Morarji Desai: After the general elections in March 1977 and with the victory of Janata Party, Morarji Desai became the fourth prime minister of India on 24 March 1977. Morarji was born in a village in Bulsar district of Gujrat in 1896. His father was a school teacher. After graduation from Bombay, he joined Civil Service in Gujrat. Subsequently, he resigned from the post of deputy collector in 1930 and became a freedom fighter and took part in the civil disobedience movement of Mahatma Gandhi. He was elected to the Bombay provincial assembly in 1934 and 1937 and served as Revenue Minister and Home Minister of Bombay presidency. Thereafter, he became the chief minister of Bombay in 1952. After the partition of Bombay into states of Maharashtra and Gujrat, Morarji left Bombay and was inducted in the cabinet of Pandit Nehru. He was a staunch nationalist, with rigid attitudes and consequently, he was not very popular in the ruling hierarchy. After the death of Pandit Nehnu, he was bypassed for leadersip and Lal Bhadur Shastri became the prime minister in 1964. Subsequently, after the untimely death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966, the leadership of the congress party rallied behind Indira Gandhi for the leadership election. After the split of the congress party in 1969, he continued as a senior leader of Congress ( O). With the announcements of the general elections in 1977 and the formation of Janata Party, he was chosen as the Chairman of the Janata Party on 23 January 1977 and after the elections, he was elected as leader of the successful Janata Parliamentary Party and Prime Minister of India on 24 March 1977.
Jobs for a crore of people every year: Employment is a tricky term. It conveys different meanings to different people and varies widely from place to place and time to time. When Morarji Desai had a feeling that one crore of people should get into the work force every year, it indicated his concern about wide spread unemployment and underemployment in the country and the pitiable living conditions of millions of people in almost all sectors of the economy. There are all types of jobs, needing widely differing knowledge, skills and experience. No individual is a perfect fit for a job on day one. It is a dynamic process. A man has to pick up, whatever opportunities for work are available and are in conformity with his knowledge, skills and aptitude and thereafter, he has to keep moving in the pursuit of his dreams. There are lots of rags to riches stories, scattered all over the world, where people without means or with meagre means, scaled unassailable heights and generated fruitful employment not only for themselves, but for hundreds of thousands and millions of people.
Henry J Kaiser was born in USA in 1882. At the age of 13, he went searching for a job. He did not claim to have any skills, knowledge or experience, but by sheer willingness to do, whatever was assigned to him, be moved on and was in course of time hailed as the boldest and most spectacular entrepreneur of America, with involvement in a large array of commercial and industrial undertakings. He was the builder of Hoover Dam, which was the highest concrete arch dam in the world. He built and supplied 300 ships to US Navy during second world war and was hailed as the father of modern ship-building.
Dhirubhai Ambani of Reliance Industries was born in a village of Junagarh in 1932. His father was a school teacher. Dhiru Bhai worked as an attendant at a petrol pump in Aden and while pumping petrol manually in the glass bottles of the petrol pump, he used to have dreams, that, some day he could be the owner of the petrol pump. Subsequently, he moved back to India and was involved in selling spices in the lanes and by lanes of Bombay. That was followed by trading in yarn and ultimately in the establishment of Reliance Industries, which in course of time, became the biggest and most diversified, industrial conglomerate of India.
Walt Disney was born in 1901 and died in 1966. He was fond of drawing and sketching cartoons and caricatures. Starting with modest beginnings, he moved into animation, films and television. He shifted to California in 1920 and started his studio. His cartoon character Mickey Mouse was a hit and became household name in 1928 and thereafter, a regular chain of professional hits and awards followed. Disneyland was the brain child of Walt Disney. He developed Disney Land as a theme park, at Anaheim in 1955. Disney Land brings live almost everything from the past, present and future at one place and is full of entertainment with hotels, restaurants, theme parks, lakes, boats and all types of rides. More than hundred Disney Land theme parks spread all over the world, stand as the living monuments of the creativity, innovation and vision of Walt Disney. Walt Disney is the biggest name in entertainment industry and provides employment to hundreds of thousands of people all over the globe.
Henry Kaiser, Dhirubhai Ambani and Walt Disney and millions of others like them, scattered around the globe, did not have the benefit of formal or informal education or professional knowledge and skills training. Their only asset was that they picked up, whatever was available and kept moving up, step by step for the realization of their dreams.
Spinning wheel or charkha of Mahatma Gandhi: Spinning yarn from cotton with the help of the spinning wheel or charkha is just an operation. When Mahatma Gandhi picked it up in the thirties of the last century, it revolutionized the living conditions of millions of people, by providing opportunities for getting something, when nothing was available. People would go to Gandhi Ashram during their spare time, pick up the charkha and cotton and handed over the spun yarn to the Ashram after spinning. Payments were made to them, on the basis of quantity and quality of spun yarn. As time rolled on, a large number of people were involved in spinning and weaving of yarn. Coarse cloth or khadi happened to be an item of mass consumption and as time rolled on, it helped in the process of generation of employment for millions of people, in remotest parts of the country.
Amul and the white revolution in Gujrat: Producers of milk are farmers, landless labour and other common rural folk of Gujrat. Setting up of co-operatives, collection and transport of milk, setting up and running of dairy plants and processing and marketing of milk is professionally managed. The combination has been able to make Amul the biggest brand in food industry and in the process it has generated employment for millions of people and has made considerable contribution in bringing out tremendous changes in the living conditions of the farmers and rural people.
Farmers and landless labour: The uncertainties and living conditions of farmers and landless labour are always tricky problems for the political leadership and the government. Farmers and landless labour scattered all over the country are simple, honest, gritty and dedicated folk tied to their roots. They have been living at subsistence level or below subsistence level for centuries. All types of loans and subsidies have been provided to them from time to time, which have been helpful. Food for work and national rural employment generation programmes have been launched in almost all the states of the country and these have been helpful in providing some economic relief to the rural folk. If the process for the of collection of their produce from the fileds, its storage and marketing can be professionally managed by cooperatives similar to Amul, the quantity and quality of food produced and the living conditions of the farmers and landless labor can get a tremendous boost.
Low end jobs and high end jobs: All establishments, including industries and commercial establishments need people with different types of knowledge and skills for smooth running of their productive processes. In the beginning, all jobs are low end jobs. They help the people in finding their feet and getting acclimatized to the industrial and commercial environment and in course to time, the people, who enjoy doing, what they are doing, keep moving up the ladder. Low end jobs and high end jobs form an inseparable mix. Different combinations of low end jobs, end up in the creation and support of high end jobs and conversely, some high end jobs lead to the development of a large number of high end jobs.