Self Reliance
Self-reliance or self-sufficiency is the dream of every thinking person. Just as when humans live as a society, they depend on each other and cooperate, so nations usually move forward in mutual dependence and cooperation. However, each nation has its own positions and international ambitions. That is why the first and second world wars happened. Such desires can be based on economic, political, cultural, and religious grounds. Foremost among them are financial ambitions. It is natural for every nation to strive for economic supremacy just as every individual strives to become rich. It is at such a stage that self-sufficiency becomes relevant. But if such a phase occurs, a country cannot become self-sufficient at that time. It needs to formulate long-term development plans.
In ancient history, India was an economically prosperous country. The Greeks, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the English, and later the Mughals crossed distances aiming at India, keeping their eyes on this wealth. But after the end of all the foreign tyranny and India's independence, it can be judged that we did not make significant economic progress. What we lost after World War II was a sense of direction when the world settled into communist-anti-communist slums and capitalist-communist ideologies. Although we adopted a policy of non-alignment, Russia often had to stand in the way. The reason was that our country was not self-sufficient. While communist countries advanced only by strengthening the public sector, capitalist countries developed through economic freedom and market competition.
As India stood between these two, our growth slowed down. When India's stunted growth economy was opened to the competitive global market one morning as part of globalization, in fact we were in more trouble. But India gradually started to grow due to the combination of rich landscape and a large number of young people. Thus, in the new era where the growth of our economy has changed at a rapid pace, we have to face new problems. In an environment where we have to compete with superpowers in economic, educational, scientific, technological, and military fields, our infrastructure and construction processes need to adapt to new technologies. For that, the government has brought in very extensive changes in this field. Another challenge is that more trained and skilled workers are needed to make those operations efficient. It is a fact that with projects like Make in India and Atmanirbhar Bharat, we are able to bring foreign capital to India and move our economy. But foreign-funded growth will never make us self-sufficient in the future. At the same time, governments cannot maintain international relations or achieve strategic gains without accepting foreign capital.
While the buying and selling possibilities of big industries are utilized, we need to develop skilled workers to work there. For that, it is necessary to study the nature of industries that may grow in the coming years and conduct skill development training accordingly. And parallel to this, small, medium and small enterprises need to come up starting from the cottage industry. These ventures are emerging in India's rural and inter-village areas and have great potential in India with its growing population. A rural economy where everyone between the ages of 18 and 60 earns at least 10,000 rupees needs to be differentiated from the global market. Through it, complete poverty reduction is possible and by increasing purchasing power, we can reach the highest economic growth rate in the world.
We realized this village power during the covid 19 lockdown in 2020. Regardless of any pressure or any sanctions at the international level, the production and marketing of these rural areas will continue without interruption. This is where the role of NGOs in India becomes relevant. Keeping all this in mind, Seva Bharati is active in the fields of rural development, small-medium, and light enterprises, modern vocational training, and agriculture.
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