2

Introduction
Just during the inception of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a pet
project of the Prime Minister of India Mr Narendra Modi, to
build toilets for each household of the country, a report comes
from the home state of Mr Modi stating that the dalit women
were asked by the authorities to manually clean up human excreta. The report was published in a website along with photos
showing the dalit women were cleaning up open defection in the
district of Surendranagar of Gujarat on October 2, 2014. (http://
www.counterview.net/2014/1 0/swachh-bharat-campaignwomenmanual.html?ut m_so urce= feedburner&ut m_medium=
ema il&utm_ca mpa ign= Feed%3A+ co unterview%2Fvsww+ %
28C+O+U+N+T+E+R+V+I+E+W%29)
The BJP government at the centre has announced a mammoth
project to eradicate open defection by poor people by 2019 declaring the rural development ministry will provide Rs 20 lakh
to each village per year for the next five years. The Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan will replace the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan of the
previous UPA government that had targeted sanitation for all by
2022 writes Economic Times in their website on 3rd October,
2014 (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/
swachh-bharat-abhiyan-government-to-provide-rs-20-lakh-to-6-5-lakhvillages-every-year-until-october-2-2019/articleshow/44156251.cms).
Interestingly the sanitation campaign launched by the then UPA
government (with much less fanfare compared to the present
government as 30 lakh government employees were asked to
clean dirt with broom on 2nd October) produced remarkable
results in the Budaun district of Uttar Pradesh. It is the same district where two teenaged sisters have gone to defect in the open
in dark night, raped, murdered and hanged from a tree a few
months ago. Surprisingly, Nirmal Gram Puraskars were given
to 12 villages in 2010-11 for eliminating open defecation; in

Update 20

2011, 6 of 13 awards from Centre to UP went to Budaun district

where not only two teenagers had been killed, but also the 200
dalit women were still practicing manual scavenging and carry
excreta on their head. (http://indianexpress.com/article/india/uttarpradesh/budaun-won-pm-award-dont-tell-that-to-dalit-mother-whocarries-excreta-on-her-head/99/).
This is the real picture of India where numerous poor and
destitute and the socially backward people are compelled to engage in practice of manual scavenging though twenty years after the first law against dry latrines and manual scavenging was
passed in 1993, and a year after Parliament passed an amendment banning it (ibid).
It seems to happen that pomp and splendour of Swachh
Bharat Aviyan of Modi government will end in fiasco like the
numerous projects taken by several governments after the independence.
Times of India (02.06.2014) reported that: According to 2011
Census, 53% households in the country dont have toilet facilities while the figure is much higher at 69.3% in rural areas. Over
78% of rural households in states like Jharkhand, Bihar,
Rajasthan, Odisha and Chhattisgarh dont have toilets. Government data shows that between 2001 and 2011, Uttar Pradesh
managed to improve its record by merely 2%.
The data given by the above source further tell us that the
states which have rural households without a toilet are:
Jharkhand92.4%, Odisha85.9%, Chhattisgarh85.5%, Bihar
82.4%, Rajasthan80.4%, Uttar Pradesh78.2%, Gujarat
67%.
In fact, the problem of sanitation is very much linked with
malnourishment, ill health and various diseases particularly
among the rural poor. A Business daily wrote:
The woefully inadequate progress in sanitation makes India an
outlier even among developing countries. Of the estimated
billion people who defecate in the open, more than half reside
in India. Poor sanitation impairs the health of Indians, leading
to high rates of malnutrition and productivity losses. Indias
sanitation deficit leads to losses worth roughly 6% of Indias
gross domestic product (GDP), according to World Bank

Update 20

estimates, by raising the disease burden in the country.

Children are affected more than adults. The rampant spread
of diseases inhibits childrens ability to absorb nutrients,
stunting their growth. [The great Indian sanitation crisis,
01.06.2014, http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/zoKlf2uRgrGTn
22qH6YorO/The-great-Indian-sanitation-crisis.html, accessed on
02.06.2014]
Hence, malnutrition, ill-health, stunted growth are the regular companions of the downtrodden people of India. In fact, the
economic reforms taken during the late eighties or the early
nineties of the last century by the ruling classes of India could
not change the scenario of rickety India.

Economic Growth and Malnutrition

Actually, the issue is not only sanitation, but also access to
drinking water, health services, proper medicines and above all
decent foods. Malnutrition, stunted growth, underweight, diseases, hunger, starvation (and starvation-death), joblessness,
poverty, destituteness, inequality etc are the major characteristic
features of modern India. Though India has experienced spectacular economic growth during the last decade, sent a mission
to Mars (like the several imperialist neo-colonisers), commissioned Chandrayan project, i.e. a mission to the moon, and is
projected to occupy the role of a superpower along with the
BRICS countries in the coming decades and is stated to run bullet trains spending Rs 100 crore per kilometer and also is home
to 100 dollar-billionairesthis shining India could not hide its
real picture. A business daily, a close lieutenant of the Indian ruling classes, commented:
India is firmly established among the worlds most hungerridden countries. The situation is better than only Congo, Chad,
Ethiopia or Burundi, but it is worse than Sudan, North Korea,
Pakistan or Nepal.
This is according to the International Food Policy Research
Institute (IFPRI) which combines the above three indicators to
give us a Global Hunger Index (GHI) according to which India
is 67th among the worst 80 countries in terms of
malnourishment.
Thats not all. Data collected by GHI researchers shows that
while there has been some improvement in childrens
malnutrition and early deaths since 1990, the proportion of
hungry in the population has actually gone up.
Today India has 213 million hungry [i.e. 21 crore 30 lakh

Update 20

Update] and malnourished people by GHI estimates although

the UN agency Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) puts
the figure at around 230 million. (...)
Whichever way you slice it and dice it, the shameful reality is
inescapableIndia is home to the largest number of hungry
people, about a quarter of the estimated 820 million in the
whole world.
The National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), last carried
out in 2004-05, had shown that 23% of married men, 52% of
married women and a chilling 72% of infants were anemica
sure sign that a shockingly large number of families were caught
in a downward spiral of slow starvation. [Superpower? 230
million Indians go hungry daily, 15.01.2012, http://timesofindia.
indiatimes.com/india/Superpower-230-million-Indians-go-hungrydaily/articleshow/11494502.cms, accessed on 01.08.2014]
A government-supported survey last month said 42 percent
of children under five are underweightalmost double that of
sub-Saharan Africacompared to 43 percent five years ago.
(http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/02/16/10424930-indiashunger-shame-3000-children-die-every-day-despite-economicgrowth?lite) In fact, children of the poor households bear the
brunt of the poverty and malnutrition most. If we study more
data closely, some revealing facts will surface:
Nearly half of Indias childrenapproximately 60 million
are underweight, 45% have stunted growth (too short for their
age), 20% are wasted (too thin for their height, indicating acute
malnutrition), 75% are anaemic, and 57% are deficient in Vitamin
A. [http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-08/india/
41200919_1_acute-malnutrition-silent-emergency-world-bank-report]
A few more facts reveal the grave situation of the malnourishment scenario, particularly among the children of the poor
households in India:
n

India constitutes 40 per cent of the worlds malnourished

population. (http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/india-has-40-percent-of-worlds-malnourished-expert/1135767/0)
Of the 26 million children born in India every year,

Update 20

approximately 1.83 million died before their fifth birthday...

Half of these children actually die within a month of being
born. In other words, nearly 2,500 children of those who die
have not even survived for more than a month. (http://devindersharma.blogspot.in/2010/09/over-5000-children-die-every-dayfrom.html).
Every day 5,013 children are succumbing to malnutrition....
Globally, 14,600 children die every day. This means that India
alone has the dubious distinction of having more than a third
of the worlds child mortality. (ibid)
Children from poorest section 3 times more likely to die before
age of 5 than those from high income groups.... In 2008, 5.3 lakh
children under 5 died in the lowest income quintile in
comparison to 1.78 lakh among the wealthy quintile. (ibid)
More than 53% of children (67 million) in India under the age
of 5 have no access to basic healthcare facilities.... This means
that one-third of the 200 million children in the world who
dont receive adequate healthcare are Indian. (http://www.
infochangeindia.org/children/news-scan/poor-indian-childrenespecially-girls-get-no-healthcare-report.html)

Moreover, safe drinking water is not within reach of more

than half the rural households. A business daily writes:
According to the NSSO study, 54 per cent of rural households
had no supply of drinking water at their homes in 2012. This
was, however, a slight improvement compared to 2008-09 when
60 per cent did not have such amenities.
In urban areas, 23 per cent of households had no access to
potable water at homes in 2012....
In as many as 15 of 28 states, less than half of the households
in villages had a water supply. As a result, large number of
people in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan,
Odisha and West Bengal had to walk at least half a kilometer
to get drinking water. [Drinking water beyond rural Indias reach:
NSSO, 28.12.2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/
economy-policy/drinking-water-beyond-rural-india-s-reach-nsso113122700792_1.html, accessed on 06.02.2014]

Update 20

Table 1: Availability of facilities (drinking water, electricity,

sanitation) in villages (%)
State

None of the above facilities

All three facilities

50.9
50.8
34.3
30.3
29.8
25.2
16.4
14.0
11.1
8.1
7.8
6.3
6.1
4.8
19.5

5.9
4.7
10.3
10.3
11.9
15.5
5.9
21.1
32.7
30.3
25.6
1.3
19.7
15.5
18.4

Odisha
Jharkhand
Bihar
Rajasthan
UP
West Bengal
Madhya Pradesh
Maharashtra
Uttarakhand
Assam
Gujarat
Tamil Nadu
Andhra Pradesh
Karnataka
All India

Table 2: Spending on HealthcareComparative Study

Country

Total % of GDP Private

spent on
Expenditure
Healthcare
(%)

Per capita spent Per capita

on Healthcare
government
(USD)
spent on
Healthcare (USD)

