Too poor to acknowledge poverty?

Who is a poor in our country? This may sound like a very rhetorical question, which everyone in the country has an answer to, but never the less needs to be brought into light again and again, because so is the condition of this new age that we have the retention level of a five year old.

Poverty, according to the World Bank; Poverty is pronounced as deprivation in well being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. In simpler terms it means the inability of a person to access to the basic necessities like food, clothing and shelter.

And according to the World Bank, a person must earn approximately $2 per day, if he is to call himself above poverty line, and according to this, an approximate 60% of India’s population is below poverty line.

However if Indian economic ‘scholars’ are to be believed $2 per day is a very steep amount, and on the contrary all you need to survive in this high growing rate economy and with an ever so fluctuating inflation index, is Rs 28.62 per day and that too if you are living in urban areas of the country, but in case you live in rural part of the country (where mind you, most of the population of India lives) you only need Rs 22.42 per day, well that is, at least what the Planning Commission of India thought was needed to survive.

But what people fail to realize is that these small numbers matter big when it comes to defining policies, a decline of even Rs 2 in the minimum amount needed to survive means migration of millions of people from the BPL families to those that are above it.

And over the years all that the various governments, in order to promote themselves and to show the tremendous amount of work that they have done to uplift the poverty stricken people, have done is play with the numbers. That is the reason why the poor and poverty in our country does not depend on the money, an individual earns, rather it depends which government is in power.

This is the situation of poor in this country, he may not be able provide his family with food, but because he earns a little over than Rs 30 per day, he does not fall under the category of BPL families. 

And if the Planning Commission coming out with these reports was not enough, there are other prominent Political leaders who try to justify these reports.

But if mocking the poor is the main aim of the Planning commission, why do they stop here? Why not make these people who are above the poverty line pay taxes, hey if they can lead a sustainable life in Rs 28.62, they very well contribute in the development of the country.

Well certainly for a country in which only 2.77% of the people pay taxes, it is rather criminal to believe that only about 29% of the population is below poverty line.

If the only work of these reports is to try and hide the actual number of poor in the country, then why come out with a number at all, why not go out and say that the country is free of poverty and that no one dies of hunger and malnutrition.

For at least then the reports could be called totally biased and not be in the limbo that they today stand in.

The governments must understand that the numbers can be played with, but the ground reality remains that even after 65 years of independence poor still remain poor, but depending on the government.

The Planning Commission would be soon coming out with its new report in a few months and it would be rather interesting to see, how many poor people would the Commission find fit to be called poor.

Thank god it’s a Democracy

The last two years can best be described as Protest years; there have been a rather unusual rise in the number of protest that have taken place in our country. The count of protest began with the Anna Hazare’s, anti corruption campaign that saw thousands of people coming on the streets in the various parts of our country and showing their anguish against the sudden outburst of scams that engulfed the administration of the country. And probably the biggest protest that the country has seen in the recent times came last December, viz a viz the Delhi gang rape, which I must admit as a human being, shook me.

These protests saw the youth of the country taking part with immense motivation and in huge numbers. This was perhaps the first time in a long time that such a huge number of the population stood up for something. It was probably the first that the greater chunk of the society realized what it is like to live in a democracy, something that has to be actually experienced in order to realize.

But what they seem to have forgotten is that although they have the right to protest, sit on agitations, or strike, they can’t hold this right as a tool for blackmailing the government. People must understand that the population of India is not in a few thousands or millions; rather it is more than 1.2 billion. So it not possible for the law to be changed every time a few thousand men and women sit on a protest to change a law (which was made to cater the needs of a nation) which has been serving for more than 65 years. As much sad and biased as this may sound, this is the ugly truth that people must grasp if we as a country are to progress. The Supreme court’s decision that as many as 90% of all the dowry cases in India were wrongly filed is one the best examples how laws can be easily misused in our country. This is the reason that any law before passing through, has to go through severe scrutiny. This is the reason that any law made is crafted in such a manner that it caters to a large number of people.

The people must understand that just like they have right to protest, the government has some rights too, a wrong or a flawed law can do much more harm to the society than the reason it was made for. They must try to understand that it’s not just the law that has to be changed with the changing times, but the attitude too needs to be changed. The law can be changed nth time but it does not guarantee less offenses, for they can be misused if not implemented properly, rather it is the attitude of the people that has to be worked upon and is due for a change.

The PM who never spoke

Dr. Manmohan singh, the prime minister of India, is perhaps one of the best politicians to have ever been born in the country. The top most economist who helped India overcome the crisis it was facing in 1990-91 would have never realized that he would be ruling the country he saved then.

The soft spoken, finance minister, of the Narsimha Rao government, was highly appreciated when he first came to power. Although at the same time it was seen by some, as a strategy to win the sikh votes, after the 1984 riots, and hence the criticism fell onto Congress led UPA, and ultimately on Sonia Gandhi.

The petty Prime Minister in spite of being criticized for his walk, talk and been called a puppet in the hands of Mrs. Gandhi, did appreciable work during his term as the prime minister. One of the most celebrated act, which also led to him winning the second term also as the Prime Minister was the Right to Information or the RTI as it is usually called, is perhaps his something for which he will always be remembered (most of the scams that you read in the newspapers today, are out in the open because of this RTI). The RTI over powered everything and made sure that the Congress led UPA came into power once again. 

But this is where it all begins, the second term, has somewhat been a bumpy ride for UPA- II, with the RTI back firing and that literally meaning backfiring. The biggest scams in the history of free India came into light because of the RTI and had a direct or indirect connection with the UPA. Hence bringing all the negative attention that it could possibly need and to further degrade the matter Anna Hazare, a nationalist and Gandhian started an anti corruption campaign (which is kind of ironic, "a Gandhian on a campaing against Gandhi’”), and started to demand for Jan Lokpal Bill to be passed in the Parliament. It must be admitted, that his agitation did stir up things a little bit, with the people joining Anna in his campaign. But like everything in this country, the movement too died down.

Next came, to increase the problems of the UPA-II, the increment of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail sector and if the problems inside the party were not enough, the opposition and various NGO’s too started to disapprove of the decision. Although, one very radical thing took place during this resistance, the Prime Minister spoke, yes he spoke, in a national wide addressing; he listed the positives of the FDI in retail sector. 

The last criticism which came very recently to the UPA, was the growing insecurity of women, in India, and specially in the national capital. With huge outcry over the Delhi gang rape victim, it was thought that the Prime Minister will speak, and he did, but his speech made it to the centre of all jokes.

During the time between these big events, there was always, Trinamool Congress to threatening to pull back its support, and Ministerial comments to increase the problems of the UPA, however one thing remained constant if you would have realized, that the Prime Minister never spoke. The fact that India did not face as big as problems because of the economic depression in the world and its credit should have gone to Dr. Manmohan Singh, did not go to him only because of his keeping to himself attitude. While there is no doubt that he is an excellent scholar, who has the ability to run this country, must try to be more expressive, because he may be the Prime Minister but he does enjoy the same right as the people of this country (freedom of speech). The country is eagerly waiting what the Prime Minister has to say, for, all the work he has done he might just be remembered as the Prime Minister who never spoke.