Long before Telangana, Jharkhand was cut out from Bihar,
with the justified expectation that an area geographically and demographically different
would be administered and served better if separated. Now, years on, the state
of both the parent state and the new one is the same. Jharkhand, just as Bihar,
has limped on ever since. Rampant corruption and backwardness has plagued the
state bestowed with resources, as development and growth stands stymied.
Tending to one problem alone is neither sufficient nor entirely possible. What
is needed is a multi-level solution spanning across different sectors.
Naxalism and literacy
These are two things that need prime and undivided
attention, and are highly interlinked. These two problems need to be attended
simultaneously. The most pressing concern for the state of Jharkhand is
naxalism, which is affecting more than 75% of the districts it has among a host
of other vital activities. One of the prime reason for new entrants into
naxalism is improper or no education and lack of employment opportunities. Both
the problems can be diluted to a good extent through education to the
marginalized section of the society, a section whose plight is very
conveniently concealed in the average literacy level of the entire state. And
of course, educating people without tackling naxalism is evidently failing.
Thus, a holistic and dedicated effort is required at this juncture.
Employment and opportunities
To prevent people from returning to anti-social career
alternatives, employment opportunities needs to be provided. This can be done
by allowing some of the private sector industries who are willing to capitalize
and invest in the remote areas to do so. Allocation of resources to the correct
people on the basis of efficiency and optimum utilization instead of lobbying
would be the first step here. The plants and offices set up would provide
remunerative sources of income, thus pouring in money (liquidity thus achieved
at the base of the income pyramid would go a long way in feeding back returns
to the state). Tourism, a major potential sector for Jharkhand might also be
helpful in providing opportunities to the locals.
Financial inclusion
Bringing everybody under the umbrella of banking and fiscal
policies quickly by removing implementation bottlenecks will be very fruitful.
It would help in micro-credit financing, putting money into the right hands,
and in this way pulling them out of the vicious cycle of poverty. It would also
ensure proven advantageous measures like micro-saving, micro-insurance, and so
on. Using technology to leverage an efficient execution will ensure that money
comes directly to the poor and doesn’t pass and gets retained in the hands of
middlemen. The bank-at-your-doorstep plan of the Govt. is proving to be quite
helpful in this aspect, apart from generating employment in banking.
Distributed growth
Generally, rural people move to the cities either for job
opportunities, or when they get better-off, and hope to live the urban life. If
proper employment is provided in the rural areas itself, along with all basic
amenities like good education and healthcare, the problem of cramming and
overpopulated cities would be resolved. Growth in rural areas would also be an
obvious by-product. As for primary education, the government’s effort will be
bearing fruit in the long run, but for healthcare, some amount of strategy revamping
is required. Registered doctors could be made to go to a rural area of their
choice for a month every two years. There, they would train the local medical
personnel and paramedics. This would ensure that the locals are under more
professional care even in the absence of the visiting doctor (the doctor will
be needed to be aptly remunerated for this task). Tourism would also be helpful
in distributed growth, as most of the untapped, natural and attractive tourist
hot-spots are in the rural areas, and focusing on tourism in these areas will
not only provide income generating jobs to the locals, but also generate local
revenue to be reinvested there.
The road ahead
For this, the government needs to focus less on populist
measures and more so on growth-oriented measures. For this to happen in turn,
people need to favor the political agenda of development instead of merely
voting for the divisive politics and short term or personal gains. And here
again, actual and proper education would help, for example people should be
aware that non-merit subsidies have a negative impact on the economy and its
members, the people. Jharkhand has 40% of the mineral resources in India and is
home to the most hard-working tribes apart from peace loving people. Shouldn’t
development be obvious in the long run?
No comments:
Post a Comment