15. Development and Social Justice
IN A DEMOCRACY, for effective implementation of Government policies it is not enough that these policies are soundly conceived. It is no less essential that their rationale is understood and appreciated by the common people whose lives may be profoundly influenced by these policies. The economic journalists have a very important role to play both in articulating public opinion on vital matters of economic policy as well as in promoting among the public a proper awareness and appreciation of the background in which public policies are formulated. I am convinced that unless people share our goals and are prepared to work with the Government for the achievement of these goals, it will not be possible for us to translate many of our dreams of economic reconstruction and development into a living reality. Journalists have important social responsibilities in educating public opinion.
`Development and Social Justice' which is the main theme of this seminar neatly sums up the greatest challenge that all developing countries, including India, will have to meet effectively in the seventies in order to survive as free, democratic societies. You are all aware of the progress that we have made in the last twenty-five years in building up a diversified industrial structure, in imparting a scientific temper to our agriculture, in creating and expanding reservoir of technical and managerial skills, which have brought us on the threshold of industrial culture. We can take legitimate pride in our achievements. And yet it has to be frankly admitted that we have not so far succeeded in eliminating mass poverty which has been the inevitable lot of a great majority of our people for centuries. While academicians may dispute the exact percentage, there seems to be little doubt that a substantial part of our population continues to live below what may be called the poverty line. There is also evidence that disparities in income and wealth have been accentuated rather than reduced in the process of development, Some sections of the people which have been strategically placed in relation to the development process have taken full advantage of their position to press aggressively their claims for higher share in the country's national income. As a result, while the rich have certainly become richer, the poor have largely remained poor and their number is increasing in absolute terms. Despite sustained efforts in the past to remedy this highly explosive situation, actual results have greatly fallen short of expectations. There is no doubt in my mind that in the interest of both a stable federal polity and vigorously functioning democratic institutions, the decade of 1970s must witness a frontal attack on mass poverty and the associated inequalities in income, wealth and opportunity.