Alarming differences

Everyone has the right to a good standard of living. Food, clothes, shelter and access to healthcare facilities are the most fundamental things. However it is really a very sad state of affair that many people are struggling to get these basic things.

The sad part is growing inequality of income and wealth over the period of time. The divide between the rich and the poor has increased a lot. The richest 1% in India owns more than 50% of the wealth and the richest 10% own more than 75% of the wealth. The bottom 60% of the population owns less than 5% of the wealth.

This stark divide is causing resentment in the society and will not allow harmonious relationship in the country. These staggering number reflects the sad state of the nation and we cannot overlook these differences.

The poor state of affairs in agriculture, infrastructure facilities in rural India contributes to worsening deficit. By measuring GDP on standalone basis and claiming that nation is progressing is an unacceptable statement. There shouldn't be such glaring differences in the growth across country. Education and healthcare for the poor remains a distant dream. It is most inhuman when food, drinking water and sanitation are not available for all.

Global hunger index ranks India in 100th position amongst 119 nations. Underweight and malnutrition among young kids are common problem in India. More than 30% of the population of India lies below the international poverty line of USD 1.25 per day.

The number of ways to alleviate poverty is listed here. First step required is to improve the agricultural productivity as there are lots of people depending on farming. Free and easy access to quality education and health care facilities should be available to everyone. This is the most fundamental thing as it will affect at the grass root level directly and help people to get themselves employable in the long turn. Growth in the economy will help in the alleviation of poverty through multiplier effect. But this won't be sufficient, as there will be lot of time required for the benefits of the growth to percolate to the poor people.  Building robust infrastructure can boost the rural side by providing employment opportunities. Roads, railways, bridges, power distribution and irrigation facilities are some of the key infrastructure development that is required. These activities would improve the connectivity to all the places and provide access to water and power.

While all these activities are being carried out in one way or the other, still we don't have an ideal situation even in longer horizon. Numerous schemes have been launched by the central government to reduce the poverty level. While the percentage of people below poverty has reduced, it is still a mammoth task to uplift the people.

I personally think these are not sufficient as there is no clear cut time frame on when the divide will get reduced by adopting these measures. We need to do something different and radical, something that can make real differences. The imbalance was created artificially, so we cannot expect it to balance itself. We don't have the characters like the fictional Robin-hood to take money from rich and give to poor. We can introduce mechanism to redistribute the wealth through higher tax rate at higher slabs and imposition of inheritance tax. This topic of inheritance tax itself can be discussed in length in a separate blog.

Capitalism in its current form is not sustainable. The rich poor gap is ever widening. The states which adopted socialism has either collapsed or moved on to a completely different economic model. The real question is what can be done? Do put your suggestions and ideas in the comments section.

I am concluding the blog with the wording of a Tamil poet Bharathiyar, “தனி ஒரு மனிதனுக்கு உணவில்லை எனில் இந்த ஜகத்தினை அழித்திடுவோம்” which loosely translates in English as “if a single person doesn't get food to eat, then we should destroy the entire world”. The underlying message is not to destroy the world, but it is heart wrenching that some people don't get to eat and the world is not doing anything about it.