SIXTH ANNUAL CONVOCATION ADDRESS
BY SHRI C SUBRAMANIAM
Dr. Kurien, Members of the Governing Body of IRMA, Distinguished Director, Members of the Faculty, Graduating Students of the Year and Friends.
I consider it a great honour to be called upon to participate in this Convocation, to talk to you and also award to you the certificate of the successful training you have under gone in Guest during this convocation I readily agreed not because I have any significant message to give but mainly because this gave me another opportunity to visit this Campus. I still remember the struggle we had in establishing this Institution, National Dairy Development Board, principle for the necessity of such an organisation was conceded but the location became a big controversy. The top bureaucrats at Delhi thought such an Institution could function only in Delhi, under the guidance of the great administrators, in the Agricultural Ministry represented by what we called at that time not only Indian Administrative Service but some of the Indian Civil Service members also of that time. Ultimately, I had to exercise my full authority over all the bureaucrats and say no, it should be established and it will be established in Anand and in retrospect we see the wisdom of that decision. When this Board was established, no doubt I had great expectations from this Board but this has gone beyond all my expectations. That is mainly due if I may say so, all of you would agree, because of the leadership provided by the visionary, Dr. V. Kurien. This Institution has now a global recognition for excellence in the field of dairy development, and not only the Institution has won recognition, the architect of that Institution, Dr. Kurien also received world wide recognition. It gives me very great satisfaction when I come back here and see things, not only you have achieved great heights but you are planning much greater heights. That shows vitality in the organisation. Whenever an organisation stagnates it would begin to deteriorate also. Therefore, every organisation should be growing and National Dairy Development Board has been growing at a very fast rate of 20% per year which is really a record and more than that the future plans are such that it would not only maintain this growth but it would diversify its various activities. From milk they have entered the field of oil, vegetables, now I am told you are entering into the field of social forestry for planting trees. As a matter of fact when I delivered a series of lectures in the National University of Australia at Canberra on the Indian Agriculture it was in 1977 I think, one lecture I devoted to Anand Pattern of development and in that I had specifically mentioned the Anand Pattern is applicable not only to dairy development but it is applicable and should be applied to vegetables and various perishable commodities to become a link between the producer and the consumer so that intermediaries do not become the main beneficiaries. Apart from the commodities you have undertaken I also mentioned fisheries as one of the other commodities to be undertaken. And I may also submit while you have been developing expertise in the development of commodities for the benefit of poor producers I would also request you to consider whether you can take up models of your development where it is not commodity oriented but total development of an area – rural area so that it becomes possible for us to eradicate poverty as such.
Today in spite of our significant achievements in various fields of national activities during the last 40 years of independence it is a sad fact that nearly 40% of our population are living below the poverty line, that means they are not getting what we call the basic minimum needs for life, for decent life, food, shelter, clothing, health and sanitary arrangements and more than that education for the children. Unless we are able to provide this basic minimum needs to every citizen in India, we would not be achieving the objective for which the Father of the Nation, wanted India to attain freedom. When we were participants in the freedom movement, Mahatma Gandhi declared, “I am not asking freedom for my country so that the Britishers may be removed and in their place Indians may occupy high positions. I am asking for freedom to wipe the tears of particularly the villagers who are unfed, who are ignorant, who are not able to cloth themselves properly, without proper living conditions.” Therefore our national objective would be achieved only when we eradicate poverty and hunger. That has got to be our priority.
We are talking in terms of entering the 21st Century as a modern nation, to be functioning alongwith other nations as equals. That will not happen as long as we have poverty and hunger in our midst and therefore, the prime task with which we are faced today is how to achieve this. We have had very many plans for the purpose of attacking poverty and hunger but unfortunately we have not achieved any significant success in my humble view and I have expressed it even when I was in my office as Planning Minister and later on as Finance Minister and I have been expressing it on many platforms. Our approach is not the correct approach. It was alright for the nation who had attained independence as a backward country, to have the infrastructure for development, that infrastructure could be established only on the basis of a planned economy, what we call as macro-level planning but having achieved this objective of establishing the infrastructure required for development, unless we have micro-level planning it would not be possible to have development which would lead to the eradication of poverty. Because in a country of continental proportion conditions differ from region to region, conditions differ from state to state, conditions differ from district to district, conditions differ even from village to village are the major reasons for under of poverty. Conditions are location based, unless you identify these causes for each locality, unless proper diagnosis are made you cannot treat the disease. So as long as we confine ourselves to macro-level planning that even if it comes to the level of state level planning it will not be possible to identify the real causes for poverty and backwardness in any particular locality. Therefore, a decentralised planning becomes absolutely essential. And it is only on the basis of it that rural development takes place. This is what I conceived as Integrated rural Development Programme where we wanted to integrate not only the various departments but also national resources available in any area, with human skills available to up-grade that with the application of science and technology. It was integration of natural resources, human skills and science and technology that was integration contemplated but unfortunately IRDP has descended to the level of godhans and loan melas. We have to realise this sort of charity approach will never eradicate poverty. Charity may alleviate misery but it cannot eradicate poverty, and therefore, it is necessary to find out what is the approach and this is where National Dairy Development Board and the process of dairy development in our country gives us a clue to the approach to be made for the purpose of rural development.
