I went to a restaurant last week where a waiter, a young boy of 22, gave me the best service. It wasn’t a particularly upscale establishment, but the waiter spoke perfect English. He kept up a smile through his gruelling job. People gave him customisations on every order, he listened with patience and kept track. He had good IQ and had completed graduation. This is the best job he could find.
His salary: Rs 8,000 a month in Mumbai. That is $120 a month, more than half of which would go in renting a shared room an hour’s commute away.
It broke my heart, and not for the first time. I have met over the past few years hundreds of talented, well-qualified youngsters across India, who do not have the kinds of jobs they deserve and are capable of. I could not enjoy my meal, wondering what did this kid do wrong? Why was his monthly salary lower than one day’s minimum wage in the US?
You see them everywhere. They help you try on T-shirts in a mall. They man the cash counters in food courts of swish malls. They pick up the phone when you call call centres. The typical profile is a youth from small town India, whose parents spent their life savings educating him or her, and this is the best job they could find.
With the same qualifications and same amount of work they could make much more abroad. Why is it we can’t give them the same opportunity?
These millions of youth across the nation drive my politics. Unfortunately the kind of politics we have practised and the governments that have resulted, have ensured we suffocate the talents of an entire generation.
We have spent our time arguing who is secular and who is not, who cares for dalits better, who is the beacon of goodness and who is absolute evil. Of course, much of this is nonsense. No one community in India can uplift itself much until the country as a whole rises. Teaching each other a lesson for historical wrongs is not going to help the youth get their due.
Also there is no party that is completely clean and pure, as it is impossible to run politics like that. Even if not monetarily corrupt, all parties make fake promises to poor people that they know they cannot fulfil.
Still, we waste so much time discussing what is inconclusive and irrelevant. Switch on political news on television and you will see nothing but attacks, counterattacks and charges. In all this, how does youth get its due?
Well, they can, if they realise their power and begin to vote on the right issues. The number one issue right now is the economy. If we don’t grow at 10% per year, we will not be able to provide enough jobs for youth.
Without sufficient growth we will also not have enough tax revenues to pay for all the infrastructure projects, healthcare and education the country needs to spend on. Money, even though considered morally inferior on the priority list for people to aspire to, is extremely important for India. We are a poor country. Poor countries can’t do much for their citizens, it’s as simple as that. So we either keep ourselves poor and scramble for whatever little we have, or we grow the pie and make it bigger.
Becoming a rich country has other advantages. People have a higher standard of living. Corruption generally declines in rich countries. Education and healthcare quality improves. More liberal thought processes set in. At least in rich democracies, issues like communalism and racism decline.
Therefore, should we not set aside our other differences and make all efforts to make India rich for the next 30 years? Note that 10% growth for 30 years will make average income rise 17 times. If we grow at 5% it will rise just four times. There is a huge difference in what India can become, in your lifetime, if we manage our economy properly.
So how does one grow at 10%? Well, these are the ingredients. First, a stable and action-oriented government. Second, a pro-business economic mindset with reduced government controls in most sectors. Third, an intangible but highly critical element called investor confidence, which means investors are willing to put their money in India and hope to make a return from it.
Now, ask yourself — Who can give you that? Which of the alternatives, given today’s non-ideal choices, works best? Choose that for 2014. Voting for a person doesn’t mean you become his/her devotee. You are not beholden to your choice and you could change it in the future if the chosen one doesn’t perform. That’s democracy.
Restoring India to its growth path is the single biggest issue this election. This is not to say other issues are not important. However, without a strong economy, none of the other good stuff happens. A rich, prosperous India should be every Indian’s dream in 2014. Only then will we be able to give youth their due.