Farnaz Bhanu
We have recently completed 70 years of independence; it makes each one of us proud to be a citizen of a democratic country like India. India is the largest democracy in the world. Despite having different religions, cultures, race, colour and languages we have been living together for many years. Foreign rulers had made many conspiracies to break our country. But all their conspiracies were in vain and we got independence. After celebrating 71st Independence Day, I feel that India will become truly independent only when we are free from all social evils which have to be wiped off from the grassroot level.
Corruption is major problem which has been haunting Indians and adversely affecting Indian economic system. Though we are independent country, we have not been able to get freedom from corruption which has made its way into the hearts and veins of most of the government offices.
Education is yet another necessary step towards Independent India – a nation where people are literate, have jobs, live a respectable life. Even today majority of Indians do not have access to quality education. People from SCs, STs and other backward classes are not given the rights due to which they are ill-treated and get abused, both verbally and physically.
The next evil which is very important is the female foeticide. Even in the 21st century people take a girl child to be a burden and force the pregnant lady to carry out an abortion after undergoing a sex determination check. On one hand we are promoting equal rights to men and women and on other side we ignore cases of female foeticide.
Another social evil we see in this independent country is to abuse, molest and rape women. It’s not only about women, even children are not spared. Surveys and statistics show that one in three rape victims is a child. Unfortunately nowadays not even in their schools where they go to shape their future, to get educated they are becoming a target of violence.
Another thing disturbing is propagating hatred among religions by using patriotism and killing in the name of Desh Bhakt. We proudly claim that we are independent from a foreign rule. All this really makes one wonder whether we are really independent? Are we a free nation?
