I am in awe to the various positive reviews India is getting for its resilience to Global Economics Crises. Many prominent economist and bankers has lauded Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Government for successfully steering India away from the economic woes the world is experiencing. We are constantly feed through electronic and print media that India's GDP is growing at 8 % to 9 %. But, one must cross hands and put in on the poor man chest and feel the pulse of the India's growth story. I guess there will be a different growth story to tell, a story that has not changed since 1947. In the year 1947, the population of India was estimated at 345 million today it is 1.173 Billion. From 1951 to 2007, we have eleven five year plans to manage our economy. India adopted many economic structures and yet we have more poor people now then we had in 1947. The hard realities of India today are:
A. 37 percent of Indian (434 million) live below the international poverty line (As per World Bank revision of 2005 $ 1.25 = Rs 60 based on purchase-power parity or PPP) B. 48.6 percent of farmers are in debt and only 27 percent have access to formal credit. C. 296 million are illiterate and 233 million are undernourished. D. 72 percent of Indians are living in villages whose livelihood depends on farming. E. Only 10 percent of Indian living in village applies for housing loan. F. 6 doctors per 10,000 people against 12 in Brazil, 14 in China and 43 in Russia. G. 421 million poor Indian living under the MPI (Multi-dimensional Poverty Index) covering 8 north Indian states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The 26 poorest African nations have 410 million which far less then just 8 Indian States. Why even after 63 years of independence from British Empire, India have such a large number of people under poverty? What has gone wrong in our Five Year Plans that has actually increased the number of people living under poverty? Why the so-call economic growth of 8-9 percent has not transformed into economic and social development of the India? There are many factors that have worked against our growth story but the key factors are, caste based reservation policies, inability to invest in education, bureaucracy and corruption. After independence the educated elite - the bureaucrats, has ensured the reservation policy benefit few in power. The dalits and schedule caste leaders' amassed huge personal wealth and left poor to feed for themselves. There is a systematic approach to deny education to the poor Dalits and Schedule Caste. Education and poverty in Indian is in direct proportion to Indian economic growth. Un-educated population corresponds to India's Below Poverty Line (BPL) population. Dandevada- Chhattisgarh, which was in news for Moaist violence is the least literate district in India. Today, every political party is playing Dalit card to ensure the poorest of poor remain poor. If reservation policies were based on economic merits rather than caste merit, the growth story would have been inclusive growth story of India. Post economic liberation, there is yet one more attempt to keep the poor suppressed by large scale corruption in the name of development. The 72 percent of Indian population lives in villages and directly rely on farming. As per latest report of The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) India's real GDP stand at 8.1 (agriculture 4.6, Industry 8.5 and services sector 8.7), this means 72 percent of population who are farmers; life is not as rosy as it is projected. There is a big rush to invest $500 billion in infrastructure in the eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2011). Is this what the 72 percent of population which lives in villages need? Economic liberation in India has opened another avenue for the corporate players to loot and plunder the resources of our country. The corporate houses in collusion with the political establishment have unleashed a silent economic occupation worst then the British East India Company. The premier institutions of the country such as The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) and The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) are infiltrated by corporate houses. Their research work has now raised eye-brows as some of the key research works are sponsored by corporate houses. One recent example is "Infrastructure Development in India: An Assessment of Status and Strategies" was sponsored by Holcim who has affiliation with ACC & Ambuja Cement. The research suggests concrete houses in villages in place of traditional house thereby creating concrete jungles in natural jungle. In the words of Mahatma Gandhi "A society must be built in which very village has t be self sustained and capable of managing its own affairs..Independence begins at the bottom". These words of wisdom from Father of our Nation are fallen on deaf ears of our government. India needs bottom-up planning strategy. It is the need of today and tomorrow if the growth story has to reach the common man the 'Aam Aadmi'. Government has to invest in rural development, in education, Health, Farming and small scale industry. The current development is focused on urban population, and, by denying investment in rural India we force unchecked migration from villages to town and cities. If there is rural development then the migration will be reduce considerably as peoples needs and wants will be fulfilled within with local environment and they will see no need to migrate to town and cities. This will in turn save our overburden urban infrastructure. If the government strengthens local government bodies and invest in rural development the need for big investments will be reduced. There will be less movement of people, as they will be self reliant within the local environment thereby reducing road, rail and air travel. This will in turn save hydro-carbon resources, save oil import bills and reduce environmental pollution. We will not require investment in the projected 50 plus Greenfield airports in India which are bound to cause serious environmental damages. The Food Security Bill may become a reality but only on paper if we do not save our Rural India - Heart of India. India needs development of the rural India, where every person will have access to education, health and employment. Without which, envisioned project such as Multipurpose National Identity Card or Unique Identification card (UID Card) will be meaningless. India needs development that was envisioned by Mahatma Gandhi - Father of our Nation - Empowerment of Rural India. Only then the wor ld will know the true Indian Growth Story. Agnelo Pinheiro --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sources: Planning Commission of India, Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, Ministry of Home affairs - Government of India, The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), United Nations Development Programme, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner- Government of India, World Bank. * * * Was life in the *kudds* glamourised? Who said, "It appears that the Goanese (sic) are a roving people, prepared to go to any part of the world for well-paid employment"? How did Goans find their first toehold in the Gulf? Find your answers in Selma Carvalho's *Into the Goan Diaspora Wilderness*. Buy from Broadways Book Centre, Panjim [Ph +91-9822488564] Price (in Goa only) Rs 295. http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ * * *
