By Mayank Jain:
#unManifesto is an attempt to give the power back into the hands of citizens to govern themselves. The campaign has garnered huge support and response from far and wide. People are enthusiastically sharing their preferred promises that should be in the political manifestos. Read on to know the most important and urgent ones we have received recently:
1. Healthcare expenditure is the biggest fear of the lesser privileged among us and generic drugs is the viable solution.
“Ensure Jan Aushadhi or similar generic drug stores are setup under the watch of NGOs or Self Service groups in every MP’s constituency. This will drastically reduce the expenditure on out-of-pocket Healthcare which is a major cause for sub-urban poverty.”- Jitin Sam Varghese
2. Inculcating social awareness and social responsibility is a must if we want to raise global citizens who speak out rather than ignore issues.
“Introduction of an education reform, where students compulsorily need to give 2-3 months to social work for credits, to encourage social responsibility in the citizens of India.”– Deepika Mishra
3. People can’t be forced to be stuck with the same government for 5 years. Participation will bring fresh ideas and perspective to the table.
“Whatever you do, just be transparent and allow the people to participate. This way we can all take responsibility and be accountable for whatever happens instead of sitting around doing nothing but play blame-games.”- Reema
4. It is high time the parties move away from family politics and give rise to meritocracy. “Candidates should be selected on the basis of their attitude, educational background, and work done.”– Deepak Gurjar
5. This one is very interesting. Election Commission needs to put its foot down against baseless manifestos that never go beyond the paper.
“Party manifesto should be analyzed by Election Commission.”– Arun Kumar
6. In a capital city like Delhi, street lights aren’t present and this leads to a lot of crimes and gives confidence to criminals.
“There should be street lights in working condition all the streets in order to make the city safer.”- unManifesto workshop VYK
7. Casteism and the tenets of untouchability and other social evils need to be burned forever.
“There should be all equal and food facilities and infrastructure in all government schools. Every child from any class/caste/ religion of the society should be able to have access to education.”- unManifesto workshop VYK
8. A very crucial loophole in the RTI should be fixed on priority to strengthen it further.
“There must be stipulated time period for second appeal in Right to Information Act, 2005. An important tool (RTI) to access our right is weak because of no time frame for second-appeal.”- Sushma Shrivastava
9. Healthcare facilities must be accessible to all, poor and the rich. There can’t be no compromise on quality healthcare being made available to every citizen.
“Private hospitals are very expensive. And people in AIIMS and Safdarjung refuse treatment because we are from a slum. There should be free medical treatment available for us in close proximity. On behalf of Kusumpur Pahadi.”– Devansh Katoch
10. E-learning with the help of technology and widespread reach of the radio and internet can work wonders to ensure access as well as sustainability to education. “I want that E learning should be promoted in order to save paper. This would ultimately prevent cutting down of trees.”– Shabina Siddiqui