India not Shining

"India Shining", "Indian economy rising at 9-10% per annum", "India has maximum number of Dollar Billionaires in Asia", "India nowadays has maximum per capita income since India became independent in 1947". All these phrases paint a rosy picture of India which is emerging as a great economy but here are the hard facts about India.

The number of people below the poverty line may have come down, but 79% of unorganized workers, 88% of SC/STs, 80% of the OBC population and 84% of Muslims belong to the "poor and vulnerable group". Around 836 million people in India that is seventy-seven percent of Indians live on less than half a dollar a day in one of the world's hottest economies, a government report said.
   
The state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector (NCEUS) said most of those living on below 20 rupees (50 US cents) per day were from the informal labor sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty.
   
"For most of them, conditions of work are utterly deplorable and livelihood options extremely few," said the report, entitled "Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in the Unorganized Sector" as per the report.
   
"Such a sordid picture co-exists uneasily with a shining India that has successfully confronted the challenge of globalization powered by economic competition both within the country and across the world."
   
Around 26% of India's population lives below the poverty line, which is defined as 12 rupees per day, said officials.
   
Economic liberalization since the early 1990s has created a 300 million-strong middle class and led to an average annual economic growth of 8.6% over the last four years, but millions of the country's poor remain untouched by the boom.
   
According to the report, based on data from 2004-2005, 92% of India's total workforce of 457 million were employed as agricultural laborers and farmers, or in jobs such as working in quarries, brick kilns or as street vendors.
   
The report said the majority of those working and living under "miserable conditions" were lower castes, tribal people and Muslims and the most disadvantaged of these were women, migrant workers and children.
   
So on this 15th August though India celebrates it's 60th Independence day but here is the hard fact that in India of today rich are getting richer while poor are getting poorer.

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