children's day and current realities

Yesterday I helped my son to write a page on children’s day celebration. Finally he told me that there had to be closing remarks of few lines. I searched the net and found some ideas that could be used for closing but then I told him that he could close it a little differently by highlighting the fact that crores of children in our country do not get two square meals a day. In today’s context the basic necessities are just not Roti, Kapda or Makan but must include decent education and reasonable health care facilities. While on one hand we celebrate the children’s day with lot of enthusiasm on the other hand we hardly even worry about the plight of majority of children. Today there was article in the newspaper that Karnataka state cabinet had organized a cabinet meeting in North Karnataka and spent more than a crore for this event. Interestingly, more than 28 lac was spent only on decoration. How can a country like ours afford such wasteful and ridiculous extravaganza? Few days ago there was a criticism on the CEO’s pay in the private sector. The CEO in a private sector is not looting public money. They are responsible and accountable for their performance. They can’t get that salary unless they generate it. The ministers will do well to focus on the way the public money gets spent in this country. In the corporate world everyone’s including that of the CEO the compensation is based on CTC. If we calculate the same way our political leaders get much more than the CEOs in the private sectors barring a few exceptions like Ambanis. Yesterday there was another news item that mentioned about number of statues of YSR to be installed across the city. I was surprised to know that this is not just a onetime expenditure but the govt. spend Rs 30000 per year on each statue. The saga of statue expenses in UP by Mayawati of course beggars description. I am not sure if Nehru would have been very pleased with fate of children of this country or YSR would have wanted his statues to be installed irrespective of the total cost (taking a total cost of ownership perspective) involved. Somehow this reminds me of a poem we had studied in the school that describes how the statue of the Ozymandius was lying in the desert broken and defaced. Recently an advertisement is being aired on TV that 35kg of rice and wheat each is available at a very nominal price for the families that are below poverty line though it doesn’t reach the intended people. The ad exhorts the people to wake up. But what these people will do? I come from a place full of tribals who are extremely poor and illiterate. I wonder how many of them will have access to any advertising media or how many of them will even understand any recognized language like Oriya. The system has to deliver proactively what is rightfully thiers. In those days also there was a PDS and used to be known as control shop. Getting license of a control shop used to be like winning a lottery; access to easy money without effort. Everyone involved in the process is aware of the facts. While these people should be aware of the benefits they are entitled to the govt. should take proactive steps to prevent such heinous crimes against the destitute. The important thing is to establish a clear and simple grievance redressal system that is proactive and effective. Recently I had a discussion with one of my friends and he told me that biometric system though very sophisticated doesn't work well for daily laborers. So to find a solution that will work best under the prevailing circumstances is also a big challenge. What has worked in developed countries may not be useful in our villages. Jago Grahak Jago though necessary is not enough: as the grahaks in this case can hardly stand up against a powerful system. It is not easy to fight the vultures who make illegal money out of food meant for destitutes that live below the poverty line as defined in India.
All this is done with hard earned money of the tax payers who work day and night to earn a living and have to pay one third of their income as tax. How does he feel when that money is spent like this? Then our leaders instead of ensuring that allocated money is spent as planned, impose more tax, surcharge, cess etc. etc. On the other hand there is corruption that has given rise to a parallel economy and reckless expenditure. An honest man is getting hammered from all sides. As Gandhiji had rightly said there is enough for everyone’s need but there can be never be enough for even one man’s greed. We as a nation have to stop our own leaders with gargantuan egos and even bigger greed.