MyVoice: Views of our readers 23rd October 2022

Demographic disaster is in the making

We are having a peculiar combination here: a youthful population having no skills and jobs, and feudal social structures in a majority of large states. This is a recipe for the social strife, crime, sexual assaults and communal riots

Until liberalisation happened in India, our government used to talk about the ways to control the unchecked growth of population. We forgot about the implementation of family planning which till then was given a wider publicity. Suddenly we started talking about the demographic dividend by having majority of Indians as youth in the population and the country progress can be carried on the shoulders of young and we soon turn a economic power that can dictate the globe.

This is a myth; the population growth is in fact a great liability – a ticking time bomb. As per estimates by 2025, 50% of India would be below 25 years of age. Unlike China, we cannot reap the demographic dividend as it concentrated on manufacturing. It became a factory to supply all needs required by world. China despite being an economic power centre never ignored the population control and succeeded in containing the surging growth of population. The result is that we are racing ahead to become the world's most populous country overtaking China by the end of 2022.

The scary part is that we are doing so with one of the most ill equipped, inadequately skilled youth in the world. We have the world's largest number of illiterates. As per estimates, 26% of our population cannot read or write. Apart from this disadvantage about 1.crore youth enter the job market every year with just about 15% has some sort of formal skills, the rest are unemployable ,this is true at all levels.

As per an experts' assessment, less than 10% of Indian engineering graduates are employable and rest are hardly employable devoid of any skills. The huge number of educated youth without occupation become more a liability to nation than we expected as dividend.

We are having a peculiar combination here: a youthful population having no skills and jobs, and feudal social structures in a majority of large states. This is a recipe for the social strife, crime, sexual assaults and communal riots. Add to this disastrous cocktail, the politics of caste, religion, hate that is being used to divert the youth anger by self-centered political parties for short-time gains and the recent evil freebies offered by all political parties draining the tax payer's money to win elections messed up the governance of states and, as a whole, nation.

We are already staring at a demographic nightmare which has started unraveling. The focus needs to change from giving corporate giants, flop banks some tax rebates or tweaking tax structures. The immediate need is to focus on social parameters such as literacy, health, skill development and prioritised family planning etc. As proclaimed by our P.M. Narendra Modi during last Independence Day address, the need of the hour is controlling the booming population. Population explosion disproportionate to our ecomic growth is a social virus more harmful than Covid-19 virus and it is to be tackled on a war footing.

– Rama Krishna M, Kakinada

Boost Natural Farming

It is important to note that Zero Budget Natural Farming is gaining popularity in many states across the country, particularly in Southern India. Natural farming is promoted as Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati Programme (BPKP) under centrally sponsored scheme - Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY). BPKP aims to promote traditional indigenous practices.

There are many successful natural farming methods around the world, but the zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF) model is the most common in India. According to NITI Aayog, it is regarded as an agro ecology-based diversified farming system that incorporates crops, trees, and animals with functional biodiversity. Natural farming is a chemical-free alternative to conventional farming.

According to the 2021 Economic Survey, natural farming aims to encourage "excellent agronomic practices," which refers to employing science and technology to manage crops, and to eliminate artificial fertilizers and pesticides, the indiscriminate use of which pollutes the environment. Padma Shri Subhash Palekar created this all-natural, spiritual farming system. Zero-budget natural farming is a farming technique that aims to reduce input costs by forcing farmers to rely on natural inputs rather than agricultural chemicals such as pesticides and fertilisers. It is a low-cost, natural, and environmentally friendly agricultural practice. Natural farming increases crop resilience to adverse weather conditions and increases energy and water efficiency. It may also help to reduce carbon emissions.

The central government is considering offering farmers incentives to switch to natural farming methods as part of a soon-to-be-launched national mission. A national natural farming mission will almost certainly lay out a road map for the adoption of sustainable and cost-effective natural farming techniques. Over the next five years, the initiative calls for the center to increase natural farming land to 2 million hectares. Experts agree that more resources, such as trained agriculture staff and funds for science, technology, and research, are needed to better understand zero-budget natural farming practices.