India
USA
UK
S. Africa
China
Brazil
Pakistan
Nigeria
Russia

4.1
17.9
9.6
8.9
5.1
9
2.2
5.1
5.1

132
8362
3480
935
379
1028
59
121
998

70.8
46.9
16.1
55.9
46.4
53
61.5
62.1
37.9

39
4437
2919
412
203
483
23
46
620

[Source: WHO, retrieved from http://www.moneycontrol.com/gestepahead/

article.php?id=945447 on 04.10.2014]

[Source: Times of India, 27.09.2013]

If we consider three basic facilities of livelihood, some of the

states show dismal picture. Times of India (27.09.2013) writes:
One in five rural households has none of the three basic facilitiesdrinking water, electricity and sanitationwhile only
about 18% have access to all three. Table 1 presented by the
above daily shows the picture vividly.
In providing decent healthcare to all of the people, India is a
laggard and remains behind the BRICS countries. The following
data show the pathetic picture of the Indian healthcare system:
n India has only 0.9 beds per 1,000 populationfar below the
global average of 2.9 beds. If only public sector hospitals are
considered, the rate will be declined to a mere 0.5 per 1000
population. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-doesnthave-even-1-hospital-bed-per-1000-persons/articleshow/10295898.cms)
n Moreover, India has only one doctor per 1700 citizens,
whereas WHO stipulates a minimum ratio of 1:1000. (http://
www.newindianexpress.com/magazine/India-has-just-one-doctor-forevery-1700-people/2013/09/22/article1792010.ece)
n More than 70% of all health expenditure in India is paid for by

Update 20

people from their own pockets and this expenditure has been
rising, especially for the poorest with increasing privatization
of healthcare.... It is estimated that in 2004-05, an additional
39 million people were pushed into poverty due to out-ofpocket payments. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Costlyhealthcare-pushes-39m-into-poverty/articleshow/5429366.cms)
According the data in the Economic Survey [2013], India spends
around 4.1% of GDP on health, while China and Russia, that
are among the low spenders among the 11 countries identified
in the government document, spending at least a percentage
point more. Only Indonesia has a poorer allocation (2.6%)
among the 11 countries, while Brazil and South Africa are near
the 9% range. This makes India the worst performer among the
BRICS group. (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/economic-survey/
Economic-Survey-2013-India-has-lowest-spend-on-health-in-BRICSgroup/articleshow/18720675.cms)

Table 2 shows the comparative position of India with respect

to BRICS countries and some developed countries. It is very interesting to note that India has higher percentage of private
spending on healthcareeven higher than UK and the USA! On
the contrary, per capita government spending on healthcare is
very low in comparison to other developing countrieseven

Update 20

lower than Nigeria!

According to the Times of India, India has one of the most
privatised healthcare system in the world:
India has, in effect, one of the most privatized healthcare
systems in the world. World Bank data for 2010, the latest
available, shows that public expenditure on health in India was
just 29.2% of total health spending, against the global average
of 62.8%.
The only countries for which data was available with a lower
proportion of public spending to total spending on health were
Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan, Myanmar,
Azerbaijan, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Uganda, Georgia, Yemen, Chad
and Tajikstan.
Not only was India's proportion of public expenditure to total
spending on health considerably lower than the global average,
it did not even come close to matching the average for "low
income" countries, which was 38.8%. Even sub-Saharan Africa,
with 45.3%, was doing significantly better.
Taken along with the data on how much of the GDP total health
expenditure accounts for, India's figures make for even more
dismal reading, with the global average being 10.4% of GDP.
The figure for OECD, a club of the world's most economically
developed countries, was 12.9%. Middle-income countries, a
group that includes India, averaged 5.7% and even low-income
ones registered 5.3%. Against this, India spent a measly 4.1%
from all sources of health....
In short, not only does India spend less on healthcare than most
of the world, including countries which are significantly worse
off economically, even what little is spent comes largely from
private sources. [India's healthcare: It's a privatized system anyway,
08.08.2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indiashealthcare-Its-a-privatized-system-anyway/articleshow/15397077.cms]

Paradox of 'Growth' and Poverty

When the New Economic Policy (NEP) was incepted at the beginning of the 1990s, it was clamoured by the big capitalist class
of India (as well as their imperialist masters) that a new dawn
would be ushered in soon. It was argued that the economic
growth resulted due to inception of NEP would trickle down
into the vast ocean of poor and working people and India would
move forward to prosperity taking out these vast majority of
hapless people from miseries. Since then 20-25 years were
elapsed. During this period several colours of governments
reigned over India. In each of the Budgets and policy formulations, it was declared uninterruptedly that India would overcome the hard and gloomy days and economic growth will lift
the whole of the population to a new height. Despite these promises, majority of the people are languishing under the burdens of
poverty, destituteness, malnourishment, starvation, hunger, unemployment, economic insecurity, inequality. Shattering the
myths of economic growth, majority of the people remained at
the bottom of the pyramid. This is the real class character of the
so-called development and growth under the economic reforms.
The ruling classes of the country made no mistake to judge the
situation which is simmering under their feet. After the blitzkrieg of economic reforms, privatisation, liberalisation, measures of opening up before the foreign investments taken by the
NDA government during the period of 1999-2004, the newly
formed UPA-1 government and/or the ruling classes of the
country read the situation cautiously and had taken certain measures to alleviate the miseries of the common people. Several
projects and doles like NREGS, social security for unorganised
workers, subsidised food programme had been taken by them.
Now, under the new garb of populism, the representatives of the

Update 20

11

ruling classes now in power are declaring number of projects to

make a buffer between two rival classesthe haves and the
have-nots. At the one hand, they are laying red carpet before the
imperialist capital, making avenues for further privatisation of
the existing public sector enterprises, legislating a new labour
law openly favouring the capitalist class, changing the land acquisition law (and/or rehabilitation and resettlement law) more
draconian than the previous one and on the other hand they are
throwing doles to the hapless people. Swachh Bharat Aviyan are
a new avatar of these dole-politics.
In fact, the economic growth has no effect on the state of
poverty, healthcare and malnutrition of the people. An IIT
(Gandhinagar) study noted that Indias economic growth will
unfortunately not help its millions of malnourished children.
The study, published in the Lancet Global Health journal further
writes: contrary to widely held beliefs, economic growth is at
best associated with very small, and in some cases no declines in
levels of stunting, underweight, and wasting. (http://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Economic-growth-has-little-impacton-reducing-malnut rition-in-children-IIT- study/art iclesho w/
32778184.cms)
Another study asserts that there is no correlation between
economic growth and improvement in population health:
The studyAssociation Between Economic Growth and Early
Childhood Undernourishment: Evidence From 121 Demographic and
Health Surveys From 36 Low-income And Middle-income Countries
argues that while economic growth has been seen as a driver
of improvement in population health, population level analyses
miss sub-national socioeconomic factors that lead to prevalence
of child undernourishment.
If there was a 5% increase in GDP per capita, there was a 0.7%
chance of a decrease in the odds of children being stunted
(having low height for age), a likely 1.4% decrease in the odds
of them being underweight (low weight for age), and a 1.6%
chance of decrease in the odds of them being wasted (low
weight for height), the study said. But this was zero for children
from the poorest households, the study said. The link between
income growth and undernourishment was insignificant for

12

Update 20

children aged 0-11 months. [Economic growth makes little difference

to child undernutrition, 27.03.2014, http://www.livemint.com/
Politics/ptr7VPH8vYWPSyXbdT9kxO/Economic-growth-makeslittle-difference-to-child-undernutrit.html, accessed on 18.04.2014]
Interestingly both these studies are published by the media
owned and controlled by the big business houses. It is to be
noted that the economic growth (which was hovering around 89% during the UPA-1 rule) achieved by India made more millionaire than ever. A recent report published by Times of India
says: India ranked 15th last year and had 175,000 millionaire
households [1 million = 10 lakhUpdate]. Its position improved
slightly from 2012 when it had ranked 16 in the world for its
number of millionaire households. India is projected to become
the seventh wealthiest nation by 2018. The number of ultrahigh-net-worth (UHNW) households in India, those with $100
million or more, stood at 284 last year. (11.06.2014, http://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/India-ranks-15thon-global-wealth-list/articleshow/36367448.cms) India ranked 15th
and had 1,75000 dollar-millionaire! But on Human Development
Indicator the rank of India is 135th among 187 countriesa pathetic low:
India continues to lag on human development indicators in spite
of a slew of welfare programmes, with a UNDP report released
today ranking it 135th among 187 countries that were judged
on progress in areas such as life expectancy, education, income
and employment....
The report puts the global Human Development Index (HDI)
value at 0.702. Indias HDI value in 2013-14 is 0.586, marginally
up from 0.583 in 2012-13 when it ranked 136th. Norway has the
highest, at 0.944. Australia, Switzerland, Netherlands and the
US are the other nations that make up the top five.
According to the report titled Sustaining Human Progress:
Reducing Vulnerabilities and Building Resilience, India ranks
the lowest among the BRICS countries. Russia ranks 57 with
an HDI value of 0.778. Among the Saarc countries, Sri Lanka
(73) and Maldives (103) are ahead of India.
The UNDP estimates reveal that almost 1.5 billion people in 91

