Let there be war against poverty

India like rest of the world is changing fast. There is growth but this growth has led to increasing gap between higher section of society and under privileged section.

This disparity is the biggest injustice as well as cause of concern. On one hand people are living a lavish life and looking forward to smart homes and robot on the other hand people are struggling to find two basic meals. This disparity will lead to frustration and many problems including financial and social.

The time has come to declare a full scale war on poverty. And we must start from the poorest of poor.

Mission : War On Poverty

Government is doing and will do what it can to eliminate poverty. But that will take long time and is not enough. We, the people of India, must come together and declare war against poverty.

Philanthropy is rising and people want to help real needy people. This is seen as help to NGO, helping people on road, donations to religious places etc. But this is not well organized and big part of this useful money is going waste. In addition people would like to help more if they are sure that their money is being utilized for real needy people.

To do this we must identify and enlist those at lowest ladder.

- Identify and enlist poorest of poor families.
- Select Aadhaar Card of head of family and bank account related to it.
- Create a website and app for all these families starting and number them starting from lowermost to higher.
- Fix a bare minimum amount for basic livelihood, education, healthcare, sanitation and other most basic necessities.
- Let people / group of people / organizations adopt family / families and pay that minimum amount per month. People will have right to opt out of adoption any time and concerned family will go back to pool for adoption.
- Part of this amount can go directly to beneficiary family for food and other basic needs. Another part must be pooled to provide healthcare, education, skill training by specialized NGO along with government schemes. For example government can enlist poorest of poor families and similarly poorest of poor villages. Government can then along with NGO's target such families and villages and lift them out of poverty.
- Skill training and small scale business development must be essential part of this scheme so that once a family is out of poverty trap it does not fall back into it.

Nation can thrive only when there is harmony. Economic harmony is crucial for creating overall harmony including social harmony. People will have less and more money depending on their ability to earn but no one should suffer from lack of basic amenities and lack of opportunity to fight and rise.

Let us be at war against poverty.

Law must serve purpose

Everyone agrees that triple talaq is against human spirit and must be stopped. But what is the way? Will making it punishable be sufficient? We have laws against murder and rape but they still happen. So what is the right thing to do?

First of all no government should make religion specific laws. It is against the spirit of constitution and equality. Laws must be universal and all citizens must be covered under it. Also there should be no emotional hype around laws. Law making should be done in a calm, careful and thoughtful manner. And finally, law must serve its purpose otherwise it will only add to chaos.

First we must consider what is the issue. It is an issue of rights and misery of women affected by instant rejection and separation. Purpose is to eliminate misery and maintain dignity of women. It should be remembered that this is not about religion, this is true across all sections of society. Dignity of every women is equally important.

How instant separation affects women? It is impossible for a woman of any age to come out and survive. There is issue of security, financial difficulty and basic accommodation and living. Therefore punishment may act deterrent in some cases but will fail to stop it as people will always find loophole. Another thing that must be remembered that relationship in most cases is already dead or at least spoiled. Compulsion can not keep any relationship alive and healthy. A person who does not honor commitment of relationship and marriage, it is better to leave such person. So instead of stopping separation focus should be on how women can have safety and dignity.

There is simple way to manage this issue

- Do not make religion specific law

- Registration of all marriages must be made compulsory be it solemnized in any religion or across religion any method or ritual

- Law should specify that only accepted separation will be one agreed by court or family court

- In case of immediate separation which is done by man and accepted by him it should be specified in law that woman will have right to live in the house till the matter is compromised or settled. Man must leave house and should be barred from entering house till final settlement. In addition man must immediately give a lump sum and monthly fixed amount ( and rent if house is on rent) for basic living. Final maintenance may be decided by court later. In case where man refuses to pay, there should be monthly increase in penalty. This power to release fund must be there with family court as well as women's commission. They should direct bank / employer of man for such release. Places where such courts and offices are not present there police station or even panchayat should be able to obtain such orders to bank / employer.

