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Articles: TP Features | | Language Outsourcing | |
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| Comment from Pragna Maharshi:
Sree Krishna gaaru,
Thanks for your thought-provoking comment.
You raised a problem that is too gigantic in size and too serious one. In fact, as you rightly said, the unemployment and poverty problems have been exasperated by globalization a.k.a privatization.
Automization and computerziation are inherent
characteristics of the privatization-led globalization. It's called 'lean management', a management concept that denotes 'more with less' (in other words, more productivity with less human intervention). This 'lean' mngt. concept got so mean that they prefer robots, computers and machines to people.
I remember an author (sorry, forgot the name) wrote in his book a sentence, which goes some thing like this, 'The future factories will have just two living creatures working there. A dog and a man. The man watches the machines and the dog watches the man.' Exaggerating as it may sound, but the situation is very likely to be that way, in next one or two decades.
Agriculture in India is heading to death-bed. Corporate farming will replace the human labour in farming. The perennial mechanization in manufacturing is closing the doors for employment aspirants. The only option left out is service-industries. But here too, certain sectors such as banks and insurance companies are increasingly opting for computers than people.
Talk to any foreign investor, s/he would say, 'India has 300 million people with purchasing power'. They don't talk about the remaining 700 million people out of the total one billion Indian population because this 700 million is an useless lot for them. If you don't have purchasing power, you got no value.
India is sitting on a ferocious social volcano that is preparing itself to be erupted due to the fact that major chunk of the population is thrown out of the game (namely globalization) while a minority is playing and enjoying the material benefits of it. The question is not 'if it will erupt' but 'when it will erupt'. Sooner or later, it is going to happen. I'm projecting that it is more likely to happen some where between 2020 and 2030.
The only way to increase the standard of living is through providing employment to people. To achieve that we need to encourage sectors that employ people than machines. The only way India can solve the present and the future mass unemployment problem is through creating mass employment opportunities.
This is precisely where WiSO concept comes into play. If you look at the various fields that I'm proposing as part of WiSO concept, they are all human-intensive fields requiring human wisdom and not machines. Take any field in WiSO concept, they can only be performed by human-beings.
Personally, I would like the WiSO concept to be implemented by teams of people coming together and forming cooperatives and then sharing the profits based on their contribution levels. I also want to see WiSO concept being implemented as much as possible in rural areas. I want them to respect labor laws and implement it in environmental-friendly way. But, how it will end up being implemented is not in my hands because finally it is the people who implement it and the government that will decide its future.
Regards,
Pragna Maharshi
Posted by: Mr. Maharshi Pragna At: 6, May 2006 1:32:14 PM IST
Dear Maharshi,
Your efforts in creating more employment opportunities deserve praise from everybody. I would like to bring to your notice some problems regarding standard of living. In India, generally the main problems are “unemployment” and “employment with low wages”. Previously there was unemployment because of lack of opportunities. Now a days due to expansion of services sector, it is not so difficult to get employment in the cities, but the problem is low wages. A person may get employment with a salary of Rs: 2,000/- per month, but he has to spend about Rs: 1,500/- towards the rent for a 3-room house for his family. How can they survive with the remaining Rs: 500/- per month. Hence they can not live in a decent place, but forced to live in a slum in sub-human conditions.
A “Just Employed” person can buy 100 meals @ Rs: 20/- per meal with his salary of Rs: 2,000/- per month. About 25 years back, a person could buy 266 meals @ Rs: 2.25 per meal with a starting salary of Rs: 600/- per month. That means the standard of living of “Just Employed” has come down by 2.5 times regarding food.
A “Just Employed” person can buy an independent house in about 104 years @ 25,00,000/- with his salary of Rs: 2,000/- per month. About 25 years back, a person could buy an independent house in about 10 years @ Rs: 75,000/- with his starting salary of Rs: 600/- per month. That means the standard of living of “Just Employed” has come down by 10 times regarding housing from the last 25 years.
In future, say about after 20 years, the situation deteriorates further for the “Just Employed”. Now a days a “Just Employed” person can at least stay in a slum, but in future he has to stay on the foot-path only, as it is already happening in Mumbai. In Mumbai many people live on footpaths. In day time, they pack all their belongings in a trunk box and put it somewhere. By night they open their boxes on footpaths and cook their food and after that sleep on the footpaths. In the morning, after finishing all their chores, they put their belonging in the trunk box again and put it somewhere. Then they go for work.
