Women’s security: What do the people of India want? People want employment, equality and security. I read interview of a grosser from Meghalaya who says why isn’t the Government making the nation secure for women?  What is so called progress that our nation has made, what is the great deal that we have achieved? Our women are not secured in their own motherland. The induction of women pilots in air force, induction of women in armed forces are optimistic steps the government has taken, yet, the security of women in India has always been a matter of concern. The situation has become more ironical because there have been various kind of programmes initiated by the Government for women, like the ‘ Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’, ‘ Ladli Laxmi Yojana’ and ‘ Sukanya Samridhi Yojna’. What is the great deal of all those schemes, where a woman’s identity is at stake, can they really celebrate on being a woman?

Unemployment: The demographics of the nation are such that nearly 1.3 crore Indians leave the workforce every year because they cross 65 years of age, or die. On the other hand, over 2.5 crore citizens celebrate their 15th birthdays every year. This means 1.2 crore people effectively join the workforce every year. According to the World Bank estimates the number is closer to 1.56 crore, or 13 lakh per month. Ironically, this is what we call India’s demographic dividend. Normally, economic growth comes from higher per capita productivity, that is, the same workforce produces more, or a larger workforce, which ensures growth even with flat productivity. A bulge at the lower end of workforce pyramid (younger people at the bottom of the pyramid) guarantees strong growth for decades, subject to, of course, to the workforce being productively employed. In India’s case, the economy needs to create employment for roughly 10 lakh people a month to cash in on the demographic dividend. This pathetic reality exits after seven decades of its independence.

The available data indicates that, four years into the BJP’s term, unemployment remains a big concern. In 2017, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimated that 30% of Indians aged 18 to 29 was unemployed and looking for work.

Standard of living: The idea of a “fully unified nation” in the Indian context refers to only vagueness: be it economic, gender, caste, religion we are far from it. Equality per say remains open ended question unless we spell out in what context we are mentioning it. Economic equality refers to an imaginary situation in which all the inhabitants of a country or region are equally wealthy. Whether the proposition is feasible and sensible has been a major point of contention between free market supporters and socialist thinkers. But the questions involved are really very simple. People are longing for better living conditions instead of looking for economic equality. For many people the concept of freedom is vague. They feel what freedom is all about; they don’t have the basics of food, shelter and clothing. BJP promised improved standard of living to crores of Indians. The situation has not improved for the down trodden.

Reservation quotas: The clamor for ‘reserved quotas’ is only growing which is highly politicized; government does not want to change it for vote bank politics. Is reservation legitimate after 72 years of independence? Does a ‘democratic’ country still need it? Do we still need to divide the country on caste, creed and religion? The laws can be changed to suit the people of our country by passing a bill in the parliament. Yes, we can indeed change the “reservation system” in our country. Till such time we don’t alter the bill of reservation, we will never experience what equality means. Whether it is education, employment or any benefits, the chances are given to the ‘reserved classes.’  Reservation has become a roadblock in progress of this country. This is the reason the deserving are leaving the country and settling down in advanced countries.

Four years of BJP Government: In past four years the Modi Government has failed on issues of Jobs, inflation, basic necessities and security of women mainly. The BJP Government had promised to bring back black money stashed in overseas banks. However, this remains only verbal, no actions taken. Among other promises, the manifesto talked about ensuring a minimum of 50 per cent profits over the cost of production for the farmers, reforming Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act 2003, implementing farm insurance and adopting a ‘National Land Use Policy’, which remains only on papers. Farmers are distressed in most parts of the country. Suicides are still taking place. The Lokpal bill is also sidelined.

Conclusion of exit polls: The masses in nation need to experience the benefits. Big manifestoes, tall promises during the canvassing of elections need to be implemented and delivered. It’s the mass pes who     they go out in majority and vote. The poor mostly vote because they feel vote is their right and the fresh new government will give them livable environment. The poor voters turn up to booths in a hope that they will not be mistreated and ignored; when they feel cheated, they easily cast out a government, hope BJP picks the clues.

“Politicians are not worth it”, “it’s all over in this country”, “government is sleeping”, municipality just wants to collect taxes” etc, etc aren’t these comments commonly heard?  We are living in a country of over a billion people, we are not only an oversized country, but very assorted in nature. There is nothing common across the country. Right from geographic conditions, infrastructure, living standards, food, language, education. One thing is common and that is people are just not bothered about hygiene.  The mindset is that ‘somebody else will clean it, it is somebody’s job’. We just don’t care for our surroundings, we think we don’t own this city, this country.

But, sometimes in the mad crowd we find some gems, there are exceptions always. In Raipur there is a bunch of guys who work really hard to make sure that their city is clean and looks endearing. This group of youngsters call themselves as ‘Bunch of Fools ‘and are working towards a cleaner city and cleaner India. Their mission is cleanliness in the city. These guys select the dirtiest patches in the city, take picture of the spot with all dirt and garbage, and they clean up the area. After cleanup they again take a pictures and put it on their social media page. Thus they call themselves spot-fixers of Raipur. And this group consists of businessmen, professionals, teachers and elderly citizens in it. We “educated” people feel cleaning streets and chowks is not our job, and the so called educated people don’t feel shy while littering the streets.

Why do they call themselves ‘bunch of fools’? The group consists of about 30-35 active members who believe in the mission of keeping the city cleaner and making its looks brighter. They invest their time, money and energy in doing so. They have bought equipment for collecting garbage, cleaning, washing and coloring walls and dustbins. For doing this occasionally they are called “bewakoof” which mean fools and hence they called themselves ‘bunch of fools’. From railway station’s litter zone to Fafadih’s dump-yard, the youths have given these places a makeover by converting them into waiting zones and cricket pitch.

Eight school friends got together and started the good work in October, 2014. The group works on Sundays and on holidays from morning 6am till 9 am. They select unattended spots in the city. The group has a research team that monitors the place for few days. They have found that people dither littering on spots that look clean and do not throw garbage there any longer. The Chattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh recently launched the website of this group. The group uses social media not for the purpose of publicity, but for having valued inputs from friends all over the world and creating awareness among people. Bunch of fool followers don’t believe in the blame game or accusing anyone…….they do their cleaning jobs inexorably without making any noise.

All of us wish to achieve many things in life, without any action our wishes remain as just wishes. We curse our fate, misfortune, others, the government and every second person for the miseries faced by us. A group like this exemplifies the proverb “where there is a will, there is a way.” Kudos to the “bunch of fools.”