By Sudhansu R Das
When the rich people manage their rise with money, influence, quality education, contacts, communication skills and potential to invest, the poor work hard to live a day with no time to think. It is the middle class who think about the social, political, economic and cultural problems that ensnare them. They were once the thought leaders and the harbinger of change. It is the middle class who hit the road first when the nation faces trouble; be it an emergency, price rise or bad economic policies of any government. They have knowledge, willingness and experience to understand the crux of the problems. Nationalist organizations, RSS, Congress and the Communist parties once thrived on the middle class youth; they had created selfless and dedicated volunteer forces in the country. The Congress Sevadal, the RSS Swayamsevaks and the communist cadres were always in the forefront of any social and political movement. Those people have experienced the agony of opportunity exclusion and the pain of unemployment; they stood in the queue for hours to get the essential services they always deserve. They are the witness to their parents’ struggle to make both ends meet. They are the precious assets of the country who carry the fire in their mind for a change. Today the middle class in India have become silent due to various reasons.
The mushroom growth of vote banks across the country has silenced the middle class voice and their thought provoking writings and speeches. They no longer influence the voters and trigger mass movement. The vote banks nurtured with free food and freebies have outperformed the middle class thought leaders whose voice sinks in the cacophony of populist slogans. This is testing time for democracy and for all those who are educated. The political leaders who love the country, its culture, its history and its people should take a call.
The national party Congress should rebuild Sevadal and liberate them from political burden. The Communist should not use and throw their dedicated cadres- the comrades for power sharing. Their leaders should not lure the youth with an ideology which they no longer live in the real life. Today, every ideology ultimately dissolves into a mechanism to grab power. The dedicated volunteers are not required after the party gets power. RSS, the biggest voluntary organization in the world, is not free from political infection; its ideologues are frantically trying to save the dedicated volunteers from falling into temptation. The lure of power, luxury and lifestyle change continue to dilute the core Hindu ideology- “Sarbe Bhabantu Sukhina” the mantra for inclusive growth and prosperity. All political parties in India should converge on achieving inclusive democracy which will give the middle class an opportunity to contribute to democracy; this will build statesman leaders who can channel the public sector and the private sector energy into nation building.
High cost of quality education, health, housing and cost of nutritious food etc leave little time for the middle class to think about the society; they need to survive amid high cost of living. In metro cities, parents pay more than Rs 10 to Rs 25 lakh per annum to provide quality education to two kids. Cost of a house has skyrocketed in the last ten years and it has indebted a large number of families. Meeting the desired level of nutrition is not affordable for a middle class family today. The nutrition needs of people can be met by preserving the crop diversity and by protecting fertile agricultural land. In the years to come the wars will be fought over food. Rising prices of essential commodities compel middle class parents to have one child. No middle class family except the Muslim will think of having more than two kids. This is the main reason for the rapid change in the demographic composition of India. The government needs to establish more central schools with quality education so that the school expenses will not deplete the household expenses. Besides, the government should spend more than 6% of its budget on education.
Over decades the hospital expenses have shot up. Private hospitals are mushrooming; some are good and the majority are money suckers. Government hospitals are flooded with patients; there are neither enough doctors nor adequate number of beds for treatment. At 5.30 a.m, the emergency ward of the SCB Medical College in Cuttack was overflowing with patients; there was no space to put the feet; forget about the bed for critical patients. They were sleeping on the floor, in the corridor and below the beds; three patients were lying in one bed. Some patients were crying in pain. A few of the patients were dead or half dead. In the morning hours, the agents of private hospitals move around to lure patients to the private hospitals. The emergency ward of SCB Medical College referred the patients to different wards. One will not find senior doctors in the crucial morning hours and after evening in the emergency ward. A few PG students struggle to face the overwhelming number of patients. Many of the senior doctors run their private practice. Getting a bed in the hospital takes one to three days due to heavy rush of patients; lack of quality hospital facilities in other districts put pressure on SCB Medical College in Cuttack. A few private hospitals are good but the majority of the hospitals compel patients to pay highly inflated hospital bills. Life saving injections and drugs are sold to patients at a triple price. Some relatives of patients inform that some private hospitals keep bodies after the death of the patients; they also charge for treating the dead bodies. This is inhuman and unethical. The state government should stop all kinds of unnecessary infrastructure projects and divert funds to build quality government hospitals in every 50 kilometer distance. It should crack down on the illegal activities of some private hospitals; the nexus between some of the private hospitals and the officials of the insurance agencies should be demolished as they are looting the patients in distress. This situation is more or less prevalent in all the Indian states. The hospital sector should serve patients and should not maximize profit; it adds to the helplessness of the middle class. The rich pay the bill and the poor carry the free health insurance cards to get treatment; the middle class spend their savings and sell their assets to meet the hospitalization cost.
Concentration of jobs in a few cities adds to opportunity exclusion in small towns. National universities, central infrastructure projects, rail connectivity, air connectivity and national institutions should be distributed judiciously among all states to avoid job opportunity concentration in one place. When one or two children of a family look for quality jobs in big cities or abroad, they leave home and seldom return; gradually they don’t return. The government should build people friendly region specific infrastructures for the development of multiple sectors in the country: fishery, horticulture, agriculture, forest wealth, tourism, pilgrim places, handloom, handcrafts, cultivation of spices and medicinal plants etc. Industry, mining and services sector need to grow without destroying the community capital which should be preserved for the future generations.
When children go abroad for jobs, career and quality life, the parents are left behind in isolation. Political economists say there is phenomenal growth of remittance economy. But the remittance economy is at the cost of the migration of talents; it is more precious than the remittance the families receive. The brain drain is phenomenal and it can be prevented if India develops proper climate for HR growth. Language and caste bias works like a dangerous virus in national organizations; it is a deterrent for the patriotic and talented people. Relationship based promotion and posting in any organization trigger the disappearance of talent. According to the Indian Student Mobility Report 2023, about 1,090,000 Indian students went abroad for studies in 2019. It is estimated that by 2025, about 2 million students from India will be studying abroad. A miniscule percentage of students return to India after study. The Education sector abroad thrives on Indian students. Brain drain happens and it happens permanently. The government needs to develop quality education and career facilities in India so that the cream from the Indian youth will not leave the country. This is high time for the Indian political class to live above party line and save the middle class.
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