You’ve never known what is to be poor. Fools say that poverty is no crime. But it is. The world impresses that on you very severely. It treats you much worse when you are poor than if you were a murderer or a madman. And the poor are more vicious towards the poor than the rich are; they never forgive you for being one of them.

‘Money’ is the only thing that can stand between you and hate and persecution and hunger. It is the only fortress a man has. People may talk stupidly about family and position and name. These are nothing, if you are poor. For when you are poor you have no family and no position and no name.

You have no money and you go into a shop and try to buy food on credit; and the shop owner shouts at you as if you are a mangy cat and drives you out and every one who hears laughs. Do you know what it means to hear people laugh at you when you have no money?

Don’t blame the world when it treats a man like a dog. It is because he has become less than a dog for having no money. He deserves his punishment. It is despicable to be poor. l want you to understand these things. I want to make it impossible for you to ever to have to suffer by giving you all a good education. (This is a condensed version of a para from a book I read many years ago).

Every parent’s wish is to give a sound education to their children and to see that they finally get into the university. The wish of every graduate who comes out after their stint at the university is to use their qualifications and knowledge for the betterment of the country, to earn a living and do their duty to their parents who had undergone so much hardships to give them the education.

It was Lord Beveridge I think who said, ‘that it is better to dig holes and refill them rather than keep people unemployed’ Idle minds they say are devils workshops. It is in these contexts that we must view the governments’ plans to find employment to the unemployed graduates. This is a vast store of diverse knowledge which the country has financed and should not be left unused. The governments initiative to find employment to the graduates should not be ridiculed and criticized as a political gimmick. We are sitting on a powder keg. If the treasury can find the money to pay these graduates and use their knowledge, give them all the support instead of finding procedural loop holes to block the scheme.

The government has now given this opportunity to the young graduates by initially providing them with a period of training, after which they would be allocated to the various departments.

Care should be exercised to see that Parkinsons Law of the tendency to multiply subordinates is avoided or the work of one will now be divided among five.

It is my suggestion that the training for these graduates should be a comprehensive one with a duel purpose in mind. The training program should be enlarged to equip them with at least a theoretical knowledge of commercial activities such as marketing, financial management etc, and of course at least a basic conversational knowledge of English. This would help them to apply for vacancies in the private sector if they are dissatisfied with the work they will be allocated in government service.