Our PM in his ID speech had listed 6 themes which will b the part of ‘the New India Movement 2017-2022’. The New India intent to achieve a dirt, poverty, corruption, communalism, casteism and terrorism free India by 2022.
Indeed a visionary idea, but these are too Subjective and intangible themes. Consider Communalism and Casteism, how will we measure our achievements on these two in 2022? Rather if we had an objective goals of ensuring police reforms, increasing capacity(we have 137 police for 1 lakh people, whereas UN prescribes 222 for 1 lakh persons) and modernizing police force, then the goal would have been measurable. As we know, proper enforcement of law and order helps tackle communalism/crimes.
Education and Health are two very critical social infrastructure for people’s well being and human resource development. The current abysmal state of this two sectors are widely known, quality education and accessibility of better health care should have been priority. Both the sectors requires special focus and reorientation with changing pattern of challenges.
Why don’t we fix achievable goals in health such as reducing Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR), increasing staffs(India has only about 1 doctor for every 1,700 patients whereas the WHO prescribes at least 1 for every 1,000 patients) and infrastructure by 2022. However, to achieve these health targets we need to increase our GDP spending in health sector, which is around 1.5% today. It will help in achieving the goals of poverty and cleanliness too.
The time has come for a national movement on awareness of climate change. This is the single biggest threat to life and livelihoods of majority of our population, it is already projected as the main cause for internal security threat of developing countries in future.
How to make our life and livelihoods climate resilient and lead a sustainable life style with lesser carbon footprints, and conserve water and save energy…. These should be urgent priority for any country.
Addressing Inequality and creating gainful Employment are also two very imminent problems today, if not addressed, has potential to create social strife and upheavals .
We are right at the take off stage, where our high aspirations, right decisions, smart choices, perfect execution and future preparedness will determine our direction and destiny.