The day I saw the T-Shirt with the message - “I'd love India, if I didn't have to live in it”, I actually started believing that there really are few people who aren't proud to be born in India. There are people who aren't happy about being Indian, but they keep there voices low, from the fear of being hated by the numerous others who are proud to be Indians. It's known that India has had a bad time in the last few hundred years. The European exploitation left it crippled, and it requires a hell lot of work to make it stand up and walk again. I would like to raise the first question - “How much work are we doing? Can we hope that India will stand up and walk again, with the amount of effort being given?"
We forecast ourselves to be the next superpower in a few decades, but does everyone know that a developed country requires the whole of its population to be developed and not just the creamy layer? I wont argue that nothing great has ever happened in India. There are and were great people, who showed us an example of what is possible with a bit of extra effort. There were Dhirubhai Ambanis, who proved that a common man can become a billionaire. There are Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalams who dared to build missiles for the nation. But the numbers are very less, seems to be pretty less when we boast of being the largest human resource provider in the world. I wont want to emphasize on all the problems that's holding the country back, I would want to share the root causes – The Faulty Education System and Corruption, and how both of them are cyclic.
Education is undoubtedly the most indispensable requirement for prosperity. A developed country needs 'well-educated' citizens. But, corruption makes education dirty. Its obvious that corruption makes everything dirty, but when it enters the field of education, we are going to pay a heavy price, because it directly affects economic growth and well-being of a billion Indians.
Its a very common debated sentence, that a youngster in India isn't free to choose a career according to what he wants. Most of them are forced to choose either engineering or medical science. Even in some cases where the student is not forced, he still doesn't have the guts to choose a third option, because being an engineer or doctor is the best way to survive! Yes, an engineering degree is the easiest way to get a good job, and being a doctor is a good way to earn.
Someone who'd want to start a small business after college would not be considered respectful, because people think it was because he didn't get a job. In most cases, being an entrepreneur is a matter of compromise and a not a choice.
There are little more than 100 engineering colleges in the state of Odisha, but the question is - “How many colleges have the infrastructure and facilities to provide quality education?” Most of the private colleges that produce thousands of graduates every year, do not even have the resources necessary for a quality high school education.
I wont just list the problems, I would list the solutions too.
First and foremost, the government must stop helping people to run businesses in the name of educational institutions. These days, when a group of entrepreneurs decide to setup a private college, all they think of is making money out of it. “People are crazy to get a engineering degree, so we can 'sell' it to them. And we would never incur a loss in the business because all of the seats would definitely be booked every year. Who cares about education? Its the best way to make money.” This is what they'd think. This is where the government must act. Affiliations must be issued only to those colleges, who have a satisfactory education model consisting of facilities, educational culture, good faculty and facilities that motivate students to be innovative and think out of the box.
Just a few acres of land, a building with few classrooms and a registered name don't make a college! Rules do exist everywhere, but corruption makes it dirty, to the extent that anyone can get setup a college with a mediocre capital, with additional under-the-table deals! In the long run, such ventures only depreciate the standard of engineers, rather than contributing to economic development.
Lets go deep into the scene of a private college. The management doesn't really care about hiring good faculty, and is the obvious reason why those teachers are one of the least paid employees. The essence of a educational institution is a group of qualified and great teachers, all other stuff comes second. But, private colleges give the least priority to hiring good teachers. Second, talking about innovation, a student who wants to work on a innovative project in the final semester, never gets support and resources from the college, rather gets demoralized when his work is never recognized or given any extra credits for the efforts he put forth. These stuff have no value, its just a spend-money-get-a-degree environment.
“How many computer engineering students can install an Operating System in a computer? How many electronics engineering students can open up all parts of a radio and again fix them back? How many civil engineering students can say why a suspension bridge is a better solution across a river?” The question is - “How many?” This question is enough to illustrate the falling standards of engineering graduates.
When young, people say they are proud of being Indians, and seem to be really patriotic. But as adults many of them involve in practices that hamper economic growth. The recent scams revealed the height of corruption. People accumulate black money in swish banks, in return for humiliating and raping the country's image at the international level. When some politician smuggles money out of development projects for the country, isn't the situation like stealing from the country's rights? Aren't they stealing from the primary school kids in a small village who are waiting for their lunch? Aren't they stealing from fellow citizens and insulting their motherland? I would rather say, the pride of I-Love-India is just a show off, the only thing they care about in a crippled economy is making money!
The biggest unanswered question is - “Who will bell the cat?”
Or shall we try to get out of this country and settle abroad?
Would you like to answer any of the questions?
