Lingo kid and latent India

India never stops surprising me. Recently came across 'lingo kid', a child on the streets of Mumbai, who doesn't go to school and sells peacock feathers outside Hanging Gardens in more than 6 international languages. Watch him here:



Incidentally the same kid has now grown up, but is still doing the same thing day in day out (see below), and he still doesn't go to school. Although he is an incredible spectacle, is it really worth admiring his skills or the 'wonder of India' if he, and millions other like him, perpetually do the same business for the same rates for years? It's a fact visible in hundreds of teeming towns across India which never seem to have changed every time I visit them. I fear that the continuing disparaties between the progressing India and those left behind may have disastrous consequences.



'Inclusive growth' is the buzzword of the time. Many mega-schemes of the government aimed at this - most recent one being the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme - are a failure. It is fundamentally incorrect to forcefully create jobs where there is no work, rather the rural economy should be stimulated to grow organically which would create jobs by itself. Examples of success in that regard are microfinance schemes. Capitalism wins again.