But, India is developing and leaping forward...

I got this from a friend while trying to explain why we raise funds for grassroots efforts in India.

Every newspaper carries news about the stock market, the high economic growth and the new IT hub India has become. Outsourced jobs and higher standard of living ....wait..higher standard of living ? For whom ? The common man ?

This needs some more information. Every time you try discussing a serious problem that needs to be addressed or something that needs effort - the candid response is - "India is Shining" - we have world class hotels (forget the underprivileged relegated to slums living next door), we have high paying outsourced jobs that has made India a IT hub (forget how even after repeated attempts the National Rural Employment Act of the government never took off and we still have hunger deaths in rural areas), great market economy and booming stock market (in stark contrast we still have so many farmers committing suicides due to debts and there exists inhuman acts such as 'bonded' labour (a lighter term for slavery) that the Indian government claims to have abolished a long while ago)...and so it goes on...

Is a citizen being a traitor or more lightly put losing his 'patriotism' in recognizing the problems of a country and creating awareness about it ?

Really speaking, I don't know - but, if there are lives and livelihoods of children, women and underprivileged that are at stake, what would common sense tell you ? The answer is most probably the same - what country, religion, caste, race, sex etc. etc. you might belong to doesn't really matter.

Some of these are recognized and accepted by the government itself - Here are some articles :

The Guardian

The Hindu (P.Sainath)

If common sense makes you a traitor, I am scared to know what makes a patriot!

Why concentrate on negative aspects - why talk about only the poverty, hunger and probems ?

We either choose to recognize and address the issue at hand or ignore it to keep dwelling on positives. If "progress" is a "wheel", let this be the "brakes" - but without brakes it gets pretty dangerous because harder is the fall.