Yogesh Pawar

I've always had trouble making sense of garrulous MPs screaming, shouting and wasting taxpayers' money in the name of Parliament. Yet, now that Anna's broken his fast and the country knows the "sense of the House" on the Lokpal bill and its myriad avatars, I'm glad we can all move on with real life and issues.

Perhaps we will eventually get as worked up about real issues like the rape of the green regions for mining interests, where crony capitalism ensures every law of the land is subverted as large corporates and their political godfathers line their pockets several times over, ravage forests, displace the already-marginalized and silence anyone who opposes.

Unmindful of tall claims of the high growth rate by a country which likes to position itself as a superpower-in-waiting, India continues to fare poorly in basic health indicators compared even to its South Asian neighbours. Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which are not doing economically as well as India, have better basic health indicators. India, unfortunately, is only marginally better than Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Government of India figures show Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of India stands at 50 (this goes up to 64 for children under five!). Sri Lanka's IMR is 13 and that of China is 17. However, Pakistan and Afghanistan recorded higher IMR. For Pakistan it stands at 70 and for Afghanistan at 134. With as many as 42.5% malnourished children, India needs to seriously re-think its priorities and development policies.

A UNFPA report too has shown how India lags behind Pakistan in literacy rate. According to the report, 32.3% males and 60.4% females aged above 15 years are literate in Pakistan while only 23.1% males and 45.5% females aged over 15 years enjoy education in India.

Just put both these sets of figures together to know why our population is growing. How will you tell an illiterate father of three, he shouldn't have any more? He will turn around and ask you how many will survive to care for him in his old age. With lack of any social security and the state completely abdicating its welfare role, the system, in cruel mockery, keeps making him want more children. You don't need specialised courses on development to know that or how the yawning gap and disconnect between the rich and the poor is only adding fuel to fire.

But when have you heard the self-righteous, Parliament-is-supreme, speech makers in Parliament do anything about all this? You won't because they are too busy looking the other way as multi-crore scams happen under their noses. Despite the growing VIP tribe in Tihar, our netas still want to be lost in their own sanctimonious cocoons. Little wonder then that they didn't foresee where the wide-spread discontent and anger was leading before the nation erupted into Annamania?

That would have required a real ear-to-the-ground. Not mere photo-ops with Dalits and tribals in their huts.