WITH A PASSBOOK IN MY HAND I FELT LIKE A MAN

We crib about the government day in and day after. We talk of the flaws of the Aadhar card and how the government has messed up the scheme and spent crores of money on a system which may not work. We talk of the flaws of the government’s recent cash transfer scheme where subsidies to the poor are being directly transferred to their bank accounts via the aadhar card. This is to stop the leakages of subsidies that existed in the system for years and did not reach the intended ones. But it helps to look at the positive side of things. As I was doing a documentary on an Indian nationalised bank, I realised that a lot of churn and change is happening in the rural districts and amongst the rural and urban poor.

Visiting this very small bank at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu, I was amazed to see the crowd in the bank. There are close to 300 people at any given point of time. All these are the rural folk, many who don’t know how to read and write, coming with hands holding bank passbooks. They need to seek help from the bank to understand what is written in the passbook and to fill cash and cheque requests. These people have never before known what a bank meant. Today, the money they earn through the MNREGA scheme of the government is directly transferred into their accounts. We all talk of Financial Inclusion but it helps to go to the ground level and see what impact it really has.

For me it is akin to the mobile revolution. The mobile in the hand of practically every Indian spurred, not just a talking revolution, but an empowerment of a different kind. Seeing the maids, the vegetable vendor, the rickshaw and taxi drivers, the newspaperman and even the flower lady with a mere Rs 10 business with me connecting on mobile, was a real cheerful sight to watch. To me, it was a similar feeling now, seeing all of these people with a passbook in hand. It is an empowerment that is not visible or can be measured. It is an upliftment of a kind that actually does not have to do with money. They may hardly have money in their accounts but it is one big positive step in their lives. It is development in every sense of the word.

The banks have an immense task at their hand. They need to quickly add huge numbers to their staff to tackle the sudden rush at the banks. So there is employment too. They are employing bank correspondents in huge numbers. And who are these bank correspondents. This bank correspondent I met sits with his wife at his shop of goodies at a small region called Basant Nagar in Chennai. He is the one who distributes and collects back the money given to the fisher folk of that area through his hand held machine given to him by the bank. Handling a daily item store, guess he knows basic accounts! He gets paid Rs 3,000 per month. That’s not only additional income for him but look at him... he is the king of that area!

Nationalised banks are the lead banks for districts allocated to them... that is they are in charge of those districts. They have regional rural branches under them. They not only handle financial transactions but conduct rural training courses and are also helping rural artisans and such others in keeping their art alive. Imagine I am here just talking of one bank. Collectively all banks are surely doing a lot on ground.

There are the negatives that people talk of. Money directly transferred may be misused by the man of the house to engage in bad vices. But let us for now look at the positive side of the story. I visited Tamil Nadu and Tamil Nadu is said to have 100% financial inclusion. Perhaps that is why I see so much action. Hope other states too follow.

But one thing always troubles me. When banks and the government are working hard to elevate poverty in the rural areas, why must I still see young smiling, smart children in Mumbai begging for money.

TRACKING INDIA’S WORKFORCE

As a business journalist, doing scores of interviews, I was quite surprised to hear many CEOs echoing one common  problem “It is so difficult to get labour”, in factories, in offices, blue collar workers, white collar workers. Agricultural families tell me that their children don’t want to work at the farms.  So what is the majority of India’s burgeoning population up to? (today 1.22 billion)

A recent National Sample Survey Organisation or NSSO report reveals that only 2 million jobs were generated between 2004-2009 even as the economy grew at the rate of 8.43%. As against 62 million jobs created between 1999-2004. What the data also reveals is that the employment rate has actually declined in the five year period ended 2009-10 to 39.2 per cent from 42 per cent in 2004-05.

Merely taking these three major facts – 1) Industry facing shortage of workforce 2)  Survey indicating creation of fewer jobs 3) India economy growing -  underlines a very systemic problem that India faces in its job market. This  needs immediate attention.