You may say that by creating more employment opportunities, the salaries can be increased. But if the salaries increase, the managements look for labour saving devices and displace the workers. In fact, if labour saving machines are used, then half of the workforce in India will be displaced. Moreover previously the man in a family earns, but now a days, the man and the woman in a family are ready to do the jobs as the income is insufficient to run the family. Even if 25% of women opt for jobs, the unemployment increases tremendously. In future FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in retailing will be allowed in India. The foreign retail giants will have such a clout on the manufacturers and will be able to get the products at low prices. The Indian petty shop owners will not be able to compete with the giant super markets. Then also many more add to the list of unemployed.
Previously the rate of interest on bank deposits was 15% p.a. Due to globalization or liberalization the banks reduced the rate of interest to about 6% p.a. Many people who planned their retirement thinking that they can live happily by earning 15% on their savings ended up getting only half the amount. In this way, the standard of living of retired people reduced to half. Now they are forced to work again. So they also add to the job market.
The root cause of child labour is globalization. Child labour has become widely prevalent now. We can clearly observe that there was not much child labour about 25 years back. Now a days we can see people above 65 years and children below 14 years are soliciting for work.
Similarly due to globalization small holdings in agriculture would become unremunerative. Hence, in future the small holdings will be consolidated and become large. Mechanization is a problem in small holdings, but with emergence of large holdings mechanization will take place. Combine harvesters will reap the crop and dump it in factories where the final products will come out untouched by human hand. So, in future more unemployment will be created in agriculture and material handing areas.
The demand for jobs is immediate, but the creation of jobs is gradual. So, if a job is offered many flock to grab it. So the salaries will not increase because if anybody resigns, there are many people who are ready to join even at less salary. In these circumstances, there is no scope for drastic change in the incomes of the workers. Only marginal change will be there.
With so less salaries, “Just Employed” can only stay in slums. Unless a person is rough and tough, he can not survive in a slum. There he learns all bad habits. Most of the jobs are created mainly in the unorganized sector where the salaries are minimal. Now the youth are very much frustrated, that even after studying so many years, they are able to get only petty jobs, and landing in slums. They are feeling angry about the society and the present situation. Do we need jobs like that? Do we want life like that? Then how can we increase our standard of living? How does your Wiso help our country in this aspect? Can you apply your Wiso concept for this problem?
Posted by: Mr. sree krishna koppuravuri At: 5, May 2006 12:06:20 PM IST
Reply from Pragna Maharshi:
Thanks Raj gaaru for your feedback and the question.
Yes, there is CIEFL in Hyderabad, which is by the way, not part of OU but an Indian-govt owned central university. I was an alumni of CIEFL.
Of course, CIEFL can play its role in Language Service Outsourcing (LSO) but CIEFL alone is not sufficient to cater to this huge market as there are millions of people around the world willing to learn foreign languages.
If we can successfully tap the LSO market, lakhs of language trainers would be required.
You are right when you said that software outsourcing was not started by the govt. But without Indian Govt's all-out support in the form of marketing Indian companies abroad, tax holidays, creating IT parks, removal of import restrictions on IT products, infrastructure development, IT education facilities and many such measures, IT outsourcing market would have never ever picked up and reached to the stage where it is today.
It is an undisputed fact that IT market started picking up only after Indian govt. involved itself and implemented all of the above measures.
Hence, govt. support and involvement is mandatory to bring an idea onto the global platform.
But individuals and organizations can get into this field without waiting for govt. and still be successful. In fact, the whole purpose of my writing on this website is to make the people aware of the various innovative wisdom-based services so that they can venture into those fields.
Regards,
Pragna Maharshi
Posted by: Mr. Maharshi Pragna At: 3, May 2006 1:23:50 PM IST
Isn't There An Institute Already To Learn Foreign Languages Something Called CIFL in Osmania University ?
BTW, Do You Think Software Outsourcing Came Into Existence Because Of Govt ? It's A Concept Brought By People Like Us. Why Not Do It Ourselves Instead Of Waiting It To Do Somebody For Us ?
Posted by: Mr. Raj Raj At: 2, May 2006 11:24:11 PM IST
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