President of India Ram Nath Kovind on November 26, India`s Constitution day said: “Technology is an enhancer of justice as well as challenge. It calls for us to think of technology justice as a subset of economic justice. This is very true in the context of access to technology for our poorer and less privileged fellow citizens”. According to census 2011, the Scheduled Castes (SCs) population is 16,6 percent. The majority of the Scheduled Castes lives in extreme poverty. Most of them are engaged in agricultural chores. Past and current studies conducted at the rural level by social anthropologist and economists indicate that the majority of the Scheduled Castes are landless. Because of the prevailing corruption and nexus between bureaucrats and politicians they are in the grip of financial debt. The contemporary condition of poor SCs particularly in the rural villages of India is pathetic in terms of economic sustainability. Socially, they are discriminated, segregated and face the curse of untouchability that obstructs their social and economic mobility. The reality of the prevailing caste system by the industry chambers such as Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) and Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry(ASSOCHAM) recognized the fact that, “India`s socially and economically underprivileged Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have not been able to release their full potential due to centuries old-social discrimination.
When President of India Ram Nath Kovind talks about access to technology for poorer and less privileged fellow citizens he purposefully indicates that technology access is a challenge to the underprivileged minority groups. In India, it has become a fashion to talk about innovation and technology but there is hardly any knowledgeable person found talking about the challenges of access to technology to the underprivileged minority groups.
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in India remains controversial. The Indian government has been trying to make it mandatory for companies to spend at 2% of net profits on CSR activities. CSR stakeholders have not focused on inclusion of the less privileged fellow citizens. The current economic activities of the business have ignored and subverted the sociologist ideology. The corporations in India are not socially, ethically and politically responsible. Doane(2015) in his article “The Myth of CSR: The Problem with Assuming That Companies Can Do Well While Also Doing Good is That Markets Don’t Really Work That Way” argues that the fundamental obligation of the corporation is to serve itself. So basically the kind of person a corporation is a profoundly self-serving person.
This obligation to the welfare of the society would never be fulfilled by industry practitioners, business leaders because their mindset is infected by the phenomenon of the caste system. Jodhka(2006) in his article: “Caste and the Corporate Sector” argues that “the candidate`s family background being an important consideration, the chances of a Dalit or a Muslim candidate for being called for interview for a job in the corporate sector were significantly lower than others with exactly the same CV”.
Taking this argument further, children belonging to the underprivileged minority groups cannot hope for financial inclusion. Though thousands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are found working in the field of skilling youth with spoken English to improve job guarantees. For example TECH India under its CSR activities claimed to train 2,500 youth and children from vulnerable & marginalized communities. The litany is that such corporations lack data on how many youth and children belonging to the underprivileged got employment through CSR activities.
The private sector has taken over education, health, housing, urban & rural transportation, telecom, and the Internet. The proliferation of private sector is going to increase in the coming future because the government of India neither has sufficient funds to support welfare schemes meant for the underprivileged minority groups nor a political will. It is a known fact that the private sector is run by a capitalist class and the primary objective of the capitalist class to maximize profit and not to deliver economic justice to the less privileged fellow citizens. Till date, the private sector is found exploiting financial resources of the government. Having this motive, the private sector cannot deliver economic justice to the less privileged class. It is moonshine to think of economic justice from the greedy hands of the private stakeholders.
President of India Ram Nath Kovind being himself from the underprivileged minority group needs to see how the poorer, landless, poverty-stricken fellow citizens get the benefit of ever-changing technology. He needs to see how this class of have-nots can be included into the mainstream society. He needs to see how the widening gap due to technology and innovation in the agriculture sector can be bridged. He needs to see what inclusive policies are formed and pursued the inclusion of children and youth of underprivileged minority groups by the government of India. He needs to see what steps are taken by the government of India to provide a quality education in the government-run schools. Quality education by the qualified teachers at the government-run school can only transform the lives of the underprivileged youth and children. There is an urgent need to improvise the infrastructure at par with the private educational institutions. Former President APJ Kalam rightly said, “ Education can bring about a 360-degree change in the life of underprivileged.
