स्वच्छ भारत

स्वच्छ करें है हम अपना तन,

स्वच्छ करें है हम अपना मन!

फिर क्यूं करें हम मैला यह स्वच्छ गगन,

स्वच्छ धरती, और यह स्वच्छ पवन!

फिर क्यूं हम धोये अपने सारे पाप इन नदियों में,

और फेंकें अपना कचरा इन नुक्कर और गलियों में!

और थूकें ऐसे जैसे होली की रंग की पिचकारी हो,

और करें शौच हर उस जगह जहां स्वच्छ चमन हो!

जब हम सब करते है साफ सफाई अपने आँगण का,

स्वागत करें हर आने वाले त्योहार और पर्व का!

तो क्यूं ना हम मनाये हर दिन को झूमती होली, 

हर शाम पाक ईद, बकरीद और खिलखिलाती दिवाली!

हर सुबह हो गुरुनानक जी का, हर रात लाये बड़ा दिन,

ऐसे हो स्वच्छ हमारा, आप का और सब का जीवन!

तो चलो हम सब मिल कर यह लें शपथ ,

ना करेंगे हम गंदगी, और ना होने देंगे गंदगी,

चाहे हो वो हमारा घर, या हो फिर कोई पथ,

हो वो कोई सस्ती बाज़ार, या फिर कोई शॉपिंग महंगी,

हर राश्ता, हर सड़क, हर चौराहा पर हम यह कर जाएं,

के ना वो केवल स्वच्छ हों, पर हमसे यह बोलता जाएं,

की अब हैं स्वच्छ हमारा धन,

की अब हैं स्वच्छ हमारा तन,

की अब हैं स्वच्छ हमारा मन,

की अब है स्वच्छ हमारा आँगण,

की अब है स्वच्छ हमारा चमन,

की अब है स्वच्छ हमारा पवन,

की अब है स्वच्छ हमारा जलवान,

की अब है स्वच्छ हमारा वतन,

स्वच्छ भारत, स्वच्छ भारत, स्वच्छ भारत!

Reforms in Education in Bihar

Reforms in Education in Bihar

Bihar must seriously revisit the education policy in the state, particularly at the primary and secondary level. The importance of education in betterment of lives, particularly of poor, can not be overemphasized as it is the only tool through which long term prosperity could be ensured. No matter how many developmental programmes we run, the vicious cycle of poverty could only be broken by education and creation of right skills. The positive externalities of this tool are immense. However, the state must try promoting functional education, rather than putting focus only on memorizing and passing in the final exams. Therefore, there is a need to re-orient our education system in Bihar.

The following changes in the system at the primary and secondary level may be thought of at both macro and micro level:

Meaningful and Utility-Oriented Curriculum and Syllabus: Bihar must have only one Board and even when that is not possible, they must definitely have one uniform curriculum and syllabus for every every school in the state. The curriculum development and syllabus design must be such that the focus is on problem solving in day-to-day life, rather than on memorizing the facts and reproducing them just to top/pass examinations. However, this is not to suggest that facts are not important at all. The endeavor should be to weave the facts into the system in such a way that those facts are tools for coming up with new ideas. The crux here is to encourage creativity among pupils.

Functional Education: There is a strong need for changing the entire education system so that children right from the beginning are encouraged to come up with newer ideas and functional concepts. The emphasis must be on putting premium on innovation among pupils. The entire syllabus must be oriented towards problem-solving, innovation and functional education. The impact of this change in the approach towards education in Bihar will be immense.

Universal but Conditional Education:The focus must be to have universal education. Everyone must be encouraged to send their children to schools. If need be, some kind of incentive system could be built for those families who look at their children as sources of income. Other state welfare programs could be oriented towards putting a condition on the beneficiary's families that they must send their children to schools if they want to avail the benefits of the program. This will make those programs have meaningful implementations and long term 'capabilities' building for poor families. Dovetailing developmental programmes into Bihar's Education system will have many benefits and spin-offs.