Update 20

13

developing countries are living in poverty. The figure is higher

than the 1.2 billion estimated according to the income-based
measure of povertypeople living on $1.25 or less a day.
One of the main reasons for poor the HDI value is inequality
in income and wealth. The poorest two-thirds of the worlds
people are estimated to receive less than 13 per cent of the
worlds income. About half of the worlds wealth is owned by
the richest 1 per cent, with the richest 85 people collectively
holding the same wealth as the poorest half of the worlds
population, the report says. [Country climbs ladderby one rung,
25.07.2014, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1140725/jsp/nation/
story_18652182.jsp#.U9fvzXZjEuc, accessed on 30.07.2014]
We will deal elaborately the economic inequality in India in
the latter part of this series of Update. The point to be noted here
that according to HDI rank India is not only trailing behind the
other BRICS countries, it is lagging behind even Maldives and Sri
Lanka! On another parameter, called Global Hunger Index
(GHI), the position of India is 63rd which is much below countries like Pakistan, Banglasesh and Nepal. Follow the next excerpt:
Most people would have been shocked to read the year-end
report that India has been ranked 63rd, much below countries
like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, on the Global Hunger
Index (GHI), a yardstick used by the International Food Policy
Research Institute (IFPRI) to comprehensively measure global
hunger.
The index is calculated as an average of three indices
undernourishment, underweight children and low child
mortality rateand is measured on a 0-100 scale. The closer a
country is to zero, the lower is the proportion of
undernourished population, underweight children and child
mortality rate. Simply put, higher the index, higher the hungeraffected population....
It is a terribly sorry state of affairs that even 67 years after
Independence, India is termed the worlds hunger capital.
That there has been no or negligible improvement in the GHI
for the past 12 years should come as an eye-opener to those who

14

Update 20

have been playing hunger politics and float one scheme or

another to appease the deprived to enlarge vote banks.
Ironically, the report has come at a time when the government
is desperate to export its surplus foodgrains....
Despite a growth of around 8 per cent in the GDP even during
the recent global slowdown, India is said to have more than 42
per cent of its population below the poverty line....
In other words, over 42 per cent of the Indian population lives
on less than $1.25 per day, the World Banks benchmark.
Ironically, Indian yardsticks of poverty are changed and altered
as per the convenience of those in power and institutions like
the Planning Commission. They spend more time to manipulate
figures of the poor than to actually address their problem....
Conventional economic growth plans demanding more
investment in government-assisted programmes have little to
do with eradication of poverty as most of the growth remains
in urban areas without having much effect on villages where
most poor people live.
The best way to end food insecurity is to help the rural poor
increase their income from farming. Most of the rural people
engaged in agriculture grow enough rice, wheat or corn to feed
their families throughout the year. However, a large proportion
does not have enough land or the right kind of land to eliminate
hunger. They, therefore, survive on one meal a day or even less
for three to four months between crops.
Even if they have enough resources to produce a good crop,
they end up losing the most while selling their produce to those
who run the markets. Every year the government announces
minimum support prices (MSP) for crops like wheat and rice
but small and marginal farmers are forced to sell their crops at
a lower price to the traders, who ruthlessly manipulate the
market....
The UPA government is said to have spent around Rs 1 lakh
crore every year since 2004 on several poverty-eradication
schemes. The commission has estimated a cost of around Rs
55,744 crore for moving all households out of poverty. Surprise
of surprise, the UPA government has spent Rs 72,822 crore on

Update 20

15

Table 3: Global Hunger Index Score

Undernourished
Population

Underweight children
under five years

1999-2001 2010-12 1998-2002 2008-12

Bangladesh
Brazil
China
India
Indonesia
Malaysia
Mexico
Nepal
Pakistan
Russia
South Africa
Sri Lanka

18.4
12.1
14.4
21.3
17.8
2.9
3.1
24.5
24.0
4.7
4.8
28.7

16.8
6.9
11.5
17.5
8.6
3.0
2.1
18.0
19.9
1.7
2.9
24.0

45.3
3.6
7.4
44.4
23.3
16.7
6.0
43.0
31.3
2.3
10.1
22.8

36.3
3.0
3.4
40.2
18.6
12.7
2.8
29.1
30.9
1.2
8.7
21.6

Under-five
mortality rate
2000
8.4
3.6
3.5
8.8
5.3
1.1
2.9
8.3
9.5
2.1
7.4
1.9

GHI

2011 2000 2013

4.6
1.6
1.5
6.1
3.2
0.7
1.6
4.8
7.2
1.2
4.7
1.2

24.0
6.4
8.4
24.8
15.5
6.9
<5
25.3
21.6
<5
7.7
17.8

19.4
<5
5.5
21.3
10.1
5.5
<5
17.5
19.3
<5
5.4
15.6

Source: International Food Policy Research Institute, retrieved from http://www.

thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/india-is-still-a-hunger-hotspot/article5562747.ece

food subsidy and Rs 1,09,379 crore on poverty eradication

schemes during the same period....
In a scenario where other nations talk of providing nutritional
security, India is still grappling with the issue of filling the bellies
of the poor. It is a saddening state of affairs that while food
worth Rs 44,000 crore is wasted, there are others who dont
get enough to appease their hunger. [Paradox of Poverty amid
Plenty, 09.01.2014, http://www.newindianexpress.com/opinion/
Paradox-of-Poverty-amid-Plenty/2014/01/09/article1989906.ece,
accessed on 25.01.2014]
Another report told that India is home to a quarter of the
hungry in the world: In a striking irony, the number of hungry
people in the world was estimated at 842 million in 2011-13 by
the Global Hunger Index (GHI) report released on Monday even
as world cereal production was estimated at a near record level
of 2,489 million metric tons a few days ago. About a quarter of
the worlds hungry, or 210 million, are in India alone.
(15.10.2013, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-home-to-aquarter-of-the-worlds-hungry-Global-Hunger-Index-report/articleshow/
24171694.cms)

16

Update 20

It is said that the rate of poverty in India is 42%. But there are
discrepancy in the government data since different yardsticks
are used in different times to measure the actual incidence of
poverty. Before going into the details about the dubious figures
of poverty, we are presenting here the position of India in the
world:
While new figures show that the number of those in extreme
poverty around the worldsurviving on 82 pence per day or
lesshas declined significantly, India now has a greater share
of the worlds poorest than it did thirty years ago. Then it was
home to one fifth of the worlds poorest people, but today it
accounts for one-third400 million. [18.04.2013, http://
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/10003228/India-hasone-third-of-worlds-poorest-says-World-Bank.html, accessed on
06.02.2014]
The minimum amount of calorie intake is fixed to be 2400 kcal
in rural areas and 2100 for urban areas. But in practice, the actual
intake is much lower. Even a report of Planning Commission
(which told us that the Indian people are not so poor as estimated by several experts) admitted that the calorie intake is decreasing:
The Human Development Report released by the Planning
Commission on Friday has shockingly revealed that the poor
in rural India were better fed about 30 years ago. The eyeopening figures render meaningless the controversy over
Planning Commissions poverty line cut-offsthose spending
over Rs. 26 a day in rural areas and over Rs. 32 a day in urban
areas would no longer be considered to be below the poverty
line.
In fact, on the hunger front it has been one long slide
downwards. All states, according to the report, are facing a
serious to extremely alarming situation of hunger. Even as the
Indian economy boasts of an average growth rate of over 6 per
cent per annum, the calorie and protein intake of the poor has
declined consistently, according to figures for 1983 to 2004-05
which were taken into account to prepare the report.
The telling impact of this on health is all too evident. During

Update 20

17

2000-07, nearly half of Indias children under the age of five

years were malnourished.
This is the worst in South Asia and, shockingly, worse than the
worst performer in the African regiona dubious distinction
that dents Indias image. Further, the eleventh five year plan
document says that the absolute weight and height of Indians,
on an average, have not shown any significant improvement
over the last 25 years....
Sample this: Rural calorie consumption per day has fallen from
2,221 calories in 1983 to 2047 calories in 2004-05, a decline of 8
per cent. The urban calorie consumption fell by 3.3 per cent from
2,080 calories in 1983 to 2,020 calories in 2004-05. While the rural
protein consumption registered a fall of 8 per cent, it remained
unchanged in the urban areas....
The best performing (state) is Punjab, with a Hunger Index
(HI) of 13.63, categorised as having a serious problem of
hunger, in spite of its fairly high per capita income, says the
report.
Similarly, Gujarat, though an economically prosperous state, has
turned out to be worse than a poor state like Assam in this
respect.
The HI is a tool to calculate hunger and malnutrition at the
regional level in India. It based on the proportion of
underweight children under the age of five years and the
mortality rate of children under the age of five years.
The lower the Hunger Index, the better off a state is. So Punjab
with an HI of 13.63 is the best performing state and MP with
an HI of 30.87 is the worst.
The nutritional requirement recommends a national norm of
2,400 kilo calories a day for rural areas and 2,100 calories a day
for urban areas, the difference being attributed to the lower
rate of physical activity in urban areas. Even 20 years ago, an
Indians consumption of calories on average was way below
the requirement.
In rural areas about 81 per cent of the population does not
consume the recommended levels and for urban areas, the

18

Update 20

Table 4: Comparison of growth rate of population and food

grain production (annual compound growth rate)*
Period
1961-71
1971-81
1981-91
1991-01
2001-11

Population

Foodgrain production

2.24
2.23
2.16
1.95
1.65

2.83
1.80
3.13
1.10
1.03**

*1961-2011, in per cent per annum

**2001 to 2010.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/the-food-the-bad-andthe-ugly/article3025560.ece

figure is 57 per cent. The calorie consumption for the poorest

chunk of the population is significantly lower than the top
quartile despite the poor needing more calories because of more
manual work they need to do. [Calorie intake of the rural poor has
drastically fallen, says Planning Commission report, 22.10.2011, http:/
/indiatoday.intoday.in/story/poverty-malnutrition-india-hunger-index/
1/157110.html, accessed on 08.02.2014]
The per capita availability of foodgrains is decreasing more
or less in a continuous manner during the two decades of economic reforms. A celebrated commentator, P. Sainath writes
that:
The daily per capita net availability of foodgrain has been falling
steadily and dangerously during the reform years. If we take
five-year averages for those years from 1992 to 2010the figure
declined every five years without exception. From 474.9 grams of
cereals and pulses for the years of 1992-96 to 440.4 grams for
the period 2007-2010 (The 2011 figure is yet to come). A fall of
7.3 per cent. There has not been a single five-year period that
saw an upward blip.
What about the 20 years preceding the reforms? That is 19721991? The per capita availability figure rose every five-year period
without exception. From 433.7 for 1972-76, to 480.3 grams in 198791. An increase of 10.7 per cent.
Consider the average for the latest five years for which data

