Need for haves to do some direct service of the have-nots, for social harmony

Last updated on 30th Nov. 2014

In a mail exchange, a correspondent mentioned (includes a small later clarification from correspondent), "a small distance can separate a poor area (like a slum) from a wealthy area, yet people can live for years in the wealthy area without ever seeing a poor area." To this I (Ravi) add, or rather elaborate: without ever spending time in that poor area and understanding the challenges of living in that poor area (slum).

I agree on the comments of the correspondent about living in a wealthy area without ever seeing a poor area. I think it is a great problem which exacerbates the rich/poor disconnect and which perhaps is a big factor contributing to social tension and strife, whether the country be a materially developing one like India or a materially developed one like USA. My experience in a spiritual organization with a lot of focus on service to the poor (Sathya Sai Seva Samithi), for nearly a decade, while I was in working in the software industry in Mumbai (around 1993/94 to 2002), was that its weekly or fortnightly service activities for the very poor in the slums and elsewhere, not only helped the better off in the spiritual organization have some understanding of the challenges faced by the very poor, but also the understanding of how essentially human both the very poor and the better off are. It helped in establishing a connect/common bond between the very poor and the better off. I think such efforts are greatly appreciated by the poor and it contributes to reducing social tension. Instead of a spiritual organization doing such stuff, it could be a non-faith-based NGO. But the essential point is human interaction between the better off and the poor, with the poor being served by the better off, even if it is just once in a fortnight for a few hours. Government welfare schemes, even if they deliver some money/services to the poor, cannot create this human bond in the community between the haves and the have-nots.

In this context I should also mention that my first exposure to such social service was in a non-faith-based environment, when I was a Physics undergraduate in Mumbai's Ruia college, http://www.ruiacollege.edu/ (in the early 80s when I was in my late teens/early twenties). The Indian academic system then had, and perhaps even now has, a special scheme called National Service Scheme which encouraged college students to participate in it, and provided some sort of academic credit for participation. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Service_Scheme, "The National Service Scheme (NSS) is an Indian government-sponsored public service program conducted by the Department of Youth Affairs and Sports of the Government of India. Popularly known as NSS, the scheme was launched in Gandhiji's Centenary year, 1969. Aimed at developing student's personality through community service, NSS is a voluntary association of young people in Colleges, Universities and at +2 level working for a campus-community linkage. The cardinal principle of the NSS programme is that it is organised by the students themselves, and both students and teachers through their combined participation in community service, get a sense of involvement in the tasks of nation building."

I have fond memories of my interactions via NSS with rural India, with health related activities in slums, with a school focusing on specially-abled children (deaf and/or dumb children), family planning related efforts of Indian government then ... Even though my family at that time was facing quite some economic challenges and I was having only enough pocket money to get by, it was clear to me that I was far better off than many others in my city (Mumbai) and country.

I think the world at large i.e. countries of all types: under-developed, developing and developed countries, should have more of such human contact between haves and have-nots where the haves serve the have-nots, even if it is a once-a-month kind of affair.