Emphasis on English: Bihar has a distinct advantage in its demography. This is the right time to realize that competitive advantage for the state's long-term benefits. In order to capitalize on that demographic dividend, the Bihar Education system must give emphasis on English teaching right from the beginning. The advantage of this would be that later on, these pupils will provide a sizable manpower in the English language, which could be come handy creating back offices in Bihar in sectors such as IT, Biotechnology, pharmaceuticals etc.

Recognition and Rewards:The Education System must have a scholarship schemes based totally on the performance of pupils in coming up with new ideas and innovation. Built in that scholarship must also be recognition by the Chief Minister of those achievements by pupils by awarding/rewarding the outstanding ones at an annual event at the state level. There is no other better motivation than the recognition by the Chief Minister. Once this becomes the regular annual event, the positive externality that such recognition will have on the Education system in Bihar can only be imagined.

The Role of Teachers:The other important factor that the System must focus on the system of teaching and teachers and their salary structure. Once the syllabus changed to the new one, there will be a need to have intensive training for all the teachers so that they are made familiar with the concepts and tools of teaching and promoting innovation among pupils.The remuneration to teachers must be such that they are not encouraged to take up other economic activities for extra income and are scared of losing their jobs if found delinquent. The incentive system must also be built in the remuneration for those teachers who are able to produce more and more bright pupils. And at the school level, if the Board notices that there are many innovators being produced by that school, they must recognize that by providing or recommending both pecuniary and  non-financial benefits to that school. Further, the 'innovator" teacher must be provided extra-income to be able to teach other teachers his/her style of teaching. In the end, the endeavor by the state government should be make the teaching profession as the most respectable profession in the state, as it had been during the olden days. That could be done through the means of better remuneration, recognition and respect in the society at large.

Positive Control Based on Incentives: The issue of control for such schools is a vital one. The control, both internal and external, system must be such that these schools are encouraged to follow the system and syllabus on their own. I am of a firm belief that if we build enough incentives in the control mechanism, there will not be any need for controlling them on the basis of fear, as is the practice right now. The current system of fear being generated by the visit by school inspectors and  other government functionaries does not encourage good performance, but ensure only the attendance, which is not a sufficient condition for good performance. Good performance can be ensured only when all the stakeholders are encouraged to perform out of the needs.

Feeding the System: There must be encouragement to those pupils who are interested in becoming teachers in the schools in their villages. This will auto-feed the education system in Bihar. There may not be any need for transferring others from somewhere else. Local recruitment is the best way of ensuring the highest level of morale and motivation among the teachers. Normally, it has been seen that people coming from other places have no motivation to better the lives of people at the place where they are posted. The commitment is less and professionalism at the lowest. However, those who are recruited locally give full attention to their jobs since not only they don't have any personal issues at some other place to take care of but also they have constant peer pressure to perform and they take pride in what they are doing as there is instant social recognition. The same can not be said about the people coming from outside.

We can keep the issue of power supply, better roads, water management etc. at back burner right now, but not the education. We must start there since if we do that, this will on its own take care of the problems of power supply, connectivity and water management after 10-15 years. We will be able to create future 'change' agents in our state. But the time to embark on that path is now! In order to initiate action on this, the state must reorganize its Education Department too and start allocating more money (more than any other sector) to Education.

My Daddyji

On this day, i.e. July 18, 3 years back, I met my father in person for the last time. We all used to fondly call him "Daddyji". In his memory, I have written the following few lines.

Daddyji,

I still remember that day when you had told us all your desires. We have tried all our best to achieve that. And finally, we did in the 3rd of you not being there with us physically. We are sure that you will be smiling even more now. But, I miss you, Daddyji! I have written the following for you today:

Daddyji,

You have always been my cause of celebration,

Whether I did well at school,

Or played all my hearts at pool,

Or climbed as a toddler on stool,

Always in my subconscious,

You are the inspiration and the reason,

I merely acquire all those precious,

Just to make you smile and fusion.