Update 20

19

Table 5: Declining per capita availability of foodgrain, fiveyear averages (in grams)
Average 1972-76
Average 1977-81
Average 1982-86
Average 1987-91
Reform Years: 1992-2010
Average 1992-96
Average 1997-2001
Average 2002-06
Average 2007-10

Cereal

Pulses

Total

383.9
407.5
420.2
440.7

43.8
40.4
40.6
39.6

433.7
447.9
460.8
480.3

439.3
423.7
419.6
403.9

35.6
33.6
32.9
36.5

474.9
457.3
452.4
440.4

Source: Economic Survey of India 2011-12, A 22, Table 1.17; retrieved from http://
www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/the-food-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
article3025560.ece

Table 6: Foodgrain Exports (in million dollar)

Period
2011-12
2012-13
2013-14

Rice

Wheat

5,028.36
6,216.01
7,784.03

213.43
1,934.21
1,556.49

Source: Apeda, retrieved from http://www.business-standard.com/article/markets/

wheat-and-rice-exports-may-fall-15-this-year-114081200387_1.html

are available. It was 441.4 grams for the period 2006-2010. Thats
lower than the corresponding period half a century ago. It was
446.9 for the years 1956-60. Not great news for a nation where
malnutrition among children under five is nearly double that
of Sub-Saharan Africas. (A point the India Human
Development Report 2011from a wing of the Planning
Commissionconcedes)....
For those worried about food availability, though, it matters.
The highest figure for any year in our history was the 510.1
grams for 1991. Aha! Chalk one up for the reformers? Not
really. The data are based on the agricultural yeari.e. July to
June. So the 1991 figure corresponds to the production of July
1990 to June 1991. Manmohan Singh made his speech launching
the reforms on July 24, 1991. And the average for 2010, after
nearly two decades of reforms, was 440.4 grams....

20

Update 20

In all the southern states the fertility rate is either at replacement

level or even below it. And the population growth rate is falling
everywhere in the country, and at quite a rapid pace. Yet, per
capita availability has declined. So the population claim does
not fly. There may be one-off years in which the growth rate
of food production (or even per capita availability) gets better,
or much worse. Hence, looking at five-year or decadal averages
makes more sense. And the trends those show are awful.
This is a context where foodgrain production per capita is on
the decline. Where, however, the buffer stocks with the
government in fact show an increasing trend. So per capita
availability is in fact declining at a faster rate. It means the poor
are so badly hit that they cannot buy, or have access to, even
the limited grain on offer.... [The Food, the Bad and the Ugly,
22.03.2012, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/thefood-the-bad-and-the-ugly/article3025560.ece, accessed on 25.02.14]
The data collected in Table 4 and 5 are revealing. Firstly, the
growth of foodgrain production could not keep pace with the
population growth in the reform years. Secondly, in the reform
period, the per capita net availability of foodgrains have been declining. This happens though huge stocks of foodgrains became
rotten either in the open sky or in the godown. Interestingly, the
government of India exported foodgrains abroad, though the Indian population remained underweight, stunted, wasted or malnourished. During the last three fiscal years, the government has
exported increasing amount of foodgrains though India remained at the 63rd spot in the Global Hunger Index! See Table 6
in this context.
In fact, the poor in India have limited or no purchasing power
to buy grains at the market. In this context we want to note that
the Planning Commission have declared in 2011 that if anyone
spends Rs 32 a day in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas is not
poor! Note the next excerpt:
The Planning Commission told the Supreme Court on Tuesday
that anyone spending more than Rs 965 per month in urban
India and Rs 781 in rural India will be deemed not to be poor.
Updating the poverty line cut-off figures, the commission said

Update 20

21

those spending in excess of Rs 32 a day in urban areas or Rs 26

a day in villages will no longer be eligible to draw benefits of
central and state government welfare schemes meant for those
living below the poverty line....
The Planning Commission suggests that spending Rs 5.5 on
cereals per day is good enough to keep people healthy. Similarly,
a daily spend of Rs 1.02 on pulses, Rs 2.33 on milk and Rs 1.55
on edible oil should be enough to provide adequate nutrition
and keep people above the poverty line without the need of
subsidized rations from the government. It further suggests that
just Rs 1.95 on vegetables a day would be adequate. A bit more,
and one might end up outside the social security net.
People should be spending less than 44 paise on fruits, 70 paise
on sugar, 78 paise on salt and spices and another Rs 1.51 on
other foods per day to qualify for the BPL list and for subsidy
under various government schemes. A person using more than
Rs 3.75 per day on fuel to run the kitchen is doing well as per
these figures. Forget about the fuel price hike and sky-rocketing
rents, if anyone living in the city is spending over Rs 49.10 a
month on rent and conveyance, he or she could miss out on the
BPL tag.
As for healthcare, according to the Planning Commission, Rs
39.70 per month is sufficient to stay healthy. On education, the
plan panel feels those spending 99 paise a day or Rs 29.60 a
month in cities are doing well enough not to need any help.
Similarly, one could be considered not poor if he or she spends
more than Rs 61.30 a month on clothing, Rs 9.6 on footwear and
another Rs 28.80 on other personal items. [Spend Rs 32 a day?
Govt says you cant be poor, 21.09.2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.
com/india/Spend-Rs-32-a-day-Govt-says-you-cant-be-poor/articleshow/
10058373.cms, accessed on 27.09.2011]
The poverty line chalked out by the Planning Commission is
based on Suresh Tendulkar Methodology. Based on this methodology, Planning Commission declared in July, 2013 that the
poverty ratio in India has declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12
from 37.2 percent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita
consumption. [27.07.2013, http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-

22

Update 20

poverty-line-not-fixed-by-government-but-by-tendulkar-committeerajeev-shukla-1866258] Interestingly, different committees appointed in different times by the governments at the centre estimated poverty line differently. Late Arjun Sengupta Committee
once told us that 77% of the Indian people are living on less
than Rs 20 a day. Since then government is making mockery to
downplay the poverty line. A report said:
While the Arjun Sengupta committee says it is 77%, the N.C.
Saxena committee report puts it at 50%. The World Bank has
its own estimate of poverty at 41.6%. Last month, one more
report and estimate were added to the list. That was the report
by the expert group to review the methods and means of
estimating poverty. The group, headed by Suresh Tendulkar,
submitted its report to the Planning Commission.... It has
revised the estimate of poverty in India for 2004-05 to 37.2%
from 27.5% and for rural India to 41.8% from 28.3%, against
official estimates for the year announced in March 2007. It has,
however, left the all-India urban poverty estimate unchanged
at 25.7%. [19.01.2010, http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/
UhxQYjZ7tqxw6bMQfISCSK/Demystifying-poverty-which-estimateand-why.html, accessed on 05.10.2014]
BPL Census, commissioned by the central government said
last year that the poverty line is much higher than the Planning
Commission estimate:
The Census of the population Below the Poverty Line (BPL),
meant to determine the number of the poor, has found close to
half the rural population to so qualify, as against a 28 per cent
ratio estimated by the Planning Commission, say sources in the
rural development ministry.
The BPL census found 48 per cent of the population eligible for
automatic exclusion from the category of the poorthey either
had motorised vehicles, pucca houses, government jobs, landed
wealth or members earning at least Rs 10,000 a month.
It found 48 per cent suffering from seven listed deprivations
(woman-headed family, scheduled caste/tribe families, daily
wage workers, etc). [Half of rural India below poverty line,
23.07.2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/

Update 20

23

half-of-rural-india-below-poverty-line-113072300033_1.html, accessed
on on 08.02.2014]
Recently, another committee appointed by the Government
of India (Rangarajan Committee) estimated that the number of
poor in India is much more than the estimation of the Planning
Commission. Follow the next report:
A new panel has found that 29.5 per cent of Indias population
was poor in 2011-12 against just 21.9 per cent estimated under
the previous methodology which had drawn sharp criticism
from various quarters. In absolute terms, 363 million [i.e., 36
crore 30 lakhUpdate] people were below the poverty line
that year, higher by about 93 million over 269.8 million
estimated earlier....
The Rangarajan panel recently submitted its report to the
government.
A greater number of people were classified under poverty in
2011-12 as the Rangarajan committee raised the poverty line
compared to that fixed earlier, officials said. The Rangarajan
panel says anyone spending up to Rs 47 a day in urban areas
and Rs 32 in villages would be considered poor as of 2011-12.
The Suresh Tendulkar methodology had pegged these levels
at Rs 33 in urban areas and Rs 27 in villages. By either method,
poverty was reduced during 2009-10 to 2011-12 (the first three
years of the second UPA government).
For 2009-10, the Suresh Tendulkar methodology had pegged
the poverty line at Rs 22 in villages and Rs 29 in urban areas.
These were raised to Rs 27 and Rs 40, respectively, by the
Rangarajan committee.
As many as 91.6 million people were lifted out of poverty,
according to the Rangarajan panel report, during the period as
there were 454.6 million poor in 2009-10. The estimation based
on the Suresh Tendulkar methodology had earlier shown that
84.9 million people came out of poverty since the number of
poor stood at 354.7 million in 2009-10. The poverty rate fell by
8.7 percentage points in this period under the Rangarajan
formula against a 7.9 percentage point fall under the Tendulkar
methodology....

