Why has the UN's Human Development Report-2004 placed INDIA 127th, below even basket case countries like, Namibia at 126th, Morocco at 125th, Gabon at 122nd & Vietnam at 112th? There is a very good reason
Renowned Indian newspaper columnist Praful Bidwai pricks the 'India Shining' bubble with his truth about India's cascading inequalities
Washington, D.C., Wednesday, August 18, 2004 - An excellent article by that great Indian journalist, Praful Bidwai, explains, like no one else can, why the 'Sick-man-of-South-Asia', INDIA, which inherited gratis, (unlike Pakistan which had to start from scratch) all the infra-structure of a modern state in 1947 from the departing Colonial British, (including India's magnificent President's Palace and Government Secretariat on Raisina hill built by the British on stolen holy land of Gurdwara Rakabgunj Sahib:> /Main/K_Calling/kc01212004.htm <) is stuck, for the second year running, at the lower end of the ranking totem-pole of the UN's Human Development Report-2004 at the 127th position out of 177 countries surveyed.INDIA ('Shining?') is placed below even basket case countries (like Namibia at 126th, Morocco at 125th, Gabon at 122nd, Vietnam at 112th) while the other mostly over populated third world countries who were way behind in the 1940's & 1950's (like Maldives-84th; Sri Lanka-96th; China-94th; Phillipines-83rd; Turkey-88th; Thailand-76th; Brazil-72nd; Malaysia-59th; Mexico-53rd) have now forged miles ahead in fifty years. (For details of the UN's Human Development Report-2004 please click at: http://hdr.undp.org/reports/global/2004/pdf/hdr04_HDI.pdf)
In our last week's column (/home/khalistancalling/2004/august11.aspx) we had written that the central message from the latest UN's Human Development Report-2004, (an annual 'yardstick' and a comparison of human progress in various countries of the world - from the richest to the poorest) which was recently released in Washington DC, was, that the much trumpeted slogan of 'India-shining' was a total fraud as the 'Sick-man-of-South Asia', INDIA, (unlike ALL its South Asian neighbours, who improved their HDI ranking in 2004) is stuck at its 2003 Human Development Index rank of 127th, for the second year in a row, despite the fact that the number of countries surveyed this year have increased from 175 to 177.
The UN's Human Development Program is a process which helps enlarge people's chances, what people do and can do in their lives in pursuit of happiness, as human progress is shaped by political power and institutions. The United Nation's Human Development Report-2004 issued annually (which examined 177 countries for its 2004 report released recently) is all about - to use an _expression of the UNDP - "what it will take for countries to establish democratic governance systems that advance the human development of ALL people in a world where so many are left behind." The plight of these Indians (over eight hundred million of them) who 'have been left behind' has probably pricked the conscience of that outstanding Indian newspaper columnist, Praful Bidwai.
In a column, appropriately headlined, "INDIA is marked by cascading inequalities", http://in.rediff.com/news/2004/aug/12bidwai.htm Mr. Praful Bidwai describes not only the great majority of Indians who 'have been left behind', in human development, but shows his moral courage and patriotism by admiting that, "It is astounding, and, of course incredible, that the upper castes, who form a tenth of the population, (less than one hundred million) concentrate within themselves nine-tenths of India's entire pool of 'merit.' But that's the nature of the discrimination in this super-hierarchical society, where ritual purity assigned by the varna system is far more important than educational achievement, professional talent or diligence."
Mr. Praful Bidwai graphically describes the plight of the 'other' over nine hundred million (90% of the population) 'unwashed' Indians when he writes that, "If you are born underprivileged, (in INDIA) you face growing discrimination in education, freedom, employment, income, etc -- each step of the way. In most people's case, the injustice is never compensated. This denial of social opportunity destroys the very possibility of realising the human potential of millions of people. It can be effectively countered by levelling the originally tilted playing field -- through affirmative action."
