Brain_Drain

The story of human migrations is as old and interesting as the story of man. Even in the pre-historic days our ancestors moved from one place to another in search of “fresh woods and pastures new”. In the 20th century, the pace of human migrations has enormously increased as a result of modern means of transportation and communication, and large number of people, both skilled and unskilled, traveled and un traveled, are eager to migrate from under-developed countries to the developed ones in search of new avenues for employment and also to enjoy new-found pleasures of the “promised lands”, making this phenomenon assume alarming proportions, threatening to shake the very genetic foundations of the third world countries. In 1907 alone, 1.3 million people migrated to the US and every year this is repeated and most of them settle down there. The emigrants, as a rule, are the most gifted and talented people, the cream of a population. They are adventurous, risk-taking, industrious and intelligent. The Asian immigrants to the US are professionals and degree-holders. So immigration is frequently an uneven transaction. “When a scientist from India or a professor from Guatemala or a physician from Philippines moves to the U.S., America’s gain is the native land’s loss. Since few American professionals settle elsewhere in the world, the redistribution of talent serves only to widen the gap between the land of plenty and the lands of poverty. Worse still, the cycle tends to perpetuate itself; as more and more people leave their native country for the U.S., more are likely to leave to join relatives or cash in connections or simply follow examples” (TIME, 9th July, 1985). Thus migrations lead to brain-drain. Critics often condemn brain drain as a financial loss. They bring out statistics in terms of money spent on training doctors, engineers, post-graduates and other professionals. For example, the Government of India spends Rs.2 lakhs on every I.I.T. graduate and one out of every three of these settle down in the U.S. According to WHO< India is the largest donor of medical man power in the world. About one lakh doctors of Indian origin are working in the U.S. and U.K. has more than 2500 Indian doctors. According to UN estimates, in the early seventies, about 60 per cent of Pakistan’s doctors, 25 per cent of India’s engineering graduates and 35 per cent of Sri Lanka’s accountants left their home countries for opportunities abroad. Between 1960 and 1976, about 4.5 lakh professionals migrated to the developed countries from the Third World. The value of this skilled migration is estimated at 3.5 billion dollars a year. But the financial loss is in a way compensated by the foreign exchange earned by the home country. The real loss is not monetary but GENETIC; the irreparable damage done to a nation’s talent pool. According to the famous Hardy-Weinberg Law of population in Genetics, gene frequencies in a population remain constant from generation to generation if no evolutionary process like migration, mutation, selection and drift are operating. Forces of natural selection are mostly ineffective in human beings because of the advances in cultural evolution leading to monogamy, therapy and other scientific discoveries. Some 20,000 Indians migrate in the USA every year. Quite a large number of Indians migrate to Canada, Australia, Britain, West Germany, Brazil, Gulf countries, African nations etc. Many of these are professional graduates from prestigious institutes in India. According to a UN study, in 1971-’76, 61,000 doctors, 1,00,000 engineers and scientists and 1,25,000 technicians left the developing countries. “In the seventies, 12.2 million engineering degree holders left the less developed nations to work in the West while two-thirds of the world’s population has only 5.5 million engineers working for it. It is estimated that about one lakh experts are lured away every year from the developing countries. This out flow of skilled and highly qualified personnel widens the technical gap and perpetuates dependence on the developed world’ (MIRROR, April 1987). In the long run this emigration is sure to reflect on the Indian national scene in many ways. India may not have to face a shortage of technical manpower because she produces a large contingent of professional people (third largest in the world) every year. But the crux of the problem is the deterioration of the quality of its manpower. Once the best lot of the Indians have vacated the country, those gaining admission to the professional courses will be of the second or third rate quality. This is sure to reflect on the general efficiency of technical manpower in any country. Genetic deterioration is not limited to professional or technical fields, but there will be a chain of reactions, one following the other, and will have its repercussions in all walks of life. Slowly but steadily, the quality of our administrators, politicians, entrepreneurs, and even the working class, will decline resulting in unprecedented consequences. Finally, India and many other third world countries will be housing mostly mediocre class of people and so suffer the consequent economic depression. Deterioration of the intellectual ability is already evident in India in many areas of life: As a result we have many a third rate administrators, doctors, lawyers, scientists and so on. Intelligent, hard working and dedicated teachers in schools and universities are becoming a rare species. Perhaps the most affected is the government services with many third rate and inefficient staff resulting in untold misery to the public. Brain drain is just one reason for this alarming situation. Other reasons too are evident. These include the explosive growth of intellectual jobs, out numbering its supply, and forcing the mediocre to get into the intellectual positions, reduced reproduction by the elite by resorting to prevention of pregnancy, reservation of jobs for weaker sections of the society etc. All these contribute to the dilution of the efficiency of the white collar workers. Intelligent and industrious people (leaving exceptions) are generally dedicated and competent, contribution to the progress of an establishment and prosperity of a society. The mediocre are, as a rule, suspicious, corrupt, easily swayed by false and unscientific propaganda, and when they handle responsible positions, there will be inordinate delays, they formulate unscientific policies, impede progress and everything will be in utter confusion causing misery and hardship to the people. The recent immigrations to the US are mainly to cash the job opportunities and freedom and not for farming or gold. With this goal in mind, intellectuals and professionals from all over the world are pouring into America and in 1967 one in every three immigrants in the US was a professional. These selective immigrations have greatly enriched the American Stock. US made significant gains in terms of immigrants and scientists from Asia and Europe. The influx of scientists and inventors speeded up the process of technological development which also proved to be a vehicle of economic development. UNCTAD estimates place the gains of the host country at around Rs.2.4 million in the case of an engineer, Rs.2.1 million in the case of a natural scientist and Rs.2 million in the case of a social scientist. How to prevent this loss' Should we stop gene drain by mandatory means' Preferably not at least in a country like India where corruption, bureaucracy and jealously, prevail every-where. Let not our able and intelligent scientists and doctors rot under the prevailing bureaucratic set up and callous interference from political and bureaucratic quarters. “Almost every year, a scientist in India commits suicide. Victims of the bizarre culture of neglect and indifference that pervades every alley of Indian Science. These vibrant technological minds are thwarted in their pursuit of scientific discovery either by the bureaucratized ambiance or the vicious jealously that is a fact of life in every Indian scientific organization. What is even more shocking is that the administration and technological god-fathers have treated this depressing problem with customary contempt. The best remedy to nullify the genetic ill effect of brain drain and monogamy is to chalk out a breeding method acceptable to the common man on moral, social and cultural grounds and in tune with the eugenic concepts. This, of course, will be a long range programme and involves a lot of obstacles at the conceptual and implementation level. But it is high time that we should earnestly attempt to launch a programme for the betterment of humanity at large, and that of the third world countries in particular.