24

Update 20

As many as 53.1 million people in urban parts, constituting 13.7

per cent of the population, were estimated to be poor in 201112 by the earlier estimate.
By the new methodology, poverty in absolute numbers was
almost twice as high at 102.5 million, constituting 26.4 per cent
of the urban population....
Notably, the Rangarajan panel made a sharper revision in the
poverty line in urban areas than in rural areas. So, while the
line was raised from Rs 27 (Tendulkar committee method) in
2009-10 to Rs 32 in 2011-12 in rural areas, a rise of 18.5 per cent,
the line for urban areas was raised from Rs 33 to Rs 47,
representing an increase of 42 per cent.
According to the Tendulkar committee method, the poverty line
in urban areas was 22 per cent higher than in rural areas in 201112, but the same was 47 per cent according to the Rangarajan
panel.... [Every third Indian poor, says new poverty formula,
07.07.2014, http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/
every-third-india n-poo r-says-new -poverty- formula114070700014_1.html?src=email, accessed on 07.07.14]
But the estimates of poverty rate made by the international
organisations are far more than the national organisations. Asian
Development Bank recently announced that the extent of poverty is much higher than estimated by the Indian government:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised its poverty
line to $1.51 per person a day [i.e., Rs 90.6 in the present exchange rateUpdate] compared to $1.25 by the World Bank,
which would push the numbers of poor by 182 million to 584
million [58 crore 40 lakhUpdate] in 2010 compared to the
WBs estimates of 402 million. ADBs calculations implies almost
half of Indias population (47.7 per cent) was below the line in
2010. Both these estimates are based on the year 2005s purchasing power parity (PPP) rates (Half of India was below poverty line
in 2010: ADB, 05.09.2014, http://www.business-standard.com/article/
economy-policy/half-of-india-was-below-poverty-line-in-2010-adb114090500044_1.html) Interestingly, The UPA-2 government
cleared National Food Security Ordinance in 2013 stating that
67% of the population will get the subsidised foodgrains which

Update 20

25

26

Update 20

means that 67% of the Indians are poor!!!

Following the Union Cabinets clearing of the National Food
Security Ordinance, the Planning Commission has estimated
that subsidised foodgrain entitlements will cover 67 per cent
of the population. Simultaneously, economists advising the
Ministry of Rural Development have told The Hindu that the
exclusion criteria to be derived from the ongoing SocioEconomic and Caste Census are likely to leave out the top 35
per cent of the population while the bottom 65 per cent will be
considered BPL.
This is a step away from the narrow definition of poverty we
have been using, where the line is really what I call a kuttabilli line; only cats and dogs can survive on it, said N.C.
Saxena, member of the National Advisory Council, who headed
a Planning Commission panel on poverty....
By covering 67 per cent of the population, the government is
in effect drawing the poverty line 85 per cent higher than what
it is currently drawn at, Planning Commission member
Saumitra Chaudhuri told The Hindu. By 2011-12 consumption
expenditures, this works out to roughly Rs. 1,506 monthly per
capita expenditureor Rs. 50 per dayfor rural areas, and Rs.
1,850 per monthor Rs. 62 per dayfor urban areas.... [Beyond
the debate, govt. accepts 65% Indians are poor, 24.07.2013, http://
www.thehindu.com/news/national/beyond-the-debate-govt-accepts-65indians-are-poor/article4948698.ece]
The more advanced method of measurement of poverty had
been done by the United Nations Development Programmes
(UNDP). They measured it by Multidimensional Poverty Index
(MPI). According to their measures, 55% of the Indians are poor:
Indias abysmal track record at ensuring basic levels of nutrition
is the greatest contributor to its poverty as measured by the
new international Multi-dimensional Poverty Index (MPI).
About 645 million [64 crore 50 lakhUpdate] people or 55%
of Indias population is poor as measured by this composite
indicator made up of ten markers of education, health and
standard of living achievement levels.
Developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development

Table 7: Grim Picture

Country

Database
Year

MPI*

% of MPI
poor (H)

Intensity
of MPI (A)

% of
Destitution

Nepal
Pakistan
Bangladesh
India
Afghanistan

2011
2012/13
2011
2005/06
2010/11

0.217
0.23
0.253
0.283
0.353

44.2
44.2
51.3
53.7
66.2

49
52.1
49.4
52.7
53.4

19.9
20.7
17.2
28.5
37.7

*Multidimensional poverty index, H: Headcount A: Average

Source:
Oxford
University
Release,
retrieved
from
http://www.
theh indubusinessline.com/economy/in dia-is-poorest-in-south -asia-af terafghanistan-oxford-varsity-study/article6120424.ece

Initiative (OPHI) for the United Nations Development

Programmes (UNDP) forthcoming 2010 Human Development
Report, the MPI attempts to capture more than just income
poverty at the household level. It is composed of ten indicators:
years of schooling and child enrollment (education); child
mortality and nutrition (health); and electricity, flooring,
drinking water, sanitation, cooking fuel and assets (standard
of living). Each education and health indicator has a 1/6
weight, each standard of living indicator a 1/18 weight.
The new data also shows that even in states generally perceived
as prosperous such as Haryana, Gujarat and Karnataka, more
than 40% of the population is poor by the new composite
measure, while Kerala is the only state in which the poor
constitute less than 20%. The MPI measures both the incidence
of poverty and its intensity. A person is defined as poor if he
or she is deprived on at least 3 of the 10 indicators. By this
definition, 55% of India was poor, close to double Indias
much-criticised official poverty figure of 29%. Almost 20% of
Indians are deprived on 6 of the 10 indicators.
Nutritional deprivation is overwhelmingly the largest factor in
overall poverty, unsurprising given that half of all children in
India are undernourished according to the National Family
Health Survey III (2005-06). Close to 40% of those who are
defined as poor are also nutritionally deprived. In fact, the
contribution of nutrition to the overall MPI is even greater in

Update 20

27

urban than rural India.

A comparison of the state of Madhya Pradesh and the subSaharan nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
which have close to the same population and a similar MPI (0.389
and 0.393 respectively), shows that nutritional deprivation,
arguably the most fundamental part of poverty, in MP far
exceeds that in the DRC. Nutritional deprivation contributes
to almost 20% of MPs MPI and only 5% of the DRCs MPI. MPs
drinking water, electricity and child mortality levels are better
than that of the DRC.
Multi-dimensional poverty is highest (81.4% poor) among
Scheduled Tribes within Indias Hindu population, followed
by Scheduled Castes (65.8%), Other Backward Class (58.3%)
and finally the general population (33.3%).
There is significant variation between the poverty incidence in
various states as per the MPI and as per the Indian Planning
Commissions official figures. Based on the MPI, Bihar has by
far the most poor of any state in the country, with 81.4% of its
population defined as poor, which is close to 12% more than
the next worst state of Uttar Pradesh. [55% of Indias population
poor: Report, 15.07.2010, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
2010-07-15/india/28281806_1_child-mortality-nutrition-humandevelopment-initiative, accessed on 16.07.10]
In this context we may note that the poverty level among the
SCs, STs, and other backward section of the Indian population is
abysmal. Multidimensional poverty index as well as general poverty data show that they remained at the bottom of the pyramid
though India registered spectacular economic growth rate in the
last decade. A daily reports that Scheduled Castes and Tribes
constitute half of the total "poor, deprived households", a pilot
survey to identify the Below Poverty Line population has found.
The survey found that SCs/STs were a mere 25% of the "nonpoor households" who showed deprivation on some of the parametersranging from housing to illiteracy to homelessness
and destitution. The findings reiterate the long-held hypothesis
that dalits are the most-underprivileged sections of population
and the easiest marker of poverty. (SCs/STs form half of India's

28

Update 20

Table 8: Widening Divide

Per person
monthly
spending (Rs)
Milk and milk products
Egg, fish & meat
Fresh fruits
Education
Medical

Rural
Poorest
Richest
30%*
5%
58
42
14
20
17

Urban
Poorest
Richest
30%*
5%

331
201
118
278
586

111
66
30
54
26

422
200
244
908
1287

*Maximum limit.
Source: NSSO 2013, retrieved from Times of India, 28.07.13

poor: Survey, 12.04.2011, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/

SCs/STs-form-half-of-Indias-poor-Survey/articleshow/7953487.cms)
Another report of Oxford University based on multi-dimensional poverty index writes that India is the poorest country in
South Asia after Afghanistan:
India is home to over 340 million destitute people and is the
second poorest country in South Asia after strife-torn
Afghanistan, says a poverty estimation study by Oxford
University, UK.
Forty per cent of all poor in 49 countries live in India, mostly
in rural areas, according to the Multi-Dimensional Poverty
Index (MPI) 2014, a tool used by Oxford researchers to measure
poverty.
The researchers classified one-half of all the poor in 49 countries
as destitute by using MPI 2014, which identified a person as
multi-dimensionally poor if he or she is deprived in one-third
or more of 10 indicators, such as severe malnutrition, losing two
children, and defecating in open.
In South Asia, Afghanistan had the highest level of destitution
at 38 per cent, followed by India at a troubling 28.5 per cent.
Interestingly, Indias immediate neighbours Bangladesh and
Pakistan had much lower levels of destitution at 17.2 per cent
and 20.7 per cent respectively.
The study placed Afghanistan as the poorest country in South
Asia, with 66 per cent (based on 2010-11 data) of its people

Update 20

29

being MPI poor, followed by India with 54 per cent (2005-06),

Bangladesh (2011) with 51 per cent, Pakistan (2012-13) and
Nepal (2011) at 44 per cent, Bhutan at 27 per cent, and Sri Lanka
and the Maldives at 5 per cent.
The researchers also named Bihar as the poorest region among
49 countries, followed by South Afghanistan. It said the poorest
eight large Indian States were home to more MPI poor than
the 28 poorest African countries, while admitting that Indias
data were from 2005-06 and needed an update, whereas those
for the 25 African countries were more recent. [India is poorest
in South Asia after Afghanistan: Oxford varsity study, http://
www.thehindubusinessline. com/economy/india-is-poorest-in-southasia-after-afghanistan-oxford-varsity-study/article6120424.ece, accessed
on 17.06.14]
In fact, Eight Indian States are home to 421 million
multidimensionally poor people, more than the figure of 410 million in 26 poorest African countries.... In Delhi, the rate is close
to Iraq and Vietnams (about 14 per cent), while that of Bihar is
similar to Sierra Leon and Guineas (about 81 per cent)
(04.11.2010,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/8-indian-states-have421-million-multidimensionally-poor-people/article868825.ece)
Still there are more data on Indian poverty rate. A McKinsey
report (McKinsey Co.an imperialist thinktank beloved to the
Indian bourgeoisie!) says: ...we find that 56 per cent of the
population lacks the means to meet their essential needs. By this
measure, some 680 million [i.e., 68 croreUpdate] Indians experience deprivationmore than 2.5 times the population of
270 million below the official poverty line. (20.02.2014, http://
www.ndtv.com/article/india/poverty-in-india-2-5-times-the-official-figure-study-486034)
We think, the pundits/representatives of the ruling classes of
India will continue this debate on poverty in the coming future.
Notwithstanding the debate, it is clear from the above data that
a huge section of the population, more than half of the Indians
are languishing under abject poverty and destituteness.

