It's Neither Predestined, Nor Unconquerable

In April 2021, The State Council information office of the people’s republic of China issued a white paper “Poverty Alleviation: China’s Contribution and Experience”. In that paper, all the sufferings China has gone through and all the strategies the state adopted to make China a poverty free country are mentioned. It is a Kristal clear truth of the world that China is the most populated country of the world with around 2.2 billion population. The people once had time when there was no food, shelter and a piece of cloth for them. They were living a life full of troubles and the situation was even worse up to this level that it seemed quite impossible that the country will ever make any economic progress. Many articles and books are written mentioning how people were facing the grim challenges for seeking food and other necessities of life. The circumstances were same till 1960s and 1970s with a lot of poor people living in the villages. The authors narrate that children were punished and thrown out of schools due to improper clothing. The people had to boil the branches of the trees to eat at night. At times, they did not use to find any of the branches so they had to sleep in the state of hunger which was the extreme of troubles and pain for them.

Then the time took a new direction and the unexpected began to change into reality. The world saw a great turn in the history of China. The country experienced huge rise in various fields of development. The state economy progressed rapidly and the coin was swiped to an opposite side. The intellect goes deep inside into a state of shock to comprehend how this all happened in just few years? There are several answers to this question. But, the most simple can be, consistency. Consistency in planning, consistency in implementation of planning and consistency regardless of how out of the clear sky the hardships can occur. In the white paper issued by State Council, it’s stated that the people actually started to make collective effort after 1949 and from then the state achieved milestones, one after one. China screwed up the developmental process in a step by step continuous momentum. The first need was to prevent frequent wars and exploitation of the people for which the efforts were made and consequently, PRC (People Republic of China) came into being. When the wars got stopped, the people got enough time to think and plan about other areas of life. Everything starts with peace as Markus Tullius says, “Peace is the liberty in tranquility”. Still, the country was poor. Gradually, the plans were made to condemn capitalism and the idea of collective effort was propagated among the people to inculcate determination and self-reliance in them. As the time passed, different strategies were adopted by the state to fight poverty. For instance, fundamental needs of life were provided to the farmers to motivate them towards education and contribute in the economy of the country. After 1978, the state designed goals like doubling the GNP of 1980 by 1980s. That’s how China reached where it is today and experienced a vigorous boost in poverty alleviation and the decline in the impoverished population.

Throughout these years, the country was so consistent about its goals. The state set the eye on the goal and worked towards it with great zeal. Same was the attitude of the people. They knew what to do and they were consistent with that. This life lesson can be learnt from China on individual level as well. Whatever you want from your life, set your eye on it and be consistent with it. Consistency is the key to unlock many doors of opportunities and success. Plans can be and in fact are made by many, but few willingly conquer the world of dreams. And those are the people with consistency. A consistent individual makes a consistent society and a consistent society makes a consistent nation of people who never compromise on their goals and plans no matter what the circumstances are. Poverty or many other problems are neither predestined, nor unconquerable.