2 May 2011. A World to Win News Service. The following article is reprinted from the Indian revolutionary publication People's March (January-February-March 2011).
What does a country comprise of? Basically, it entails its land and its people.
India is a vast country with over a billion population. Development of these two factors, land and people, would mean development of our country. Retardation of these two factors would
entail retrogression. Of these the latter, the people, is primary, but their development can never take place at the cost of their environment. The two can and must develop in sync in a close and homogeneous inter-relationship.
When I talk of the people I mean the bulk of human resources of our country. We seek development not just for a few, but for the vast majority. For it is this vast majority that really comprises this county, i.e., India. Their development is India's development. And when I speak of the land I use
the term in a general sense, meaning overall natural resources of our country – the land and its soil fertility, the forests, the water, the wealth underneath the land, the air, etc. etc. In short, the environment.
Thus the human resources and the natural resources are what basically comprise our country. This has been the understanding from times immemorial, notwithstanding concepts promoted
today of GDP growth, high tech development etc. as indicators of development. Even at the time of Vedas it was said,
The motherland of ours
Which is the queen of resplendent Lord
Which bears in her bosom
Divine fire and glittering gold
Which provides protection to all
Which is set firmly
And shelters all living beings
In her cosy lap
Which is replete with riches
May bestow on us
Abundant wealth and wisdom
Atharva Veda 12.1.6
So, the land and nature must provide all abundant wealth and wisdom or knowledge to develop all round growth in our human resources.
Now, when I speak of the development of human resources, I see development not in merely economic terms, but in its spiritual and cultural spheres. No doubt man must get basic necessities of life – food, water, clothing, shelter and education. But that is the starting point towards his full flowering as a human being. Animals too get food and water (it is a tragedy that we have been reduced to worse than animal existence), but it is only with the flowering of the individuality of all
human beings through their spiritual, cultural and social/political development, that we achieve a real development of the human resources of our country. And by spirituality I do not mean religion (though, it may include it, based on a person's preference) but a set of values which
allows for the best in cooperative interactions between people on the basis of mutual respect and
understanding – not based on superiority/ inferiority, hierarchy, coercion and caste-ism etc.
The human essence must be allowed to grow and grow in the elevating fresh breeze of genuine
freedom. It must blossom like the spring flower in full bloom. But, a prerequisite for this type of development would entail the elimination of poverty, hunger and ignorance. A hungry, diseased,
emaciated person seeks only his next meal. It is only when he does not have to worry about achieving his basic needs that he can focus himself to grow and develop spiritually, culturally and in all other ways. It is true as the Bible says that "Man does not live by bread alone," but his bread is a prerequisite to his further development.
So, the development in this direction of the majority of our people would comprise the major aspect of development of the country.
The second and interrelated aspect of the development of the country, i.e., its land, water, forests and all natural wealth of the country. It entails developing these in a direction that are in the best interests of serving the vast masses of India. With these concepts of development let us now turn to the maladies facing our country.
Maladies to be surmounted
The government's economic survey 2009-10, presented on the eve of the budget, has rightly commented: "A nation interested in inclusive growth views the same growth differently depending on whether the gains of the growth are heaped primarily on a small segment or shared widely
by the population. The latter is cause for celebration but not the former. In other words growth must not be treated as an end in itself, but as an instrument for spreading prosperity to all."(1)
Then, the economic survey shows how inclusive growth has taken place in the country by showing growth per capita GDP and the per capita consumption expenditure of the country(2). But, these per capita figures do not give an accurate picture of the major populace as it averages out the
billionaire's expenditure and wealth to that of the pauper and puts them in a common category.
The reality is somewhat different.
All indicators in fact show a terrifying situation within the country which is quite contrary to the above mentioned picture or the impression created by the government/media who portray
development based on high growth rates, sky-rocketing stock exchange indexes, large foreign exchange reserves, etc.
First, I shall look at some indexes and then turn to the ground reality.
Practically every comparative index puts India in a situation worse than most of sub-Saharan Africa – the most backward region in the world. India ranks 134th (out of roughly 180 countries) in the UN Human development index. Behind even countries like Laos and Bhutan. In fact, it was 134th in 1994 as well. So, there has been no improvement.
The World Bank gives an even more pathetic picture, ranking India as 143rd in the world on the basis of per capita Gross National Product. Ironically, the President of India, on a recent visit to
Laos, grandiosely declared a $15 million loan, saying India will continue to assist Laos, taking it out of the least developed country category.
In the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 66th amongst 88 countries. And if we turn to the recently developed UNDP Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which more widely measures
poverty from an income, health, education, etc., basis, we find the situation even worse. India, it says, has 650 million people who are MPI poor, which amounts to 55 percent of the population. Even worse, eight states of India (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, M.P, Orissa, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal) account for more poor people than those present in the 26 poorest countries in Africa.(3)
If this was not bad enough, the condition of our children, women and old are amongst the worst in the world.