– Dr Krishna Kumar Vepakomma, Hyderabad

Ridiculous statement by Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance minister says rupee is not weak but dollar is strong? What a Ridiculous statement it is by any Finance Minister of a country and many may be laughing at such type of irrelevant statement and it would have been better if the statement on economy would have been delivered by an economy expert.

This is not the first time that Nirmala Sitharaman delivered such type of irresponsible statements and previously she had delivered a statement on the costs of onion. When one correspondent asked her about the cost of onion and her immediate reply was that she did not eat onions and the media criticised this statement.

Another incident related to onions is of Sushma Swaraj who was the Chief Minister of Delhi and lost the election due to the high price of onion. She made the statement that due to two pieces of onions she had lost the election and then Vajpayee advised her to refrain from using such words. Vajpayee also advised Modi when he was the CM of Gujarat to follow the Raj Dharma.

Even Amit Shah's statement that it was only Jumla to say that Rs 15 lakh will be distributed to every Indian. The purpose of giving two examples is that leaders should refrain from issuing any irresponsible statements. One more example is that Morarji Desai declared in the Lok Sabha that JP was no more whereas he was alive and the PM had to tender an apology for that mistake. So the leaders who are in responsible posts should be careful while issuing any statement.

As far as the situation of economy is concerned, a team of experts in economy are already on the job and whatever is to be done they are doing it and an example is the ban on export of wheat and non-basmati rice. Further such steps would be taken as per requirement. It will be better if those in power avoid such type of statements in the national interest.

– Yash Pal Ralhan, Jalandhar

Humans are drawing animals into conflict

Human-wildlife conflict is a major threat to the conservation of wildlife in India. Deforestation, loss of habitat, lack of hunting (food), and illegal roads passing through the forest are some of the major causes of human-wildlife conflict. Due to the roads passing through the protected areas, it has become easy for humans to reach even the inaccessible forests. Due to this, hunters easily make wildlife their prey.

Hardly a day goes by nowadays when the news of conflict between humans and wildlife is not heard. In such a situation, along with their prevention, there is a great need to look into the reasons for the attacks on wildlife and effective prevention measures. The incidents of forest fires in mountainous areas also cause wildlife to move to human settlements and are killed. As long as forests continue to be cut or burnt down, it is not possible to take effective preventive measures. The parts of predatory creatures of this wildlife get their exorbitant price in the international market. The cost of killing an elephant in the international market ranges from twenty-five to sixty thousand, a tiger from eight and a half thousand to fifty thousand, and a leopard from fifteen to thirty-five thousand dollars.

It is unfortunate that hunting for a hobby i.e. trophy hunting has been recognized by many countries of the world including America. American hunters are at the forefront of trophy hunting. In the past decade, 11,000 tigers have been hunted around the world, of which fifty per cent have been killed by American poachers. Unfortunately, the International Union for Conservation is arguing that trophy hunting, if legal, would help in the conservation of wildlife and control the animal population. Along with this, the local people will also get financial benefits. But this argument is not correct. The biggest truth is that this will reduce the number of wildlife and the existence of already extinct animals will disappear.

– Priyanka Saurabh, Hisar (Haryana)

Why kick up needless row over use of Hindi?

The issue of official language of Hindi or English is not new. Till now many political leaders tried their best to implement Hindi as sole official language, but failed miserably. Now the honorable Union Home Minister has put a step forward and announced that Hindi should be only medium of instruction in Kendriya Vidyalayams, IITs and IIMs and Central universities. It should be constitutionally binding on states to propagate Hindi. This is a little bit harsh in general and on the Southern states in particular. In fact I do not think it is time to rake up the issue again.

Since Parliament has declared by law that English shall continue along with Hindi, a statutory committee constituted under that very act has no mandate to recommend the discontinuation of English. In 1960, the political class realised that English was crucial in acquiring knowledge in science and technology and so parliament decided to continue with English. Hence it is better to stop at this point without inviting trouble especially from Southern states.

