MNC Syndrome

Today Development is synonymous to Urbanization  All the developed countries of the world are urbanized with very less rural sector and In India urbanization has gained the pace after 1991 reforms but still our rural dominates. Indian way of Urbanization has many problems associated with it which we call Urban Sprawl because this urbanization is going on in an unplanned manner. We find a rise in the formation of slums in our cities, a traffic mismanagement and snail speed of infrastructure development in urban areas in comparison to the increase in urban population. Malthusian thought related to population seems to be valid for Indian cities though the context here is not food but the infrastructure.  This is one side of the problem of Urbanization which is the topic of discussion for many debates. But we often forget the other one.

When I was in Bangalore, I had observed one peculiar kind of emerging feature which I would call a problem in the Indian context. I found that most of my neighbours were either bachelors or only couples. I have seen rare instances where the parents of a bachelor or couple stay with them. Whenever parents visit their homes, they are often treated as guests and even parents feel the same because for them Bangalore is totally a new experience where they know none but their children. Usually parents stay for few days and then go to their respective places because they get bored in a new city where they know none and its culture is not in sync with their culture which we call youth culture (pub culture) and since their children go for work, they keep on waiting for their child to come back from office while sitting idle. In Bangalore the holidays means “going home” for maximum number of professionals working in the big MNCs. And again when they visit their home, they are treated as guest by their family because parents think that their child has come after long time for few days, so not to engage him in any mundane family activities. So finally we have become guests in our own family. This kind of feature actually is taking a shape of big social problem. Parents are away from their children always have tension about their children and similarly the vice versa. Today parents also don’t want to interfere in their ambitious child’s life and feel that their son/ daughter is happy, so they are happy too. The rise of American kind of family structure where parents stay away from their children is rising in India and I would call it a big “MNC syndrome”.  I get to know from my friend that one of his friends, who stay in Delhi is staying away from their parents who also stay in Delhi. The reason is not that they have conflict but the working boy wants to stay independently in which their parents have no problem. Such kind of trend is going to rise, because Indians have peculiar habit of imitating others.

In Indian context, where family has been part of the societal structure is vanishing slowly. We should be aware that America is facing lot of social problems because of absence of strong family structure like we have in India. There have  been lot of divorces, which is severely impacting the psychology of the children of the divorcees, led to the rise in personality or mental disorders and rise in shootings by children who are mentally ill. Do we want to see the repeat of such happenings in India too? I would say no. But now India is also witnessing the huge rise in divorce cases, some call it a sign of women empowerment or rise of women’s voice which up to certain extent is true but not in all cases. Divorce in cases where there is use of physical or mental torture by man against woman is justified but now it seems that the American kind of trend is visible in divorce cases too which are gender neutral. This is only because of the weak family structure and this is more prominent in the places where more and more nuclear families are coming up. The severe impact of such kind of urbanization is on the next generation who don’t able to experience the love and care of their grandparents and also they don’t able to appreciate the family values because of their very less interaction with their cousins, aunts and Uncles.

Why this kind of family restructuring is happening? Who is responsible? The main reason behind such kind problem emerging is the ghettoization of MNCs at one or few places. The government always has tendency to promote investment of MNCs in the Hubs say IT hubs like Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad.  Because of formation of hubs it is leading to not only spiraling up of the real estate prices but also lead to the creation of slums and other infrastructure problems. The companies’ establishment charges are going high because of the increasing rate of rents and cost of infrastructure. Because of migrating population, the rents of houses are also high in all these places. This kind of promotion of investment is leading to increase in economic disparities among states and also led the social problem which, I have discussed. This is truly a MNC syndrome which is impacting both – economic and social problem. I don’t want to deviate too much from my discussion and coming to the point how we can stop such kind emerging social problem, which is threatening the family culture of our country, where still people value relations more than money.

The solution is simple. Take an example of IT industry. Government should promote the investment of IT industry in tier 2 and tier 3 cities in every state where still very few companies exist. With the increasing demand of higher education, there are lot of engineering and MBA colleges have opened in every state but still companies who come there for placement and recruit them for Bangalore or Hyderabad locations. I would like to give the example of Gwalior , from where every year thousands of engineering and MBA students graduate every year but still Gwalior has very few IT companies around it. Gwalior has decent medical facilities, decent schooling and also rent and cost of living are comparatively very cheaper compared to Bangalore and Hyderabad. It will be very cost effective venture for any IT company to open its branch there. Government which has recently made 2% of profit as compulsory CSR under new companies’ bill, I would suggest there should be provision that companies who set up their venture in backward in terms of number of companies, their some part of investment will be considered as their CSR. This move will definitely make companies especially IT companies to think to invest in such areas since IT industry can be run independent of location, it only needs is an internet connection. Government should also expedite the laying of optical network or Wi-fi network all over the country in order to remove hurdle for IT companies, so that their they expand their reach.

The impact of such kind of investment manoeuvring by government will help in solving the emerging MNC syndrome. The children will stay near to their home or at their home. They don’t have to move for opportunity out of their state or their city or town. This will also help in strengthening the old age policy of the government, since children will take care of their parents at old age. Finally, a person has job, parents and family all at same place.