WINDS OF CHANGE

Planning as a means of accelerated economic growth and reshaping of economic order was adopted early in the post-independence era. In drawing up these plans and in formulating the priorities of the successive Five Year Plans, these national objectives were kept in view. Certain safeguards were provided to ensure that at the end of each plan period, social justice would permeate all facets of national activity in an increasing measure. Complementary socio-economic legislative framework was built up to prevent exploitation and concentration of economic power and to preserve and uphold the dignity of the individual. But one must accept that despite all these steps, the strategy for the fifties and the sixties emphasised growth at the expense of social justice. After two decades of developmental effort we have to face the truth that the concentration of economic power has increased, that there is greater measure of wasteful expenditure and ostentatious living by a few, and that the Five Year Plans have made no or little impact on the conditions of the backward and the traditionally poverty stricken masses, particularly the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes. Everyone has not shared in the prosperity that the country has witnessed. Take even the much talked of Green Revolution; the affluence in the rural areas is not shared by all. There is a growing feeling, and justified too, that the benefits of the technological advancement achieved in the wake of planned progress have accrued mainly to the well-to-do people, both in the field of organised industry and agriculture. The disparities in incomes and wealth have got more accentuated. The same degree of failure attaches to our strategy of the last two decades to evolve an egalitarian society, free of social discriminations and inequities. Despite our efforts and the legislative framework that we had evolved to bring this about, we have not been able to give to the underprivileged and the traditionally neglected sections of the society a sense of participation in the national life. Their efforts at asserting their dignity as human beings are even now met with arrogant and time-worn claims of superior status based on caste and creed and often backed by violence. The socio-economic exploitation of the tribals has alienated them further, and they are far away from the mainstream of national life. We witness today an increasing degree of frustration and restlessness all around which has in it seeds of disruptive violence that could cut at the very roots of the ideals that we cherish.