Praful Bidwai goes on to say that, "However, the strongest argument for affirmative action derives from the persistence of cruel and often barbaric forms of discrimination against marginalised groups such as Dalits. This discrimination enjoys the sanction of the Dharmashastras. One only has to take a fleeting glance at the Manusmriti to note the hierarchy it stipulates and the gruesome punishment it prescribes for the Shudras (including Dalits and most OBCs), who must forever obediently serve the other, twice-born, varnas. They must be 'gentle in speech' and 'free from pride,' and own no property 'other than donkeys and dogs.' Should a Shudra try to place himself on the same seat with a man of high caste, say the scriptures, 'he shall be branded on his hip and banished. If out of arrogance, a Shudra spits on a superior, (the king) shall cause both his lips to be cut off... If a Shudra threatens a Brahmin with a stick, he shall remain in hell for a hundred years; he who strikes a Brahmin, shall remain in hell for a thousand years... A Chandala, a village pig, a cock, a dog, a menstruating women must not look at the Brahmin when they eat. The Chandalas shall be outside the village and their dress shall be the garments of the dead... they must always wander from place to place. A Shudra who sleeps with a maiden of the highest caste shall suffer capital punishment. To this day, inhuman and degrading casteist practices prevail in India: Dalits must take off their shoes and their women must uncover their faces while passing through an upper-caste area; their dead cannot be carried through savarna streets. In many states, Dalits are banned from making ghee.
Mr. Praful Bidwai goes on to write that, "In Andhra and Tamil Nadu, they have been punished for asserting their legal rights by being forced to eat human excreta. One only has to read the reports of the SC/ST Commissions to verify this. Such vile discrimination against Dalits and most OBCs cannot be eliminated by calling for equal opportunity -- among unequal people whose starting conditions are grossly unequal. Correcting them demands affirmative action. Affirmative action's principal function is not individual betterment, but acknowledgement of historic injustice against a group and compensation for it through preferred recruitment, etc. So long as anti-Dalit discrimination persists, we must continue with reservations. India must emulate and adapt affirmative action methods from the US and post-apartheid South Africa too. To start with, we must ensure jobs for Dalits and Adivasis roughly in proportion to their share in the population. "
Bidwai concluded the article with good advice for the persecutied 115 million Muslim minority community in Hindu-majority India when he wrote, "Finally, a word on reservations for Muslims. In recent years, many Indian Muslims have suffered discrimination, especially at the hands of the State. But they don't fall into the category of Dalits who face historic injustice. Nor are Muslims homogenous. They will be better served through education, especially for girls, modernisation of madrassas, opening up of special state services (police intelligence and RAW) which are closed to them, and conscious recruitment of professionals through EEOC-type programmes. Given the history of communal conflict and the active social-political presence of the Sangh Parivar, there will be a strong backlash to reservations -- through screams of 'appeasement.' Instead of reservations, the Andhra government should announce affirmative action for Muslims in education and job training.
In the article discussed above Mr. Praful Bidwai, has confirmed in language, that only a brilliant and honest journalist can muster, what the world's most prestitgious and widely circulated National Geographic Magazine focused on, in its June 2003 issue last year, in a feature article, by Tom O'neil (http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/index.html) headlined 'UNTOUCHABLE'. The National Geographic wrote about the state of the state of the world's largest Oligarchy - INDIA - that, "To be born a Hindu in INDIA is to enter the caste system, one of the world's longest surviving forms of social stratification. Embedded in Indian culture for the past 1,500 years, the caste system follows a basic precept: All men are created UNEQUAL. The ranks in Hindu society come from a legend in which the main groupings, or varnas, emerge from a primordial being. From the mouth come the Brahmans-the priests and teachers. From the arms come the Kshatriyas-the rulers and soldiers. From the thighs come the Vaisyas-merchants and traders. From the feet come the Sudras-laborers. Each varna in turn contains hundreds of hereditary castes and subcastes with their own pecking orders. A fifth group describes the people who are achuta, or untouchable. The primordial being does not claim them. Untouchables are outcasts-people considered too impure, too polluted, to rank as worthy beings. Prejudice defines their lives, particularly in the rural areas, where nearly three-quarters of India's people live. Untouchables are shunned, insulted, banned from temples and higher caste homes, made to eat and drink from separate utensils in public places, and, in extreme but not uncommon cases, are raped, burned, lynched, and gunned down. " Some 'shining' INDIA!
