in some parts of South India and in
ing the institutional framework for
many parts of the Hindi belt like
Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh etc. are
exploited and they are discriminated
against. Their insecurity makes them
vulnerable to their being seduced by
anti-national elements and converted
to other religions. Though the Gov-
ernment, both at the centre and the
states, is doing its best to eradicate
this age-long social problem, yet they
must take extra initiative to protect
the weak and the poor and disparities
in their economic conditions and
educational opportunities must be
removed.
But the greatest threat to our
Motherlands integration, unity, peace
and prosperity at the present moment
is terrorism. This is not only our own
problem, but the whole world is
under the grip of terrorism. The pat-
hetic example of bloodshed and
terrorism in India is Kashmir which is
popularly known as the Heaven of
the world. It is now riddled with
factionalism, polarized by history
and politics and gripped by tragedy.
Certain foreign powers are active for
destabilizing our country. Killings,
assassinations and militant activities
are order of the day in Kashmir.
Undoubtedly our Government has
taken firm steps to wipe out violence
from this mountain valley, but still
more concrete steps have to be taken
in this regard. The common people of
the region should wholeheartedly co-
operate with the Government to fight
against the separatist forces.
Our neighboring country, once a
part of Mother India, Pakistan is con-
tinuously supporting, organizing and
sponsoring militant activities in
Kashmir and also other parts of our
country. However, recently through
constant dialogue between the res-
pective leaderships of the two coun-
tries, things seem to be turning
towards normalcy.
The various threats to our culture
and unity are serious ones and cannot
be solved simply by setting up
various Groups of Ministers, special
committees and paper works and
optimistic wishes expressed by our
political leaders at home and abroad.
Constructive programmes that incul-
cate the ideals and concepts of
national integration should be organi-
PD/August/2007/254 Must is a hard nut to crack, but it has a sweet kernel.
zed on a large scale and intensively.
Here the role of the Indian young
generation is very important. They
must practise and encourage inter-
caste and intercommunity marriages
and proper publicity should be given
to them. The media has also its due
role. Communal riots and tensions
receive publicity, b u t instances of
communal harmony and friendliness
are seldom highlighted by the media.
The media with all its gusto should
cover such news.
Another age old problem of
unemployment should also be
addressed properly. Unemployed
youths, in the absence of a concrete
solution, are either becoming anti-
social elements or are turning to be
naxalites. Recently the Prime Minister
has urged all the CEOs and Managing
Directors of the various Corporate
Houses of our country to renounce
the lavish lifestyles and come forward
for social upliftment. Some very
burning problems of our society, like
the large scale suicides of the inde-
bted farmers in Andhra Pradesh,
Maharashtra and Kerala which ulti-
mately give rise to unemployment
may effectively be solved, if the Cor-
porate world pays adequate and
genuine heed to the PMs advice.
Another crucial problem in our
country, is that of rising atrocities
against women. Though the post-
independence era in India has made
progress in developing womens
capabilities, yet today inequalities
continue to exist between women and
men. Our age old patriarchal society
is yet to come to terms with the
concept of providing equal oppor-
tunity to women. As such the empo-
werment and autonomy of women
and the improvement of womens
social, economic and political status is
essential for achievement of trans-
parent, accountable government,
administration and sustainable deve-
lopment in all areas of life. The
empowerment of women became
necessary as they are almost fifty
percent of the population and are
being discriminated at all fronts.
The Indian government has all
along been enthusiastically imple-
menting policies for empowerment of
women specifically by external indu-
cements like political and economic
processes, legal reform, strengthen-
speedy implementation and adjudi-
cation. Political participation of
women, right from the lowest hier-
archy of administration to the highest
level of leadership has been speci-
fically taken care of to achieve the
objective of strengthening the struc-
ture, widen peoples participation
and improve services to the people.
Women organizations and some
political parties are adamantly raising
their demand for implementing
thirty-three percent reservation for
the women members in the Indian
Parliament. However, instead of
depending solely on Government aid
to empower the women, it is the duty
of each and every citizen to come for-
ward to fight against gender discrimi-
nation. The women should also try to
abstain themselves from accusing
only the males for their overall plight
in the name of feminist conscious-
ness and should themselves show a
united front to fight for equality. In
this regard we may take the recent
examples of Jessica Lal and Priyadar-
shini Mattoo murder cases, where a
combined citizens pressure helped
immensely in bringing the heavy
weight real culprits to law and ensu-
ring proper justice to the bereaved
families of the victims.
In the international arena India
without depending on any super-
powers interference, should lead the
peace-loving nations of the world to
wipe out terrorism. It should strictly
control countries like Pakistan and
other such countries which are creat-
ing violence in the world and if
necessary should boycott these coun-
tries from all the spherespolitically
as well as economically.
The most disgusting fact in India
is the spread of corruption in the poli-
tical arena. Politicians should shed
their narrow selfish and party consi-
derations and work sincerely for
mitigating this menace of corruption.
It is a pity that after sixty years of our
Independence, the politicians are
lacking in credentials, resulting that
they are slowly but steadily losing the
faith and trust of their countrymen.
This may be proved by the fact that
during their election campaigns, most
of our political leaders and the poli-
tical parties are nowadays seeking the
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