06 Jun Public Facilities: do they count in Development?

In the words of John Stiglitz, “Development is not just about transforming facilities, development is about transforming the lives of people.”

In today’s modern India, the state of public facilities is drastically improving, but I question you today, what use are they if we, the citizens don’t have the basic civic sense to use them?

Let us take the example of our country’s first high speed luxurious train, the much talked about Mumbai-Goa Tejas express. It was a facility provided to us with LCD screens, head phones and every thing the new generation requires. But what did we do? The people thrashed LCD screens, stole head phones, soiled washrooms and littered all over the train. Now why wasn’t the train able to survive its very first journey? Why wasn’t it allowed to thrive towards development? Was it because of the state of the public facility or the state of basic civic sense in people?

I want you to ask yourselves, friends, are we even worthy of such facilities and services, when we lack the basic etiquettes on how to use them. Development occurs only when you, me and all of us are educated and are aware on how to use the facilities provided to us.

In the end, I would like to conclude this with the words of Rajiv Gandhi, “Development is not about factories, dams and roads, development is about people. It’s the human factor which is of supreme value in development.”