Challenges in India and Solutions on how to resolve Them

What are the Problems in India?

It is true that there is no country in this world that does not face one challenge or the other. Even European continent that many people pray to find themselves one day has many challenges the citizens and government are battling with on daily basis. But, the point is that India face so many heart-breaking challenges, which are making the citizens to weep day and night like a woman whose only child died.

What is challenge? Based on this topic, the word “challenge” means a demanding task. So, challenges in India means the demanding tasks that are in existence in India. They are worrisome situations in the country that need to be addressed. Challenges in India are issues/problems that Republic of India is experiencing, which need to be addressed to welcome good environment for all.

India is one of the most populated countries on the planet, earth. The country has population of 1, 210, 193, 422 (approximately 1.2 billion) based on the 2011 census in the country. India is located in South Asian Continent along with China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and others. The country got her independence from United Kingdom on August 15, 1947, and became republic on January 26, 1950. So, India is officially addressed as Republic of India.

The country has large landscape and human occupation. Republic of India is the second most populated country in the world, and seventh largest country by area (3, 287, 590Km²). The country has suffered so many political issues and it is currently under the leadership of President Pranab Mukherjee, who has Mohammad Hamid Ansari as the vice (based on February 2015 when this article is first published).

India notwithstanding their large population has been facing so many challenges for years. Many individuals in the country who are bitter about the challenges have in many ways expressed their feelings. They expressed their feelings through social media sites, online publications, hardcopy publications, through television and radio channels, yet little has been done by the government and capable individuals in the country to reduce these challenges that citizens of Republic of India have been facing for years.

In this piece of write-up, some possible solutions to arrest the problems that India as a country is facing are to be presented. These solutions are brushed and practical. They are not just written piece, but can jettison poverty among Indians, which is one of the major challenges that the country has been battling with. There are many causes and effects of poverty in the country.

The Challenges/Problems in Republic of India

The children, youths, mothers, and father in Republic of India have been feeling the heat of many challenges that are rooted in the country. Some Indians at a point feel like committing suicide because of all these challenges and their products. Hence, the challenges in India are, but not limited to:

• Corruption;
• Poverty;
• Unemployment;
• Illiteracy;
• Educational Challenge;
• Overpopulation;
• Health/environmental challenge; and
• Terrorism.

If "corruption" is to be name of a person, some politicians in India are to bear the name.Corruption is dangerous; corruption is disastrous; corruption is detrimental; corruption is backwardness; and corruption is epidemic. Any one that is sensible enough will not be happy to see his country or location stamped as being corrupt. Corruption can attract curse to a nation, and any government that is wise need to do everything possible to be “absent” from it. The government of Republic of India is ignorant of this and that is why it takes part in many corrupt practices that have been recorded in the country.

Corruption in India is perceived to have increased significantly with one report estimating the Illegal capital flows since independence to be US$462 billion (BBC 2010). In the year 2000, the result released by Transparency International, anti-corruption non-governmental organization has India as the 22nd most corrupt country in the world. The organization surveyed only 90 countries that year and India and Philippines were seen at number of 69 on the table (countries on the top of the table are perceived as being less corrupt while those close to the bottom as most corrupt).

The 2013 and 2014 report on the level of corruption in the Republic of India showed that corruption is still one of the major challenges that the country is facing. In the year, 2013, Transparency International surveyed 177 territories and India was found among the category bearing number 94th on the table the table, while Denmark and New Zealand were seen at the top of the table bearing number 1, which implies the countries were the least corrupt in the world. When properly counted from the bottom of the table to the top, the answer has it that India was number 79. What it implies is that India was the 79th most corrupt nation in the world in 2013. In 2014, the same organization surveyed 175 countries and India is ranked among the category 85 on the table. Counting from the bottom of the table up, it shows that India was the 90th most corrupt country in the world in 2014.

It is true that the economy of Republic of India is one of the best in the world, yet many in the country are dying in poverty. Poverty is the state of being extremely poor. A person is said to be poor when the person lives below $1.25 per day. What it simply means is that there are lots of Indians who are extremely poor including the youths and the adults in the country.

In most rural areas of the country, most children in the location are suffering from malnutrition because of the challenge posed by poverty. In fact, there is both rural and urban poverty being experience in the republic of India.