I am reminded of an enigmatic statement which Swami Vivekananda, a great monk of India made when he went to America to represent India in parliament of Religion. He stayed there for few years. During that time he was in the company of few of his disciples, men and women. Suddenly he said after coming to America, “I have fallen in love”. Immediately the ladies there exclaimed, “who is the fortunate lady”? Then in a roaring voice he said, “Organisation”. It was the end of the last century when revolutionary changes were taking place on the basis of Industrial Revolution where organisation played a very crucial role in bringing about new structures—financial structures, organisational structures and industrial structures for the purpose of development and he said it is this organisation which I want in India. Unfortunately Indians are a little bit individualistic. They are good as individuals but as a team they always fail and therefore, it is organisation which is required so that we could develop the team work which would provide the dynamism for making progress and if dairy development has proved a success it is mainly because of this organisational excellence which NDDB has provided.
What is important for us to realise is, NDDB is not an organisation of Dr. Kurien. Dr. Kurien is an employee. It is an organisation of all the high level management people who are functioning here, technicians and technologists who are functioning here. They are all people hired by the organisation of farmers—farmers’ organisation. From the village level being built upwards coming to the state level and perhaps, All India Federation also. So a poor farmer with no resources even if resources, very little resources, helpless he was, he did not know what to do with the scanty resources he had. But when he joined this organisation he became a mighty power. This whole organisation is by him, to help him, to solve his problems, and therefore, the first thing which is required is the organisation of the people who have got to be elevated. People where development has got to take place.
Application of technology that has made this organisation powerful progressive. There are some who think for backward regions, for rural areas high technology is not necessary that is what they call appropriate technology which is secondary technology or even obsolete technology. But NDDB has established, it is not obsolete technology which would make progress, give progress to the poor man but the most up-to-date technology dairy development would mean in the dairy while a farmer is a farmer, a small farmer with a few cattle either buffalo or cows, but he has to be backed by an organisation, a dairy plant of most modern technology and with this modern technology you require modern management system also. It is this combination which gives dynamism to the organisation and, therefore, this is the lesson what we have to learn from NDDB. And today if you want to remove backwardness from the rural areas, there also we have to selectively apply the modern technology. For instance computers, people think in a backward illiterate area, what role can computer play. Even not the fully modern computer system has been introduced but still even the marginal use of computer system show it has improved the functioning of the dairy development board and can be seen by those who go and examine how this helped us to organise various things to get facts and figures and to be up-to-date with regard to dairy development. It has got to be further enlarged I talked about natural resources. How do you get the idea of natural resources available in any locality. Today you will have to employ most modern technology of remote sensing, through satellites and that gives you what would take years within a few weeks you will be able to survey the natural resources on the surface, underground etc., from satellite technology and it becomes much easier when it is combined with computer systems. So you have to identify where you have to have the most modern technology and most modern organisational pattern at the same time not lose, the saying “small is beautiful”, small is beautiful provided it is backed by strength of the organisation. Without this strength of the organisation the small thing would wither away, it would not have the strength to survive, the strength to function and this is where wisdom lies, not merely political will but political wisdom is required for the purpose of identifying where to use high technology and how, for the benefit, of the backward people in rural areas and while we are all speaking about this technology, organisation etc. ultimately nothing can be achieved unless you nave the necessary vision and dedication to serve the people. Unfortunately, in our country the order is getting reversed with regard to the priorities, who function for whom. If you take our educational institution I wonder whether educational institutions are intended for the students or for the teaching community, not even merely the teaching community alone, even the non-teaching staff. If you take the hospital, sometimes you wonder whether hospitals are intended for patients or for the doctors and nurse there. It is not merely that you can go on identifying it but I will give it the highest priority. Sometimes we wonder whether government exists for people or people exist for the government. It is this reversal which has caused havoc in our country today. Therefore, we have got to be quite positive with regard to our attitudes and particularly those of you who had privilege of going through the training of IRMA, with which imagination has been established here for the purpose of training you. You are trained to manage the rural economy as a whole rural management, in this no doubt you have got to be paid properly, you should be looked after properly. But as far as you are concerned that is the duty of the society, your duty, your dedication will have to be to the people. I am here to serve the people, serve the poor, so that he may be uplifted, to serve the new generation so that they come a vital factor in the development of our country. And that is the task with which you will be faced and this is the sort of attitude which is required today, and that is why you have been given special training with regard to rural management and in the objectivity it is said you will be serving various cooperative organisations etc. But is this adequate to serve rural areas? We have a vast administrative machinery today at the uniuon level, at the state level and even at the district level. If you analyse that orientation you will find that all of them are urban-oriented. The training is urban-oriented, their functioning is urban-oriented and even if they look at the village, they look at it as a sector which should feed urban people. They should produce more food, cheap, food, so that urban people may be fed properly. This is the attitude of the administration as a whole which we have inherited from the Britishers and that attitude has not changed. I am firmly of the opinion that with this administration whatever plans we might have we are not going to achieve the results of rural development.
