To,
The Hon’ble Chief Minister
Delhi Govt.
Dear Mr. Kejriwal,
My family and I have watched your townhall at NDTV multiple times with keen interest. We have been talking about ending corruption for India to truly grow for a long time but we never did anything about it which has been the curse of our country for so long – the silent educated class. But now you are showing the way that it can be done and we are extremely proud that someone has stepped up and is walking the talk. But there is one aspect of the townhall I have to address to you.
We have a caste system which is vilified by the majority of the people but understanding its origins could change our perspective about society and education. At the beginning of human civilization we were doing everything and then some of us started specializing in one activity which became professions. Thus came the blacksmiths, goldsmiths, etc. Then came the barter system, trade developed and thus came the traders. Then we started fighting one another and thus came the warriors. If you have seen the movie 300, King Leonidas of Sparta meets Greek warriors who are comprised of people from all professions and tells them his soldiers know nothing else other than to fight. When God became important in society another category of professionals came, the priest class. In every village or community, a blacksmith was as important as a priest and a trader, as important as a warrior. This is why it was important that each of these professions needed to exist and why it was handed down through the generations. What happened from there was, ancient texts were made scriptures by the Brahmin class, attached to the Gods in temples, then they took control of the knowledge in them and decided who should have that knowledge. This is how caste based system and discrimination began. Caste system is all about controlling knowledge and this is what the English tried to destroy by introducing their form of education which is meant for all. Brahmin society weakened because in the ancient texts it is mentioned that everyone is born a shudra and our caste is decided by the profession we choose. This forced them into the confines of temples and scriptures and made them economically backward for a long time before they stepped out and became engineers, doctors, accountants, etc. But they still stay away from doing menial jobs.
There is a domestic worker in my neighborhood who works at multiple houses. She is a graduate but family circumstances forced her into this profession. She has struggled throughout her life to get her children educated. Her daughter has a masters in psychology and is working at a hospital now and her son is an engineering student. Because her profession is lowly and looked down upon by the society, she doesn’t want her children to follow her footsteps and has made sure the professions they choose are respected by the society. But what we are seeing now is large scale shortage of domestic worker. An ex-colleague called me from Gujarat to rant out her exasperation at not being able to find a maid. When you spoke about education for all at the town hall and used the example of the security guard whose son got admission to IIT it is something to be more alarmed than to rejoice. Education for all has already created imbalance in the occupations in society, we have been seeing tons of engineers and doctors struggling for jobs. Engineers from all branches have been jumping into IT jobs from the time IT industry blossomed in India and this continues even to this day. Now there is overflow of IT professionals and engineers with good skills and experience in other areas are hard to find. How would you plan to give jobs to all the educated people coming into the market every year? There is no possible way that so many jobs can be created to meet the needs of all the job seekers.
When I went to the Netherlands for work in 2008, I found out that one of the most respected and hard to get jobs there is as a bus driver. The bus stations are swanky and clean and the buildings where drivers rest and have their office looked far better than corporate office buildings. All drivers are in uniform and carry suitcases which has tickets, bus passes and other things they need to use. I have heard people say proudly that their parents are bus drivers. What I am highlighting here is the importance given to a profession in society. All professions in developed countries have equal importance except some of the menial ones.
Professional equality is a measure of maturity of a society. People who do what are considered as lowly and menial jobs in India face exclusion from the majority. I am not against education for all but what is more important is to restore dignity for every profession. I can clearly see the children of the domestic worker in my neighborhood carry the burden of being a domestic worker’s children and it is ingrained in their behavior and mannerism. They exclude themselves from everyone else and speak only when they are spoken to. I hope they will change with time when they are in professions which are respected by the society. I am looking forward to seeing an India where an educated domestic worker can proudly groom her educated daughter or son to become a domestic worker.