According to poverty headcount in South Asia in 2010 published by the World Bank group, it showed that 31.0% of the population of people living in the region were suffering from poverty (live below US$1.25 per day). The region, India, has most of the citizens affected by the menace. The report published by the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook is clear evidence on how poverty has been marrying many Indians. The data published by the organization said that India is the 54th poorest country in the world based on 2010 report notwithstanding the fact that the government of the country wants the region to be the best in terms of economy. In 2011-12, the estimated number of Indians that were living in poverty was 363 million. It implies that 29.5% of Indians were living below the poverty line in the year 2011-12.

Unemployment is said to be what occurs when people are without work and are actively seeking for work. According to International Labor Organization report, more than 197 million people globally or 6% of the world's workforce were without a job in 2012. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defined unemployment as the state of being unemployed.

Many citizens of Republic of India are messed up with high level of unemployment in the country. In Kerala, India, the occupants of such location are being married by unemployment in a terrible way. Some Indians living in such location in most cases cry bitterly because of the condition they find themselves. Unemployment being faced by people in this location has resulted to malnutrition, illness, mental stress, and loss of self-esteem in their lives.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics of India, from 1983 till 2011, unemployment rate in the country averaged 9% reaching an all time high of 9.4 percent in December 2010. This report is not encouraging as a country whose government is making effort to be the best economy in the world has large percentage of the citizens being disciplined by unemployment. According to another report on the statistics on unemployed in the country, it shows that ten percent of Indians were unemployed in 2010.

In the year 2001, it was estimated that the illiteracy level in India was 34.62% (India Online Pages 2015). This is not encouraging at all as some countries in Europe do not have such high statistics of illiterates. The most affected by the illiteracy in India are the female gender. In the year 2011, the literacy rate of females in India was 65.46 percent. Deducting 65.46 % from 100 has it that the population of female illiteracy in India in 2011 was 34.54 percent.

What is illiteracy? Illiteracy is a noun which is the condition whereby a person or persons do not know how to read and write. It can also be defined a situation whereby people are ignorant of existing subject or activity. A person who is affected by illiteracy is called an illiterate. There is high illiteracy level in Republic of India. This challenge has contributed to so many other levels of challenges that are in existence in India today.

In India, there are many who lack the knowledge of family planning. Because they are not learned, they give birth to as many children as possible thereby adding to the number of citizens of the country. Some men in the process to have male children in their families’ fill the families with lot of children, who in future are not properly trained.

Educational Challenge

Educational institution is one of the basic institutions that any rational government must make sure that is accessible to all the citizens of the country. The reason is because there are many importance of education to nations. The power and importance of education to nations cannot be overemphasized in any way.

The standard of education in India is still weak. The weakness affects the learning and imparting of knowledge in the students. Indian schools are not properly funded. This is a big slap on the face of learning in the country’s schools. Without adequate funding, the ideology and philosophy of Indian education become so many words (Alonzo 1970).

There are many Indian educators found in many schools who are not qualified to carryout teaching jobs. The question is: what will an unqualified educator instruct the students? It is as good as a bad instructor feeding the students with wrong information, and this will make them to store wrong information in their memories.

Overpopulation is another major problem that India in totality is battling with. A country that is made up of over 1.2billion people is too much. Out of this number, more than ten countries can be created. There are many street children who are seen begging on streets in India all because of overpopulation in the country.

The overpopulation of India as a country in Asian country has caused many problems in the country. Job scarcity, poverty, malnutrition and other negative things experienced in the country are products of overpopulation. The word “overpopulation” can mean excessive population of people living in a particular country. Available foods in the country are not enough for the citizens of the country, and hence results to famine. Bangladesh and other neighboring countries migrate to Republic of India and this adds to the large number of people that have been in existence in the country.

Because of poverty in the country, many Indians have been suffering from health issues. Some do not have the money to attend hospitals where their health issues will be properly taken good care of. This keeps on building and expanding the bad state of the poor masses in the country.

On the other hand, there are many street children in the streets of the country. These children in most cases sleep on the street because they have no homes of their own. They get exposed to the weather which sometimes results to sickness. Also, these children maintain poor hygiene while walking on the streets and can eat anything they are given without washing their hands which is detrimental to their health.

Also, there are many waste locations in the country. These wastes attract flies and other insects that transmit diseases to man, and cause to the human health status. Some smell with very bad odor to the extent that people feel very bad whenever they remember they will pass through the route. Air pollution, water pollution, deforestation, green-house effects are not unheard in the country. Because of high pollution in the country, so many citizens of the nation have been affected by many kinds of illnesses.