According to UNICEF, except for Ethiopia, India has the highest percentage of malnourished children under 5 years of age. In the year 2008 the percentage of malnourished children was 51 percent in Ethiopia, 48 percent in India, 46 percent in Congo, 44 percent in Tanzania, 43 percent in
Bangladesh, 42 percent in Pakistan, 41 percent in Nigeria, 37 percent in Indonesia and 15 percent in
China. India has half of the malnourished children of the world, and more than half of India's children are underweight.
The right to food campaign (RFC) says that two thirds of our women are anaemic, about one third of the rural adult population have a low body weight index, and malnutrition rates are higher
than some strife-prone countries of Africa.
As though, this is not bad enough, India is at the very bottom of the recently compiled "quality of death index".(4) This new study on the provision of end of life care, takes a close look at the quality of life and care made available to the old and dying in the developed and emerging economies.
Many of the countries that became independent later than India has quality of death index that is double that of India. So, if we look at our children, women, elderly or even the bulk of our
population, they have seen little development in these 63 years of independence. In many spheres,
people's conditions are much worse than that under the British rule.
Now, if one looks at the ground reality, the situation is even more depressing. Two studies – by the Asian Development Bank and the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector –
have put the poverty-stricken masses at over 75 percent. The latter report says 77 percent of India's
population (or 836 million people) live on 20 rupees or less per day (less than a US dollar). And this at a time when food inflation has been running at 20 percent. This is further corroborated by NSSO data, which showed that 77 percent of the rural population consumed less than the minimum daily calorie intake of 2,400. In fact the percentage has gone up from 69 percent in 1993.(5)
If one looks at the situation from another angle, the situation appears as grim. Food grain per capita consumption has fallen from 177 kilogrammes in 1991, to 151 kg in 1998. Since then it has dropped
even further – compare this to the 182 kgs recorded in the LDCs ( Least Developed Countries) and 196 kg in Africa. The world average of cereal consumption is 314 kg (cereals comprise 9/10th of food grains). This entails both direct and indirect intake (indirect are those cereals fed to develop animals, then, eaten by man). So, Indians have half the world's average consumption and even less than the poorest countries in the world.
The extent of rural impoverishment can be estimated from the fact that over 200,000 farmers have committed suicide between 1997 and 2008. Such a phenomenon was never witnessed earlier in our country, which is the result of skewed policies of the government to turn agriculture into a profit-making machine for the seed, fertilizer and pesticide companies. In Maharashtra (which has the maximum suicide rate) the numbers are increasing. From 8 daily between 1997-2002, it increased to 11 daily between 2003- 2008.
If one looks at both rural and urban areas, we witness nothing but increased impoverishment. In the rural areas, we find that 85 percent (some 600 million people) of the farming community works on less than five acres of land, of which 60 percent (or 360 million people) have no water.(7)
Similarly over 90 million people live in urban slums which is an increase of 23 percent over 2001.(8)
The bulk of these 450 million people live in subhuman conditions.
Then we see that in all spheres, regular employment is coming down so that more and more people have to eke out an insecure existence in contractual jobs. Even government jobs are scarce. For example, in just the eight years from 2002 to 2009, central government PSUs has dropped roughly 25 percent of their work force, from 20 million employees to 15 million.
Even worse, in the sphere of hygiene and healthcare, even the capital city of the country, Delhi, is enveloped in sickness. Malaria is hitting places never before affected by the disease. With
India having one of the poorest public health care systems in the world, large sections of the population are being depleted. A large part of family income is now going for sickness – costly medicines, doctor's fee and pathology charges.
Now state governments spend a mere 0.5 percent on GDP on healthcare and hygiene, compared to 1 percent in 1970. The UN says in India 100,000 people die yearly, due to water-borne diseases.
Another 120,000 died in 2008 due to road accidents while 520,000 were injured.
So, if one looks at the human resources of the country, we find there is little development in the achievement of the very basic necessities, let alone in the spiritual and cultural spheres. The worse off are at the bottom of the caste hierarchy, and minorities who in addition have to face, daily humiliation due to their status. Let alone flowering of their individuality, their very self- respect is
crushed at every step. With the rise of Hindutva [Hindu fundamentalism], caste and communal biases have in fact grown, destroying any hope of true spiritual emancipation.
Even amongst the middle classes and better-offs, consumerism and corruption at all spheres of life and religious bigotry have destroyed the moral fabric of the country.
This is the state of our human resources; the state of our natural resources is even more devastating.
The rape of countryside and environment is well documented. Forests have been destroyed, with the
wild life that existed within it; rivers have been turned into glorified sewers and underground aquifers have been depleted and topsoil devastated by fertilizers and insecticides.
Besides what the timber mafia and paper mills have cut down, roughly 160,000 hectares
of forest land have been diverted for mining. The rate of this deforestation has been growing apace. While in the 1980- 97 period 19 mining projects per year were given forest clearance, this has
increased to 216 per year in 1998- 2005 period. Just iron ore mining used up 77 million tonnes of water in just year 2005- 06.With nominal pollution safeguards, mining of major minerals, generated
1.84 tonnes of waste in just the one year 2005-06, most of which was toxic in nature.
