Moral Crisis and Economic Crisis of India With Effective Ways to Improve

Introduction - Moral crisis refers to degrading human values of Indian society where self interest takes precedence over societal good where as economic crisis refers to the lack of basic human necessities to a major section of Indian society. To an extent the moral and economic society can be said to be interdependent on each other but not completely.

Interlinking Moral and Economic Crisis -

Countries like Somalia. Nigeria etc. have the worst crime rates in the world. The reason being the economic misfortune due to exploitative regimes and proliferating terror group. Fortunately such a condition has not been replicated in India but a violent after effort as a result of economic exploitation has been experienced for decades in Naxalite affected areas. The Red Corridor of India is a vast belt extending from eastern state West Bengal to southern state of Karnataka.
     
Also the violence that was recently observed in the adjoining areas of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu over the Water of Cauvery River exemplifies the link between morality and self sustenance as water is an economic good especially for farmers
     
The Protests organised by Patidars in Gujarat, Jats in Haryana, Kappus in Andhra Pradesh resorting to violence shows how people are sacrificing their morality for the sake of their economic development.

Moral and Economic Crisis in India

Manifestation of Moral crisis in India – Even after 70 years of Independence many happening of modern India testify the prevalent moral cries. Foreg.

1. Caste Discrimination is still being observed with acts of violence against Dalits and caste based occupation still persisting.

2. Corruption is still very much existing both at lower and higher levels of govt. At lower level it has become a part of daily life and at higher level it seldom comes into light. For eg. 2G scam, Coal block allocation scam, Commonwealth scam etc.

3. Women empowerment is proceeding at a slower pace with women being considered fit for household works. Also women’s equality is further jeopardized through religious dictats like restriction to temple entry in Shani Shiganapur and Sabarimala temples. Also Muslims women are prohibited from entering Hari Ali Dargah.

Also even the legislature is denying women rights by conferring the “Karta” status solely to male members of the family in Hindu Succession Amendment of 2005 which was recently reversed by Delhi High Court.

4. Environmental crisis is a huge problem in India which has 10 of its cities in the list of 20 worst polluted cities of the world. Despite this people are not understanding their responsibility towards the environment. Indiscriminate industrialization and excessive emission of gases from power plants and vehicles is posing a grave threat to the humanity.
                             
 Also the agricultural practices adopted by farmers are environmentally unsound. Rich farmers of agriculturally advanced states like Punjab, Haryana etc. are blamed for wastage of water and unscientific use of fertilizers which has led to reduced water table and disturbed soil composition.

Manifestations of Economic crisis in India – A major proportion of the World poor are living in India. Industrial growth has promoted development but has also increased inequality. Also the pattern of industrial growth in India is different with transition from primary sector (agriculture) to directly tertiary sector (services sector). Services sector has a higher contribution to Indian GDP than manufacturing and industrial sector. But service is not an employment intensive sector and it requires skilled labour. 49% of Indian population is dependent on agriculture and is largely unskilled but our industrial sector is not capable of providing such large scale employment. As a result the economic crisis is huge in magnitude.

Some More Examples-

1. Nonperforming Assets and Stressed Assets problem is big as around 15 to 18% of advances are stressed bringing the public sector banks under tremendous pressure. These banks are demanding for capital infusion from Govt. Which transfers the liability ultimately on taxpayers

2. India is suffering from the problem of current Account deficit and revenue deficit as tax to GDP ratio is less where as the developmental priorities are high.

3. Infrastructure funding resources are grossly inadequate.

4. Govt. needs money to run pro-poor polices and invest in health, education and R&D sectors. The investment in health and education sectors is less than 2% and 3% of GDP respectively which is highly inadequate looking at the magnitude of these problems which India is facing.

Steps taken by Govt and Suggestions –

1. Increased use of Information technology through Digital India Mission which has the potential to reduce corruption.

2. Promoting Dalit capitalism through Dalit (Dalit Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) and Stand Up India scheme.

3. Increase power to be given to CVC and Lokpal to contain corruption.

4. Patriarchal mindset of society has to be reformed.

5. Reservation policy to be made deliberative and well targeted.

6. Judiciary has to play an active role is empowerment of disadvantage sectors.

Conclusion -  Moral and Economic crisis in India are two big problems facing Indian society. They had to be sorted out through active involvement of people, legislature, NGO, civil society and Judiciary. Well executed ideas of the west have to be replicated.