How many of you reading this believe that good, quality education is a basic right of every human being? My guess is, there will only be one in a hundred who will disagree. Well, my argument is kind of in support of that one person. I know the thought is pretty pathetic, but humour me.
Before you judge me, let me be clear that this is just a thought and not my belief.
Now consider this, you live in a world where you don’t have auto/taxi/bus drivers on the roads; where you will have to clean the roads outside your house yourself. You live in a world where there is no labour to construct your home and you have to do it yourself; where there are no truck drivers to transport your favourite soap, shoe, grains or deodorant from the factories to the store next door. You live in a world where there are no road side eateries and you don’t get your cutting chais and hot, simmering vada pavs anymore; where there is no labour available to work in the various factories producing all your necessities. You live in a world where you have to completely lift your own load and do your own work – from scratch. Get the picture?
These are jobs that no well educated man/woman will choose to do (except in desperate need). Now, some of the points I have mentioned above might sound to you like luxuries, but nonetheless, they are luxuries that we have taken for granted. So will we be comfortable without these luxuries?
Like I said earlier, I am not proposing that we keep the uneducated uneducated. I am merely pointing out that are we ready, and do we understand the radical change that this will result in? Of course, every self righteous person will answer to that in the affirmative. Even I did. But as the famous saying goes, ‘we don’t really know what we have, till it’s gone.’
You might argue that the westerners live life the way I have pointed out above. But, there are two points I think that differentiate us from them. One, our economy is not strong enough yet to create job opportunities for every additional person that will get educated (we are not even able to provide for the current number). Two, (and this is an assumption, mostly based on Hollywood flicks) the westerners have a good amount of immigrants to do the somewhat lower level jobs. Are our relationships with our neighbours like Pakistan and China good enough for that? Do we want them to immigrate into our country?
It’s just a thought. Think about it.
1 comment:
I always think about this. The only solution is to make such kinds of labour "clean". What I mean is that we need to invest in cleaning machines. Instead of sweeping manually, we could have mechanical road sweepers operated by humans, pressure washers to clean streets and public toilets, gloves, uniforms, rubber boots etc. We need garbage segregation, and not have the attitude that some human will separate our putrid waste for us. Imagine a state such a this. Don't you think even an educated person wouldn't mind doing such a job? That's why we need an educated India. It won't result in the scenario that you have imagined. It will be all really great.
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