Play it again, Sam

His message was clear: you will have to help yourself if you want to change things.

His message was clear: you will have to help yourself if you want to change things. This was Sam Pitroda interacting with a group of about 50 children from Delhi’s slums and villages who met him in his office at the Knowledge Commission at his invitation.

He told the kids that he did not want to be told about problems, since they are all known. “Tell me how they can be dealt with,” he said. One young voice piped up: “We have to tell people not to give bribes.” The man responsible for bringing the telecom revolution to India responded, “You cannot change others. You have to change yourself. If 50 of us decide never to bribe anyone or accept bribes, we would make a beginning.”

He then told them about the time he went to a village as Rajiv Gandhi’s special advisor. “The pradhan had prepared a long list of things that were not available in the village, thinking I would be able to set things right. I told him, ‘I can’t. It is in your hands. If the teacher does not come to the school, has any villager ever volunteered to teach the students?’”

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Pitroda told the children how meeting them was part of a consultative process to learn their views, which would then go into recommendations made by the Knowledge Commission to the prime minister. “So how could one improve the education system,” he asked. A teenaged boy replied, “Education should be based on practical knowledge.” His answer elicited a “good” from Pitroda. “When we put questions to our teachers, we are made to shut up with either ‘you ask too many questions’ or ‘there is no answer to why’,” some young ones pointed out. “Parents should let us pick the courses of our choice,” said another.

Pitroda could not have agreed more. He observed, “Parenting has to change. Indian parents do not allow their children to explore. They constantly give instructions.” “But, sir, you should be telling that to our parents,” said one. Pitroda promised that his next meeting would be with the parents.

At the end of the meeting, which I attended, I sought out a little girl. She looks barely eight, although she is 11. Her father is a tailor. “What has been your toughest day?” I ask her. She gives me a dazzling smile, “I haven’t had any.”

Pitroda is quite right to place his faith in India’s children.