This article is mostly about India’s rapid transformation and performance in recent decades and the most essential factor for it to become a developed nation.
In the past few decades, the pace at which India as a country has grown in various sectors is significant and can’t be ignored. Well, China was way too focused on and outpaced us, but being a democratic country changes a lot compared to China. Coming back to the point of India becoming a developed nation, there is one crucial ingredient required as a democratic country in citizens -“Civic Sense”.
I feel we as a country severely lack this component – as taught in chemistry, atoms should all be aligned in one direction for creating a magnetic domain, else every atom will cancel out the other atom field keeping the magnetic power neutral. Citizens acting according to their personal/selfish plans and not playing the game according to the rule book becomes too difficult for the government or any regulatory body to control/handle, especially in a democratic setting. This doesn’t mean, we should end democracy but rather increase the civic sense in the citizens. Until we don’t achieve this, it becomes hard to further develop and attain the developed status.
To explain this, I can take as many examples in our day-to-day life. Let’s say we are on a highway or any major road – the inherent expectation should be that all the other drivers follow the rules on the road. This inherent expectation forms the basis for order in the system and can address further challenges like self-driving/accident reduction/mileage efficiency or any hurdles. But, if everyone starts acting with their own will violating the traffic rules will cause chaos and will need to deploy checks/policing leading to significant spending of money and manpower. My point is simple, you/I enjoy a game on TV because we know the rules, if no one heeds the rules – that isn’t a game but a mess.
As said above, policing/tracking is never an answer to anything. Tracking/Policing only works to some extent, but the citizens’ sense of nation-building by abiding by to rule book with the sense of belonging is the sweet spot to hit. I strongly believe that you just can’t keep tracking/policing people if they don’t realize the seriousness in the first place. Anyway, with a massive population, this option becomes even more complex and expensive.
Education is the only best bet that could make this happen, but educators play an extremely important role in shaping the students/next-gen citizens with this mindset. So far, we have been doing good, but not great, as the number of people misusing the system has been outnumbering the responsible citizens. Also, the mindset to view someone as looser for following the rule book is an alarming sign. Some relief is the government’s efforts on digitalization which could make tracking/policing easier than ever and help in indulging the fear of getting caught.
To conclude, Adjectives are always relative – To be a developed nation soon, I hope we are quick enough, but as citizens, we should be proactively involved in encouraging and embracing this change. Though we are on the right path, the timing always matters – moral from childhood the hare and turtle story.
Peace!
engineeringvsme 