Sometime in the past I have been advocating what I would call a separate rural development service. When I say rural development services, some people might think perhaps a second level organisation below the IAS to function, as a rural development services. I would suggest this should be a service if not above IAS at least equivalent status to the IAS. Where we should be able to attract best intellectuals, men and women of merit to man these services, because removal of backwardness is not going to b an easy task. We require the best abilities, best intellects of our country to tackle this problem, but unfortunately this elite population has been drifting away into the urban areas and they are still drifting. We talk of brain drain, brain drain to foreign countries, but greater brain drain is from rural areas to the urban areas. We will have to bring back this brain bank into the rural areas by providing them adequate facilities for their living, adequate salaries, whatever salaries might have to be paid to all these class of people and unless we have this rural development services completely oriented towards rural problems and rural people, with the present day attitude of administrators, the bureaucracy and even the politicians, we will no be able to tackle the problems of rural areas properly and therefore, as far as you are concerned you are going to be pioneers of this service. You are going to set and example how with the training and with proper orientation it is possible to function effectively in a rural background and to solve and face challenges which are there. Many people think the rural areas particularly, the farmers are illiterate, they are conservative, you cannot bring about change there, but I have a different experience all together as Agricultural Minister. When we thought of introducing a new technology with high yielding varieties I still remember many experts coming from the West and telling me no doubt this has got to be done by a new technology but you cannot do anything with your illiterate and conservative farmers. It will take at least a generation if not more to bring about a change in the agricultural technology. Then there was advice from the East, the Socialist Block. Now this is the occasion when you should take over all land and make them state farms pout efficient managers and make all others function there and these managers will do the job of introducing the new technology. But we thought otherwise, we thought if we only demonstrate to the people the beneficial effect of any change any new technology they would automatically take it over. Therefore, we ordered that we should have national demonstration taking 5 acres of farmers land and we have thousands of such plots throughout the country. In those plots we deployed our scientists, technologists, extension officers to adopt this new technology of high yielding variety and demonstrate to the farmers what is the potential of this new technology and in the demonstration plots in the midst of traditional farms the short varieties help the growth and I also order at least thousand peasants near by peasants should be present there to see the harvest, see the result and the result was doubling of production, tripling of production and therefore, even the hard boiled conservative farmers said, “if this can happen in this farm field near by certainly it can happen in my own field also”, and immediately demand grew for the new variety of seeds, fertilizers, plant protection measures etc. That is the story of the “Green Revolution”. Therefore, do not approach the farmer that he is an ignorant fool. He is a wise man in spite of being illiterate. That is even bring established in our election system you will find how they are able tot distinguish how to make changes, when to make changes etc. they are able to country you take the case of what we call a good deal of illiteracy. Wherever they changed the government, they give one party majority to function as government. You may analyse. Take the most educated Kerala from where you come.
They claimed almost cent percent literacy, not only men but women also. There, you have got 14 parties in ruling front and another 14 parties in the opposition. Therefore, I would appeal to you not to approach them as ignorant men and that you are wise and above him and you are going to teaching him something. Approach him with a humble attitude I have come here to help you.
If you are convinced of a beneficial change take it over and go on to demonstrate it as a beneficial change and convince him. And in this I find there is one thing, if you are able to make one beneficial change which gives him the advantage, then it is easy to bring about other changes which you would have seen in dairy development. What you did for the cattle, he says immediately be done for him and his family. This is how he develops. Therefore, I would like to congratulate you young men and women who have undergone this special training. Yours is the privilege of bring pioneers to lay a new track of development, progress in the rural areas. Of course, you are now in a selected area, but this will have to be further widened and it should be widened. I am sure as pioneers you will always be faced with problems, and you should be able to tackle those problems and face these challenges. Therefore, on this occasion as an elder, I would like to give my blessings so that you may achieve your tasks of building up a new rural India so that by the 21st Century we will be able to say we have a nation where it is possible for us to meet at least the basic minimum needs of every citizens of India. That should be our ambition and it is not beyond our capacity to achieve. I wish you well. Thank you very much.
