HOW POPULATION GROWTH IS INVERSELY CORRELATED WITH SOCIAL PROGRESS

The good news from census data on the size of religious communities is that all communities show a downward trend in growth. The bad news is the tendency to raise unfounded alarm over the rise in the share of Muslims, from 13.4% in 2001 to 14.2% in 2011, while the share of Hindus has declined 0.7% to dip below 80% to 79.8%. Of course, if the numbers are rounded off, there would be less drama, but even decimal points can be marshalled to propagate the thesis that Hindus are endangered. The reality is that population growth is closely and inversely correlated with social, particularly educational, progress. Backward Bihar has a decadal growth rate of 25.4%, 0.8% higher than the Muslim decadal growth rate.
   Demographer S Irudaya Rajan estimates the annual population growth rate of Muslims to have come down from 2.8% over 1981-91 to 2.6% over 1991-2001. The average for 2001-11 is down to 2.45%. The growth rate has come down faster for Muslims than for Hindus. What this shows is that overall social development, rather than faith, dictates how many children women have. In Europe, Catholic Italy has one of the lowest fertility rates and the fertility rate — the number of children a woman bears over her lifetime — has dipped below the replacement level of 2.1% in Bangladesh and Iran. This is not to say that faith plays no role or that social development alone is definitive in determining how many children are born. Among India’s backward states, Orissa has a very low population growth rate, while UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, besides Bihar, all have decadal growth rates in excess of 20%. Jammu and Kashmir has a high decadal growth rate, despite high social development.
    The other pet peeve of the Hindus-under-threat brigade is immigration from Bangladesh. While the demographic data is not conclusive — the growth in Muslim numbers in Bengal is at a lower rate than in India as a whole — it is probable that migration does take place. This is true of any two countries with different degrees of economic opportunities.

DON'T FORCE US TO VOTE

Elections to local governments in India are seeing attempts to make voting mandatory in some states, with varying penal provisions being introduced to get citizens to the booth. Two private member bills referred to as the Compulsory Voting Bill, 2014 have been introduced by BJP MPs Janardhan Singh Sigriwal and Varun Gandhi respectively, to make a case for mandatory voting. Two previous bills to this effect were dismissed in 2004 and 2009.

  The US too has been rife with a similar debate ever since President Barack Obama in an address in Cleveland in March mooted the idea stating that “it would be transformative if everyone voted”.

   The Election Commission of India in reply to a public interest litigation had gone so far as to say that making voting compulsory violated the freedom of speech and expression. The Law Commission too held forth this opinion in its ‘Report on Electoral Reforms’ submitted to the law and justice ministry in March. “The Law Commission does not recommend the introduction of compulsory voting in India and in fact, believes it to be highly undesirable for a variety of reasons described … such as being undemocratic, illegitimate, expensive, unable to improve quality political participation and awareness, and difficult to implement,” it stated.

   Legislators who have participated in recent parliamentary debates, however, perceive it differently. They propose that mandatory voting is an effective measure to improve political participation through better voter turnouts. Further, it deepens electoral legitimacy, they argue. The practice, it is suggested, could also bring an end to the illegalities political parties indulge in to woo voters to the booths.

   In Karnataka where compulsory voting was applicable for the first time in the panchayat polls, no enforcement mechanism was put into place. Gujarat in its recently notified rules has introduced a fine of Rs 100 for voters who default in local body elections upcoming in October, with 10 categories such as senior citizens or migrants being exempted. India is yet to build the level of infrastructure that facilitates voting before we think of introducing such punishing measures.

  It is then pertinent to question why our democratic energy is wholly focussed on elections to the exclusion of other institutional mechanisms of citizen engagement. Isn’t engaging in urban ward committees and area sabhas or rural gram sabhas as crucial to a vibrant democracy?

  Moreover, why should punitive measures solely be directed at citizens? As MP Bhagwant Mann argued on the floor of the Lok Sabha when one of these bills was being heard on April 24, why shouldn’t there be a penalty on political parties if they fail to live up to their manifesto promises? Now that is sure matter for another debate.

"IT HAD NO IMPACT...." SHASHI THAROOR

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has drawn much praise for his spirited argument at Oxford Union debate, demanding reparation payments by Britain to India for its 200-year colonial rule, which, he said, led to the crumbling of India's economy.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi could not resist himself from appreciating the exhilarating speech of Tharoor.

The motion for the debate was: “This House Believes Britain Owes Reparations to her Former Colonies” and Tharoor, along with eminent speakers from Ghana and Jamaica, spoke in favour of it. British and American intellectuals spoke in opposition.

Tharoor’s speech was widely appreciated in India because of the succinctness with which he illustrate how and why colonial rule exploited the subcontinent, and how violence and racism were the order of those days.

“It’s a bit rich to oppress, enslave, kill, torture, maim people for 200 years and then celebrate the fact that they are democratic at the end of it. We were denied democracy, so we had to snatch it, seize it from you,” he said to loud applause from the audience.

What’s unmistakable in Tharoor’s speech, though, is his sense of humour.

Sample this, “The Sun couldn’t set on the British empire, because even God couldn’t trust the English in the dark.”

Also, Tharoor argues against the opposition's arguments in a compelling manner.

