole world. The tradition of manual scavenging is going in India from several years. This should be strictly prohibited by replacing manual work by machinery to clean the dirt. There are also several ways of managing solid waste which in turn lead to production of useful gas. If all these methods of managing the solid waste are adopted sincerely, we will never find gas to be very expensive.

Last but not least is the education system in India. There is a big problem always discussed in several debates but is never solved. The problem is nothing but the reservation system in education sector. The present system involves caste based preferences for admission in any institution. According to my view, reservation should be provided only to students who are economically backward, no matter to which caste they belong. This will give every individual a genuine opportunity to compete.

There is another main problem in the Indian education system which is not even identified at the national level. There are many students who realize their actual talent after a couple of years of joining a particular field. There are even cases where a student might be interested in a field like painting, politics, singing, etc...The problem here is that the students interested in such fields have very less scope of getting clicked in such profession. This compels them to choose a field in which they are not basically interested but seems to be much secure for their family. From my point of view, the only solution to this problem is providing such students a platform where they in parallel could project their talent to the outside world in field of their interest. This will help many youngsters showcase their hidden talent and help India being projected as a platform for experimenting your passion as your profession. Indians would then dare work over their passion and get the best out of their talent.

Now we are very close to INDIA OF OUR DREAMS. Just one more step and we will reach our destination. We all know that India’s present climatic conditions are leading to several floods and droughts. There is a simple solution to avoid all the floods and droughts. The famous project of underground pipelining of rivers in different states may help in balancing the water level in every area of our Nation. This will free India from several natural calamities taking place. This project sounds simple but is very tough to implement like every other project. So it’s our responsibility to choose the right person who could implement all the above mentioned projects for a shining and rising India.

“DEFEAT THE DEFEAT BEFORE THE DEFEAT DEFEATS YOU”

It’s high time to realize our responsibility as a citizen and make maximum efforts to defeat all these issues in India before the things become much worse.

“India is by Indians and change in India is by change in Indians”. So let us pledge to bring a positive change in us which would make India

INDIA OF OUR DREAMS!!!

Nishtha Jain

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