Dependency Syndrome

British film Slumdog Millionaire, which scripts the rags to riches rise of a boy who grows up in the slums of Mumbai, is finding wide endorsement from across the world including from unexpected quarters such as politicians. The movie has earned the admiration of India’s Home Minister, P Chidambaram who urged a gathering in Chennai recently to watch the movie, as it was representative of grit and enterprise that thrives in the slums of India. Naga youths in particular should also be inspired by the work ethics depicted in the movie. The story about a Dimapur based non-local family of blacksmiths carried in the Morung Express also shares a common thread—of dignity of labour and self reliance, which is something that is missing among the Nagas in general. It is quite amazing to learn that any work done with sincerity pays at the end and the real story of success is scripted by people like Purma Rao Kumar and his younger brother Om Prakash Rao. One of the sons has landed himself a job at Bangalore as a junior scientist. It is another matter that Nagas can only sit and complain about not finding work and then crib about non locals draining away ‘our wealth’. This is nonsense. If we are at all serious, then we should lift ourselves up from our stupor and work if we want to eat and be self reliant. What is even more insulting is that we fail to acknowledge those who work and refuse to pay for the services rendered. Our dependency syndrome is so ingrained that we expect everything to be done for us.
Thomas Paine once said: “Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it”. The essence of this powerful message lends credence to widely accepted dictum that economic freedom or self-reliance is regarded as a necessary concomitant of political freedom. Our local economy is today solely dependent on imports, which is not a positive sign. Even food grains, meat products and other agro products are being imported. In economic parlance we are living beyond our means and this reflects poorly on our poor management of resources. On top of this our people have a serious problem of attitude when it comes to work ethics. We yearn only to be masters, of hankering after easy schemes and eating up the seed money under various welfare programmes meant for self employment.
This dependency syndrome needs to be addressed and overcome. This attitude is clearly manifested by the fact that we are unable to solve our own problems without outside help and this weakness is made worse by charity. If we as a community cannot become more self reliant and empowered, we will simply not develop and so poverty and apathy will eventually come to us. Even the Holy Bible warns of this. The attainment of self-reliance calls for ridding ourselves of the dangerous attitude of dependence. Government cannot create jobs for everyone. Naga entrepreneurs should come forward and make use of the doors opened for them. According to a cover story in a leading news magazine, some of the most unusual and successful Indian entrepreneurs, post-liberalisation, are those who identified opportunities in the new economy and created successful businesses. Naga youths need to be enterprising and resilient. Ask people like Ratan Tata, the Ambani brothers or even ordinary people like Purma Rao Kumar.