----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, January 05, 2006 3:33
PM
Subject: [Assam] Whither Assamese Youths?
- Sentinel
Now, now Ms. Das - you
can't go on blaming our youth.
"Indeed those people from Assam who
have stepped out of their shrunken boundaries leaving their lahe lahe
penchant behind, have fitted into the energetic ambience quite well. And some
have done extremely well."
Seriously, an article that echoes
many of our thoughts.
Whither Assamese
Youths?
Maitreyee Barua
Das
A
n editorial in this newspaper on the frustrated youths of Assam
unravels a chain of thoughts, about the present against the
past. About the halcyon days, our days, the days of our fathers! Feeling
nostalgic about the days gone by is a bane of middle age, but in this context
the sadness is called for. The old days were well and truly good, no doubt
about that.
Those of us confined to the
pristine perimeters of Assam and perhaps Meghalaya both in our living and
educational experiences did not have too many choices careerwise. It was the
government establishment, the teaching institutions and the few public sector
undertakings which offered openings to the middle class educated youth. This
limitation had its share of frustrations but did not include the problem areas
that have mushroomed today, namely kickbacks and "connections". Merit was by
and large the sole criterion for securing employment. Yes, in those days too,
there were some who were more equal than others, but they did not form the
bulk of the recruited lot. There was little to fault the recruitment procedure
because the deserving lot usually got selected. Going further back to the time
when many of the established institutions were in the nascent stage, I
remember my father and his colleagues working through the nights to give shape
to the projects that the government had set up. Compared to the fat pay
packets of today the returns were meagre, but incredibly that mattered little.
People went with their families to the remote areas of posting and cheerfully
gave their best.
The malaise of big money changing
hands during recruitment to different departments today is very much in
keeping with the insincere work ethics that has steadily engulfed us. We shun
work and look for easy money. We fight shy of the competitive selection
procedure and prefer to buy our way in (shamefully some of us even boast about
our under-the-table dealings!) We would rather throw away our money on bribes
than put it on a business venture. We look towards the omnipotent agency
called sarkar to provide us with employment, while people from
different corners of the country come to our State and set up successful
commercial ventures. We have a peculiar aversion to toil and sweat. So we hand
over our lands and other occupational spaces to immigrants, legal or
otherwise.
Not that enterprise and the will to
work are totally lacking. Those among us who strive and persevere succeed in
carving out a niche for ourselves. Sadly though, this is neither the general
rule nor the dominant culture. The callous attitude prevents us from taking
full advantage of the IT revolution, the markets that have opened up and the
corporate sector that is creating numerous job prospects. True, it is a
competitive environment and nobody will hand us these opportunities on a
platter. So do we make an effort to grab these chances offered, or fall back
with an abject dependence on the government? In the case of the Assamese
people, it is usually the latter, while thousands of other young and not so
young people from every strata of society have fanned out to different parts
of the country and the world to secure employment. They come from places like
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Rajasthan,
Punjab, all States with more capable governments offering greater employment
avenues! Indeed those people from Assam who have stepped out of their shrunken
boundaries leaving their lahe lahe penchant behind, have fitted into
the energetic ambience quite well. And some have done extremely
well.
During my sojourn outside Assam and India, I have
come across a lot of my country folk earning their livelihood in a hundred
different legitimate ways. Only a minute fraction of them has been from my
State. I have never stopped wondering at what could have been if more and more
Assamese youths ventured out to take up these pan-Indian and overseas jobs.
Perhaps there never would have spawned an industry of extortion and
insurgency.
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