Based on its horrible performance in the past forty years INDIA can NEVER, not in another century, match the human development ranking even of present day Sri Lanka - forget about China or South Korea. To ilustrate our statement let us examine the GDP per capita 'derby' for the period 1960-2002 for a few countries selected at random. According to the UN"s Human Development Report-1997, Indicator No, 05, on page 158, the GDP per capita in the year 1960 (yes 1960) in US dollars was as follows :- Bangladesh had a GDP per capita of US$. 146 in 1960; Brazil's GDP per capita in 1960 was US$. 823; Canada has a GDP per capits of US$. 7, 261; China has a GDP per capita of only US$. 75; INDIA's GDP per capita was US$. 206; Indonesia's was US$. 190; Malaysia's was at US$. 708; Mexico's GDP was at US$ $. 938; Nepal's was at US$. 148; Pakistan's GDP per capita in 1960 was US$. 135; Singapore's was at US$. 1, 510; South Korea's GDP per capita was at US$. 520; Sri Lanka's GDP per capita was US$. 204; Thailand's GDP per capita was 300; Turkey's GDP per capita was at US$. 753; and the United States GDP per capita in 1960 was at US$. 10, 707.
According to the UN's Human Development Report-2004, page 186, Indicator 13-Economic performance, the GDP per capita (2002) figures, for the same countries mentioned above, were as follows which will show the horrible lack of progress in the world's largest Castocracy - INDIA - while the other countries have leapt way ahead:- Bangladesh's GDP per capita in 2002 had increased from the 1960 figure to US$. 351; Brazil's GDP per capita was at US$. 2, 593 in 2002; Canada's GDP per capita was US$. 22, 777; China's GDP per capita had jumped thirteen times to US$. 989 in 2002 from US$ 75 in 1960; INDIA's GDP per capita crawled to US$. 487 by 2002 from the 1960 GDP per capita figure of US$. 206; Indonesia's GDP per capita rose to US$. 817 from the 1960 figure of US$. 190; Malaysia's GDP per capita increased more than five times to US$. 3, 905 from US$. 708 in 1960; Mexico's GDP per capita increased by over six times to US$. 6, 320 from US$. 038 in 2002; Nepal's GDP per capita in 2002 was US$. 230; Pakistan's GDP per capita increased over three times to US$. 408 from US$. 135 in 1960; Singapore's GDP shot to the sky to US$. 20, 886; South Korea's GDP per capita jumped to US$. 10, 006 from a paltry US$. 520 in 1960; Sri Lanka's GDP per capita quadrupled to US$. 873 from the 1960 GDP per capita figure of US$. 204 which was lower than India's at that time; Thailand's GDP per capita in 2002 jumped nearly seven times to US$. 2, 060 from US$. 300 in 1960; Turkey's GDP per capita was at US$. 2, 638; and the United States GDP per capita nearly quadrupled to US$. 36, 006. Only India, Bangladesh and Nepal could NOT triple their GDP per capita in the period 1960 to 2002. Every other country listed above, including misruled Pakistan and Indonesia, trippled their GDP per capita - some countries like China & Singapore increased their GDP per capita thirteen times while the people of South Korea saw an outstanding increase of ninteen times over their GDP per capita figure from 1960 to 2002.
Comparative Chart of GDP per capita movement 1960-2002
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Country...............GDP per capita...................GDP per capita
...........................in US$. --1960.....................in US$. --2002
Bangladesh.........US$. 146 ..................................US$. 351
Brazil...................US$. 823...................................US$. 2, 593
Canada.................US$. 7, 2601............................US$. 22, 777
China....................US$. 75....................................US$. 989
India.....................US$. 206..................................US$. 487
Indonesia.............US$. 190..................................US$. 817
Malaysia..............US$. 708...................................US$. 3, 905
Mexico................US$. 938...................................US$. 6, 320
Nepal...................US$. 148...................................US$. 230
Pakistan...............US$. 135...................................US$. 408
Singapore............US$. 1, 510...............................US$. 20, 886
South Korea........US$. 520..................................US$. 10, 006
Sri Lanka.............US$. 204..................................US$. 873
Thailand...............US$. 300.................................US$. 2, 060
Turkey.................US$. 753..................................US$. 2, 638
USA......................US$. 10, 707............................US$. 36, 006
Thus the world's largest oligarchy, INDIA with its, what the London Economist calls, the Hindoo rate of progress, earned the title of the 'Sick-man-of-the-world' in GDP per capita improvement race, in our opinion, in the forty years period - 1960-2002. No change of pace in INDIA's GDP per capita increase, which effects the prosperity of its unfortunate people, is likely in the next forty years too and the living conditions of it's over one billion people will remain as squalidly and miserable, and without hope, as they are today.