Growing Inequality: The Real India

India became more unequal during the economic reforms or
since the early nineties of the last century. It had been pursued
by the ruling classes that the economic growth would trickle
down to the bottom level of the population. But in actual reality,
creamy layer of the population made quick bucks while the condition of the bottom level of the society is falling. The NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) survey clearly shows that the
inequality among the Indians is growing fast. Follow the report
which analysed the report of NSSO:
....But has the gap between rich and poor narrowed? How
much wealth has really percolated down? To answer such
questions, it is preferable to rely on National Sample Survey
Organisation data and more specifically, to its calculation of
monthly per capita expenditures (MPCE). This indicator offers
an instrument by which to measure the evolution of the
standard of living and of inequality.
In 1993-94, the average MPCE was Rs 281 in rural India and Rs
458 in urban India. They rose, respectively, to Rs 772 (+174 per
cent) and Rs 1,472 (+221 per cent) in 2007-08, which means that
the gap between urban and rural areas has jumped from 63 to
91 per cent. The gap diminished somewhat between 2007-08
and 2011-12, with rural MPCE reaching Rs 1,430 (+85 per cent)
and urban MPCE rising to Rs 2,630 (+79 per cent), but it
remained more than 20 percentage points higher than what
it was in 1993-94, at 84 per cent.... [The politics ofManmohanomics,
14.01.2014, http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/thepolitics-of-manmohanomics/0/, accessed on 25.01.14]
During the period between 2000 and 2012 the gap between
the rich and the poor widens further:
Everybody knows that there is a chasm between the rich and
the poor. But can it be measured? And, more importantly, is

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31

this disparity between the rich and poor growing or coming

down?
New data based on consumption expenditure surveys shows
that income disparity is growing and at a rapid clip. Spending
and consumption by the richest 5% zoomed up by over 60%
between 2000 and 2012 in rural areas while the poorest 5% saw
an increase of just 30%. In urban areas, the richest segments
spending increased by 63% while the poorest saw an increase
of 33%. The effect of inflation was removed while making these
comparisons.
Heres another way you can look at these disturbing results:
in 2000, the average spend (or income) of the richest group in
urban areas was 12 times that of the poorest group; in 2012, it
had increased to 15-fold. In rural areas, the disparity between
the haves and the have-nots increased from 7 times to 9 times
in these 12 years....
The richest 10% of Indian society have seen highest growth
while the poorest 10% have seen the slowest increase in
incomes. The remaining 80% of the people have seen roughly
the same levels of growth ranging between 35% and 40% in
rural areas and between 40% and 50% in urban areas over 12
years. That means that for 90% of people, annual growth in
income was just over 3% in rural India, and just over 4% in
urban India.
Clearly, economic policy that resulted in high GDP growth for
most of this period has not trickled down to the neediest.
Rather, it appears to be benefitting the already affluent
sections more.
In 2012, a person of the poorest segment in rural areas was
spending just Rs 521 per month. So, a family of four would
spend about Rs 2,084 per month. In the richest segment, a person
spent Rs 4,481 per month which would translate into a monthly
spend (or income) of Rs 17,925 for a family of four. In urban
areas, monthly spending by the poorest segment was Rs 700
per person or Rs 2,802 for a family of four and for the richest
group it was Rs 10,282 per person or Rs 41,128 for a fourmember family.

32

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Details of spending on different items provided by the report

show that in urban areas, monthly expenditure per person on
food was less than Rs 1,000 for 50% of the population while in
the richest segment every person on an average spent Rs 2,859.
Some of the food items showing vast disparity between rich
and poor included vegetables, fruits, eggs, fish and meat, and
milk products. The data blows the myth that poorer sections
are consuming more of fruits, eggs, etc. [Income disparity between
rich and poor growing rapidly, 28.07.2014, http://articles.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-28/india/40848406_1_urbanareas-rural-areas-disparity, accessed on 25.01.14]
Above-mentioned mainstream daily cannot hide the real
truth. The daily emphatically says that the high GDP growth for
most of this period has not trickled down to the neediest.
Rather, it appears to be benefiting the already affluent sections
more. (ibid) Moreover, a person in the poorest segment was
spending Rs 17.37 per day whereas the a person in the richest
segment spends 149.37 per day. Therefore, the richest of the
population spends 8.6 times more than the poorest!
The 68th Round of NSSO survey clarifies the inequality gap in
a recent report: The top 5% of the rural population, ranked by
MPCE (monthly per capita consumption expenditure) had an average MPCE of Rs 4481about 8.6 times that of the bottom. The
top 5% of the urban population had an average MPCE of Rs
10,282about 14.7 times that of the bottom 5%. (Level and Pattern of Consumer Expenditure, 2011-12, NSSO 68th Round, February
2014)
If we count the extent of disparity among the states some revealing figures will be prominent:
Urban parts of a third of the states saw the highest inequality
in 2011-12 since 1973-74, show data from the Planning
Commission.
Data obtained by Business Standard through an application under
the Right to Information Act showed urban inequality at the
all-India level with a Gini coefficient of 0.37 in 2011-12. In 200405, the index was 0.35. The level was the highest since 197374, when the coefficient was 0.3. The coefficient is a statistical
measure, on a scale of zero to one; zero represents perfect

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33

equality and one shows perfect inequality....

As many as nine states saw their widest rich-poor gap in their
urban parts since 1973-74. These were Assam, Haryana,
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh and West Bengal, besides Delhi. Four saw an inequality
more than the national average: Karnataka (0.41), Kerala (0.39),
Haryana (0.38) and West Bengal (0.38). The Gini coefficient in
Haryana was 0.35 in 2004-05 and below 0.3 in 1999-00 and 199394. It was around 0.3 in 1973-74, 1977-78 and 1983.
In Delhi, almost completely urban, the index was 0.37, up from
0.32 in 2004-05. The highest rise was in Uttar Pradesh, where it
rose from 0.34 in 2004-05 to 0.40 in 2011-12. It was between 0.29
and 0.33 in 1973-74, 1977-78, 1983, 1993-94 and 1999-00.
In Maharashtra, urban inequality was the highest ever but rural
inequality was at an all-time low of 0.25. [Urban inequality on
the rise in many states, 06.01.2014, http://www.business-standard.com/
article/economy-policy/urban-inequality-on-the-rise-in-many-states114010500279_1.html, accessed on 25.01.14]
An analyst studied the wealth and consumption pattern of the
households from data provided by the Census 2011 and observed that the gap between the rich and the poor widens:
Sociologist RB Bhagat, in his research paper published in a
prestigious social science research journal, has analyzed how
economic development in the country has widened the ruralurban gap and the gap between the Scheduled Castes-Scheduled
Tribes and the rest of the population.
For a majority of households, living conditions as well as
ownership of assets are at very low levels, asserts the
sociologist.
The percentage of households with concrete roof was only 21
per cent in India as a whole, and 18 and 52 per cent in rural
and urban areas, respectively, in 2011.
Only about half of the households in rural areas used electricity
as a source of light, the study notes.
Also, only 47 per cent of the households have a latrine facility
within their premises, 41 per cent have a bathroom, and 28 per

34

Update 20

Box 1: Economic Reforms and Am-Admi at a Glance

1. Indias per capita external debt stands at Rs 21,493 in 2013-14, Total external
debt is $440.6 billion (i.e., Rs 26 lakh 43 thousand 6 hundred crore). (15.07.14,
http://www.rediff.com/money/report/indias-per-capita-external-debt-up-atrs-21493/20140715.htm)
2. Another source reports that the total external debt of India stood at 20% of
its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013. (29.03.13, http://www.businessstandard.com/article/economy-policy/external-debt-rises-to-20-of-gdp113032800427_1.html)
3. Indias per capita median monthly income is Rs 3080 at the current exchange
rate (1 dollar = approximately Rs 60), which is the lowest among the BRICS
countries. (calculated from http://www.business-standard.com/article/
economy-policy/india-s-median-per-capita-income-lowest-among-bricsgallup-113121600968_1. html)
4. India has by far the largest population of illiterate adults at 287 million,
amounting to 37 per cent of the global total. (29.01.14, http://www.thehindu.
com/features/education/issues/india-tops-in-adult-illiteracy-un-report/
article5629981.ece)
5. Only 10% of students have access to higher education in the country.
Among communities, tribals and dalits fare worst with just 1.8% of them having
any higher education. Muslims are almost as badly off, with just 2.1% able to
go for further learning. Similarly, just 2% of the rural population is educated
beyond higher secondary level, compared to 12% of the urban population
and just 3% of women got a college education compared to 6% of men.
(05.01.14, Times of India, Kolkata edition)
6. 38.5% households have only one dwelling room for living (Census 2011)
7. Drinking water facility is available within the premise to 39% households
only. (ibid)
8. Electricity as the source of lighting is available to 55.8% households. (ibid)
9. 64% households do not have latrine within the house. (ibid)
10. Fire wood is still the mostly used source for fuel for cooking for 52.5%
households in the country. LPG as fuel for cooking is used by 17.5%
households. (ibid)
11. 35.1% households have Radio or Transistor, Television is available to 31.6%
households in the country. (ibid)
12. 23 crore or 19% people of the country are malnourished. More than 27% of
the worlds undernourished population lives in India. Nearly 50% of child
deaths in India occur due to malnutrition. (http://www.deccanherald.com/
content/21720/india-still-worlds-hunger-capital.html)

