Articles
The Poor Like Noise Will Always Be With Us
Dt: 13/2/14
The Poor Like Noise Will Always Be With Us
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
A renowned mathematician and astro-physicist working in the famed Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, New Jersy (USA), investigating how noise could be eliminated in radio equipment, came to the conclusion, “ noise like the poor will always be with us”. Our universe is understood to have come into being by a “big bang” of an intensely dense but minute matter and with the bang, explosion, noise came to be radiated into the cosmos. It would go away when the cosmos collapses; so would noise only then. the comparison of the poor and poverty to the cosmic noise is very apt for never in the history of mankind on this planet earth, was there a time or land when and where there were no poor and poverty. inequality, pluralism and randomness appear to be spatially and temporally existent facts in an otherwise overall orderliness and equilibrium. Ilya Prigogine, a Russian ( not Soviet) Nobel laureate explains this coexistence of dualities in his Nobel Prize winning theory of chaos (order out of Chaos: Harper and Collins). In the Bengal famine of 1943, 2.5 mln people died . They were all poor. There were famines before too and many died. But after Independence in 1947, there are no famine deaths. The reason is society, public and democracy and adult franchise have all come together to see that governments, do take care to avoid scarcity and starvation to death. Millions of tons of food grains are procured and stored, so that in times of underproduction due to for example, failure of monsoon, the stored grains are released. Also, the poor are served with subsidised necessities ( food grains, kerosene, sugar, cooking oil/gas...) so that they don’t starve or are famished.
2. Why does poverty arise among the progeny of the same family? Children of the same parents, fed, brought up and educated together turn out differently – one an engineer, businessman and another an idler, a gambler or a fraudster! and eventually sink into poverty. The Hindu-Buddhist philosophy of karma alone can explain the different outcomes through the same nurture.
3. Through subsidies and welfare schemes, the collective society, through government is alleviating not eliminating poverty. Merely preventing people from perishing due to poverty cannot be the goal of a virtuous society and good government. Together with this, leading and enabling the poor to quit poverty should be our goal. Knowledge and skill-imparting ; enterprise and innovation inspiring; aspiration and self-effort promoting education from child-hood to youth is what should be the primary task of the family, society and government. It is in this regard that our Constitution is unique among the two hundred plus constitutions in the world. Dr B R Ambedkar, scholar, statesman and patriot held that the Indian society with built in (by birth) inequality among citizens ( due to caste; master race; only one true religion...) cannot have stability; it would explode. He rightly held that education is the greatest enabler and equaliser; so he constitutionally mandated the state to provide, free compulsory education for eight years to all children. Unfortunately the dishonest politicians did not care to implement this. They think that without poor people as voters, they can’t be in the business of politics. It must be a shame for the Congress which ruled this country for 57 of the 67 years of Independence that the UPA-II reckons 75% of the rural and 50% of urban people as poor to be provided food security. Feeding the poor keeps them alive to produce more poor . Rajiv Gandhi, asserted that 85% of welfare spending for the poor doe not reach them. That currently amounts to about Rs. 2,50,000 cr per year. That becomes black money in the hands of ruling politicians, government officials and businessmen. Government’s give-aways like NREG, SHG, Indira Awas, old age and widow pensions etc., do not enable the poor to rise above poverty. Quality education (not mere certificates) and wealth-creating work alone can keep poverty and the poor at decreasingly low levels. Those who talk of poverty elimination are fooling people to get more welfare spending on which politicians, businessmen and government officials prosper. (688 words)
END