Daddyji,

You have always been our hero,

You not only have changed your destiny,

But changed ours too,

Whenever we needed anything,

We all knocked at your door.

Whether you had or did not have,

You smilingly always granted our wish.

Though you always lived frugal,

But you gave us all the luxuries.

All we have now,

Are not ours, but yours.

Daddyji,

Now you are not here,

Yet, you inspire me,

Still you bestow on me,

What I need.

I know for sure,

That you still smile.

Smile when I achieve,

But feel really proud,

When I do what you always did,

Give when I can,

And give still when I can’t.

You were,

And you are still my role model,

Daddyji.

Bihar must start a training programme for its Leaders

Bihar must start a training programme for its Leaders

The total number of members in the lower house (Bihar Legislative Aseembly) is 243 and that in the upper house (Bihar Legislative Council) is 75. The total strength, hence, is 318. In addition, there are 16 members from Bihar to the Indian upper house and 40 to the Indian lower house. And they all are vital elements in the policy making and their implementation across the state. The success or failure of any developmental scheme in the state depends on the understandings of these important leaders, apart from, of course, highly trained and qualified bureaucrats from the headquarters and fields. 

I strongly feel that these 374 (318+56) are valuable human resources who could actually take the state in the virtuous cycle of development, growth, prosperity and general well being. However, in order to extract maximum advantages from these politicians, who are already adept in forming majority and  building consensus, the state must run rigorous short term training programmes for these men and women. Hence, the basic reform that we all should be striving for are training programmes for our Members of Parliament and Members of Legislature in order to enable them to understand the governance issues better. These training programmes could be moduled by having very short-term courses on developmental issues, finance, administration, law, trade, national security, foreign policy, behavioral science, psychology, sociology etc.  These could be imparted by either IIMs or any other institute so identified. In other words, Bihar can start its own unique model of training its politicians by creating its own Institute in partnership with IIMs or some other such institutions. This will be first in India and Bihar can show the way! This will not only raise the bar for Question Hours in the Parliament and State Legislatures and make the debate more meaningful, but will also make available the necessary resources for the potential CM candidate to pick his team from. The profile of a minister within his own Ministry will dramatically increase. What I have seen so far that those Ministers who already have some experience in the matters they are dealing with, they command much greater respect and following from the bureaucrats in his Ministry.  

In order to have a career in Politics, not only they have to be managing the political party that they are affiliated to, but they should also be able to flag the important issues confronting us in our villages, districts, cities, and the state in front of the electorate and suggest solutions for them. People at large should be able to hear the various choices they have in front of them and decide which one is better for them. Therefore, the role of debating among the possible candidates is essential. We all must inculcate this great quality of meaningful debate not only among our politicians, but also among our electorates. If we are able to do this ever, this will definitely transform the political landscape in our state, which has its famed claim of having the first Republic in the world.. People with vision, possible solutions and passion will start looking at politics as a possible option. We still admire Gandhiji, but we never revel onto the process of his becoming a great man. The opportunities that confronted him had actually made him a Mahatma. I am sure we have many such great men and women in various nooks and crannies of our state and if we as a system are able to present opportunities in front of them, many of them will reach to such stature.  Therefore, we as a society must inculcate among our people this great tool of debating among ourselves. The solutions to the great and grave problems are always obtained by discussion. This also strengthens the democratic institutions. In this institute, we must try to build such values among our people's representatives so that discussion based on right information can take place in all of our villages.

Political Parties are vital institutions in a democratic set-up. Democracy must be able to present in front of its people, the various choices. This could only be done by political parties of different hues in the form of left, right, center etc. All political parties must strive to nurture great leaders in their set-up. They would be able to do that if they are able to promote leadership qualities in all of their members. They must constantly confront their members with various problems and seek solutions. If possible, they must also run training programs for the potential leaders so that the elections could be fought efficiently and effectively and the leaders could highlight real issues to people and not the flimsy ones. We all know that the problems confronting our state are developmental in nature: how to achieve 9-10%  or even more growth rate on a sustained basis, how to take this high growth to poor, how to ride over the problems of health, education and sanitation etc. Problems confronting our state are immense and hence there is a need to make minor adjustments in the state's political philosophy now so that we are able to achieve what a great state like ours is entitled to. These political parties must be encouraged to send their potential leaders to this training institute on paying basis for short term training courses. This will definitely change the way the politics is done in Bihar. The focus of a political party will simply shift from focusing on a winner to creating a leader. Just imagine the positive externalities it will have for our state.

