I NO LONGER WANT TO BE A BYSTANDER! A PLEDGE .

There is a great discussion on the rotting stocks, hunger, food security and public distribution system.

P Sainath pointed out in characteristic bluntness: There is a growing disconnect between the masses and the policy makers. There is a huge disconnect between the urban and rural. There is a huge disconnect between the intelligentsia and the public. And finally there is a wide chasm between the media and the events. We have been compromised and we are compromising the very ideals that we stood for 60 years ago: Freedom, Equality, Human Dignity and Democracy. Nationhood was being created and it appears to have been aborted just when it was poised for fruition.

Can I point a finger at anyone but myself?

Take the four issues confronting the Nation.

Economic Disparity

Government & Governance Corruption

Mortgage of Sovereignty

Parochial and Sectarian Attitude

Hunger is mounting and as we take pride in being allowed access into select and elite clubs of economic power our performance in Human Development is in the lowest category. It is no longer Slumdog Millionaires or Slums vs. Millionaires; it is Slumdogs create the Billionaires. If I was an economist and Dr Amratya Sen and other pundits please note, I would work out a clear equation that will show that the creation of wealth at the very top creamy layer is directly proportionate to the increasing poverty, malnutrition and HUNGER of the majority in this country. In the name of democracy we have enslaved 500 million or more to Hunger and poverty. Just so that the creamy layer can have the right to rub shoulders with the so called Global Powers.

A small school boy of 7 studying in a Corporation school will tell you that his breakfast and lunch budget is Rs 10 per day which his mother will give him on good days before she rushes off to work as a house maid in at least 5 homes. This is in urban India and the little boy will drink two over boiled cups of tea and eat one dry bun during the day and still find the energy and joy in playing, studying, fighting and laughing as would an overfed and securely comfortable son of a Corporate Executive who will soon have to join a gym costing Rs10000 membership to burn the fat and flab accumulated in his body. This is of course the stated objective of our government leadership who believe that the right of every citizen is to eat only to the extent of food available and not to appease hunger. Hence the absurdity of a few persons overeating and dieting who have cornered the food, while the rest starve and decline living on the crumbs seems to be an acceptable contradiction.

Food Security is not of Z category. It is not even the basic right where nutritional value is balanced with calorific intake. But these are mere imaginings of a few dour souls who are not bedazzled by the picture of India Shining that the officials put out. The little school boy is coping and optimistic not because he gets his due but because he is young, he has hope and above all he lives in a country where sunshine is still free and not bottled by a Corporate entity!

At a recent get together with medical collage students in the North East Rahul Gandhi was asked to outline his views on the Ayodhya issue. In a perfect exercise of public relations and propaganda, Rahul Gandhi juxtaposed the irksome issue with a vision of development, technology and infrastructure. These should be our ideals said Gandhi with righteous sincerity and not the outlandish ideas of feuds and quarrels. Great stuff Mr Gandhi. These young minds will buy your proposition. Then what? A Nuclear Priority, A Posturing of playing host to Sports where sports persons themselves are ill used, create a SEZ and uproot those living there?

Unfortunately I had stopped using the brain to connect the dots, seduced by the glamour and clamour of liberalisation. Why are we not liberal with the food quantities, the quality of education in Government Schools, the health care needs of the majority? There is no elite club that is promoting these goals; there is no bottom-line to this computation! Do I want an issue like Ayodhya to agitate? Never! Replace it with concerns of the masses not the privileges of the few. Karl Marx wanted to shake up the bourgeoisie and wipe out the elite through empowerment of the proletariat. He was of the view that “ Just as capitalism replaced feudalism, socialism would, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society  called pure communism” . India embraced socialism but in a democratic framework anchoring the Nation with equality and freedom. Such a lofty ideal of two great rights did not generate unsurpassable greatness. It petered out into ineffectiveness, petty polity, corruption and opportunism. The baby has been discarded with the bath water!

In my own station of work, society, economic status, I cannot address many issues. But even I can tackle the issue of hunger. As of 2010, more than 37% of India’s population of 1.35 billion still lives below the poverty line, i.e. 500 million people make do on less than Rs 20/ per day.  

As per the Government of India, poverty line for the urban areas is Rs. 296 per month and for rural areas Rs. 276 per month, i.e. people in India who earn less than Rs. 10 per day. As per GOI, this amount of Rs 10/ will buy food equivalent to 2200 calories per day, medically enough, to prevent death! Where is this possible?? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

In 1950, 60 years ago we were a population of 3610 lakh people or 361 million. Today we have 5000 lakh or 500 million living in the most deprived conditions.

I propose to take a look at what I put on my table.

I propose to boycott foreign food products.

I propose to avoid eating at luxury places

I propose to levy a duty on myself for my excessive consumption.

I will send this levy to institutions working with education and health care for the marginalised.