Need of the hour
India, the seat of the oldest civilization today boasts of being the world’s largest democracy. No wonder, since the results of Census 2011 show that officially the population of India as on 01st March 2011 was a staggering 1210,193,422! The questions asked by the census takers were routine – Name, Age, DOB, Family Details, Nationality, Place of Birth and Residential Details during the last one year etc. (This time you needed to fill up a form and also give your thumb impressions, supposedly for the database pertaining to your unique Biometric Card). Additionally, if I am able to recount correctly, you needed to furnish details about your identity cards as well, e.g. your PAN or Passport no. etc. All in all, the effort was a noble one, considering the monumental amount of work it entailed, and the period of time through which the data was collected.
Considering the above, however, something gnaws at the back of the mind, which is not altogether baseless. India is a country with an ever-changing demographic. The rate of childbirth, unregistered infiltration, infant mortality, natural calamities, outbreak of epidemics, death due to malnutrition or abuse, are some of the factors. The other major factors are the ones that are politically undercover, and these are the ones that are typical third-world characteristics. We have an unbelievably large ‘Shadow Population’. Well, it’s common worldwide; there are people in every country, who do not have any sort of Govt. Records, but, most nations strive to restrict such phenomenon. Not only because even the strongest economy can buckle under an exponentially increasing population curve, but also because every society has certain responsibilities towards its members.
Have we ever considered that no matter what Government policies have given rise to the grave population problem, actually this is a burden we unanimously and collectively bear on our souls? India had nearly 200 million children, among whom more than a tenth is engaged in hazardous occupations. Millions of children go missing each year, and if the statistics are correct, as many as one child is lost every eight minutes. A number of factors contribute towards this chilling scenario, poverty, lack of education, avarice, booming sex trafficking industry, organ harvesting, improper safety and security etc. But the one factor that is the root of all this is overpopulation. The police force, whose number is certainly nothing compared to the population, is found to be enmeshed in a strange apathetic handicap. You can do nothing for a person you did not know even existed! All the Human Rights jargon, registration of birth and death, Girl Child Protection Acts, and numerous legislative procedures simply lose the cause.
The seemingly ‘privileged class’, that does not commonly encounter such situations, simply tries to build an illusionary cocoon of self-assuredness. The society stays numb to the vulnerability of these millions of children, and all’s happy with the world!
This letter is not at all an accusatory or self-lamenting expression of our incapability towards changing the world, it rather aims at bringing awareness to the ‘League of Nations’ that the first step towards changing the status of the ‘Third World’ is to have proper Government records. In short, it is time to call about some sort of standardization everywhere. Compulsory documentation, as trivial a solution it may seem to the problems around the world, is indeed the only foreseeable administrative step we can expect in near future.
