INDIA: A DEVELOPING COUNTRY?

                                                                                                                                         -An outspoken citizen

They say India is a developing country. But is it?

If you define development as rising buildings, better roads or more multinational companies, maybe.

But is it still development when the educated litter the road for the others to clean? When the monuments are scribbled with names as though they funded it​? Development shouldn’t be limited to the big cities but to every single household.  Numerous allegations of politicians being corrupt can be found which do not always get the deserved attention. Additionally, isn’t it quite funny to think about how the UPSC aspirants spend years to write and crack one of India’s toughest exams while a minimum educational qualification for MLAs and MPs doesn’t even exist? How fascinating that we actually let them lead our country.

When one half the population is on the streets fighting for something as basic as their safety and the government decides to restrict them from public places as a solution, I wonder how long before women are banned from walking on roads too. And if this is called “development”, I would rather go back in time. Unfortunately, we still live in a country where the gender of a child determines the limits of their aspirations and menstrual products are sold more discreetly than perhaps, illegal weapons. When the popular cinemas continue to portray the rich as fair and the poor as dusky, I realize that we still have a long way to go.

Our country has become one of those countries in which high taxes are collected for the improvement of the nation, yet the conditions of the government schools and hospitals scream under-development. With pollution increasing alongside the development of cities and trees being cut down more than ever, environmental degradation has become the elephant in the room in talks about economic progress. When do we finally realize that cutting down trees endlessly is less a sign of development and more a sign of destruction?

The initiatives currently being taken are merely a drop in the ocean towards the actual development of our country. These social, political and economic problems require immediate attention. Only when we take tiny steps to erase patriarchy, colourism, discrimination and other societal challenges that are slowing poisoning our country, alongside holding the government and people in power accountable for their actions, will we one day wake up to hear India being called a fully developed nation…