In Bihar, the problems of sanitation, food, malnutrition, illiteracy, health issues etc. are so rampant and impacting directly families that the families or societies are not able to think beyond. All these problems are local ones and hence local solutions could be found for these and then scaling up could be though about. There is a need for local leaders (even at Sarpanch level) to be trained in such matters so that District/Block Administration are left to deal with bigger issues affecting the area, and not these local issues. This institute can train the local leaders in dealing with local issues. These problems can only be resolved through bottoms-up actions and not top-down actions. The financial support for such training programmes could be had from the money earmarked for such issues at the state level, and also from the support from NGOs, Foundations etc. We as a society must empower and strengthen our local institutions and leaders to find solutions to their own local problems.

Through this institute, we must try to create various leadership skills at different levels viz. country, state, district and village, adept and skilled at dealing with issues confronting their political landscape. Through this, we will be unleashing a great many innovators, at least 374 of them every five years, in our societies and even when they are not in government, they all can contribute positively to making Bihar a state capable of solving its own problems internally. So let us show the world how the leaders are made! we have already shown them how bureaucrats, doctors, engineers, diplomats etc. are made. Now is the time to show our real worth: the visionary leaders! I believe that it is not long away before we can do that. If a Raj Kumar Shukla can give a Mahatma to the nation, imagine how many such Shuklas we now have, who are suffering from day-to-day problems of existence in their lives. Mahatmas are not far away either.

I am confident that by doing so, we will be able to take our state to higher and faster development path.

ANOTHER

Another time.
in another space,
with another life,
with another chance,
with another friends.
to realize another side.
to try another option.
to validate another point of view.
to feel the sensation of another side.
to create another world.
to seek another god.
to pursue another goals.
to raise another family.
to start another society.
to initiate another mission.
Let us all go to another side.
Another is what completes.
Another is what fulfills.
Another is what permits to realize the dreams.
Another is what fills in the missing parts.
Another is what pacifies.
Another is what excites.
Another is what exalts.
Let us all embrace another,
and make another difference.
May be, in another time,
and in another space.

MOTHER DAY'S SPECIAL

Mother,
You took me in,
nourished me with your blood,
suffered every day when I kicked,
yet you smiled.
You gave all I needed,
to be able to breath on my own,
to be able to feel the love,
that you have for me.
to be able to feel the pain,
this world has in store,
yet to take them in my stride.
your character taught me,
how to convert those pains in pleasures.
Yes, you gave all I needed,
to be able to enjoy every pleasure,
this world can generate,
and to relish my every move,
which can process them,
and give back to this world those pleasures,
twice as much.
Yes.
You are my reason,
You are my religion,
You are my being,
You are my knowing.
I exist because you exist.
I love because you love.
I create because you create.
You are my mother.

आदमी

खुद को कर इतना सशक्त तुम,
की तूफान में होकर भी तुझे समंदर से प्यार हो,
सैलाब में होते हुए भी तुझे दरिया पर नाज हो,
भींग कर भी तुम्हे बस बारिश का इंतज़ार हो।
और सोच बस इतना के,
क्या हुआ जो तू तूफान को न रोक सका,
फक्र कर के वोह तुम्हे भी तो रोक न पाया।
क्या हुआ जो तू सैलाब में बह गया,
आखिर किनारे पर तो तुम्हे उसी ने है पहुँचाया।
क्या हुआ जो तू बारिश के बूंदों में नहा गया,
खाने और पीने की तालीम तो तुझे उसी ने है दिया।

राजीव