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35

13. India now has a greater share of the worlds poorest than it did thirty years
ago. Then it was home to one fifth of the worlds poorest people, but today it
accounts for one-third400 million. (18.04.13, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
news/worldnews/asia/india/10003228/India-has-one-third-of-worldspoorest-says-World-Bank.html)
14. Eight Indian States are home to 421 million multidimensionally poor people,
more than the figure of 410 million in 26 poorest African countries. (04.11.10,
http://www.thehindu.com/news/8-indian-states-have-421-millionmultidimensionally-poor-people/article868825.ece)
15. Among the worst performers on rural poverty are Jharkhand, Assam, Bihar,
Odisha, Chhattisgarh, MP and UP. In 1993-94, nearly 50% of Indias rural poor
lived in these states. This figure rose to 63% in 2009-10 and 65% in 2011-12.
(27.09.13, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-09-27/india/
42458378_1_severe-poverty-rural-poverty-report)
16. Over 65 million people live in slums, up from 52 million in 2001 (01.10.13,
http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-newdelhi/65mi ll i on-pe opl e -li v e -in-slums-in-i ndi a-say s-c e nsus-dat a/
article5188234.ece)
17. Despite millions of Indians going to bed on a hungry stomach, the country
is letting food worth a whopping Rs 44,000 crore go waste each year due to
lack of adequate storage infrastructure. (http://www.deccanherald.com/
content/352942/india-wastes-rs-44000-cr.html)
18. The country has seen over a quarter of a million farmers suicides between
1995 and 2010.... Close to two-thirds of all farm suicides have occurred in five
States: Maharashtra, Karnataka, A.P., Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
(29.10.11, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/sainath/in-16-yearsfarm-suicides-cross-a-quarter-million/article2577635.ece)
19. Between 2004 and 2013 food prices in general rose by 157%. Vegetable
prices shot up by 350% in the same period. Prices of rice and wheat have
increased by 137% and 117% respectively. (12.09.13, Times of India)
20. The percentage share of contract workers in organized manufacturing sector
has increased from 13 per cent in 1995, to 34 per cent in 2011.(India Labour
and Employment Report 2014)
21. The average daily earnings of a casual worker stood at Rs 138 in rural areas
and Rs 173 in urban areas in 2011-12, and that of a regular worker at Rs 298 in
rural areas and Rs 445 in urban areas. (ibid)
22. Top 28 manufacturing companies increased their workforce by 2.87% a
year between 2004-05 and 2012-13, whereas their revenues increased by 17.8%
a year (21.05.14, http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/
the-puzzle-of-india-s-lack-of-manufacturing-job-growth-114052001154_1.
html)

36

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cent use LPG/PNG as cooking fuel while 43 per cent

households have access to tap water as per the 2011 Census for
rural and urban areas put together. A majority of the
households do not have access to treated drinking water which
is a major factor of waterborne diseases like diarrhoea and
dysentery, the sociologist points out....
According to the study, about half of the households had access
to television (47 per cent) and mobile phone (53 per cent) in
2011. Scooters, motorcycles and mopeds seem to have emerged
as the most convenient mode of transport with one-fifth of the
households using this mode of transportation.... [Runaway
consumerism widened urban-rural gap: Study, 16.10.2013, http://
www.deccanherald.com/content/363482/runaway-consumerismwidened-urban-rural.html, 06.02.2014]
In fact, the absolute prosperity of the rich classes rose absolutely. IMF noted that the net worth of the richest classes of India is increasing fast: The net worth of Indias billionaire community has soared 12-fold in 15 yearsenough to eliminate absolute poverty twice over in the country, where income inequality is also on the rise, according to the IMF. (04.02.2014, http://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Income-inequality-on-the-rise-in-countries-like-India-IMF/articleshow/29857803.cms)
Another report noted that:
The number of ultra-high networth individuals (UHNIs) having
an investible surplus of over Rs 25 crore rose 16 per cent to 1.17
lakh last fiscal, and this is estimated to triple to 3.43 lakh in the
next three years, says a report.
As for the underlying wealth held by this upper rich grouping,
which also includes professionals having an annual income of
over Rs 3 crore, grew 21 per cent to Rs 104 trillion (Rs 104 lakh
crore), and will grow four times to Rs 408 trillion in the next
three years, says a wealth report by the Kotak group and Ernst
& Young.... [Number of ultra rich to rise threefold to 3.43 lakh in 3
years: Study, 23.07.2014, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/
economy/indicators/number-of-ultra-rich-to-rise-threefold-to-3-43lakh-in-3-years-study/articleshow/, accessed on 23.07.14]
The above business daily reported that India is at 6th posi-

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tion in terms of number of dollar-billionaires (1 billion = 100

crore, 1 trillion = 1 lakh crore; moreover, at the present exchange
rate, 1 dollar = approximately Rs 60):
India has retained its sixth position in terms of number of
billionaires with 100 such people collectively having $175
billion in networth, while globally the number of ultra-rich has
reached a record high of 2,325 persons.
According to the Wealth-X and UBS Billionaire Census 2014,
released on Wednesday, though the number of billionaires in
the country has decreased over last year (in 2013 there were
103 billionaires) India still enjoys a decent 6th position (sameas
last year) in the top 10 league.
Interestingly, India has more number of billionaires than
Switzerland, Hong Kong and France among others.
Moreover, the countrys financial capital Mumbai, with 28
billionaires is among the top 20 billionaire cities globally, which
was topped by New York which is home to 103 billionaires....
[India home to 100 billionaires; sixth in the top 10 league, 17.09.2014,
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/indicators/indiahome-to-100-billionaires-sixth-in-the-top-10-league/articleshow/
42698585.cms, accessed on 18.09.14]
We have already noted that India has 175,000 dollar-millionaire (1 million = 10 lakh) and it is increasing:
India ranked 15th last year and had 175,000 millionaire
households. Its position improved slightly from 2012 when it
had ranked 16 in the world for its number of millionaire
households.
India is projected to become the seventh wealthiest nation by
2018. The number of ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) households
in India, those with $100 million or more, stood at 284 last
year.... [India ranks 15th on global wealth list, 11.06.2014, http://
timesofindia.indiatimes. com/business/india-business/India-ranks-15thon-global-wealth-list/articleshow/36367448.cms, accessed on 28.09.14]
An international group forecasts that by 2018, Indias private
wealth will increase by mammoth 150%: By 2018, India could
become the worlds seventh-biggest nation in terms of private

38

Update 20

wealth, with a 150 per cent jump in total from $2 trillion in 2013
to $5 trillion, suggests a recent study by The Boston Consulting
Group (BCG). The country jumped two notches from 17th in
2008 to 15th in 2013. (12.06.2014, http://www.business-standard.
com/article/current-affairs/india-s-pvt-wealth-to-rise-150-by-2018study-114061100363_1.html)
India can boast of the number of dollar-billionaires it holds.
In fact, the upper echelons of Indian billionaire hold nearly half
the dollars of the billionaire-club owns:
The top five Indian billionaires led by Reliance Industries
Chairman Mukesh Ambani collectively control $85.5 billion
(about Rs 5,23,897 crore) in personal wealth, accounting for
nearly half of the countrys total billionaire wealth, a new study
said today.
According to the analysis by wealth research firm Wealth-X of
Indias richest individuals, Mukesh Ambani remains the richest
man in the country with an estimated net worth of $24.4 billion
(about Rs 1,49,474 crore).
Ambani is followed by steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, drugmaker
Sun Pharmas Dilip Shanghvi, IT giant Wipros Azim Premji and
Tata Sons shareholder Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry among the topfive wealthiest individuals from India.
The five billionaires collectively control $85.5 billion in
personal wealth, accounting for 47.5% of Indias total billionaire
wealth, Wealth-X said.... [Top 5 richest Indians have half of
nations billionaire wealth, 13.08.2014, http://www.businessstandard.com/article/pti-stories/top-5-richest-indians-have-half-ofnation-s-billionaire-wealth-114081300310_1.html, accessed on
14.08.14]
And how they spend? The spending and consumption pattern
of these super rich classes are summarily described in the following excerpt:
Despite the global economic slowdown, size of the High
Income Group (HIG) consumers continue to enlarge and
spend over 40% of their monthly income on some of the
worlds largest luxury brands, while the Middle Income Group
(MIG) consumers have come under heavy pressure, reveals

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39

ASSOCHAMs latest survey.

