The Rediff Special/B G Verghese
Bihar cannot remain in the eighteenth century while the world prepares
to move into the twenty first
How to put things right? Agrarian reform is absolutely basic and
a Kosi Kranti-type strategy probably still offers the best hope.
This would uplift agriculture and the rural masses and kick-start
cycle of upward progression. Simultaneously, the 73rd and 74th
Amendments must be enforced and newly-elected representatives
put in place. The consequent economic and political power shift
this represents will be resented and opposed. But that must be
resolutely confronted. Together these reforms will make a dent
on feudal power.
Caste will, nevertheless, remain an entrenched
bastion that will have to be overcome through the spread of education,
bottom up, especially of the sadly neglected girl child, combined
with a renewed drive to eradicate adult illiteracy.
Reservation or affirmative action has a place in overcoming the
burden of historical discrimination against vast numbers of socially
deprived categories. They must be put on a fast track. But, important
though this is, reservation can only be symbolic. The real answer
lies in education, training, skill formation and opening the doors
to economic opportunity. And this is what has been so sadly neglected.
Without that, Mandalisation by and for itself can only spell a
new kind of dependency and mediocrity, with all social categories
scrambling to declare themselves backward or perpetuate backwardness
in order to grab a slice of an all-too-slowly growing cake.
There can be no reservation in promotions above a certain level. Equally,
there must be an exit policy for successive 'creamy layers'
on the basis of objective criteria. Bihar, as India, has to be
an achieving and aspiring society. As the economy grows, so will
employment. This itself will put a premium on merit in place of
patronage. Modernisation and social and economic mobility will
bring down the last ramparts of caste which will increasingly
shade and yield to class.
Employment generation is essential alongside
agricultural revival. The labour intensity of agriculture would
itself go up with more intensive farming. A conservation corps
should be organised to undertake land and water development and
reclamation as well as social development in such areas as elementary
education, mass literacy, primary and community health, and family
welfare. All this would dovetail with panchayati raj, rejuvenate
the farm sector and begin to generate which could be invested in agro-processing
and the utilisation of farm residues and agricultural by-products.
There is much else that can be prescribed. But what has been outlined
provides the basic framework or scaffolding on which to build
a new society. Economic and social progress, especially a reduction
in infant mortality and education for women, will help bring down
Bihar's current population growth rate of 28.6 to the net reproduction
rate of 21 sooner rather than later.
On the basis of present trends
the Ssate's growth rate will still be as high as 24.9 in 2016
when its population is likely to be around 132 million. The burden
of runway population growth is going to be increasingly difficult
to carry. A demographic transition must be accomplished sooner
and there is no reason why this cannot happen.
Who will bell the cat? None is too insignificant to make a contribution.
This has to be a collective effort with young people in the lead.
Universities and intellectuals have an important role to play.
With de-regulation and the growing emphasis everywhere on civil
society, government is yielding to governance. You and I are responsible
and accountable for what happens. We cannot pass the buck. It
stops at our door. The call for a newly articulate Total Revolution has to be answered.
Together there is nothing we cannot achieve.
There is nothing inherently wrong with Bihar. But there is something
terribly wrong with the way it has managed its affairs. Bihar
cannot remain in the eighteenth century while the world prepares
to move into the twenty first. This is clearly unacceptable. The
call for a newly-articulated Total Revolution has to be answered.
Let the trumpet sound in Chhapra, Rajendra Prasad's home, and,
more particularly, from the seat of the Jayaprakash Narayan University
where Professor Kedar Nath Singh once taught. Youth must make the
future. It belongs to them.
Mr Verghese's comments form part of the Kedar Nath Singh Memorial
Lecture which he delivered in Chhapra, Bihar, recently.
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