Recently the Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, said, “I am saying, take one thousand rupees, buy a kettle with it and buy some earthen pots. Have some biscuits with it. It will increase slowly. In the first week, take some biscuits, then in the next week, ask your mother to make some ghugni. Next week, fry some Telebhaja. Sat down with a tool and another table. Durga Puja is coming. I assure you that you will not be able to match the demand of the people. If someone sarcastically says you are doing this? Say this is how I will become a millionaire.”
After this statement of Ms Banerjee, there was a huge outrage from the ‘educated’ degree holders, predominantly from the affluent class of Bengal. Many accused her of coming up with a baseless plan to cover up the massive employment crisis in West Bengal. Most of the critics of this statement found it really disrespectful for a so-called ‘educated youth’ to start a small business mostly done by ‘illiterates’. According to them, it truly hurts one’s self-respect when one has to be a vendor on the streets despite having a bachelor’s degree.
One can make a decent amount of money equivalent to or more than an average Indian software engineer’s income by opening a fast food stall and gradually increasing their business. We already have pop culture inspirations like Prafull Billore (Founder of MBA Chaiwala) and Anubhav Dubey (Founder of Chai Sutta Bar) who started from a single stall and have expanded to the world in less than half a decade. Not just ones famous on YouTube, but lakhs of well-established fast food stalls make more money than an average engineer in India does. There are countless roadside food owners in India who are earning a ‘minimum’ profit of Rs 3000 per day, which will end up in a ‘minimum’ of Rs 90000 per month, and the average salary of a software engineer in India is Rs 238 per hour, which will end up in Rs 64260. Thus, Mamata Banerjee’s ambiguous vision easily solves the problem of earning money.
The main issue with the criticism of Ms Banerjee’s vision boils down to respect. As Prafull Billore in a podcast, once admitted that India is a respect-driven society and not a money-driven one, and this kind of response easily proves that. Here, just a degree or rather an extension to a name gives a part of society the right to declare certain professions inferior where those professions might have a bigger social and economic impact both at an individual and national level. Economically, small businesses are a ray of hope which ensures equal distribution of wealth and massive employment. Small businesses also ensure that there is no monopoly which is a disaster for a socialist nation like ours.
However, the respect-driven affluent class is the one we have which cannot withstand working in the same field where people with no educational degree are predominant. The ‘uneducated’ might have a much more indispensable skill required for the growth and sustainment of this society which the ‘educated’ degree holders are far from having. Still, the degree holders expect to be more deserving of the resources than the ones holding essential skills. This is also a reason why the 5000-year-old caste system still sustains, where a profession is linked to the name. They expect jobs but are reluctant to create ones in the sector where the majority (and backward) of Indians dominate. Mamata Banerjee did not propose a complete plan on how her government proposes to help the youth start small businesses. However, the Elitist mentality of the critics of her view is visible. This respect-driven mentality is a curse for India, where a cooperative mentality is the only way to mutual progress.