Today, while we are full of joy celebrating the 72nd Independence Day and are feeling proud to be Indians, we must remember the freedom fighters for their bravery, valour and sacrifices for the independence of India. On this special day, we should appreciate the great Indian freedom fighters who sought a “Dream India”; where happiness, peace and colours of joy exist along with abolishing corruption, violence, hate, all forms of discrimination and keeping the Constitution safe.
Let us promise ourselves, on the occasion of Independence Day to fight against the problems of corruption, poverty, disease, lack of education, and to spread love and harmony instead of hate and violence. In the present era, Independence Day celebrations are like a ceremony for a republic, which is vibrant and strong, for every citizen of the country. In the expansion and strength of modern independence; civil rights cover personal freedom, and the strength of a republic showcases the inclusiveness of society. While we are far from some of these realities, I am optimistic and feel that Independence Day should at least be celebrated with civility!
We also can’t allow our economic gap to increase, our children to leave school and work to supplement their family income, our farmers to commit suicide; just because we are too busy debating over issues like nationalism vs anti-nationalism. We are living in an era, where vote-bank politics is more important than national integration. Politicians are fooling us with their false promises and winning elections. They talk a lot about the country’s development programs but the reality is far from their dialogues. It has become easier for them to get votes by making fake promises.
We live in a society, where two contradicting dialogues can often be heard. First, we believe that we don’t talk about issues we face at the same time, if someone raises their voice then we question, “How did you become so fearless?”. Therefore, we refuse to raise our voice. We have either become too self-centred or we are just afraid to speak up. We need to disclose whom we are afraid of a leader or the system? Are we afraid of them because we have some sort of information which the system wants from us? If not, then what are the reasons for our silence?
It has been 72 years of a government – of the people, for the people, by the people. It is important to ask the question, where do we stand now as a country? Issues like women’s safety, religious and caste based clashes, growing gap between the rich and poor, threats against national integration, etc. remain unresolved. It is true that India has made efforts to move forward since its independence, but we should also look into some statistics to understand our current situation.
73% of India’s wealth being cornered by 1% of its population where every fourth person in India is poor. With the literacy rate over 74.04% according to the 2011 census, we still have a long way to go. India is one of the countries where the female population is less than the proportion of the male population. According to UNICEF India’s Report on Child Sex Ratio, the birth of female children is declining steadily. Figures from 1991 show that the sex ratio was 947 girls for 1,000 boys. Since 1991, 80% of all districts in India has recorded a declining sex ratio.
Poverty is one of the major problems in India, and nearly 45% of rural people are below poverty line. Most of them are just surviving with their day-to-day earnings. We all know that India is known as the land of villages. There are as many as 60 lakh villages in India which account for about 70% of our population. Most of the villagers are still illiterate and inclined towards traditional farming. Over 600 million people in India depend on agriculture for a living, and they lack the adequate amount of help and support from the government.
The issues faced by farmers still continue as a topic for discussion on news channels, election rallies etc rather than finding solutions to help them. Lastly, I want to emphasize that no matter how much you have studied or how many degrees/diplomas you have, our educational systems have failed to give the vocational training to the students and unemployment is the major issue challenging the nation. Needless to say, selling pakodas or opening a paan ki dukan can be someone’s source of income but it’s not a business model that all university graduates aspire to.
Despite the problems, India is a land of “unity in diversity”. It is the place where several religions, castes, communities, languages exist. But, all the happiness and pride is meaningless if such problems remain unresolved and hamper our daily lives. So, Independence Day is the perfect time to wake up. I hope that this day becomes a wakeup call for every Indian to start speaking up about problems and issues that we face and question our representatives without any fear. We should start conversations on nation-building processes, ask for better services, take a stand on issues and share our ideas. But for all this to begin, we should talk, and this could be a silent revolution for the nation by its people.