Brain Drain
India has been the country which is called “ The Rising Power” on the global stage time and again due to many factors such as cheap human capital, an abundance of natural resources, and the will of the people who laid the foundation stone of this country to see to it that the Biggest Democracy lives up to its potential.
The technological and intellectual prowess we are trying to harness currently to climb out of the bracket of 3rd World Countries and finally be a developed and not a developing nation is falling short or rather always has been falling short due to brain drain.
What is Brain Drain?
Brain Drain essentially means when the highly educated part of the population of a state or a nation feels that the opportunities being provided in their homeland do not match their ambition or sometimes don’t even sustain their livelihood and these people have to travel out and seek opportunities elsewhere.
If you opened up someone’s Instagram account over the past few months and at random went through what people were doing, it was either
- Dropping a friend/sibling/cousin to the airport and then taking a beautiful picture of the airport facade OR
- Posting a picture of their connecting flight going into the US
This happens every year before the Fall semester and I wonder why are these people doing what they are doing?
What is the thought process which is driving these people to really find opportunities elsewhere, isn’t India on route to becoming a superpower? Aren’t there enough jobs? Is it just fashionable to get a degree from a University abroad just because you can put it into your bio and post pictures of your time there?
In defense, these Universities are top Universities in the world, so if someone has worked very hard to get into it on merit and is leaving for a really better life out there I think I can understand that. But I’ve seen people just leave the country for the sake of it and then get back because they didn’t think it through.
Why are young people so quick to give up on their Nation?
I. Policies and Governance
When Shri. Narendra Modi’s party Bharatiya Janta Party won the election in 2014 by a convincing majority, it was assumed that the Golden Era of India was going to start. Everyone was high off the success of the Gujarat Model and the great work done by Mr.Modi in the state and everyone was brushing aside the 2002 incident which apparently didn’t matter anymore. The first tenure started with a lot of promises, the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, Make In India to name a couple which prima facie sounded great but after the initial fervor for about 12 months, it has not been executed in a way that would actually benefit the taxpayer.
In 2019, the election wasn’t fought on any issues but on how the NDA government was fighting terrorism by responding to the fateful Pulwama & Uri attacks by the means of surgical strikes across the border. The opposition was weak and again, the NDA won with a better majority this time!
Now, why am I painting this picture up, what has this got to do with brain drain, isn't brain drain an already existing phenomenon which has no connection to the government, but rather has a connection to the policies in place?
The educated masses of the country are quick to escape it because there are no policies that would help them create a life which they aspire, work, and dream for. The ease of doing business in India hasn’t improved even after the NDA government, and the start-up ecosystem which was being looked at as the saving grace of the economy seems to be in a forever pit-stop. There are new Unicorns every day but are these providing the employment opportunities which is being expected from them? Swiggy and Zomato delivery executives get paid minimum delivery charges with no employment benefits like Insurance or a PF account. They are as good as daily wage laborers at this point in time.
Another talking point is the number of seats offered by premier institutes, and the ratio of seats to students which makes it increasingly difficult for any student who wants to avail higher education in an IIT or an NIT to get a seat. It should be tough getting in, not a herculean task, but those who get seats are also eventually looking to move out, in short, if its own citizens don’t buy the India dream the government is selling, can we ever become a superpower in the real sense of the word?
II. Social Structure
Communalism and Caste Discrimination was always and is still prevalent in the country, the only difference being that earlier being Secular was in fashion and hatred was spread through whispers but over the past decade, being communal and spewing hate has come into fashion and secularism and egalitarianism are just ideas whispered around.
Be it the CAA, the NRC, or the draconian UAPA law, the people in power are trying their best to show that the majority population, the Hindus, are in danger from the minority the, Muslims, and its time that the Hindus form an army to fight for their survival. This is the level of communal propaganda being broadcasted.
This sense of Hindutva and Hinduism would mean that the Hindus are a united bunch who want to allegedly save themselves from some tyranny they are facing but this precursor also fails. When a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand is the only apt idiom that comes to mind when talking about the Hindu community.
The internal division of Hindus into the 4 classes also known as Chaturvarna is the biggest threat to the community which no one identifies or wants to correct. The chilling reports of how Dalit women are mistreated as a part of the cultural routine make the mind numb and full of anger. The Hathras case, the Kathua case, the Unnao case just to name a few.
With this socio-political background in the picture, who in their right mind would think that setting up a business or running an enterprise or even living in India for their whole life is going to be smooth or easy? Furthermore, the culture in the West is far more broad-minded and people are indifferent to what others are doing. If that is what is being offered elsewhere, some peace, freedom to live life on your own terms and not be always checking yourself whether someone will take offense to what you say, the sharpest minds are bound to move out.
III. Economic Lust
Another argument presented when talking about moving out of the country, is about making money, which eventually boils down to having better pay there and living a meager life and then saving up to come back if shit hits the fan. When you move thousands of miles to another country, life is going to be tough and it’ll be tough here as well, but living in that tough environment is glorified for reasons outside my understanding. Just because the message from your bank says that the credited currency is Dollars/Euros, that life becomes more commendable is the mindset established by the Unkil community in our country.
These same Unkils are the first to crib about how our talent is wasted because of “Reservation” and then when Kamala Harris becomes the VP, these are the same people to call her Indian and be proud about it. Why can’t we have a Kamala Harris in India? Because “Krantikari paida ho toh padosi ke ghar” is the mindset we haven’t let go of after all these years.
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There also have been cases of people who after completing their education and working abroad, return back, which has happened in my family. The phenomenon is called Reverse Brain Drain but this rate is much lower than the immigrants we are exporting to the world. We are creating talent, but not providing a platform to showcase it.
A Nation’s population is a tool that if made correct policies and measures can be an asset but if ignored and exploited will become a liability. I don’t advocate or condone anyone to be patriotic and sacrifice their ambitions for their country, but instead, if the policymakers and the people working for the country realize what power can be harnessed if provided the right opportunities or by encouraging enterprise among youth, India can become a real superpower and not a self-proclaimed one.
