Need to lay focus on HR

Many issues that are bothering the country are attributable to a lack of quality human resources that can live above personal interests to protect the national interest.

These issues include: massive non-performing assets (NPAs) in banks, water scarcity, poor education, urban chaos, crime against women, death due to flood, cyclone, road accidents, heatwave and cold wave, malnutrition, migration of young talents to developed countries, caste and language divide and loss of happiness etc.

Between 1985-86 and 2016-17, the Union government had infused Rs 1.5 trillion in the state-owned banks. In 2017, the Centre had announced recapitalisation of public sector banks to the tune of Rs 2.11 lakh crore. An amount of Rs 1.6 lakh crore was pumped into these banks during 2018-19. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her 2019 Budget speech declared a capital infusion of Rs 70,000 crore.

In fact, capital infusion will let the banks survive but not thrive. The senior management in banks should be first-generation computer savvy and efficient enough to monitor both loans and investment in a core banking environment. An authentic survey of credit potential, physical asset verification, investment skill, transparent HR policy, down to earth approach and de-politicisation will help banks nip the NPAs in bud.

Educated but dishonest human resources are responsible for water scarcity in a water-rich country. The NITI Aayog, in a warning, stated that groundwater in 21 major cities, including Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, will disappear by 2020 and would affect 100 million people. The man-made water crisis has helped packaged water industries and tanker mafias. Today, the packaged water industries are growing at 15% per annum and its size is estimated at Rs 8,000 crore.

There is a dearth of quality human resources for nation-building due to poor education. The Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER) reveals less than half of students in class V is able to read class II text. An ASER study found that only 58% of children enrolled in class III and IV could read a class I textbook. Around 77% of women in the age group 20-24 have no education. A total of 62.7% girls and 58.1% boys in the age group of 5-15 drop out from schools.

Over the years, the quality of life in urban areas has deteriorated. Massive influx, air pollution, depletion of the water table, loss of open space, deforestation and aggressive monetisation of basic human needs contribute to urban collapse.

Quality health sector boosts productivity and happiness level, and saves people’s surplus income. But the greed-infested health sector has aggravated people’s sufferings.

As per the World Bank estimate, 3.1 million children in India die due to malnutrition every year. India is home to 46.6 million or 1/3rd of the world’s stunted children and one out of three women are anaemic.

Thousands of people die without knowing their diseases or due to wrong medical treatment. Everything in our healthcare is increasingly getting monetised. Skill, efficiency, kindness and service mentality should be instilled into the medical profession again.

Crimes against women

According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s data, two children are raped, four are sexually abused and eight go missing in India every hour.

As per the data, 70% to 80% of the offenders are relatives, uncle, neighbours or a known person. Crime against women has increased due to the collapse of moral fabric, loss of religious faith, the spread of pornography contents, cinema with sex and violence as the main theme and large-scale migration of unskilled people for jobs into the urban centres etc.

Stringent anti-rapists’ law will not eradicate the crime. “The concept of law is built on the foundations of human values. If human values are lost, the entire edifice will crumble”, said a former Chief Justice of India.

Gender bias, poverty, backwardness, lack of safety and rising unemployment are the reasons why female foetus are erased before they are born. Between 2015 and 2017, nearly 1.17 crore baby girls were missing from the country.

Flood, cyclone, road accidents, landslide, heatwave and cold wave kill thousands of innocent people in India. Over-damming of rivers, deforestation and construction of roads without scientific surveys are the main reasons for the loss of innocent lives.

There were more landslides after the widening of mountain roads in the Himalayan region. “Many roads in Himachal snake very close to fault lines, putting pressure on already weak points,” said a professor of Punjab University. The death toll in India due to road accidents reached 1.49 lakh in 2018. Terrorism has bled India profusely. Between 2005 and June 2019, we have lost 8,103 civilians and 3,897 security personnel to terrorist violence.

All these tragedies in the country occur mainly due to lack of quality human resources which do not mean highly educated, English speaking, techno-savvy professionals, but people with honesty, integrity, finer human emotions, moral and physical courage who can stem the rot.

Of course, discipline and a sense of belongingness to the nation are the core strength.