NSSO brings out a very interesting fact defending lack of job creation - that people are moving out of menial jobs and going back to school. That marks a very important trend – that aspirations of workforce are changing combined with shift in literacy levels. Literacy levels are rising – up at 74% in 2011 from 65% in 2001. Literacy trends too are changing - Poor families  today spend 40% of their salaries on children’s ‘ENGLISH’ education so that they become a part of prosperous India.

All this data leads us to yet another important outcome of rising aspirations and literacy. Post the worst industrial violence at automobile plant of Maruti Suzuki few months back, Economic & Political Weekly states that “there is a growing realization among a section of the managerial and capitalist class that old forms of exploitation and oppression of labour are perhaps not sustainable. This is partly due to the diffusion of media in its social and mobile forms., partly a function of increased literacy and education, and thus awareness, of the worker, or a bit of conscience among the opinion makers”.

So what is the outcome of connecting all these dots, what policy actions need to be taken, what are the course corrections methods being employed, how is the education system being veered towards these changes, how is the mix between agriculture (15%), industrial (27%)  and tertiary (58%) affecting workforce.

RAPE, VIOLENCE, KILLINGS, TEENAGE ROAD ACCIDENTS – AND DEMONSTRATIONS

As I opened the newspaper today and read of another rape and another mindless killing – that of a 16-year old boy venting out his anger at his neighbour lady and her 2-year old son for a silly dispute by knife stabs, it got one thinking of the society we are building around us.  And then the demonstrations against these issues.  While the demonstrations do put pressure on the government to book the culprits and get its act together,  there is a larger problem at hand that also needs to be tackled. 

The social ecosystem (that includes the media, films and the education sector) perpetually  showcase  the glamorous and the rich and that has led to the importance of  cultural growth being left far behind in the minds of the young and the old alike. Yes generations change and will keep changing with each lamenting on the other’s follies.  But today’s India is changing so rapidly that everyone is confused including the parents on what and how much is important and the line between right and wrong is getting even more blurred.

Because the line between the rich and the middle class is also getting blurred.  Everyone wants to be sexy and everyone wants to be rich and most don’t care a damn for anything else – films, television programmes add to  spreading these ideas.  Intellectual growth and imbibing India’s rich culture  is too in-depth and long-term in today’s fast pace world. Looking sexy and looking rich is so much easier.  Everything from world’s  best face creams, the best hair-dyes, the best make-up kit and the best cars – all here – to lap up in one breath (and exhibit it on facebook!).

The result of this is that there is too much ‘Exhibiting’ of this materialism everywhere that everyone is desperate to be a part of it and very fast.  It is slowing creeping into forms of anger and jealously amongst the not-so-developed strata of society who don’t have it and this results in various forms of insecurity and unhappiness.  

I remember our days of growing up when the distance between the ‘few’ rich and us middle-class was very great and we thoroughly enjoyed that. We would love to look at the ‘exclusive’ rich with their big cars and big houses and all the style and class, without ever  aspiring to ‘appear’ rich.

For most of the population getting richer is easier today through the loan channel.   Everyone wants that posh house, the latest model car,  latest mobile, branded garments – ok in brief materialistic. Development or Materialism is good but only if it comes with maturity to be able to do without a lot we can’t afford.  That comes from a very strong upbringing of moral values and ethics which most parents find it very hard to imbibe in their children. I doubt if schools too stress on all these issues (With everyone wanting to be part of an international school where you already tell your children you are high class and different and well you need a lot of money for that!). Mothers themselves seem to have put morals and ethics way down on their agenda  what with having so many other ‘burning’ issues to deal with.

Anger and fear are two things we seem to build up more day by day due to the paucity of so many other greater emotions in us.

Each of us needs to take time off to think of these things individually and understand how we can avoid greater part of the society going the wrong way – and we have all the solutions within our culture  itself if we only bring it to the fore.