According to one of World Banks recent surveys, India is the home for one-third poor of the world. Not shocking at all, something we have always been hearing. Perhaps well-justified too. But lets just astray a bit from the ever-easily-relentable facts.
First of all it intrigues me to see why the world bank regularly publishes reports about only India, and why not say USA where 45% of the population has no access to medical services due to high insurance costs and have an alarming unemployment rate. Are'nt they supposed to be the first world ? How can the poverty policies and indices of 1st and 3rd world countries be compared? I dont think it is justifiable to compare the income parity of two worlds. A country which spends in Dollar and the one which spends in Rupee cannot be compared. (a) We cannot compare Burger with Roti/Sabzi. The people who design the poverty policies are the ones who are aware of the cost of Burger, but not of Roti/Sabzi. Staple food of different countries are different. (b) A person can get a KG of rice for Rs.10 in India under PDS. (c) A person can make a call for Re.1 throughout India. (d) A person can travel in a city bus of Delhi for 30KM in Rs.10. (e) Rail Tickets are one of the cheapest in world in India. Comparing First and Third World (as they fancy calling) is not reasonable at all.
Also, agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. 70% of the population depends on agriculture in some way or the other. Agriculture, on the other hand depends on monsoons, which are always unpredictable. So there is no steady income or something which we can call as a monthly salary to many. Therefore there is a meandering gap between the costs of living of the urban and the rural India. In that case how can we reach a simplification stating that 1/3rd of world's poors are in India?
As far as the corrective measure goes, there can be no excuse to the widespread corruption in India and the ever explodong population. These two are the major causes that are appearing as hydra-headed hinderances in India's development. But surely, the fact that we are, till date, are being able to feed 1/6th of the total population of the world is in itself a wonder that we cannot afford to ignore.
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4 comments:
"We cannot compare Burger with Roti/Sabzi. The people who design the poverty policies are the ones who are aware of the cost of Burger, but not of Roti/Sabzi."
To start with, its a bit lame. And I would have preferred it if you would have pointed to a particular group or organisation which forms poverty policies. Because your point doesnt convice me..
Meanwhile, I would like to point out- "The survey shows that India has a higher proportion of its population living on less than $2 per day than even sub-Saharan Africa.
Also, 75.6% of the population of India i.e. 828 million people are living below $2 a day. Comparing the same with Sub-Saharan Africa which is considered the poorest in the world, they are better than India with 72.2% of its population falling under $2 a day level.
This time the poverty line is determined according to purchasing power parity (PPP), which is $1.25 PPP per day. The data show that more than four out of 10 Indians live below what the world’s poorest countries consider the poverty line. However, the trend has been global as poverty has grown up in developing world marginally from 2.5 billion to 2.6 billion since 1981."
Also, I would like to mention that do work on the grammar, spelling and editing next time.
Keep writing :)
Hi Diya,
I enjoyed reading it and find the writing , vert fluent and spontaneous to digest the contentNice Work.
Regards,
Ramesh
hi Ramesh , thanks for your feedback...will try to come up with the same spontaneity time n again...cheers..@ Ramesh
well... as I start my comments with a "Well"... this post reminds me of a phrase.. 'It happens only in India"...!
Good collection of facts and then shaping them fixing them... to a suitable form so that it fits your writing style... You know what form I like - the way Chetan Bhagat writes... very easy go English... as my Reshmi ma'm says... "Twisting and turning words to fit your ideas..."
well done...
JD
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