Talking about railways in India, a development often described as a 'gift by the British', Tharoor said, "Roads and railways were built to serve British interests in India."

He added that many countries in the world have got roads and railways built without being colonised.

While the social media conversation on the speech has been mostly positive, some said that the same point had been made by others earlier. Though numerous conversations take place in public domain on INDIA's freedom struggle, very little happens about critically analysing, with data and facts, how much colonial rule affected undivided INDIA. Tharoor’s speech went a long way in explaining in easy-to-understand ways how colonialists ruined and exploited India. 

The main issues highlighted in the speech were-

1. How colonial rule ruined India's economy:

 “Britain’s rise financed by depredations in India,” said Tharoor, highlighting that through British rule, India’s share of the global economy fell from 27% to less than 2%.

He described how British rulers destroyed India’s handloom industry and turned the country’s “weavers into beggars”.

He added that by the end of the 19th century, “India was Britain’s largest cash cow, world’s biggest purchaser of  British goods and source of highly paid employment of British Civil servants”.

Tharoor told the audience that Indians paid fat salaries to the British officials only for oppressing them in return.

At the end of the speech, Tharoor said reparations should not be considered as a "tool to empower" somebody, but rather as a tool through which the British can "atone" for the sins of the past.

2. How wars affected Indian economy:

Tharoor said in World War I, one-sixth of all British forces were Indians and 54,000 Indians lost their lives.

In addition to that, he said, India actually funded these wars through taxes as well as supplied ammunition and garments.

Moreover, Indian tax-payers had to pay 100 million pounds at the time to bear the expense of the war.
The total value of everything taken out of India during the war, Tharoor said, was 8 billion pounds in today’s money .

Even in World War II, the cost that Indians paid was immense.

Tharoor said that of Britain’s total World War II debt of 3 billion pounds (in 1945), it owed 1.25 billion pounds to India, and no part of it was ever paid.

3. How the british never cared about starving Indians:

Explaining the available data on starvation in British India, Tharoor said 15 million to 29 million Indians died of starvation.

He further said four million people died in the Bengal famine of the 1940s because then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill diverted food supplies from famine-hit areas to Europe, only to be piled up as reserved stock.

When “conscious stricken” British officials wrote to Churchill, Tharoor said, he wrote back, “Why hasn’t Gandhi died yet?”

BEING FAMILIAR WITH THE NEW WORD "RURBAN"

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is gearing up to launch the latest social sector programme: to bridge the gap between the cities and the villages on infrastructure.

The Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban (rural-urban) mission was announced last year to replace the UPA government’s PURA (provision of urban amenities in rural areas) initiative. The programme, lifted straight out of Gujarat, will focus on creating community assets and improving basic infrastructure such as roads, shelter, power and drinking water in rural belts. At the micro level, the scheme will ensure building of internal roads, sewerage and drainage infrastructure. For larger infrastructure, like quality schools and colleges, health centres, etc, the government will adopt a cluster development strategy. Skill development will be a core area of the Rurban mission.

Today literacy is becoming a major concern among rural INDIA than it was some 10 years ago. Small towns are also establishing educational institutes and technical schools and colleges. This demonstrates a strong desire for upward mobility among small town residents. Many children today are seeking private education. The rate of literacy is increasing faster in rural INDIA  than it is in urban INDIA indicates how serious villagers are to better their lives.

Also census have shown that 18 new cities with over a million people have emerged. Not only are the cities touching the million mark but are also assuming serious urban characteristics. In these aspiring big cities, a proportionately higher number of white collar jobs are coming up than in full-blown megalopolises. Many of the small towns were villages till yesterday and have broken with their official status as 'rural' only recently. This makes a large number of 'rurbanites' autochthones and they are joined by a large number of migrants from villages.

Many small towns with a population of about 1,00,000 have beauty parlours and gymnasiums, Pizza Hut outlets and ATM machines. They also have a number of English-medium schools and management and technical institutes. As a matter of fact, it is hard not to find them even in slightly larger villages. This explains why graduates from rural areas tend to prefer small towns to the metros.

Hence to sum it up, it is interesting to see the transformations INDIA is going through and hope that it soon achieves it mark of coming out to be a developed nation.

"IMAGINE with all your mind, BELIEVE with all your heart, ACHIEVE with all your might."

INNOVATION WITH NITI AAYOG

         The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog replaced the Planning Commission on January 1, 2015. The beta version of the website, which can be accessed on http://www.niti.gov.in, provides details of the constitution, functions and current activities of the Aayog.
“The website has a unique feature of NITI Blogs, which will incorporate articles, field reports, work in progress and opinions by NITI officials,” it said. 
        NITI Aayog has constituted expert panel to suggest ways to promote innovation and entrepreneur friendly ecosystem for pushing job growth.According to the term of reference for the panel, it is set up to review the existing initiatives aimed at promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in India, especially those efforts that result in widespread job growth and the creation of globally competitive enterprises.
      It will make short- and medium-term recommendations for actionable policy initiatives aimed at creating an innovation and entrepreneur friendly ecosystem including such elements as creation of world class innovation hubs and digital SMEs and innovation driven entrepreneurship in such sectors as education and health.
    Hence, the system incorporated by our new government cannot be declined,glancing at the positive impacts it is hoped to do really accounts for an innovative strategy for our nation's development.