Is Atmanirbhar really possible?

One of the many lessons what the Sanatana Dharma educates us is to remain ‘Swabalambi’ – self-sufficient and being ‘Atmanirbhar’ – self-dependent. Today when our nation is battling to recover our economy through various ways as a lockdown was imposed due to the incursion of COVID – 19, it is time we rotate our wallet’s flow towards the local vendors, manufacturers, artisans, handloom weavers and many more domestic traders. We as citizens of this nation can revive the economy in very simple ways.

Buy Swadesi Products from indigenous dealers: We have fed the foreign companies enough for them to feed their next few generations without struggling much. But are our domestic firms strong enough to sustain this kind of economic slowdown? Owing to the lockdown and invasion of foreign retailers, many businesses have wound up their business and are looking for alternatives. Being a socially responsible citizen, it is our duty to help, motivate and encourage local businesses and help them sustain the economic slowdown. In the last two-three months, a new industry was born. If we remember prior to the COVID – 19 pandemics engulfed India, we used to import PPE kits for our doctors and paramedic forces. But when the local textile industry had to shut their doors, they found an opportunity during these difficult times. They thought, “Instead of keeping the factories shut, why not manufacture PPE kits?” One private company started, another followed and today India produces 450,000 PPE kits every day. Difficulty turned into an opportunity, India became the second-largest country in the world to manufacture PPE kits.

Another opportunity created out of difficulty. When the whole world was binge shopping for hygiene supplies like soaps, disinfectants and hand sanitizers. Tribals in Chattisgarh  found a new opportunity to revive the country’s economy by utilizing the Mahua flower. What can a humble flower do to an economy? The Mahua flowers are used to produce an alcoholic drink in tropical India. When the country was glaring towards the shortage of ethanol, with some help of research this desi alternative was found. This not only fixed the problem of hand sanitizer’s shortage, but also a larger grim – the economy.

Payments through Local solutions: Cash is the first thing we need to think of, to make and receive payments. If an individual is accustomed to making payments via cards, one can refer to the domestic system of payment (refer to my previous blog to know why and how RuPay could help).

This downtime for the nation has certainly given birth to innovative initiatives to locals. Citizens have adopted to enhance their skills like augmenting their culinary proficiencies and trying their hand at self-grooming and various skills thereby uncovering their hidden abilities.

Just by following these steps, our nation need not even think of shunning down foreign products. The foreign companies will automatically look for alternative countries for marketing their products. Just by thinking of these alternatives, we can not only encourage our country’s manpower, but we can also revive our country’s economy and set an unprecedented example to the rest of the world.

It may not be possible to shun foreign goods overnight, it can take a few months or even a few years to do so. But I am confident that we can certainly be Swabalambi and Atmanirbhar to a greater extent by developing our countrymen’s untapped potential with some support from the administration. This dream certainly looks difficult, but it is possible. 

“Great historical progress always happens after major disasters” – Xi Jinping

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Note: The content of this post has been adapted from 'Following Love' - vlog. The image designers own the copyrights of the image published in this post.