– TSN Rao, Hyderabad

Polls and pacts in Telugu States

All is fair in war, love and politics, they say. Our politicians have taken this adage as their divine guiding principle and followed it in letter and spirit. Leaders in our Telugu States, in particular, often invoke this saying to their advantage. They stoop to any levels both in words and deeds only to conquer and stay in power by any means. The recent political developments in TS and AP have proved that there are no permanent friends and foes in politics.

The people in both the Telugu States will soon witness many stunning political developments in the form of new permutations and combinations of political parties and the appearance of many new crowd-pullers and rabble-rousers on the political firmament. Both KCS and Jagan have already set the election mood in the States. KCR, in particular, has unrolled his big political ambitions of playing a key role in deciding the party to be in power at the Centre in future. He has sounded his bugle and given a war cry, challenging the all-powerful BJP leadership.

The Munugodu by-elections will be like a litmus test for all the political parties in Telangana. The outcome of that election would help the leaders know where they stand in the race and what they have to do to improve their ranks. But one thing is sure that the chances of the newly christened BRS party making tremors in the national political narrative are very bleak. The immediate big challenge before KCR is to win the elections for the third time. To focus on the BRS and make big political splashes in Delhi, KCR has to go in for early polls.

In AP, too, all political parties are arming themselves for the elections. For sure, Jagan has to face one of the toughest elections and winning175 seats in 2024 is not as easy as he and his coterie are dreaming about. Going by the indications in the air, all parties unitedly attack Jagan on all fronts and bring in many new faces, especially from the Tollywood, to tilt the scales in their favour. Actors Chiranjeevi and Jr NTR, in particular, will be given big responsibilities in the forthcoming elections in both the States.

Pavan Kalyan has joined hands with Chandrababu Naidu as expected to forge a new force in politics. They have proved the YSR party leaders right who have time and again said that Pavan Kalyan is the 'Datha Putra' of Babu and he acts as per the diktats of Naidu. Now it is clear that the Janasena and the TDP will together fight to dethrone Jagan. Chandrababu Naidu is a pastmaster in hammering out political pacts. In the past also, he had political deals with all political parties including the Congress and the BJP. Now as Pavan has jumped on the bandwagon of the TDP, 'Kalyan Babu' is a new mantra in AP politics.

Both KCR and Jagan have done little in creating employment opportunities. They have heavily depended on their populist schemes which are a big drain on the exchequer and which do not trigger any tangible developments. Both the governments are in the red, and run from pillar to post every month to pay even salaries to employees, forget about payments to retired employees and contractors. They have not yet shown any indication of using and deploying any charismatic movies stars for their political prospects. Both KCR and Jagan have drawn battle lines with their employees which may prove fatal and costly in the end. It is learnt that PK has already warned KCR and Jagan about this aspect and its impact on election outcome.

Finally, the anti-incumbency mood may be more at work in the case of KCR than that of Jagan. According to the vox populi, Jagan has to satisfy this time with winning seats anywhere between 90 and 100, while KCR hardly makes the cut.

– M Somasekhar Prasad, Hyderabad

Did TAFRC ever speak for engineering faculty?

This refers to "Govt notifies new fee structure in engg colleges" (20 Oct 2022). The Government of Telangana State has done a good job by increasing the fee structure in the private unaided professional colleges offering MTech, MBA, MCA and B Tech courses for the block period of 2022-2023 and 204-25. But, did the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) ever check with the salaries being paid by the said professional colleges to the faculty working for them? Understood, absolutely not… It is not an overstatement to share the ingratitude attitude of these colleges that the managements of these colleges bargain with teachers while they hire them. Brazenly, they bargain with the teachers, in terms of salary, as how they bargain while buying vegetables.

The managements also play a tricky game when they give advertisements for faculty recruitment in the newspapers. They promise that they would pay salaries as per the AICTE scales, but they never pay so; even one-fourth of the AICTE pay scale is not implemented. Besides this, there is a huge gap between the technical teachers and non-technical teachers in salaries. Therefore, the TAFRC is requested to take it to the notice of TS government to do justice to the teachers working for private unaided professional colleges.

– Dr Venkat Avula, Hyderabad