The word “Nepotism” is something that the nation is widely discussing and talking about currently. For someone who doesn’t know about nepotism, it means people who have the power or the influence to give favors, especially in the form of jobs, to their loved ones or to someone from their family. The “jobs” mentioned can come under any sector; Business, IT, Banking, Law, entertainment or any other industry that exists. Now the question that arises is when did nepotism build its concrete base in India? From time immemorial we have been hearing about family businesses and how its future generations are “destined” to do it for the rest of their life. There still exist many Indian television serials in which they show a family and how their young handsome sons take on the business of the family. Maybe this is where everything started.
Then later on the circumstances on which the job was taken changed. If a boy or a girl in the family is academically poor or if they want to do “something different” in their lives, then they are forced to do a job in their family business. Let’s make this scenario clear here, not every family forces their children and not every children are uncurious about joining it. But the above circumstance does still exist in India. And in the present modern context, nepotism conveys something really different from all of the above. Now, it is like a form of corruption in which actual talent gets ridiculed and only the family members get to fancy the best from the business. Now let’s be pragmatic here. If a person “A” opens a startup and wants to expand it, they would keep an interview to select the best talent as their personnel. But if “B”, A’s sister, an MBA graduate, is looking for a job and approaches her, then definitely A would not think any further. But it is here where people have to alter their minds. In this context, A might find B to be the best and the most efficient at work, but there is always a chance of getting a better talent, a chance for a more efficient person to do something they actually love and ultimately a chance to earn more profit.
In this 21st Century, Nepotism has expanded and fixed its roots throughout every sector. But a coin always has its two sides. Looking at the positive approach of nepotism, the competition will be really less and there will always be a source of guidance throughout the career. And yes, along with that, comes easy promotions, salary hikes and also recommendations to senior workers. The negatives definitely swamp the positives. Let’s take an example from India. We have reputed colleges and universities that accept students via entrances and via recommendations. Here what is the difference between students getting seats with all their hard work and students entering only on the basis of a recommendation letter? The hard work goes in vain and they won’t feel that they’ve earned it. And that is because there is always a bunch of students getting through this only because of recommendations which no other ordinary student would have the privilege of. In many cases the real talent gets ruled out, the real struggle is never seen and the real passion is annulled.
Nepotism has fixed its root deep and its proliferating growth is something no one can control. This virus has spread widely in the society and no vaccines are still found. No masks, sanitizers or home quarantine is of help. Social distancing will definitely favor the growth of the virus more. The origin of this virus is undetected and a remedy for this is still not found. This is the “new normal”.
