The movers and shakers of India claim the nation is “growing” and heading for an economic Super Power status. Yet life for most of the people remains the same; weak as ever. The Year 2020 Human Development Report published by the United Nations Development Programme this week makes this clear yet again. India ranks 131 among a list of 189 nations across continents, based on parameters like standard of living, health care and education.
The report brackets India with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Cambodia and Pakistan – nations having medium human development. Nations in the Asian region like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, apart from China, fared better. India’s gross national income, per capita, fell last year to $6681 from $6829 the previous year – or, much before the Covid pandemic came. As per the report, India figures in the “bottom third” vis-à-vis most development indicators
The hard truth is that poverty has gone up post Covid and all the big-talk from the pulpit by politicos is just hogwash. The nation’s fast-paced growth as is projected by these leaders is reflected only in the lives of a small segment of the people; those who form the upper crust, while life remains difficult for most – the 70 per cent of the population placed in the lower rungs. These poor have seen changes like a gas stove in their kitchens in place of traditional choolahs, or electricity replacing the kerosene lamps in their homes. These are changes not specific to the poor in India, but happening around the world.
When Indira Gandhi raised the slogan of Garibi Hatao (banish poverty) in the 1970s, it gave hope to the people and won a general election for her and the Congress party. Some 40 years later, with little change to the life of ordinary folks, the UPA government introduced the National Food Security Programme that reached foodgrains at subsidized rates via ration shops to the poor. Even today, poverty is a reality for two-fifth of the population, as manifest in poor health care and poor living conditions.
The society as a whole is not growing, but its parts – the upper crust – are on a roll. This is the frenzy that one witnesses in the urban landscape; the 10 per cent rich having a gala time, the 20 per cent middle-class having all basic comforts and the rest 70 failing to get opportunities for sufficient income to lead a normal life. Governments keep changing, but the life of the ordinary masses remains in a pitiable state.