The problem is that the basic goal of eradicating poverty has been missing in all the schemes that have been made till date in the name of development. In the last seven decades, the issues of the poor have remained marginalized, irrespective of the government at the Center and in the states.
According to the report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), there was no increase in the poverty level in India in the year 2020 during the corona epidemic. According to the data, in India in 2019, the percentage of people with the lowest purchasing power was less than one percent. At the same time, the Per Capita Purchasing Capacity (PPP) was pegged at $1.9 per person per day. Significantly, during the year 2020 also this pace remained at the same level.
Eighty crore people living below the poverty line got the benefit of the Garib Kalyan Yojana of the Central Government. This scheme was launched in 2016 to provide free food grains to the poor. But during this time unemployment in the country kept increasing rapidly. The situation for crores of people in the low income group has worsened in the last two years due to the loss of employment due to the lockdown and other restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
According to this year’s Global Inequality Report, inequality is increasing rapidly in the world including India. According to the report, due to economic liberalization and free market, both income and wealth are creating wide inequalities. According to the researchers, today the world is once again in more or less the same condition as it was during the height of Western imperialism in the decades of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
That is why economists are calling it the same absurdity as two hundred years ago. It is said that even then only the top ten percent of the people earned sixty percent of the total income, while the low-income fifty percent of the people earned only five to fifteen percent. Therefore, if seen, the roots of economic inequality in the society are already deep. But the surprising thing is that with the development of the world, this inequality is increasing instead of decreasing. This has also disturbed the economic and social balance in countries around the world.
According to investment banking company Credit Suisse Group AG, one percent of the country’s people held forty percent of the total wealth in the year 2010, which increased to 58.4 percent in 2016. Similarly, in 2010, 10 percent of the people owned 68.8 percent of the country’s wealth, but in 2016 it increased to 80.7 percent. It is pertinent to note that in the last two years an additional 10 per cent of the wealth of the poor was snatched away.
Obviously, the policies of the governments have been a big reason behind this. The efforts to improve the condition of the people standing at the lowest rung of the society, which were done through the central and state governments, seem to have succumbed to corruption. Whereas the central government claims that corruption has reduced in the last eight years. But what rank we are in the global index in terms of corruption, it is not hidden from anyone.
Statistics show that only one percent of the people in India have the most wealth. Of the total millionaires in the world, two percent millionaires live in India and five percent billionaires. Similarly, Mumbai has the highest number of one thousand three hundred and forty Dhankubers. If this momentum continues, then in just two years more than ten thousand new rich people will be added to this queue. Obviously, as the economic inequality in the country is increasing, so is the number of both the poor and the rich.
The central government says that due to the increase in the number of wealthy people, there has been an increase in the collection of income tax. This helps in implementing the development plans. In the coming ten years, the number of super-rich in India could be the largest in the world. But on the other hand, the higher the number of poor, sick and helpless, it is a matter of concern. This growing inequality will increase the economic and social imbalance and new problems will emerge.
The construction plans being implemented in cities and metros will increase the consumption of natural resources in the cities. But on the other hand problems like clean water, air, cheap food, security, health and employment will also increase rapidly. Central and state governments need to pay attention to this. It is worth noting that the pace of urbanization has increased in the country in the last few years.
Smart city projects are in full swing. The blueprint prepared by the government for the construction of new cities will increase migration from villages to cities and increase inequality in urban life. It is sure to have an impact on essential social aspects like social harmony, system of proper education. The way resources related to education and health are becoming expensive, due to which all kinds of problems have started arising. The poorest section of the society is engulfed by new diseases. From whom is the plight of the poor hidden in BIMARU states like Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar? Providing free ration and cylinders during the Corona period did bring some relief to the poor, but it cannot be said to be a permanent solution to the problem.
The problem is that the basic goal of eradicating poverty has been missing in all the schemes that have been made till date in the name of development. In the last seven decades, the issues of the poor have remained marginalized, irrespective of the government at the Center and in the states. Even today we are in a pathetic condition in terms of providing health, education and drinking water. The question is that if the poor are kept at the center in the development schemes, then why is the number of poor in the country not decreasing? Migration from villages to cities has been going on for the last several decades.
That is why till date no strong infrastructure of facilities like employment, education and health has been established in the villages. However, like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and their suburbs have come into existence. But in the last few years, the speed with which the rich section has emerged in these cities and has become a new identity of these cities, it is surprising somewhere. It is clear from the increasing number of wealthy people in a short time that the policies of the governments have only been to widen the gap between rich and poor.
It would have been better if the central and state governments would have planned the development of villages and the creation of new rural areas instead of setting up metro cities, so that the migration from villages to cities would be stopped. It is worth noting that recently the Uttar Pradesh government has talked about making a metro village for the first time. But what will be the nature of this metro village, it will be known in the coming time. If the central government brings about the construction of a metro village with a complete plan, then there is no doubt that it will be a big step in the direction of tackling the problems like increasing inequality, poverty, illiteracy, migration and unemployment in India. With this, the increasing migration from villages to cities will also stop and employment of people will be settled in the village itself.