There is much to be done in our country, for Indians like Funtoosh who come from underprivileged classes. Missions like Digital Literacy and skilling are all steps in the right direction but we need to step up livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunity creation at a rapid clip
It was the early sixties in a little village called Tatisilwai, a dozen kilometres down Purulia Road from the small town of Ranchi in the state of Bihar (now in Jharkhand). My father had just moved from Kolkata to set up a factory for his firm, Waxpol Industries, in this village and I had to forsake my admission into St Lawrence School, Kolkata to be admitted as a first grader in Bishop Westcott School in the neighbouring village of Namkum. Back from school one afternoon in my first week in a new environment, I wandered into a nearby village (no fears of Maoist terrorists or kidnappers those days) and met a village boy who was busy making a gilli for a gilli-danda competition. My curiosity aroused, I quickly understood from him the nuances of this village game and found a friend who would be my companion through the next ten school years. His real name was some exotic multi-syllable Thakur name but we all called him Funtoosh.
Growing up in a village sounds romantic to many city dwellers but let me tell you it’s not easy either! And in a village like Tatisilwai, with only the Tuesday cock fighting at the village “haat” market and occasional fire walking for entertainment, my village friends and I had to innovate every day to keep ourselves amused. Games of Kabbadi and Kho Kho supplemented gilli- danda at times. We got the village carpenter to make iron wheels for us, which we would roll through the dusty paths of the village with great dexterity. Every tree, however tall or difficult, was meant to be climbed to access the forbidden fruit that grew in abundance in the state. Those were the days of innocence and wonder and it was Funtoosh, the son of my father’s driver Manna (Parameshwar Thakur), who lit up my afternoons and weekends with his creative penchant for new games and pranks and willingness to follow wherever I chose to lead.
To a large extent, we may have been inspired by our fathers. Manna and my father were like brothers and long after I had moved out of home to pursue education and then employment in Western India, it was his loyalty that took care of my parents. So much so that when my father succumbed to a cardiac arrest in the eighties, Manna came to visit us and ensured my mother’s move to live with us was easy. He then went back to the village….. and just died! He was 60 years old. Having lost contact with Funtoosh for thirty years, I went back in 2016 to search him and was delighted to find him in the same village. His story has been one that three hundred million and more of our less privileged fellow citizens endure all over the country. Dropping out of school after the eighth grade, he managed to find a casual job in Waxpol along with his two brothers and just retired last year. With a second wife and two teenage children, his savings are probably less than a hundred thousand rupees and one wonders how he will manage to get his family to some modicum of prosperity. As I write this, Funtoosh is sitting opposite me, having gratefully accepted a ticket to come and spend ten days with us in Pune, but his story is already causing trouble to us. We know that we will help one Funtoosh, but what of the lakhs and crores of people like him for whom time has stood still and “acche din” is still a dream!
We need to worry about the next generation of Funtooshes, who are entering a world of jobless growth, threats of artificial intelligence and robotics
There is much to be done in our country. Missions like Digital Literacy and skilling are all steps in the right direction but we need to step up livelihood and entrepreneurial opportunity creation at a rapid clip. When one compares the Funtooshes of the world to many of our youth in the upwardly mobile cities who suffer from a selfish angst of not being rich enough even at the age of 30 with multiple credit cards, a house and a car, the imperative for inclusive growth strikes us squarely in the face. We need to worry about the next generation of Funtooshes, who are entering a world of jobless growth and threats of artificial intelligence, robotics and other forms of automation eliminating jobs at a faster pace than job creation in many industries. Using technology to create a level playing field and build a platform from which every town and every Gram Panchayat is connected and investing in content that enables the most relevant job skills to be imparted to our youth would be a welcome first step. And this should be supported by investments in artisan livelihoods, tourism and of course labour intensive manufacturing and services to give even the village of Tatisilwai a glimpse of the future!
The good news today is that Funtoosh has a strong belief in Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Raghuvar Das and is optimistic about the future in which his children will seek careers. It is up to us now to ensure that his optimism is translated into a better reality for India and all Indians.
by Ganesh Natarajan
