India lives in her villages

India lives in her villages. It is the rural population who suffer the miseries of the socio-economic-political adventures of the urbanites. The rural villages are beseeched by problems, the basic being illiteracy, lack of knowledge(ignorance) in upbringing children, unrestricted growth of the family, non availability of nutrious food, uncared expectant mothers, absence of protein, deficient food for pregnant woman, infant mortality growth, etc.

They need good food, clothing and shelter. The Directive Principles of the State Policy envisage providing basic education, for which Anganvadi Schools can be used, lower primary schools be set up, adult education to the elders be provided through NGOs, vocational classes for womenfolk through volunteers, training for men be provided so that they can take up skill jobs according to their orientation and Hospitals for giving medical care. The villagers must be educated to maintain a clean environment. The Cultural department must organize talent finding camps so that the youth should be encouraged to bring out his latent talents. Mobile dispensaries need to be opened wherein medicines and tablets must be made available to the poor, sick, needy and distressed. Encourage starting of tiny, mini industries to bolster their incomes.

Mahatma Gandhi, whom we quote at the slightest pretext, advocated starting of village industries as a panacea to solve the problem of unemployment at the rural level. He, the fantast that he was, limnered his arguments that the spider web of our economy had its foundations in the grass root village economy. Most often, in spite of the hard work put in by the villagers, the villager is in a limbo because the so called rural employment programmes and dozens of Schemes chalked out by the KVIC and rural department of GoI seldom reach them; they are only in paper. He cannot, like the ‘limpet’ cry hoarse and crescendo for higher wages, in the guise of collective bargaining by the militant white collared comrades of the urban areas, who are never satisfied with their pay and demand more and more. His task of making both ends meet is gargantuan. Let us take perishable goods like vegetables. The farmer sells tomato during seasons at Bellary (Karnataka) at Rs 1.60 per Kg. But the price for same commodity at a distance of 100 Kms is Rs 12/-. If a net work of marketing in the form of community service is available to him, the farmer could beget a higher price and the consumer for 50% of the existing rates. The warehouses of Agricultural departments must ensure that they collect these produces at a fair value and transport it to the final market for disposal. These Marketing agencies should collect, pool all their collections at the manufacturing point and routed to various destinations where there is demand. Bellary (Karnataka) has a poultry cluster, where one egg costs 0.80 paise, while it sells at Rs 3.00 at Mangalore and Rs 4/- at Karwar (These figures were compiled by me in 1980 for the Government from central and coastal Karnataka). A little planning and coming together of a cluster of farmers could reap rich dividends for them.

The Zilla parishads, and Village panchayats along with District Rural Development Societies, should bring together a group of people in every village, and create a voluntary group of people who could be trained to take up marketing so that they can pass on their expertise at the village. A dedicated band of young men, who would help ligament the various sections, should be formed so that it will inure them to responsibilities from their wayward fanfaronade.

The labour skills of the villagers have not been tapped properly. A good artisan with deft fingers at Ankola (Kumta taluk) hardly gets Rs 60 per day; he is idle for the 6 months of the year; the same is the case with a diva, or a pastiche or a Conti writer. Their talents garnish the village and their lives syncopate leading them to misery.

With a little amount of training, exposure and right fora experience, many of the rural folk, can put up commendable performance in art, craft, cultural programmes, sport etc. The Heggodu experiment (Magasasy award winner Heggde’s School of Drama) have shown how far the hidden rural talents can be brought about through the medium of dramas. Establishment of rural theaters, film criticism/appreciation courses, School of drama and dance, vocational guidance training camps for spotting talents in Sports, people with the gift of the gab chosen through elocution and essay competitions will boost the rural children’s appetitive to perform well in the Competitions enabling spotlighting talents. The Pople’s Action for Development (PADI), Ford Foundation, UNICEF and a hoard of Organizations have manifold Schemes aimed at providing training to the rural folk.

The Anganvadi Schools can start as vehicles of thought and learning to the tiny tots. Good nutrious food can make them healthy. Cleanliness should be inculcated at this level itself. This will make them seek School education, so that literacy can be gradually increased.

For the elder village folk, recreation facilities should be provided. Community halls, parks, recreation centers must be part of the social milieu in the village. The shyness of the rural folks can be overcome through exposure. They do not perform or show their talents in urban platforms for fear of inferiority. It has become modish to say that rural areas are backward yet a few fantasts come forward.

The Rural electrification programme, providing irrigation facilities to a wide command area, planting trees, growing vegetations, can be done in the rural areas with the support of the people. Pure drinking water can be made available by constructing storage tanks, at least one in a village. But poor villages continue to remain poor due to scanty facilities. Basic facilities, how far they are provided is a hundred dollar question. The artificial comforts of urban towns or Cities may be ditty in the rural. The urbanite loathes rural areas, its settings and environment. But the natural rural environment and the rural demizes, would more than allegro compensate the shortfalls of rural conditions. Any takers?

