Version vom 17. Januar 2019, 09:27 Uhr

Despite of remarkable economic growth India is still one of the poorest countries of the world and miserable living conditions is still a pervasive problem. India also has the second biggest population in the world with 1.35 billion^[1] (January 2019) inhabitants and more than 13% of the total population still only lives with $1.90 a day^[2]

Poverty and miserable living conditions are still widespread porblems in India. Shown is he slum Dharavi in Mumbai, considered one of the biggest in the world.

History and economical progress

The number of people living in extreme poverty has changed quickly in years past. According to the World Bank more than 90 million has escaped extreme poverty in the period between 2011/2012 and 2015. Also the townscapes in the urbanized regions have changed; the number of the poor population in cities has decreased as well.

The "World Poverty Clock" predicts that untill the beginnig of the year 2020 less than 3% of the total population will live in extreme poverty (currently: 3.6% according to "World Poverty Clock")^[3]

Reduction of poverty by the government

Since 1950 the government of India tries to reduce the poverty, for example by subsidising groceries and other vital necessities for example through the "National Food Security Bill" from 2013. The government also developed a better education system and helped eradicating disparities between rural and urbanized areas for example trough the "Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarentee Scheme" from 2005; through this and other laws the government increased the access to better wages (minimunm wages). ^[4][5][6]

Narendra Modi 2015

ModiCare

Founded by the current indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "Modi Care" is the world's biggest health insurrance scheme. It should help the poor population (under the poverty line of indian government: 26 rupees a day) to get better access to healt care. The government estimates costs of 1.6 billion dollars per year but it would help about 100 million families.

Uprising industry in India

GDP per capita of China and India

India has one the fastest growing economies in the world. In 2017 India had a GDP (Gross domestic product) grwoth rate of 6.7%^[7] (still increasing), while Germany had a growth rate of 2.5%^[8] (aim: continual and appropriate economic growth (StabG))^[9].

An important sector in the uprising industry of India became the IT/Software-sector just recently. The software-industry was freed by regulations and patronising by the government and bureaucracy as it was the case in other sectors as a part of command economy in India. Because of the IT-sector India was seen as an international economyplayer again.^[10]

The economic progress also has an influence on the national prosperity of the country. The labour force increased and also the employmentrates in "higher" paied jobs did: The rate of employees in wage employement increased by approximatly 8% in the period of 1993 untill 2012^[11]

2012 Poverty distribution map in India by its states and union territories

Living expenses and the poverty in India today

World Hunger Index 2018

In India the per capita income per year is with 43,479 rupees (about 611 US Dollars) or estimatedly 130 Rupees (1.83 US Dollar) a day very low and shows the poverty of the country. Nevertheless the government sets the national poverty line to 26 rupees a day in rural areas and 32 rupees in cities, which is very grotesque, when a liter milk costs about 29 rupees.

Despite of the phenomenal economic progress still 195.9 million people are undernourished in India^[12] and the country has an World Hunger Index of 31.4 (2018)

Political and social problems

Some of the, mainly social, reasons and consequences of the still high poverty in India may be very controversial. Some of the main reasons of the poverty in India are traceable to the social disparities (caste system, treatment of women). Because of the exclusion of women and people in lower casts many of them have to live in poverty. Furthermore the country has no "middle class". One rupee makes a difference between poor and rich.

Nevertheless India has a Gini Index (measures income-inequality, higher is better) of 35.1 (2011) according to the World Bank.

Manipulation

One problem in succession of the poverty is also the manipulation of poverty data. The UPA (party in India) government succeded by manipulating numbers of poverty ("Garibi Hatao desh bachao"). Abolishing the poverty to rescue the country was a campaign promise of Indira Ghandi before in the 1971 election and now gets reused by different partries to gain votes.

Corruption Perception index 2017

Corruption

Due to the poverty and the low education coruption is one problem aswell. Becuase of the bribery the Corruption Perception Index ranks India as 81st of 180 countries with a score of 40 (higher better) in 2017.

References

1. ↑ Accoridng to recent data: http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html
2. ↑ ^{2,0 2,1} Accordind to poverty data of India by the World bank: http://povertydata.worldbank.org/poverty/country/IND
3. ↑ "World Poverty Clock" by World Data Lab in Vienna: https://worldpoverty.io/, last accessed 16.01.2019
4. ↑ http://www.bpb.de/internationales/asien/indien/189202/grosse-armut-und-zunehmende-ungleichheit (german), last accessed 16.01.2019
5. ↑ National Food Security Act 2013: https://www.india.gov.in/national-food-security-act-2013
6. ↑ Ministry of Rural Development, India: http://nrega.nic.in/netnrega/home.aspx
7. ↑ Data for India by the "Internation Monetary Fund (IMF)": https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/IND, last accessed 16.01.2019
8. ↑ Data for Germany by the "Internation Monetary Fund (IMF)": https://www.imf.org/en/Countries/DEU , last accessed 16.01.2019
9. ↑ "Stabilitäts- und Wachstumsgesetz (StabG)" - Law in furtherance of economic growth [...]: http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stabg/ (german), last accessed 16.01.2019
10. ↑ "Wirtschaftssystem und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung in Indien" auf bpb.de : http://www.bpb.de/internationales/asien/indien/44512/ueberblick-wirtschaft
11. ↑ India Wage Report 2018 by the "International Labour Organization (ILO)": https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---sro-new_delhi/documents/publication/wcms_638305.pdf
12. ↑ According to "Indian Food Banking" / The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2018, report: https://www.indiafoodbanking.org/hunger