India- a nation betrayed!

India is a rich nation- culturally, emotionally and intellectually. Indeed, we are rich. Rich in all walks of life!Unfortunately, in spite of being so rich, we lag behind the developed countries and keeping us company are the Sub-Saharan countries.
It has been more than sixty years of independence, but are we really independent? In these six decades there has been no government, strong enough, to actually bring about a change among the Indian mass. I appreciate and take great pride in the achievements we have made and the different aspects we have made progress in. But the root cause of problems in our country still remains unchecked to a considerable extent. We, quiet smugly, boast that ours is a country with the best human resource- qualified and educated. Let me inform you that 30 percent of the world's illiterates hail from India. While we have one Indian doctor for every 2400 Indian patients, the U.S.A has one Indian doctor serving for every 1325 Americans. We are in an deception that the metropolitan cities of our country are developed compared to other sates or regions, but the fact is that today, 40% of Mumbai is a slum and 35% of Delhi defecates in the open. We raised a hue and cry when 50 people died due to plague because even the rich sectors of our Indian economy were affected but no one raises a whimper for those 4,50,000 people who, everyday, die due to curable diseases such as tuberculosis and diarrhoea.

We make noise for all the wrong reasons but accept injustice to the downtrodden as an irrevocable reality. Even the Indian economy is nothing to be proud of. The share of world trade presents a bleak picture- against China, India looks virtually impoverished. The most important machinary of our democracy- the judiciary- is yet to be given some thought. There is a backlog of more than 30 million court cases in India and, on an average it takes 20 years to resolve a dispute and for that matter resolving dispute doesn't necessarily mean justice done. Most of the time the criminal or offender gets away scot-free. Isn't justice delayed justice denied?

Do you remember the cyclone that took place in Orissa in 1998? It was one of the nation's biggest calamity. Even the television underplayed it. The government which should have sprung into immediate action , set up a task force after fourteen days of the calamity.With thousands dead, millions rendered homeless and the epidemic spreading like wildfire, the least the prime minister could have done was address the nation at the dark moment!

I agree that, we as youths, are all proud of being Indians. But the sad part of the story is hardly anybody is aware of the crisis we are actually going through. Instead, we seek jobs to earn in dollars and blame the government. We forget that we had chosen the government. If the government is not functioning properly, we have to take initiatives and do something.

We are a rich nation that has always remained poor. I am just a 16 year old girl showing concern for my country. The people who hold authoritative positions and can bring about positive changes should take measures to make our country better.