{"id":83569,"date":"2021-02-22T11:19:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T05:49:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=83569"},"modified":"2021-02-22T12:09:01","modified_gmt":"2021-02-22T06:39:01","slug":"weakness-of-indian-state-in-elimination-of-poverty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/weakness-of-indian-state-in-elimination-of-poverty\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Weakness of Indian state\u2019 in elimination of poverty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: The pandemic has exposed the weakness of the Indian state in fulfilling the needs of the poor. This calls for a change in the current approach to eradicate the miseries faced by the poor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two books have tried to explain the shortcomings of the Indian state in meeting the aspirations of the poor.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The books are Locking Down the Poor: The Pandemic and India\u2019s Moral Centre by Harsh Mander and Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope by M. Rajshekhar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>throw light on the problems faced by the poor <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">during the pandemic including loss of jobs, shortage of food, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As per them, the failure is based on the <\/span><b>systematic weakness<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of the Indian state which is devoid of the key pillars of a strong state.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What are the key pillars of a strong state:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is built with strong support from people<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has robust administrative machinery for the delivery of services and maintenance of stability.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furthermore, it has managerial abilities to shape and implement change.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Issues with Indian state<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, it is very difficult to develop a shared identity among Indians due to the high degree of <\/span><b>diversity<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Shared identity is essential for obtaining the support of people as seen in the case of strong states like Japan and China. They used Japanese and Han Chinese identities for unification.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, apart from the diversity, the Indian state is also suffering from <\/span><b>caste division. <\/b>It<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0is often used by leaders to divide the Indian masses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Indian bureaucracy performs poorly in the domain of <\/span><b>shaping changes.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> This is mainly due to the colonial mindset which focuses more on stability and compliance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fourth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, governance is<\/span><b> more focused on capitalist ideology. It<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0induces the bureaucracy to function as corporate managers. This eventually neglects the spirit of socialism which is necessary to uplift the poor people.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Fifth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the approach of looking at politics as not more than an extension of economics has led to <\/span><b>privatisation of necessary services<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as health and education.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Sixth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the approach of strengthening the top of the pyramid and expectation of <\/span><b>improving the bottom through trickle-down effect<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has not delivered desired results.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way Forward<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The focus should be on uniting the masses around a<\/span><b> modern and inclusive identity <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as taught by our constitution-makers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bureaucrats must be given due training in order to simultaneously<\/span><b> balance stability and change<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. As too much change can create chaos and no change can solidify the inefficiencies of the current setup.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Public servants should not function as corporate managers. Rather they must be willing to devote their lives for the welfare of the masses in order to strengthen the process of nation-building.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state must realize that it can\u2019t function like a private corporation that can easily fire its employees. It must ensure everyone is given due opportunities to grow and prosper.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The state must now <\/span><b>focus on parameters like economic justice, environmental sustainability,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> etc. rather than solely on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a nutshell, India today desires political leaders who can unite the masses, administrators who can deliver good governance, and business leaders who are wealth creators as well as distributors.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Synopsis: The pandemic has exposed the weakness of the Indian state in fulfilling the needs of the poor. This calls for a change in the current approach to eradicate the miseries faced by the poor. Background: Two books have tried to explain the shortcomings of the Indian state in meeting the aspirations of the poor.\u00a0&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/weakness-of-indian-state-in-elimination-of-poverty\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018Weakness of Indian state\u2019 in elimination of poverty<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[1414],"class_list":["post-83569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-soc_4","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1703420965},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}