Opinion Poverty killing machine

Rs 3,000-10,000 per month. Such machines require no fundamental invention,just adaptation. Japan,since 1970s,has bought humanised mechanical+electronic engineering compactness into the market. They incorporated reliability with extreme user friendliness and grand quality in miniature format. That’s all our hard-working working-class professionals require but they have no way to get it.

If you travel through the country with an engineering eye,you’ll find poor people struggling for their livelihood. Either they have no machine,or if they do,it’s archaic. In south India’s famed silk industry,from cocoon to thread-making is a meticulous process. I saw skilled men and women working painstakingly but in pathetic conditions. Their output of creamy white silk yarn is carefully unwound from the cocoon filament as one continuous thread,collected into skeins,reeled and twisted. You’d never believe the rich,twisted yarns sent to silk factories for weaving expensive saris had emanated from this machine-less,miserable workplace in today’s world of advanced technology.

Take jewellery,where India’s branded market is growing 40 per cent. If you spend time at a goldsmith’s workplace,you’ll realise how workers struggle without up-to-date instruments for perfecting their handcrafted art. If Switzerland can have sophisticated,precision instruments for small-scale watch-making companies,why can’t India’s working class also expect excellent modern-day machines? Obviously because their requirement is on no one’s radar.

Indian businesses are highly driven by the demand-led market. But to cater to “machines-for-livelihood,” industrialists have to develop a value-led market mindset. There’s no stated demand from the 720 million population earning less than or about Rs 3,000-10,000 pm,but one has to discover what machines they need. Creating a value-led market requires huge research,a unique approach and self-urge to create value as such needs are hidden in poverty. Indians have not changed their age-old high tolerance of poverty.

Thousands of automobile,commercial vehicle and two-wheeler mechanics serve everyone who won’t go to bonafide auto-dealers for repair or servicing. They continue to exert physical effort using tools and machines that existed for Fiats and Ambassadors before liberalisation. Modernising equipment will ease their livelihood,and provide business generation opportunity for such manufacturers. You’ll find professionals like technicians,plumbers,electricians,masons,fabricators,as well as traders,contractors,small restaurant owners,mass market product dealers and distributors,and mom&pop store-owners all working without updated machines that could enhance their earnings. Neither government nor private industry cares about how they earn utilising pure wits,high entrepreneurship and hard work.

On rural India visits,I find farmers burdened with so much debt they cannot move anywhere. Micro-finance offers hypnotise them,and they get bogged down without fathoming why they’re paying so much interest. A farmer’s 22-year-old son says they make only Rs 50,000 annually from their two-acre farmland. Rs 30,000 goes on input cost,with Rs 20,000 their seven-member family cannot run. So they’ve found a way out. They buy potatoes,boil and mash them,add spices and besan at home,then run a few metres to a corner of the village. Here they fry potato chops. Replenishment happens on foot as they own no means of transport. They spend Rs 300,and generate up to Rs 1,000 daily,making a profit of Rs 700. If this laborious and unhygienic preparation is helped by mechanisation,this farmer can standardise his earning and reduce his labour.

The government appears to have no clue on how to solve livelihood generation problems of such farmers despite promises made by politicians during elections. Nor has Indian industry cared in 65 years of Independence. So shouldn’t someone take interest to invite already established developed country industries to bring modernised mechanical+digital machines to increase the earning capacity of India’s poor people according to requirements specific to India?

When I was in neighbouring Thailand,a street vendor on a motorbike with a sidecar of well-designed workmanship said he’s got his Alladin. His sidecar has arrangements for stocking,cooking and selling,so he needed no intermediary. He drives to source raw materials,goes to different localities at different times for better earnings. He serves wearing gloves,a machine cleans up the cooking plate,changes the oil without his hand-touch. His dustbin has a recycling system. Such practical systems are available for all their street vendors. Why can’t we similarly reduce effort,increase comfort in India where large numbers of street vendors physically push their non-mechanised carts and execute everything by hand?

When America beat all nations in industrial advancement in the last century,they first looked at improving the lot of working class masses,shifting them gradually from small home enterprises to becoming factory workers. Machines and tools for better earning possibilities were invented even during the Great Depression. If Indian poverty can be eradicated by adopting the da Vinci engineering code of modernising tools and machinery,let’s make it our single point action. That’ll upgrade livelihood prospects for the hard-working working-class,percolate to the bottom of the pyramid too. Simultaneously,everyone will enjoy hygiene and civic improvement.

Shombit Sengupta is an international creative business strategy consultant to top management. Reach him at http://www.shiningconsulting.com