My Independence Day Speech | 80 Years of India’s Independence | The Freedom We Have, The Freedom We Need | A Celebration With Some Uncomfortable Questions

Independence Day Speech – My Special Blog

My dear brethren and sistren,

It’s the moment. This is it. But unlike others, I don’t want to keep my Independence Day speech short and cut to the point. It’s going to be long. So, please bear with me. It is not your usual generic speech that we write or speak just for the sake of it.

First things first, we wish you all a very happy Independence Day. Yeah, it feels surreal, but it’s true. We have successfully completed 80 years of Indian Independence.

Thanks to our freedom fighters, leaders, and everyone who stood behind us through thick and thin, helping us see the eight decades of independence.

The ‘freedom’, the term which many countries at the macro level and ‘people’ at the micro level are only dreaming of or aspiring to be soon, or just working in that direction! Leave it at that. I have something more important to say today!

My Independence Day Speech (Part-1): What We Built in 80 Years

Just take a ride back to 1947. And then come back to now. You’ll see massive development on all fronts.

Be it health, education, women’s empowerment, economy, and on all socioeconomic parameters, we are doing well. Maybe, as compared to many other countries, we are ahead. But still miles to go before we can translate ‘Viksit Bharat’ into reality.

I love my country. I want to see nothing but the ‘better than the best version of India’, which is yet to be unfolded. And I am optimistic here, maybe not at the current times, but one day for sure.

We should be already marching in that direction, but still certain factors are holding us back, without which we can’t realise our full potential.

My Independence Day Speech (Part-2): The Freedom We Still Need

I started my speech with how India has changed since 1947. But when it comes to basic needs of life like health, education, food, shelter, employment, and safety for one and all, are we doing enough?

What’s about the rich-poor gap, economic inequality, social evils that still persist in our society in the name of traditions and customs?

Women’s empowerment? Are you serious?

Agreed. Women’s lives have improved a lot in the last few decades, but just look at the sheer numbers! India has over 50% of its population as girls or women.

Now tell me honestly, are they really enjoying their freedom, or is this term only for them to see in history books?

Do you think as a society we’ve evolved enough to ban dowry, social stigma, body shaming, mental health trauma, violent atrocities against them on streets, homes, and offices?

What about harassment? Can we call it independence or freedom when 50% of the population still have to do what male members of the families ask them to do?

I don’t want to bring religions into it. Because most of the religions across the world have subverted women to be somewhat inferior to men, even though all genders of society are equal constitutionally, and that must be ensured worldwide.

Education, Empowerment, & Equality

Next cometh education. Do I need to say anything about it?

Yeah, it’s not perfect anywhere in the world. I just checked some of the student reviews of many top universities, and across varsities, I got the same feeling. Students are not happy.

But university education and basic school education are two different things.

Even after 79-80 years, if we have to justify to poor parents that they must get their children admitted to school, with mid-day meal arrangements, instead of supporting them at their daily menial jobs or working unclaimed part-time as a child labourer at some nearby shop or farm just to make two ends meet, it certainly doesn’t go down well with how we plan our future.

Basic school education is a must. It is uncompromisable. Yeah, in cities and towns, I think the awareness is at its peak, but in rural hinterlands, more awareness is needed.

Also, the innate genderism, when even if parents agree to send their child to school, they agree to send their son first instead of letting both their children go to school, is seriously distressing.

So, the difference between a boy and girl child is fed into the minds of girls and boys even when they haven’t reached puberty.

So, what else do you expect from them when they become adults?

Will they break the shackles of traditions and customs and family values that do gross injustice to families, keeping boys on a higher pedestal than girls, even in many cases where girls may be more talented and meritorious?

This is how patriarchy exists and is passed on from one generation to another. Here again, I think these people need freedom from this ‘rogue perception‘ that treats boys as superior to girls.

Healthcare’s Heartless Hardships

Health? Well, health is life, we all know.

But what about public health? We have some of the world’s best hospitals and medical care practitioners. But they are all connected to some of the best-known private hospitals and nursing homes. And you know what goes next.

For even a small surgery, the costs run into lakhs and millions. And at public care facilities, the less said, the better. The moribund state of affairs is plaguing the system, people, and human lives.

Last but not least, health insurance is just a sham.

You do health insurance with greater peace of mind that when you need sudden healthcare facility at a well-reputed private hospital, the health insurance policy will help, but that’s exactly when you are about to receive the double whammy.

First, either you or a family member is fighting between life and death on an ICU bed. And right then, you have to fight another battle against the health insurer just to make sure your claim gets accepted.

Even after paying health insurance premiums timely and for many years, they pray their claims get accepted, but unfortunately, many times they are rejected, showing some clauses and exceptions that are mentioned in illegible, smaller, red-ant-sized font that you can’t read properly without focusing at least an hour or two on that.

Even if some people read them, they take them naively. Most of them still buy a health insurance policy as soon as possible, overlooking the terms and conditions entirely.

I can count some more areas where we need freedom from mediocrity, red-tapism, forgery, and deceptive terms and conditions, but I will leave that for some other day.

In Conclusion

In this last segment of my Independence Day Speech, all I can say is that even after all this, India in 80 years has achieved what many other countries didn’t.

With a humongous size of our population, and being ranked in the top 5 world economies, it is no mean achievement. And the whole credit goes to our leadership and policymakers.

And we are successfully marching ahead to even make our country better. Problems are everywhere, but acknowledging them is essential. We are lucky that we not only acknowledge them but also try to fix them as soon as possible.

With these words, I am signing off.

Once again, happy Independence Day to all of you. Jai Hind.

(Atish Home Chowdhury)