- Government can create smart phone app / helpline no where women can contact and obtain immediate relief. All they are supposed to do is call or intimate. It should be mandatory for women police and / or officials of women's commission to reach on spot immediately and make sure woman is safe and attains right to be in house.

- Acceptance of immediate separation by man is must to prevent misuse of power by women.

- Women must have a personal bank account with some kind of marriage insurance. Both boy and girl side must contribute to this insurance as lump sum premium. In case of any kind of separation, women will get this amount immediately. If marriage continues it should be converted into her old age pension.

- It should be remembered that ultimately dignity is to be earned not given. So women should not rely too much on men. Government and families must focus on women education and skill development.


Relationships are sensitive and disharmony is not uncommon. It is wiser to teach relationship values than using fear to keep relations intact.

Property must be linked to aadhaar

The decision not to link all properties to aadhaar is wrong and bad for fight against corruption.

Aadhaar must become universal identity for all citizens. It should replace all cards:

- PAN
- Voters card
- Any other identity card except passport

There is no fight against corruption until all loopholes are plugged. It is necessary to identify and link to owners every bit of
- Bank account
- Lockers
- Property
- Jewellery
- Company and business ownership
- Shares and bonds
- Vehicles
- Big expenditure, sales and purchases
- Credit cards
- Travels
- Foreign Exchange

In addition voters card too must give way to aadhaar card to stop bogus voting.

In fact the decision to link aadhaar to all properties should have been taken suddenly along with demonetization. Why so much time has been given to everyone who has undisclosed property? Most of the black money is not in cash, it is in the form of property. So unless every property is identified, the fight against corruption will remain a failure.

Are we serious against corruption or not?

If yes then why we are not linking aadhaar with property and other assets? And we must have
- Strong and free lokpal
- Independent investigative agency

In fight against corruption we can not stand on border. If we are fighting against corruption then it must be all out war against corruption or we should stop posturing so. In a country where people are dying from hunger and lack of healthcare what more is needed to crush corruption. Only question is - are we serious?

Are we serious?

Job is to serve nation

"कर्मणये वाधिकारस्ते मां फलेषु कदाचन । मां कर्मफलहेतुर्भू: मांते संङगोस्त्वकर्मणि" ।। 

What is the purpose of election?

It is to elect people's representatives those who will serve citizens and nation. It is not to WIN and be too proud of that. It is this attitude to win somehow and at any cost that has resulted in degrading democratic values.

If elections are there to serve then those fighting elections will be humble and graceful. But if it to WIN at any cost then it is not for service but for ulterior selfish motives.

- Blame game
There is a tendency to blame others. Blaming others is only a trick to divert attention. If one is serious towards nation building and serving then one will check self, not others.

- Mind your language
Those claiming to be the leaders of nation must mind their language and behavior. Nation is following them. They must understand responsibility towards nation to instill an atmosphere of unity, love and harmony. Becoming bitter and using bad language or phrases only shows unhealthy mindset.

- Dirty tricks and lies
The moment one start to use dirty tricks to win election, one is not having attitude of serving people but a desire to rule people. Those who rule will not serve and those who serve will not rule. Dirty tricks and lies amounts to cheating innocent people and they are only for selfish motive. Win on potential to serve people, that is what great leaders do.

- Do not play with emotions of people
Nothing can be more bad than playing with emotions of innocent and poor people. They are already suffering a great deal. Do not ask for votes using emotional manipulation. Such emotional manipulations will only create bitterness and a divide in society. Leaders are not supposed to divide society.

- Media
Media is far from its duty of serving nation. They are taking sides of one or other political party.
Their job is not to praise or curse, push up or pull down any party. Their job is to honestly present facts without bias and let people think about those facts.

Arrogance, chest thumping, fake posturing be it nationalism, secularism, false propaganda is not for those who wish to serve nation. Remember people of India may not be rich but are not low in intelligence. They are innocent but not emotional fools.

 The job is to serve, not rule.

"कर्मणये वाधिकारस्ते मां फलेषु कदाचन । मां कर्मफलहेतुर्भू: मांते संङगोस्त्वकर्मणि" ।।