State of the misery & squalor in emerging ‘super power’ India

Nearly 395 million Indians live on Rs. 20 (or 50 US cents) per day according to latest Indian Government study

Corrupt Indians have US$. 410 billion hidden away in foreign banks while Indian judicial system has a backlog of nearly 29 million pending cases

Indian rulers continue to doctor the numbers submitted to the annual UN’s Human Development Report

 

 



Washington, D.C., Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - After sixty years of India’s independence, 394.9 million workers, (or 86 per cent of India’s working population of about 459 million) toil under "utterly deplorable" conditions with "extremely few livelihood options" in the unorganized sector and live in squalor on less than Rs 20 (or 50 US cents) per day. This is according to the first authoritative study titled, “Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector,” published by the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS), a government-affiliated body.

The latest numbers, in the above study, on the state of informal or unorganized employment in India ridicules the tall claims of the Manmohan Singh government that ‘emerging Super Power’ India’s economy is booming and poverty is decreasing. The report is based on Government data for the period between 1993-94 and 2004-05. A part of this period was ruled by the right wing BJP-led NDA Government, which also made tall claims that India was "shining" at that time. The present Government, too, is raising the slogan, "Incredible India" to promote tourism. It forgets that there is nothing incredible about inviting foreigners to see Indian poverty and squalor. It turns out that these are incredible white lies a la the phony ‘India shining’ campaign trumpeted by the BJP coalition government some years ago. The Manmohan Singh led Congress coalition Government's claim that the economy is booming and poverty has been decreasing has been deflated not by the Opposition, but the Government's own figures and analysis.  The Manmohan Singh Governments claims to work for the uplift of the aam admi – common folk but, the reality shows a different picture. In India, rural poverty has attracted some attention but, urban poverty (slums around India’s cities) which is much worse is hardly mentioned, and is increasing at a very fast pace.

This Indian government report (National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector) released last week raises questions about the credibility of figures on poverty, submitted by the Indian government to the prestigious UN’s Human Development Report-2006 in which ‘rising Super Power’ India was ranked a lowly 126th (just below Namibia at 125th, Gabon at 124th, Equatorial Guinea at 120th, Maldives at 98th, Sri Lanka at 93rd, Surinam at 89th , Malaysia at 61st and Mexico at 53rd among scores of other countries) out of 177 countries surveyed world wide. For the UN’s Human Development Report 2006 India submitted a figure of 347 million Indians living under US $. 1 a day  (Page 293 Table 3 Human and Income poverty section of the UNDP report or click at: > http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/HDR06-complete.pdf  <) an improvement from the 44 million figure shown in the 2002 Human Development Report. It seems the Indian government has been caught in the web of its own lies as it’s own authoritative 2007 study titled, “Report on Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihood in the Unorganised Sector,” released a few weeks ago, has reported that 394.9 million workers, (or 86 per cent of India’s working population of about 459 million) toil under "utterly deplorable" conditions with "extremely few livelihood options" in the unorganized sector living in squalor on less than Rs 20 (or 50 US cents) per day. This means that in just one year there has been an increase of 41.9 million (394.9 – 347 million = 41.9 million) poor Indians living on less than Rs. 20 or US 50 Cents per day. The prestigious United Nation’s Human Development Programme ought to check any statistics or numbers submitted by officials of squalidly India who seem to be hallucinating that India has become a Super Power and their middle class has jumped from less than about sixty million to three hundred million. (For a backgrounder on India’s ranking etc., in the United Nation’s Human Development Report-2006, see Khalistan Calling, dated 29 Nov, 2006, by clicking at: > http://khalistan-affairs.org/home/khalistancalling/2006/november29.aspx  <)

This Indian government report (National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector) says that Agriculture is a fertile ground for poverty, especially for small and marginal farmers, 84 per cent of whom spent more than they earned and were often caught in debt traps which leads to farmer suicides which is the sad story of the small Punjabi farmer. “These are the discriminated, disadvantaged and downtrodden people who live on Rs 20 or less per day and are the real poor and vulnerable.” The dismally poor comprise largely STs, SCs, OBCs and Muslims. The report says that 88 per cent of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, 80 per cent of Other Backward Classes and 85 per cent of Muslims belong to the category of “poor and vulnerable,” earning less than Rs 20 9or 50 cents US) a day. A part of the period the report covers was the time when the previous government was in power and had used “India Shining” as an election slogan. However, lessons learnt are soon forgotten and now the present government is making tall claims about “Incredible India” and emerging ‘Super Power’.

