The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference.
“No power for villages during daytime” – screamed this headline in the year 2011. Infact the report went on to tell us that “If any village gets supply for one or two hours during daytime now, it may be by mistake of the field staff.” Read it again - If you get power supply then it is by mistake!
In 2019, I don’t have to tell you how easy the access to electricity has become! Every single village in our country now has access to electricity. Nearly 98% households have access to electricity. India today has become a net exporter of electricity, and this was possible only through the innovation and hard work on the entire government machinery led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
If you thought the ease of access has been limited to electricity alone, think about it again.
Earlier, applying and obtaining a passport was a nightmare. If you weren’t staying in a big city, you had to travel far off distances to apply. And then the brokers used to confuse you in order to loot you. And once you submit the application, it would take months for you to receive your passport. We had nearly 75 Passport Seva Kendras in 2014. That’s approximately 2.5 per state. By August 2018, we already had a whopping 308 Passport Seva Kendrasacross the country! Today, even a normal passport gets delivered to you within just a week! Contrast this to the months you had wait and the hands you had to grease.
Earlier, if you changed a job, remember the paper work you had to do to get a new PF account and then transfer your older PF account to the newer one? Also, remember the amount of paper work and wait time to get any corrections made? The Modi government introduced UAN (Universal Account Number) – no more hassles with PF when you change companies! One number is assigned to you for your lifetime, and you don’t worry about any paperwork when you change companies. Even the online correction of details is such a simple process now – if you have the right documentation, things get automatically done within just days!
Today, not only is it very easy to file your IT returns, but your refunds are also coming back at record speed. Not too long ago, refunds sometimes even took a year! Such delays are a thing of an inglorious past now. Today, the poor have better access to healthcare - from 2014-2018, because of free dialysis and also the Jan Aushadi Kendras; and from 2018 onwards because of Ayushman Bharat. Today, students of India have better access to even premier institutes because they have all been added at a record pace.
Earlier, if you had to change your mobile carrier, you had to go to the shop of a new carrier and buy a new SIM. And then additionally go over the hassle of disconnecting your existing number. Today, with One Nation One Number, all you have to do is make a phone call and you change your carrier (ofcourse you still have to answer some questions of the existing carrier)
One Nation, One Number also means there is no more “roaming charges” when you go out of your telecom circle – yet another ease of using your phone.
There was a recent uproar (as usual in the English media circles) when PM Modi made a joke about a 45-50 year old child! Usual suspects portrayed this as an insult to dyslexic students. Let me tell you what a real insult to not just dyslexics is but to a lot of differently-abled folks in our country. Till 2014, only 7 disabilities were recognized by the Government of India. Just seven. It is the Modi government that increased the list of such disabilities to 21, including “specific learning disabilities”, blood disorders and even acid attack victims. Those crying hoarse on one comment need to also look at how the Accessible India campaign and program has made a significant difference in the lives of the differently abled.
The revolutionary UDAN scheme has made flying accessible for lakhs and lakhs of Indian citizens. Today we have more airports than before, and more importantly we had more people travelling in flights than those travelling in AC trains! Speaking of trains, do you remember those difficult days when you wanted to book a ticket online? Do you now see how easy it has become to book railway tickets? Did you also know that all unmanned railway crossings have been eliminated in the country today? Chances are very high you wouldn’t know because the media doesn’t focus on these things!
The Narendra Modi government’s focus on making government services not just accessible but easy to use has shown exemplary results. Today’s generation might not be able to fully appreciate the scale of these changes but to the lakhs and lakhs of us who have witnessed these problems first hand, the time has now come to acknowledge the ease of living that the Modi government has ushered in!
This is the 7th part in a series on the Narendra Modi Government. Here are the links to the previous parts:
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