THE ASSETS OF A COUNTRY

Indian population was for long considered as a handicap and it was seen as a hurdle for development and till some time ago, there were thoughts of putting a cap on how many children one can have as in China. But fortunately better sense prevailed and such thoughts were converted to publicity of the side effects of having large families, mainly the need of providing for many children ,be it good education or high and comfortable standard of living.

Chinese, though succeeded in controlling their growth of population, now may be thinking of the side effects again of having majority of the population either in old age category or in unproductive category in the lesser age group. The short fall suddenly of the productive age category in the future also may backfire on them. But that does not mean they were wrong in controlling the population growth. Other wise they would have been facing more devastating effects of abnormally high population.

We have succeeded to some extent to control the growth of population but I feel, more measures have to be initiated to see that we convert the productivity factor as our population is a huge asset. The manpower is the supreme power, if harnessed well, and given the skill of our enterprising young generation, who are second to none in whatever parameters one may evaluate.

More over, I don’t think any country is wealthier in terms of the volume of gold in possession of the population. Our women possess, to a rough estimate of mine, more gold than all other countries put together or at least some where near to that estimate.

Though we may look as a poor country with hungry masses, the wealth of our country can not be under estimated. We possess huge volume of assets like gold, {mainly ornaments] leave alone other natural resources. I have a gut feeling which tells, the next big source of energy is the solar energy. We have abundant source of the same and even a pessimist may agree that we are in fact a very rich country which is about to explode and assert our position as the leader in almost all aspects. Whether that is going to happen in our lifetime is yet to be seen though, we are almost there.

Our main problem, especially in the northern states, is that the slow emergence of middle class as a stronger and majority among our population, which has happened in southern states and is not happening at the desired pace in the states like UP, MP, Bihar etc.

The middle class values according to me, are the best in the country, as they seldom show off in front of the downtrodden or the poor masses. After all what can one gain by showing off in front of the poorest, for whom, a good meal per day is the main attraction.
I have seen especially in Kerala women not wearing many ornaments even though they may possess much, during functions. The same is the case with well educated girls these days. Apart from few among them, majority is compassionate towards the poor and really wants to contribute towards their society for the development of the poorest in our country.