Deforestation and soil erosion has led to poor water retention resulting in droughts and floods on a regular basis, reducing replenishment of underground aquifers. India now depends on these
underground aquifers for its needs, rather than on surface water. Today 60 percent of irrigated agriculture and 80 percent of rural/urban supplies are dependent on ground water. According
to a World Bank report, 29 percent of India's ground water blocs are critical. This will increase to 60 percent by 2025. While industries and mining guzzles tonnes of water, per capita availability has
dropped from 5000 cubic meters in 1991, to 1600 cubic meters in 2001. Such is the all round devastation, which gets magnified with catastrophes like Bhopal and projects like ALGAH (Gujarat).
Any development must entail systematic re-forestation, not monoculture, rejuvenation of the soil
and water sources and pollution-free industrial/ mining projects.
India is a very rich country in natural resources. If our huge manpower is applied to it, wonders can be created in just a few years.
Development for whom?
While the government has long term approaches for the development of industry and big business, it does not have a similar approach to development of the masses of our country. In the approach to the latter it has short-term fire-fighting in the form of poverty alleviation measures. This turn in policy came after the 4th plan and amounts allocated for items such as rural development have been slashed drastically.(10)
So we find huge expenditure on ports, airports, expressways, mobile/internet connectivity, etc., which benefits primarily industry and business. On the other hand, little is spent on
reforestation, watershed management, health, education etc. which benefits the
masses.
But the government does spend on poverty alleviation measures, which do not produce anything long-lasting or tangible. Billions of rupees disappear into this black hole of which only a small fraction reaches the people. Here I am not talking of corruption – that is the second point – I am talking of the very approach to peoples' welfare. Does one keep giving a person alms, year in and year out, or should one create the basis for him to earn his livelihood and thereby also create something tangible for the country? This is the moot point.
But the bulk of the government's schemes are mere doles. None of such projects are geared to create something tangible that can benefit the country in the long term. Nor to benefit the individual in the form of providing irrigation, employment, health care etc.
And added to this is the second point. The mammoth corruption that make even these schemes
non-functional, take for example – the much hyped NREGA for which about a 100 million dollars was budgeted, to provide 100 days jobs for the poor.(11)
According to Mani Shankar Aiyer(12), the NREGA involved only 32.6 percent of the households in Tripura. In U.P. and M.P. it was just 14 percent, in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand it was 8 percent while for Orissa and Uttaranchal it was 6 percent. So where did all that money go?
The planning commission in 2004 itself admitted that 58 percent of the subsidized food grains did
not reach the BPL [another dole scheme] families and that 36 percent got sold in the black market.
The callousness of the government towards people's welfare can be seen from the fact that even after decades the government has not developed the infrastructure to properly store the food
grains that it itself buys. Instead of building silos, which is an established method all over the world, it dumps its grains in warehouses and even out in the open. While hundreds of thousands of people in this country starve, nearly 20 million tons of food are lost to fungus and rodents. This amounts to 10 percent of the country's annual production.
Yet on the other hand, the development policies have developed a super rich where 100 of the richest have a net worth of 300 billion dollars, 25 percent of India's GDP. The number of dollar billionaires has been growing at the fastest rate in the world. It jumped from 27 in 2008, 52 in 2009 and 69 in 2010. In 2009 there were 3,134 executives earning over 220,000 dollars per year and 1,000 earning over 2.5 million per year. And this does not include the earnings in black [undeclared and untaxed], which amounts to 40-50 percent of GDP.
This gigantic income gets distributed among the big business houses, top politicians and bureaucrats and smaller amounts trickle down to hundreds of thousands of people, corrupting in its wake, the entire moral fabric of our society. In addition members of parliament have given themselves a 300 percent hike in an income (with perks) of more than 90,000 dollars per year.
So, what little development is taking place in this country feeds a tiny microcosm of the society and does not help much to build the country, its land and its people. It is this that requires remedial measures.
Notes:
1) Economic Survey of India, 2009-1010.
2) Economic Survey 2009-10, see pp 22-23.
3) The Economist, quoted 29 September 2010, Indian Express.
4) Outlook, 29 August 2010.
5) Utsa Patnaik, as quoted in Frontline, 12 March 2010.
6) Utsa Patnaik, as quoted in The Hindu, 13 September 2010.
7) Tehelka, 27 March 2010.
8 ) Times of India, 4 September 2010.
9) The biggest ship-breaking project in the world involving many toxic materials.
10) According to Patnaik, rural development expenditure, which was 14.5 percent of GDP in the 1985- 90 period, fell to 8 percent of the GDP in the 1990s and to 5-6 percent in the 2000s.
11) Economic Survey 2009-2010, p. 227.
12) Asian Age, 13 September 2010.
13) Tehelka, 17 August 2010.
14) Times of India, 22 March 2010.
15) P. Sainath, The Hindu, 6 July 6 2010.
16) Ibid.
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