Disparity of earning

Often we talk about the disparity between the ‘haves’ and have-nots’. World’s devastating economy continues to be morbid. It does not get shaken by the Sheiks and other world class wealthy people whose rankings are announced by a magazine called ‘Forbes’. It is ambitious for the rich and the mighty to get a ranking in it. It proclaims one’s status as a rich man in the World.

The billionaire Club has been decreasing like Law of Diminishing Returns. Yesterday’s billionaire is today’s ‘ex-billionaire’. This Club has taken the severest hit in the past 15 months more than any other year since the Magazine started grading the richest to the rich. The total number of Billionaires around the globe plunged to a new low from a record number of 1125 in the beginning of 2008 to around 793 in March 2009. This decline of 332 billionaires in a year worked to 29.5%. The Net Present Worth of world’s billionaires dropped from $ 4.4 trillion (in 2008) to $ 2.4 trillion, the percentage of rate of decline @ 45.4%. This translates to a per capita wealth per billionaire @ $ 3 billion, a steep decline of 23% or a per capita drop of $ 910 million (against 2008 figures)

At least 373 people joined the ranks of "ex-billionaires" (355 as a result of business misadventures or declining asset values and 18 who died), while only 41 climbed onto the billionaire band wagon which included 38 newcomers and three who regained spots on the 10-figure list they'd lost earlier..
Indeed, the analysis carried out by Forbes clearly indicates real estate as the villain of the piece in reducing the ranks of billionaires, with more than 250 of the "2008 billionaires " registering substantial losses due to shrinking property values, which also accounted for drop in net worth among many of those who stayed on the list. When the property market crashed Ramesh Chandra's NPW (Net Present worth) plunged from $9.6 billion to just $600 million. Real Estate also played a crucial role in the depletion of wealth of India’s biggest loser Anil Ambani who was ranked No 6 in the 2008 list with a NPW of $ 42 billion. Real estate massive losses, which accounted for 76% of his fortune, left him with $ 10.1 billion and a ranking of 34 in the 2009 list.

29 of the Indian billionaires who figured in the list during 2008 lost their ranking while the remaining 23 of the 24 still on the list had diminished NPW. Russian billionaires figured in the hit-list with 55 of the 74 knocked out of the list while the remaining 19 with decreased wealth stood in the list due to inclined and depressed markets in metals, minerals, and other natural resources including gas. Mikhail Prokhorov, the richest Russian who still figures on the current list was ranked 40 with a fortune of $ 9.5 billion. The other six Russians who were in the top fifty dropped out of the list as their wealth depleted to below $ 1 billion.

United States became the greatest causality with 110 billionaires losing their rankings.

New York City alone lost 16 billionaires while media driven fortune of Micheal Bloomberg notched up $ 16 billion (from $ 11.5 billion 2008) to get listed at number 17 from his previous 65. Twenty-eight of the Manhattan billionaires who dealt in hedging funds lost their rankings while 11 managed to hold on to the list.
Among the celebrities, television giant Oprah Winfrey with a present worth of $ 2.7 billion. Designer Ralph Lauren with 4 2.8 billion and jetsetter Richard Branson with $ 2.6 billion managed to stay on the list. Dallas Mavericks (Mark Cuban) recorded his wealth at $ 2.3 billion while jerry Jones net worth came down to $ 1.3 billion as he ended up at the 559th spot in the Forbes List of Billionaires. Wang Chuanfu of China’s was a fresh entry (seller of electric cars in China) with a recorded wealth of $ 1.4 billion. He joins the illustrious band of 23 Chinese billionaires. . Germany’s Aloys Wobben (windmill manufacturing) found his way into the list with a record net worth of $ 3.5 billion. The top ten honours went to Bill gates ($ $ 40 billion), Warren Buffet ($37 billion), Carlos Slim Helu (Mexico)($35 b), Lawrance Ellison(422.56), Ingvar Kamprad(Sweden)($ 22.6 b), Karl Albrecht(Germany)($21.5 b), Mukesh Ambani (Ind)($19.5b), Lakshmi Mittal(Ind)($19.3b), Theo Albrecht(Ger)($18.8 b), Amanico Ortega(Spain) ($18.3 billion) [Courtesy: Forbes Magazine] Even though the list made surprising ups and downs for some, elimination for some others, the addition of 38 new billionaires to the diminutive group of billionaires may send comforting signals. 2008-9 will go down in history as the Year of Economic disaster. Will hope gather momentum in 2010? We will wait and watch