In a column in the right wing Pioneer newspaper headlined, ‘Where India doesn’t shine,’ Sirdar Joginder Singh (>  http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnist1.asp?main_variable=Columnist&file_name=joginder%2Fjoginder123%2Etxt&writer=joginder  <) commenting on the above mentioned Indian government report writes that, “The Government's claim that the economy is booming and poverty decreasing is sometimes deflated not by the Opposition, but the Government's own figures and analysis.” He goes on to write that, “Larger cities and metropolises -- with the highest percentage of slum dwellers -- are growing faster than the smaller towns. Incidentally, as the cities grow, so do the slums, the hotbed of urban poverty and vote-banks for politicians. But not all poor live in slums, as the urban poor population in the country is estimated to be nearly eight crore, (eighty million) while the slum population is roughly four crore or forty million. Joginder Singh asks, “What can Rs 20 a day possibly fetch? It cannot even buy a person the things needed for his daily sustenance.

Sirdar Joginder Singh goes on to highlight the fact that, “According to an estimate, the total amount of wealth of Indians, most of them politicians, in foreign bank accounts is placed at $410 billion – yes four hundred and ten billion dollars. In this country, poverty exists amid affluence, skyscrapers, latest cars and five star culture. In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi famously remarked that out of every one rupee provided by the Centre, only 15 per cent reached the intended beneficiaries. Since then, things have turned from bad to worse, with all kinds of scams being unearthed at regular intervals. A substantial number of State and Union Ministers and other legislators have amassed money meant for people. Their banditry is bigger than infamous bandits'. There is no dearth of money for the poor but the state's inability to deal with the corrupt is a big roadblock. The scams that have taken place in the country may have occurred at different points of time, but the basic objective of the accused has been to make as much money as possible out of the public projects. Nevertheless, the techniques that have been used as cover-up do not differ. Every successive scam generates better methods of cover-up.” Corruption is the only factor keeping India, possessing rich natural and human resources, poor. It is a major destabilizing factor. Most schemes like NREGA have built-in scope for corruption. In fact, no scheme ever stipulates the action to be taken against those who abuse or manipulate the law. Not only the corrupt politicians, but Indian bureaucracy also has let the country down. The high level of corruption in the Government offices that deal with money and development schemes affects the poor by and large. Last year, public servants received Rs 21,068 crore in all as bribe, apart from the 'cut' from several Government schemes. The courts are terribly overloaded due to the following pending data, as on February 27,2006 shows: Supreme Court 33,635, High Courts 33,41,040 and subordinate courts 2,53,06,458. Sirdar Joginder Singh  concludes by saying that, “By delaying justice and by indulging in dilatory tactics, the corrupt get away with crime. Quick justice and reform in the criminal justice system are not the priority of any Government, though they all talk about ‘zero tolerance’. If we can tackle corruption, we can tackle poverty.”

Sirdar Joginder Singh column focuses on the over 394.9 million workers (86 per cent of the working population) belong to the unorganised sector who work under "utterly deplorable" conditions with "extremely few livelihood options. They remain dismally poor, comprising largely Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and Muslims.” Joginder Singh says that, “According to the report, 88 per cent of the Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes, 80 per cent of the OBCs and 85 per cent of Muslims belong to the category of "poor and vulnerable", earning less than Rs 20 a day.”

Pakistan’s 160 million Muslims ought to be grateful to Jinnah Sahib for creating the sanctuary of Pakistan for them in 1947 to live free on the subcontinent. If he had not succeeded, they would have been captive in an undivided India (like the Sikh nation is today) and 85% of them (136 million) would have been living in squalor for under Rs. 20 per day or fifty cents US a day. They would have been just like their 135 million Indian Muslim ‘cousins’, currently groaning under the heels of the evil nexus of the ruling Brahmin/Banias who have been strutting around, since August 1947, in palaces (in New Delhi built by the British on stolen Sikh Gurdwara lands) they inherited from the departing Colonial British.