Everyone seems to be discussing the Pew report to justify its own stand, to an extent even some media channels devoted almost an hour discussing it inorder to justify their stand, that Muslims are safe here.

This study was funded by Pew Charities trust and John Templeton foundation . The survey was carried out in India covering all states , interviewing some 30000 people from all parts of India in 17 languages leaving two NE States due to covid situation. The survey was carried out with a purpose to understand the Indians’ view of religion and how it impacts the society etc.

They have carried out such surveys in Africa, USA, Europe, Israel etc.

When we all individually have our own world view , its interesting to learn about others as well. This may also help in breaking some stereotype views that we have about other communities. Lets have a look at the salient aspects of the entire report.

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The Vicious Circle of mis-governance

 Tavleen Singh, a noted journalist, while describing the situation in Bihar wrote in 2014, “last week I went to Bihar for the first time in 15 years and returned feeling more despondent (helpless/gloomy) about India’s future than I have in a long time. Not because there has not been change and development in Bihar, but because everywhere I went, I saw the failure of the state to address real problems. This is true in other states, but nowhere as true as in Bihar because everything here is amplified ; Poverty, squalour, corruption, environmental degradation, horrific urbanisation and the angry despair that is the mood of this election.”

Now that the fault lines have been exposed and magnified by this pandemic ; poverty, squalor, corruption, anger and despair amongst the citizens…we should also look at some important indicators that tell us about the condition of the governance in the country so as to avoid going the Bihar/UP way.

The SDG Index (Sustainable Development Growth) released by the UNO indicates that on almost 10 parameters out of 17, that includes, hunger, poverty, clean water etc India is not likely to achieve the goals that it set for 2030. The index is aimed at measuring performance vis-a-vis the United Nations-mandated Sustainable Development Goals. A 2019 report of NITI Ayog also indicates that every fifth Indian is still below the poverty line and the country needs to take huge strides to alleviate poverty.

These aspects, for most Indian states and society as a large, though,  does not seem to be of any priority. India’s overall rank is 117 out of 161. The Ranking as well as the performance on various parameters is an indication that there is a serious flaw in the system of Governance.

When we look at few other indicators related to Governance like - Infant Mortality rates, Transmission and Distribution losses of power, Poverty, Revenue deficits, Migrant Population and Sick Industrial units we notice that states like UP, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Bengal are way behind Gujarat, Maharashtra, and states in South India.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar were the two states with largest number of net migrants migrating out of the state. It’s pertinent to ask, why has there been such a large out-migration from these two states? Among inter-state male migrants, work/employment has been cited as the primary reason for migration (e.g., Uttar Pradesh – 73.0%; Bihar – 79.1%). And where have they migrated to? They have migrated to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana i.e Gurgaon for better job prospects. Maharashtra stands at the top of the list with 2.3 million net migrants, followed by Delhi (1.7 million), Gujarat (0.68 million) and Haryana (0.67 million). And when one checks the data one obviously finds that these are the most industrialized states and are receiving maximum foreign and domestic investments.

If these indicators/ data are analysed objectively, one can easily come to a conclusion that there is an issue of mis-governance in these states and they have been like that for almost more than 2-3 decades now. These states of UP, Bihar, Bengal, Assam, etc have arrived at this situation because of communal/ regional politics that led to poor governance. 

And once a State gets into that vicious circle of MIS GOVERNANCE, its very difficult to get out of it.

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 Niti Ayog today unveiled the SDG(Sustainable Development Goals Index for India) Index. The Index, was developed in collaboration with the United Nations, to measure the progress at the national and sub-national level in the country's journey towards meeting the global goals.This was First launched in December 2018, with an aim to be a primary tool for monitoring progress, evaluate States' performance on social, economic and environmental parameters in the country and simultaneously foster competition among the states by ranking them on the global goals.

The Index tracks the progress of all the States and Union Territories (UTs) on a set of National Indicators, measuring their progress on the outcomes of the interventions and schemes of the Government of India. The SDG India Index is intended to provide a holistic view on the social, economic and environmental status of the country and its States and UTs.

The overall aim is to measure India and its States’ progress towards the SDGs for 2030.

The scoring is from 0-100 implying that any state which is closer to 100 means it is on target and will achieve its goals that have been set on various parameters ; poverty, hunger, sanitation, affordable and clean energy etc will be achieved by 2030.

Once again Kerala retains its top ranks. It is followed by Himachal Pradesh and TN scoring 75 and 74 points respectively, Andhra is third scoring 72 points. Bihar as expected occupies the last position.

Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam were the worst-performing states this year with 52, 56, and 57 points, respectively. UP, MP, Odisha, Bengal, are just round this figure. In the previous Part ; Vicious circle of misgovernance it was mentioned that these above states may have entered a Vicious circle of misgovernance and as a result despite coming to power on the agenda of Growth their Govts have not been able to get the state out of this vicious circle of Misgovernance even after ruling for more than a decade.No wonder, once the cream has migrated, these states Bihar, UP, Rajasthan MP, Bengal, Assam scoring about 50- 60 points are stuck in mediocrity and the elections are still fought on the issues like caste/ religion, freebies/ subsidies etc rather than on Growth and Development.

The score is not only an indicator of misgovernance but may also show that these states are stuck in a vicious circle of Misgovernance.

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Society needs to examine its behaviour.

One of the most favourite interview questions is – can you narrate a mistake that you committed in the last 2-3 years and learnt something from it? Usually, most of the candidates sheepishly reply that they have not made any mistake or the mistakes made were very minor. Then the interviewer further enlarges the scope and asks the candidate whether they had made any mistakes in the last five years.

Even then most candidates give a blank look.

Another favourite question is – any achievements in last few years. And promptly like a parrot the candidates start off narrating petty achievements going back to their school days.

These are behavioral questions that tell the interviewer whether the candidate is open to learning or not, because a candidate who evaluates himself consistently can only learn. The answer to the second question indicates the definition that the candidate has for ‘accomplishment’. If one is not achievement oriented, he/she may not be of any use for the organization.

The same is applicable to the society. Does it evaluate itself and examines what mistakes have been committed in recent years and what have been its recent achievements? How many patents? How many Nobel awards? How many awards have our films won internationally? What is our ranking on various indices of development and growth? What is the conviction rate? And many more of such questions of self-assessment.

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