Thursday, June 26, 2008

TRANSFORMING INDIA – MY VISION AND PLAN

Vision
India, a country with colors and contradictions, laced with beautiful cultural exchanges. Be it amidst the bustling crowds of Mumbai, the historic monuments in Delhi, remotest rural bases in South India or the hilly curves in the North-East, at every corner there is a new experience to learn. That is India, my India. My vision is to rediscover India as a true democracy where each one is empowered to know his/her rights to confidently voice their opinion that can lead to community action to solve public crisis.

Redefining India is not an easy job. But nothing is impossible when there is a proper plan to achieve it. In a true democracy, every individual counts. Therefore let there be an individual called ‘Tara’, who could be a male or female, a Hindu, a Muslim or a Dalit, from a rural or an urban background. Let ‘Tara’ be the face of India, the reflection of my vision for India.

Plan
In my independent democratic India, Tara is born with an absolute food security and an assured health and medical facility lifelong. With age Tara comes under the umbrella of education. This education is uniform for every single child born in India. It is child-centric, need and interest based with the support of lifeskills. Through this education Tara becomes aware of his/her rights and learns how to exercise these. This education system capacitates Tara to understand that he/she has the right to protection against every violence, abuse and discrimination no matter which strata of the society he/she belongs to. In sometime when Tara steps into the autumn of adolescence, there is enough peer and adult groups to address Tara’s adolescent know how’s with care and share. And then its youth, the spring time. Time to take some new moves. With social guidance and mentoring, Tara learns to take decisions in life. Tara participates in community actions, gets inspired to give back to the society, and encourages youth-adult partnerships for a balanced solution to a grave social crisis. Now Tara is all set to stand perfect. Tara is self-dependent, well-informed and socially empowered to create own identity. At this crossroad of life Tara chooses the best way to serve the nation based on his/her interest and capacity. The state has enough employment opportunities to commensurate Tara’s career choice.

Tara’s lifecycle remains unchanged even if he/she is born as a disabled or differently-abled child. The state will not look down upon Tara instead support him/her with special education systems with specific trainings and equal employment options in the work front.

My Tara is sensitive, open but not rootless. Tara has the undaunted strength to stand against deforestation and environmental degradation. Tara can be the leader to mobilize the community to say no to plastics or stand for the prevention of HIV/AIDS. Tara believes in equal distribution of resources across the Indian population. Tara realizes the importance of agriculture in India. He/she is not ready to be just ‘mall-nourished’ (swallowed by the shopping malls). Tara demands hand in hand progress of rural and urban India challenging the top-down paradigm to development. Tara values every individual in India and lives in democratic governance. Tara is not one. Tara is many, every. And this is their India. Tara’s India. My India.