There are so many terrorist attacks in India that have claimed the lives of many civilians in the location. What is terrorism? According to two popular Indian authors, terrorism is an anxiety-inspiring method of repeated violence action, employed by (semi-) clandestine individual, group or state actors, for idiosyncratic, criminal or political reasons, whereby the direct targets of violence are not the main targets.

There are many types of terrorism that are in existence in India, and they include religious, ethno-national, left wing, and narco terrorism. There are many religions that exist in India, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism. There is sometimes misunderstanding between these groups which propels one to wage attack on the other(s).

South Asian Terror Portal once listed 180 terrorist groups that have existed in India in the past twenty years. On 26th November, 2008, terrorist attacks on Mumbai by Pakistani Islamic group killed 3 Jews and 158 people from other religious group. Also, on 13th July, 2011, another attack by bomb blast on the same location left about 26 civilians killed (SATP 2014).

It is not completely right to discuss only the basic problems in India without possible solutions to address the challenges. India, which is a country whose economy is the tenth-largest in the world by nominal GDP and third-largest by Purchasing Power Party (PPP), can have all the problems reduced to some extent if all will agree to work together.

The issue of corruption in India will be a history if only the politicians and political parties become satisfied with what they have. Embezzlement and money laundering is because the politicians are not satisfied with the resources and materials they have already acquired. Let them understand that they will not enter the grave with the materials they got through corrupt means. Establishing and enforcing strong anti-corruption group in the country will help in the fight against corruption in the country.

There should be proper examination on the kind of teachers/educators that teach students in various institutions of learning in the country. It is true that the education standard of India have been promoted in the recent years, yet, much need to be done to excel more in the promotion state. The government should create website were students will report teachers/instructors that do not teach well due to weak qualifications. After proper investigation and it is found that truly those teachers do not know what they are doing, they should be fired.

The problem of overpopulation in India needs serious attention. Yes, it needs serious attention before only India occupies the face of this earth. There should be sensitization and enlightening of Indians, for both those in rural and urban cities of the country, on the need of family planning. Doing and enforcing this on the citizens will reduce the population overflow in the country. Also, the rate of migrations into the country by citizens of Bangladesh and those from neighboring countries should be regulated.

Poverty and unemployment problem in the country can be reduced through many practical means. The government and private individuals in the country who are buoyant enough should organize skill acquisition programs to minimize the level of these challenges. There should be introduction of youth empowerment programs to equip the youths skilfully and financially. Added to this, the government should invite ICT specialists to educate the citizens on the new system they can make money through Information and Communication/Computing Technology (ICT).

Illiteracy can be reduced by subsidizing the fees paid by the citizens of the country so that most population of the citizens of the country will have access to the tertiary institution level. Again, government and private individuals should offer scholarships to the citizens so that they enjoy the profits that come from being graduates.

The government of India should look into the number of street children that wander on the streets of India to house and provide basic health solutions to them. Also, bodies that will be keeping the environment of the country clean (waste management group) should be empowered so that disease spread in India will be reduced. There should be activation of waste recycling for proper waste management. Hospitals should be built in many parts of the country for people to easily receive medical attention.

Terrorism attacks on India are mostly religious. Any country that has Islamic religion in it is likely to have terrorist attacks, though many that belong to this group may not agree. In Nigeria for instance, 95% of all the religious attacks in the country were being carried out by the Islam. To solve the challenge of terrorism in India, there should be understanding among religious groups in the country. The government should call external countries that project attacks in the country to settle the problems and live amicably through dialogue. Whether you belong to Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism, think before carrying out any religious functions that has to do with terrorism, and know that bloodshed is man inhumanity to man.

Conclusion

There are many problems facing Republic of India. These problems are both small and big ones. This piece discussed the major challenges that India, which is over 1.2 billion in population is facing. These challenges include Corruption, poverty; unemployment, illiteracy, Educational challenge, overpopulation, Health/environmental challenge, and terrorism. Hence, possible solutions in tackling all these problems were provided for the good of the country. In summary, everybody, both you as a reader of this essay have to contribute your own ideas in solving all these challenges.

References

• Alonzo Spang (1970), Eight Problems in Indian Education, Journal of American Indian Education, Vol. 10 (1).
• British Broadcasting Corporation (2010), retrieved February 7, 2015.
• India Online Pages (2014), States Population in India, retrieved February 9, 2015.
• International Labor Organization (October 1982). "Resolution concerning statistics of the economically active population, employment, unemployment, and underemployment, adopted by the Thirteenth International Conference of Labor Statisticians.
• SATP (2014), Terrorism-related Incidents in Maharashtra since 2006, retrieved February 10, 2015.