Prosperity Vs. Poverty
Poverty line Vs. Prosperity line
As far as a I am concerned, poverty is a negative construct and prosperity is a positive one. Rather than taking somebody above poverty line with the risk of him falling back below that line, isn’t it a better idea to start thinking about establishing a prosperity line for our Countrymen? Shouldn’t we as planners for a great future for India think about what are the metrics that we have to ensure as Government to enable every citizen to aspire big and reach his/her potential? Is reaching food through our PDS system the bare minimum for our citizens to come out of poverty? It is this warped mentality that recently made the planning commission decide that an Indian can manage a day on Rs.32.00!
It is all good for highly earning bureaucrats and politicians to look down upon our poor as somebody whom we can do without or who can marginalized to the edges of society with this feudal mentality. But it does no good to our high-sounding slogans and standing among the comity of nations. If the Europeans, Americans and our South East Asian neighbors had thought like that, they too would have ended up like us: a perpetually developing country, with no timeline to reach excellence! But they realized the innate potential of every human being to develop and reach his/her potential given a proper circumstance. It is this circumstance and whatever it takes that we should quantify and designate as the prosperity line. It is like the escape velocity; once that velocity is reached the stars are the limit!
According to me, a good education, good personal hygiene, good environmental sanitation and livelihoods for parents will create a constructive atmosphere at home conduce to the enablement of talents to bloom.