Mi Marathi

Today when we are on the verge of electing our new rulers to be sent to the Legislative Assembly, I want to make a fervent appeal to my Marathi leaders.

First, if the leaders are really interested in the well being of the Maharashtrians, they should not give them a fish; instead teach them how to fish. To come straight to the point, while it is important to fight to secure rights of the locals I think the manner it is done can be different. For example, today we see someone fighting to ensure jobs for locals. What do these jobs give; paltry salary which is neither sufficient for their own living nor for decent upbringing of their children. This leaves them in a vicious circle where the next generation of not-so-qualified children again looks upto leaders for another round of fight for securing jobs for them. How long we want this to go on?

Instead I have a suggestion and this is just one example and I am sure there will be many more such to practice. There are so many malls that are coming up in Mumbai and around. Instead of fighting for jobs in these malls and making our population forever a worker- class, can leaders insist that all the contracts in such malls – be it for construction, house keeping, maintenance, security, administration, be awarded only to locals. This will make locals the status of entrepreneur than of an employee and give more financial muscle power which will help them make better living for themselves and for their future generations. Hopefully these local contractors would employ local people thereby automatically putting curb on influx of people from other states instead of confronting them directly. I think this will be a better proposition than to fight for a job of miniscule salary and pushing locals into a vicious circle of jobs and poverty. I am sure there will be reluctance initially to take up such adventures due to years of mental conditioning of employment-comfort. But it’s leaders’ duty to change it for better. Ultimately, the business cannot be monopolized only by a particular community and we need to dive into it sooner than later. The leaders need to demonstrate this vision and show the power to change. We should target to create bunch of entrepreneurs than create bunch of employees.

Second, in the longer run, we need to make available good educational infrastructure. If at all we need to fight for reservations it should be in educational institutes which will create tomorrow’s well educated generations. There are so many colleges in Mumbai where there is reservation for a particular community. How many colleges have reservation for Maharashtrians? There are so many hostels in Mumbai where there is reservation for the students of a particular community. Where are the hostels where there is reservation for Maharashtrian students? Now, someone may say that legally Maharashtrians cannot get reservation in Maharashtra because we are not in minority here (at least as of now!). But we can very well go to the neighboring states and open colleges or institutes where there will be reservation for Maharashtrians. Why can’t we have hostels outside IITs and IIMs campuses for our students pursuing their studies there or why can’t we provide scholarship or why can’t we sponsor entrance exam for the coveted exams?

I think getting job is the end result which can be achieved automatically if the backend processes are put right and assured quality education is the backbone of all of that.

Third, I believe that illiteracy is the root of all problems. Today parents in rural areas prefer jobs to education for their children. This mindset needs to be changed and this can be done only by leaders as they have power and position to do this. They should play the role of visionaries to protect the future along with the present.

Today IB schools in Mumbai charge hefty fees. There is just a mad rush among parents to get admission to these schools. There may be nothing wrong in it. Let those who afford get admissions there. But to ensure balanced growth of the state can we ensure that the applicant for these schools are insisted to open at least a school or a college in any rural area and run it successfully for 5 years to be able to able to get permission to open one school in a city.

I think now it’s the time to build future generations than to think of immediate populist measures like fighting for jobs for the present generation.