Crisis Faced in India – Moral or Economic | HPSC Preparation: All subjects - HPSC (Haryana) PDF Download

Philosophy

The Oxfam report, launched at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland, brought out the gaping gap between the haves and havenots. While, billionaire fortunes increased by 12% in the last year, the poorest half of humanity saw their wealth decline by 11%. The government further fuels these inequalities by underfunding public welfare services like health care and education, under taxing the wealthy, and failing to prevent tax evasions on the other. So the main reason we are in economic crises could well be attributed to moral crises. Scams of unabashed irregularities of colossal value, misappropriation of public funds, and lack of implementation of policies in its truest sense have made the country poorer.
India is a socialist, secular, democratic, republic and resolves to provide: Justice, liberty, equality, and fraternity to all. This is the promise taken in the preamble of the constitution, by each of us, as it says, we the people..... Can the hungry and the poor, worried about his next meal, health, and survival, think about all that was promised to him? Fortunately for us, he cannot. He does not even know it. He has had no education. But the educated masses know this, and therefore it is their moral duty to provide the deprived of what is due to him.
‘The biggest enemy of health in the developing countries is poverty’ Kofi Annan. Health is an indicator of the development of the human resource of a country. Advancing human development requires, first and foremost, providing the facility of medical aid to avoid premature death by disease or injury. The Indian Government‘s expenditure on healthcare is only 1% of GDP. Should this not be called a moral issue when we talk of investment in bullet trains on the other hand?
Health care, immunization, safe and clean environment, nutrition, and education should be on a war footing. A healthy population will be an asset to the country and contributes to its economic growth. So to grow as an economic power, investment needs to be done at the grassroots level. The Mohalla clinics, primary health care centres in the neighbourhood in Delhi are readily assessable. Getting timely treatment reduces further complications due to delay. Also, where the main out-of-pocket expense is medicine, it provides relief to the masses. It is a big saving for the poor, making their lot a little better. Medicines and health care need to be provided to the women and girl child with special impetus, as these have been downtrodden for far too long. Women are half the population. Neglecting them is to continue with the dogmas of being gender biased and shutting our eyes to 50% of productive human resources. This is morally and economically incorrect, though these are rampant in rural and urban India.
Another important aspect of developing our human resources is through education for all and building competencies to earn a living. If education is made free, just like providing free health services, one will live a much more decent life, where there will be a choice on how to spend. When spending increases, the demand improves, and economic crises will reduce. Education needs to be provided to all. The quality of education, safe schools with toilets is a moral responsibility of the government. Not having these basic requirements for the children is both an economic and moral crisis. Many business houses have ventured into education as their CSR (corporate social responsibility). How many of these are true for the benefit of the deprived lot is what they need to introspect.
Economic crises happen due to a lack of morals and values, especially among society's haves. Every so often, the nation pays the price, and the impact of their misdeed rock the economy. The Vijay Malaya and the Nirav Modi scams have put the banking system's credibility to question. These are just two instances that have come to light.
India, in recent years, witnessed Jobless Growth. Though the economic indicators showed economic growth, jobs did not grow. India adopted the trickledown effect for the economy, whereby taxes on wealthy and businessmen were reduced to act as a stimulant to increase business and employment opportunities. This way, the benefit is expected to percolate from higher classes to lower classes. This outcome was not achieved. It turned out to be non-inclusive, further deteriorated the plight of the working class, leading to an economic crisis.
India must have a systemised approach to work on the skill development of the working class to increase their employability. This is morally and economically the right approach. Skill development schemes of the government are a step in the right direction to hone the capabilities of the unemployed. But who got the contracts to do? How much benefit reached the workers? Did it really make a difference to the working population?
The rigorous procedure for government jobs is hardly promising. It may take almost a year for the process of selection. It takes even longer to get placed after that. That is, if there is no writ filed at any stage, which is almost so common nowadays, indeed frustrating to the applicant who has worked so hard to clear the exams. The dichotomy is that there are so many vacancies, which are not filled and institutions remain poorly staffed. There are so many applicants for the job, and still, the economy cannot absorb them gainfully. This is another grave economic crisis in our country.
Another feature that is noticed is the ‘casualization’ of the workforce. The workers are not made permanent so that the industry will not have to abide by norms like provident funds, medical insurance, etc. Is this not the moral bankruptcy of the employers? They deprive their workers of their moral rights by just stifling their right to demand what is rightfully due to them.
Women's safety at workplaces, in general, is a concern. Women in the labour force are not paid as much as their counterparts, though the constitution provides equal pay without discrimination. In fact, she faces subjugation right from birth. The male child gets better nutrition, health care, education, and love than the girl child. She is the first to be withdrawn from benefit in case of adversity. She is victimised and traumatised and sometimes pushed into lecherous hands for no dubious reasons other than economic strife or gain.
The agitations witnessed for reservation of the Jats and the Patels is due to the paucity of opportunity to study or work. All agitations and communal riots, which display hostility and lack of bonhomie, are an outcry by the commons to get attention to their problems. The problem of terrorism also does have its roots in what they feel is injustice meted out to them on both moral and economic grounds.
If it were to become mandatory for government employees to send their children to government schools and treatment was to be taken at a government hospital, the common person's pain would be understood, and there would be much improvement in these services. On the part of the government, proper thought of repercussions should be studied before announcing any policy impacting the masses. Then a thorough follow-up needs to be done to make sure their objective has been realised. Agencies taking up the task need to be accountable.
With these little steps, India can emerge from crises both moral and economic. If Japan could rise out of the ashes like a phoenix, after all, was lost in the horrific Hiroshima Nagasaki bomb blast, our country, despite the setbacks of subjugation of being under foreign rule, can surely come out clean of these crises.