Friday, 26 July 2019

SELF HELP IS THE BEST HELP (Essay ) K. J. Thomas



As soon as school or college education is over, young men and women run after Government or private jobs, more particularly for ‘white collar jobs’. They go on writing and writing various PSC interviews and attending many coaching centers in order to  get a job of a petty clerk in any office whether it is in Kasargode or Kanyakumari because they live in ‘comfort zone’ and avoid risks. But how many of them get jobs? Do they get jobs to their satisfaction? No, not at all. The truth is that ninety percent of these job seekers end in great disappointment and tension due to the dullness in their jobs. They work only for the monthly salary because they have no satisfaction in their works.
More over the number of job vacancies in either public sector or private sector is dwindling day by day. Political parties blame each other for the rising unemployment problems. It is the habit of opposition parties in the state or Central government to accuse the ruling party of betraying the youngsters by promising them employment and denied opportunities. But as long as the reign of modern technology goes on, unemployment problem ought to increase as all modern technological methods are based on labor saving devices. It means all the productive, creative and skilled works are being done by the machines. This leads to unemployment and the consequent poverty and disappointment among the people. No government can help us if we don’t help ourselves by starting our own business ventures. We cannot expect ready made employment opportunities in offices and factories. It is not the mistake of the governments, but the mistake of our modern technology.
Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of our Nation had foreseen the present situation and said  that mass production by gigantic labor saving machines cannot solve India’s unemployment problem and  poverty. Instead, India’s economic progress depends on small scale village industries which can provide employment to all people. This is called ‘production by masses’.
 Let’s examine the twenty five years of the industrial progress of the nations including the rich as well as the Third world countries, of which India is one.  Every scientific and technological progress makes the rich, richer and the poor, poorer. Wealth is being accumulated in the pockets of the rich, whereas the poor is being unemployed and live in poverty and misery. This is because, everywhere gigantic labour saving machines are applied for work and all the skilled, productive and useful works are done by the machines. Even in agricultural field, the old farmer and his plough and the team of oxen are replaced by, gigantic machines such as tractors, tillers, ploughing, sowing, seedling, weeding, harvesting and winnowing machines have been introduced, eliminating working class from all fields of work.
In such a situation, can we go back  to  the old ways of farming and black smith’s shop? Is it possible? No, of course not possible. Life is like a river. It cannot flow back. Similarly, science and technology must go forward, but we have to reinvent our machines and redesign its applicability with the help of modern scientific and technological experiences to give more and more employment opportunities to our people, who are at present unemployed.
 Thomas Aquinas, the great Italian scholar and philosopher said that human beings are born to enjoy work with  his/her own skillful hands and clever brain. Human beings want to do creative, productive and skillful work which gives him/her  immense pleasure. But now this work is the privilege of gigantic, labour savings  machines.
Therefore ‘self help’ is the best help the youngsters can do in the modern age. we have to make small and elegant machines and tools to work with. Every one should be his/her own employer and start his/her small business enterprises. People have already started such enterprises. In cities, housewives and men cultivate vegetables, paddy and fruits on the terrace of their buildings and houses. A research scholar says that in five cents of land, one can cultivate enough vegetables and fruits worth Rs. five lakhs a year. These vegetables and fruits have great demand in the market as they are cultivated with organic farming system avoiding chemicals.
  What you have to do is to change your outlook on employment, and choose your own work according to your education, taste, capacity, age, local space and availability of raw materials.  Secondly you must get good training in the skilled work. You have to throw away the ‘comfort zone’ attitude and accept ‘risk zone’ as your guide to work and the benefit is that you are your own ‘boss’ and employer. Self help leads to the path of self- reliance and self- pride.
 There are many agencies, Central Government, state government and private organizations conduct training centres and workshops for young men and women and you will get perfect training and supervision from these agencies to start your own ventures. There are many a number of avenues of work such as agriculture, horticulture, fish farming, gardening, marketing, designing textile fabrication  automobile workshop, hotel management, travel and tourism, mobile phone repairing and so on.
 Now a days many graduates and post graduates dream to get employed as a clerk or officer in any branches of the Federal Bank Limited. But do you know how this bank was started? It was the humble beginning of late Kulangara Paulo Hormis ( K.P. Hormis) a native of Mookannoor near Angamaly who was a lawyer by profession,  but was a failure in the law court and decided to start self help. He was not disappointed, but worked hard in another field. He ran a shop at Aluva many years ago. It was a one roomed gold pawn shop and the board says “ Loan will be paid on the security of gold”. In course of time, when more and more customers came to him and his gold pawn business thrived, his enterprise grew up to one of  the most famous scheduled banks of India known as ‘The Federal Bank Limited’ spreading out thousands of branches all over India and abroad, giving employment to lakhs of graduates and post graduate men and women. The present headquarters of the Federal Bank is situated where Hormis had started his gold pawn shop.  K. P. Hormis has proved beyond doubt that self help is the best help a man can provide to others around him.
 If our principal Mr. Prabhakaran, after his education, had gone to work as a clerk in any government department, Nalanda College would not have been materialized and remained a dream. Instead of seeking a white collar job in any office, he worked hard starting with a humble tuition center in a rented room,  gradually developed  into a premier college teaching thousands of students and giving employment to hundreds of graduates and post graduate teachers. He teaches us the beauty of self help.
  Now our Government of India introduces various loan schemes for a young graduate or under graduate or post graduate who want to start their own enterprises. Loan schemes such as Prime Minister’s Kousal Vikas Yojana, Prime Minister’s Ujjal Yojana, Prime Minister’s Employment generation Yojana and so on and besides various nationalized banks in India have many generous loan schemes to help young entrepreneurs.                                                                                                     Kjt/-09-02-2019


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