“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free and the mind is led forward by thee
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father let my country awake”… (Geetanjali)
What does it take to empower India? On October 16,2005 eminent personalities from all over the country came together in the Indian Express conclave to discuss the empowerment of India and during the course of discussion, stated in emotional, esoteric and often in constricted and incoherent terms, what empowerment of India meant to them. But there was a comparatively lesser known personality, who stated out in simple words - Anjum Mishra former captain of Indian women cricket tea; “Empowerment will mean most when a sense of power fills each one of us and that ability is used for the good of all”. A statement I feel applies to every individual, group, society and nation in the realm of empowerment. What is empowerment? Empowerment can be defined as the ability of an entity to control the course of its destiny. In individual terms, it means that an empowered individual has the ability to make a positive difference to him and to others What does empowerment mean to India? India the nation of a billion, home to the most ancient culture ,fifth largest and most populated nation in the world, and a rising power in the world arena. India is projected to be one of one of the strongest nations in the world in the coming years (if it is not one already) but does that mean India is empowered? Are the booming stockmarkets, mushrooming malls, service sector jobs and the robust economy indicators an empowered nation/? Not necessarily. That’s what the example of India shows us. How can India be considered empowered when for every person who hang out in Mac Donald or pizza hut there are at least ten who go to sleep with an empty stomach/? How can it be called empowered when the prosperity of cities that drive the retail boom needs to give posthumous honors to thousands of farmers who were driven to despair and death by an irresponsible market mechanism that feeds the ever-greedy urban child out of the hands of its famished rural brother. How can a nation can be called empowered when every young graduate passing out of its premium institutes has at least 10 counterparts who have never seen the door of a primary school. Questions are endless. However, we are here not only to ask questions but to answer them as well The answer is obvious.India as a nation can be considered empowered if: So it is empowerment that is the answer to most of our problems, panache to all ills afflicting us as a nation and is bound to put us in the growth trajectory. However, how to achieve this empowerment? This is the billion-dollar question every social scientist is trying to answer and every bureaucrat believes he has answered. Alternatively, to put up in another way, if empowerment was the answer to all our problems, then why has no one tried to do it before? Sorry people, in fact political leaders like Nehru and Indira have tried and gave up. Nehru believed that by building dams and industries he can empower India .Lal bahadur shastri believed that empowerment of farmers, soldiers and scientists will empower India (Jai Javan, Jai kisan, Jai vigyan).The dream died a quick death along with Mr.shastri. Indira Gandhi tried to achieve this through Pokhran, NaraSimha Rao through LPG reforms and Vajpayee through peace. Rajeev Gandhi’s dream of empowerment through transfer of power to grass root levels came somewhat to closer to the realty through the concept of panhayati raj.But has these left our nation more empowered than before? No .So where did we miss the wood for the trees? May be somewhere along the way we as a nation forgot that to empower a nation we need to empower its society and to empower a society its communities and for that the basic unit of every group, the individuals. That is it - an empowered individual is the building block of an empowered nation. Panchayati Raj and the right to information were the only two revolutionary ideas close to this ideal. Panchayati Raj started with the ambitious action plan for empowerment of village communities and therefore individuals through decentralization of power. However, it has only resulted in decentralization of corruption and it waits to be seen to if the right to information has teeth to break free of red tape controls and have a significant impact in the citizen’s lives. Where have we gone wrong? Despite spending crores for empowering the nation, India as a nation still gropes in the dark as to how to take development to the last mile, plug the loopholes which confirms the 15 paisa theory proposed by Rajeev Gandhi - that out of every 1 rupee spent on development only 15 paisa reaches the ultimate beneficiaries. Why so? The answer is obvious. India has still tried to empower its citizens externally through provision of physical infrastructure and other facilities and amenities (even that too did not reach mot of them) which has only left the people asking for more and blaming the state for every problem they face, a sort of spoon-feeding. Her state is expected to provide everything which has left them with no power to fight for their rights. It is only when an individual feels that he has the power within himself to change his life and he uses this power for himself and those around him that we will stop blaming the state machinery for every misery that befalls us. Until then we will continue blaming our system weather, nature, and what not. How to achieve self-empowerment? The task is not simple. The movement for self-empowerment needs to start from the hearts of India where 55 % of India resides.Yes, the villages. India used to live in her villages. However, with these villages dying a slow death, India is also dying. Therefore, the rejuvenation needs to start from the villages. The subsequent erosion of their livelihood through systematic and continuous exploitation by market forces, vagaries of nature and the decay of community centers have left them drenched of thin confidence and sense of self efficacy which had enabled our villages to sustain our village as self sufficient units. Therefore, the first step in building self-empowerment will be by enabling them to regain their lost confidence through the creation of sustainable livelihood, which encompass and secure all aspects of their lives. It is only when a man is confident of his ability to control his life that he will think about contributing a greater deal o society. In addition, this confidence will come only when he has the knowledge, ability and will power to bring about a significant change to his life. This knowledge base is not only created through school education but also through an encouragement back to the traditional knowledge base. Ability will come from specific skill based training programmes and the will power will be drawn from his surroundings, family and the realization of an improved existence .Achieving this level of self efficacy will mean that the state and the educated civil society needs to work with people at the grass root level so that the citizen rather than waiting for the development to trickle, their collective force will be surging the development upwards. Down. This needs a coming together of the state and its educated citizens so that we can enter a growth phase with heads held high and minds without fear. Nayana Renukumar PRM 27