Learning to Manage with Less Resources
In India, we often owe many things to our mothers. Perhaps not the present day mothers who are more glued to television to watch the stupid serials dished out in every language.
However, look back as less as fifty years into the past, and you would have to just talk to those women who are now into their seventies and eighties.
Yes, there was electricity and the radio, but the television had not yet arrived. Radio came much earlier. The fathers earned fairly less salaries, and the population was still not much, may be around 30 crores in the entire India.
We need to learn a lot from such experiences, and teach the younger generation to manage more with less. We need to undertake a big movement to keep the momentum going. Any small slip will cause a big disaster, as the entire effort will not see the light of the day.
We need to become more aware that many individuals have now taught us, how to manage our resources far better. For example, if we take the example of drip irrigation, through modern technologies available, it is possible to conserve too much of water, it is possible to grow more with less.
Similarly, if we adapt ourselves to conserving energy with our solar energy resources, it is quite possible to conserve our coal resources, which are fast depleting, and thermal energy is very cost, anyway.
Ditto for wind energy. The Government itself should come out with clear statements, allowing the generous use of such energy. The incentives provided by the Government should be creatively used to open up more employment opportunities in sectors like the wind and solar energy.
In a similar fashion, at the individual level, parents should teach good values to their children, before the age of five or six. Only when the transformation happens in these years, the mind set changes can ever happen. For instance, the good value of spending less on items like the junk food, which is now becoming a menace, is something that should be taught to them, at a very young age.
In fact, the middle class families have no choice. For example, those who are non-vegetarian, can save up to one thousand rupees a month, if not more, if they were to eat non-vegetarian, only on two days in a month, instead of once a week, as it often happens. Such savings can really help in times of need, and if pumped into long-term recurring deposits, can help a great deal in facing crisis situations, in the future, when, for example, the cost of medical care will simply go through the roof.
The art of managing with less, which was the norm some decades ago, needs to be revisited and lessons learned from them. We can do wonders if we do something about some good lessons.
Still, the women were more used to produce more babies and it was not uncommon to see any family that did not have as many as six children. Since the cost of living was also less, the mothers could somehow manage. Yet, lives were difficult indeed.
Talk to the uncles--- your mother's brothers if they are still alive. Life was really tough. The children mostly studied in the Government schools. English was taught as a subject, but in the early days of Independence, one can easily conclude, the standard of education was quite alright, and those who made it to higher positions, often came from Government schools.
The so-called English medium schools were few and far between. It was not possible for anyone to study in such schools, as the cost was high, even in those days.
Yet, the mothers taught the children good values, there was much more honesty in the society, and the frugal ways of living, ensured that the mothers often saved small amounts for the future. Even a small amount, set aside for the recurring deposit, made a huge difference.
In my own mother's case, she had learned the art of saving small amounts, and even in the early seventies, when the cost of living actually went through the roof, she would innovate in terms of cutting down costs.
For example, in a pure vegetarian home, she would stick to vegetables, and not add too much spices, as that was costly. Oily foods were best forgotten, and were rare in any case. Ir was quite rare to find the home full of guests in terms of some relative. Yet, my mother would never vent her anger and still manage.
Though times have really changed, and the younger generation is rather sold out in terms of high spending in tune with a huge consumerist society, all middle-class families should learn to do with less. There is an urgent need to stop all forms of conspicuous consumption. The vulgar display of wealth and jewelry in marriages should be avoided.
In fact, if the women of India do not buy gold or resist the temptation to buy less of gold for at least four months, the prices will come down, and the Indian economy as a whole, will stand to gain. We should learn to be more prudent in terms of spending.
Prudent spending, of course, is rather easier said than done. We often see public taps leaking and water gushes out of such pipes. No one bothers to even close such taps. Thanks to huge consumption, we have huge amounts of garbage accumulated in every public place. Unless we invent new technologies to manage such wastage, we are doomed to live in unhealthy surroundings.
We are very poor in terms of proper planing. Every managerial position has a car given by the company. Each and every executive has a great pride in driving to office in his own car. Even car pooling, which can be done on two days in a week, will reduce petrol expenditure.
Similarly, even small open places can be used to grow vegetables and fruits. Small open pathways in villages can be used to plant trees that grow very fast, to protect the environment. Similarly, the roof gardens that are there in many places, can be further multiplied, to make it a very effective option, to reduce vegetable prices.
With a huge population, we do not seem to have solutions to problems of supply and demand.
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