Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging Pao ]
Are politicians social workers also? Is social work important in politics? Are social workers also rich and powerful like politicians? Why are genuine social workers not in politics?
Aristotle quoted in 350 BC that “man is by nature a political animal.” Politics is an essential part of any democracy. There is political manoeuvring in democracies, autocracies, communism, socialism, and kingdoms also. In fact, there is politics in social organisations, village societies, NGOs and even in our families. It is known that there are political considerations for appointment of key senior personnel in any government department.
Social work is about helping people. It’s about finding the problems and challenges of the common people and finding solutions to make their lives better. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, and respect for diversity are central to social work. Since social work involves working to resolve problems of the common people and the downtrodden, most social workers refrain from personal materialistic or monetary gains. Baba Amte, Mother Teresa, Vinoba Bhave, Anna Hazare, Swami Vivekananda, Uncle Moosa, Jadav Payeng, Indi Glow, WASE, AYANG, Deepak Nabam Living Home, Vivekananda Kendra, Ramakrishna Mission are leading examples of social workers.
On the other hand, politicians are persons elected by the common citizens to make laws in legislatures and to govern by forming a government. The Indian trilateral system consists of the legislature, the judiciary and the executive. In this system, generally politicians govern as the head of executive branch. With politicians involved in governance directly or indirectly, many of them frame policies and procedures towards monetary/materialistic/ideological benefits for themselves, their families and their political parties. It is interesting that many politicians and political families have become very rich. In contrast, most social workers remain poor, living modest middle-class lives.
India is a developing country with many indices below the world benchmarks. Youth unemployment remains high at 17.3 percent, literacy rate is still lagging behind at 77.7 percent, malnutrition rate is high at 16.5 percent, and the overall poverty rate is about 5 percent. According to global healthcare index 2021, India ranked 66 out of 195 countries. It may also be mentioned that India ranked 93 out of 180 countries on the corruption perceptions index for 2023 as per the Transparency International report.
These developmental figures/indices for the Northeast and Arunachal Pradesh are lower compared to the national figures. Therefore, there is urgent need for social reforms in India, the Northeast and Arunachal. Can these social reforms be fulfilled by the politicians alone? It is agreed that many politicians contribute to social work, especially in their own constituencies. However, compulsions and complexities of the existing electoral system force them to amass monetary gains to satisfy the unending demands of common citizens and themselves.
While most political leaders join electoral politics for personal pecuniary benefits, most social workers quietly work among the common masses to improve their lives.
Do you think more social workers should join politics and become part of the government? Should voters prefer social workers over career politicians? (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
