on making a difference in India

on making a difference in a vast country like India - many people ask. can you make a difference in India - be it about corruption, educational system,  infrastructure, etc.  
the answe is of course yes....
corruption:
People can be corrupt only when they dont know you - if you get friendly with policemen, bureaucrats, municipal corporation, railway authorities before  you go to them with compliant, there is no chance of them being corrupt - can you ever think of asking money or paying money from/to your friends - in fact this is the most important reason why development does not happen at grass root level
 
on size:
India is huge and it is difficult to make change at mega level - for which one needs governing authorities support - for which one would need compassionate and visionary leaders for a lenght of time - which India was lucky in the initial stage to have - but unfortunately they didnt live long -however the advantage with India is that it has many many small Singapores or Finland with an opportunity to make a difference - unfortunately Indians are waiting for those visinary and compasionate leaders at the centre to make a difference when one can easily make a difference at Individual level
on education:
India has vast and varied kind of education system - we just focus on one of them viz the elite educatioal system and the traditional government based education system - there are so many variations happening in India unpublicised, unsung
Some solution -->  and i dont pretend i have all solutions - something that we can reflect on and consider? 
1. Each one of us in our own way can make a difference - may be just make friends with local police -or municipal corporation or any other governing body - just meet them - not to ask them anything - may be just if we can help them - may be meet their children - their staff - may be just understand their point of view - recently i had an occassion to discuss on the problem that railway authorities have in building bridges for the huge crowd in Kanjurmarg station (a suburn in Mumbai) and the time taken for people to reach the road - the  project manager had a clear view on what was needed - his budget amount was arbitrarily cut by 50% - obviously they can build only to the extent funds available - will any corporate or anyone help them in this act?- No, all that people o is to blame someone
2. how many of us have courage (and I am not the right person to comment since i have no personal "child") to let our children have quality education - no we want them to go to the best school, best college, best university, best management school- best means the ones that can get our children the best job (meaning money and prestige and position and so on) - do we really want them to learn and have quality education? i know of one couple who teach their children at home, give them access to woods and jungle and animals - in this age - how many such couple can we find? -
3. If it is difficult to influence municipal school which again is a limitation that we put on ourself - is it possible to influence so called best school and ask them to engage the best teachers i.e teachers who can really teach couple with online resources like the khan academy (really wonderful teaching material) and ask them to recruit all local children irrespective of background, income and charge them equally without any donation and bring out students of high quality - it is so easy to recuit like IIms/IITs to recruit best students and proclaim from roof toop that they are the best educational institution in the world - (no offence intended to any person or institution) - or can parents get together and contribute to teachers fund + computer/internet fund so that teachers can get adequate resources and teach students well
4. talk about and pubicize the change being effected so that more people will be energised to make a difference - Finland did not have the education system it has today till some women stared making a difference -US did not have the kind of consumerism till someone started making a difference - Singapore was not a great country till one man with a vision made a difference- India did not have the great IT industry it has till one company Infosys made a difference?



Comments

deepa said…
you write well shreekanth

- Deepa
11:43 am
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