The factors that have fuelled the luxury industrys growth are
the rise in disposable income, brand awareness amongst the
youth and purchasing power of the upper class in Tier II & III
cities in India, whereas the middle income groups spending on
food products and education have increased significantly in the
last 10 years....
The report says that the slowdown in the economy has not
affected the spending patterns of HIG, with many of them
stating that maintaining their lifestyle is an extremely important
facet of their social life.
Throwing lavish parties such as business success, wedding or
launch parties has become a new area of spending, reveals the
survey.
The survey also highlights that majority of women tend to make
purchasing decisions around cosmetics, perfumes, spa
treatments, clothes, footwear, bags and jewelry.
Men on the other hand mostly decide on purchases related to
alcohol, watches and automobiles. Joint decisions are made on
hotels, resorts and restaurants.... [Higher income group spends
lavishly on luxury, reveals survey, 13.07.2013, http://timesofindia.
indiatimes. com/city/lucknow/Higher-income-group-spends-lavishlyon-luxury-reveals-survey/articleshow/21059868.cms, accessed on
28.09.14]
It is not difficult to understand that this creamy layer of the
society (i.e., 1,75000 dollar-millionaires) enjoyed the maximum
benefit of the economic reforms and this forms the core of the
ruling classes (the big bourgeoisie and big landlords along with
prosperous class of rural and urban locality). The government is
for these classes, by the classes and of the classes. So the government made numerous concessions for these biggies. Next article
written by P. Sainath elaborates the tax-cuts and concessions
given to these cream of the society:
It was business as usual in 2013-14. Business with a capital B.
This years budget document says we gave away another Rs.
5.32 lakh crores to the corporate needy and the undernourished rich in that year.Well, it says Rs. 5.72 lakh crores

40

Update 20

but Imleaving out the Rs. 40 K crore foregone on personal

income tax since that write-off benefits a wider group of people.
The rest is mostly about a feeding frenzy at the corporate trough.
And, of course, that of other well-off people. The major writeoffs come in direct corporate income tax, customs and excise
duties.
If you think sparing the super-rich taxes and duties worth Rs.
5.32 lakh croresisa trifle excessive, think again.The amount
weve written off for them since 2005-06 under the very same
heads is well over Rs. 36.5 lakh crore. (A sixth of that in just
corporate income tax). Thats Rs. 36500000000000wipedoff for
the big boys in nine years.
With Rs. 36.5 trillionfor that is what it isyou could:
n Fund the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme for around 105 years, at present
levels.Thats more than any human being could expect to
live. And a hell of a lot more than any agricultural labourer
would. You could, in fact, run the MNREGS on that sum,
across the working lives of two generations of such
labourers. The current allocation for the scheme is around
Rs. 34,000 crore.
n Fund the Public Distribution System for 31 years. (current
allocation Rs. 1,15,000 crores).
By the way, if these revenues had been realized, around 30 per
cent of their value would have devolved to the states.
So their fiscal health is affected by the Centres massive
corporatekarza maafi.
Even just the amount foregone in 2013-14 can fund the rural
jobs scheme for three decades. Or the PDS for four and a half
years. It is also over four times the losses of the Oil Marketing
Companies by way of so-called under-recoveries in 2012-13.
Look at some of the exemptions under customs duty.Theres
a neat Rs. 48,635 crore written off on Diamonds and Gold.
Hardlyaam aadmioraam auratitems. And more than what we
spend on rural jobs. Fact: concessions on diamonds and gold
over the past36 months total Rs. 1.6trillion. (A lot more than
well spend on the PDS in the coming year). In the latest figures,

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41

it accounts for 16 per cent of the total revenue foregone.

The break-up of the budgets revenue foregone figure of Rs.
5.72 lakh crore for 2013-14 isinteresting.Of this, Rs. 76,116 crore
was written off on just direct corporate income tax.More than
twice that sum (Rs.1,95,679 crore)was foregone on Excise Duty.
And well over three times the sum was sacrificed in Customs
Duty (Rs. 2,60,714 crores).
This, of course, has been going on for many years in the
reforms period. But the budget only started carrying the data
on revenue foregone around 2006-07. Hence the Rs. 36.5 trillion
write-off figure. It would be higher had we the data for earlier
years. (All of this, by the way, falls within the UPA period).
And the trend in this direction only grows. As the budget
document itself recognizes, the total revenue foregone from
central taxes is showing an upward trend.
It sure is. The amount written off in 2013-14 shows an increase
of 132 per cent compared to the same concessions in2005-06.
Corporatekarza maafiis a growth industry, and an efficient one.
[Corporate karza maafi at Rs. 36.5 trillion, 13.07.2014, http://psainath.
org/corporate-karza-maafi-at-rs-36-5-trillion/, accessed on 10.09.14]
The windfall made by this class is enormous. They dictate the
government, run the government, influence the policy decisionsin fact, all of the economic policies are enacted to satisfy
this class. This top of the pyramid made bucks by any lawful or
unlawful method. They have hands in all the biggest scams uncoveredfrom coalgate to telecom scam. They have enmassed
huge black money also. A study by industry body Assocham
says nearly $2 trillion or Rs. 120 lakh crore of Indian black
money is stashed overseas. Assochams black money estimate is
more than the countrys nominal GDP, which stood at Rs. 114
lakh crore or $1.9 trillion in 2013-14. (20.06.2014, http://profit.
ndtv.com/news/economy/article-black-money-stashed-abroad-seen-at-rs120-lakh-crore-assocham-545276)

Jobless Growth
We have seen earlier that the fruits of the liberalisation and
economic reforms did not trickle down to the have-nots. Interestingly, in every policy decisions made by the government in
the last two decades such as in the reports of Planning Commission or Reserve Bank of India it was iterated again and again that
the growth achieved during the reforms-period would percolate down and millions of jobs would be created. But after two
decades of liberalising the Indian economy, rate of job-creation
remains far behind the growth rate of the workforce. Such is the
dismal picture of the employment generation during the economic growth that even the lackeys of the bourgeoisie does not
hesitate to call it a jobless growth in their commentaries. A reputed business daily comments:
Going by estimates provided by T S Papola and Partha Pratim
Sahu in a paper done for the Indian Council of Social Science
Research (Growth and structure of long-term employment in
India, March 2012), the average annual employment growth
was about 2.4 per cent in the 1970s. In the 1993-94 to 2009-10
period, it averaged around 1.65 per cent. In fact this postliberalisation average was shored up by a somewhat spectacular
and unexplainable blip in employment growth to 2.8 per cent
between 1999-2000 and 2004-05. In the 2004-05 to 2009-10
period, in which GDP growth hit historically its highest levels,
job growth collapsed to virtually zero. [Indias jobless growth
story, 02.01.2013, http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/
abheek-barua-india-s-jobless-growth-story-113010200119_1.html,
accessed on 27.09.13]
The same daily published a table (Table 9) showing that the
growth rate of employment had been slowing down during the
era of reforms in comparison to the earlier years, such as 1970s
and 1980s and particularly during the period of 1993-2009 (the

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43

Table 9: Employment Growth (in %)

Sector
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Total

1972-83

1983-93

1993-2009

1.7
4.4
4.2
2.4

1.4
2.8
3.8
2.0

0.7
4.3
3.1
1.7

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/abheek-barua-india-sjobless-growth-story-113010200119_1.html

key period of economic reforms), it touched the bottom.

Before going into the details about the employment-unemployment scenario, we are presenting here some structural data
about the Indian economy. The change in the structure of the
economy is notable as the services sector have eaten the share of
agriculture sector though the industrial sector more or less remains constant.
In India, the share of services in output has increased sharply
within the last 20 years, resulting in their share in GDP rising
from 43% of GDP in 1990-91 to 57% in 2010-11. The share of
the agricultural sector has declined from 33% of GDP in 199091 to 15% of GDP in 2009-10, while the industry sectors share
in GDP is hovering around 24%-26% between 1990-91 and 200910. [Turnaround in Indias Employment Story, Santosh Mehrotra,
Ankita Gandhi, Partha Saha, Kishore Sahu, Economic and Political
Weekly, 31.08.2013]
In 2012-2013, the share of agriculture in Indian economy
dipped further. A business daily reported:
"As per latest estimates released by Central Statistics Office
(CSO) the share of agricultural products/Agriculture and Allied
Sectors in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country was
51.9 per cent in 1950-51, which has now come down to 13.7 per
cent in 2012-13 at 2004-05 prices," Minister of State for
Agriculture Tariq Anwar said in a written reply to the Rajya
Sabha. [Agriculture's share in GDP declines to 13.7% in 2012-13,
30.08.2013, http://articles.economictimes. indiatimes.com/2013-08-30/
news/41618996_1_gdp-foodgrains-allied-sectors]

44

Update 20

The share of agricultural sector in Indian economy, though

declining at a faster rate and occupy a meagre 13.7 per cent in
2012-13, still is the biggest contributor in job-creation (though a
structural change is recorded in recent times):
The writers of the EPW article noted that:
Among the causes of concern, agriculture still remains the
mainstay of livelihood for more than half of the workforce in
the country. However, the share of agriculture in total
employment has fallen from 57% in 2005 to 53% in 2010, which
has been accompanied by an absolute shift of 14 million
workers from agriculture to services and industry. This
absolute decline in the number of workers in agriculture
occurred for the first time in the history of independent India.
Nevertheless, the process of structural change in employment
that one would expect with a period of very rapid, in fact,
unprecedented growth in output in the economy outside of
agriculture was not occurring.
However, the pace of structural transformation accelerated
post-2010. The share of agriculture in total employment has
fallen by 4 percentage points (a decline comparable to that
achieved in the previous five-year period) in two years from
53% in 2009-10 to 49% in 2011-12. During 2009-10 and 2011-12,
13 million workers withdrew out of agriculture. That is nearly
as large as the absolute decline in workers in agriculture (14
million) that occurred between 2004-05 and 2009-10. There was
no absolute decline in agricultural employment between
Independence and 2004-05, which began after 2005 for the first
time in Indian history. This decline has intensified since 2010.
[Turnaround in Indias Employment Story, EPW, 31.08.2013]
Though declining at recent times, the percentage share employment linked with agricultural activities (contributing a mere
13.7% to the GDP) is still 49%. It is not difficult to conceive that
nearly half of the workforce linked with the agricultural activities are languishing in a pathetic condition.
It is to be noted from the above excerpt that during 2005-10,
14 million workers left agricultural practices and joined either industrial or services sector or remained unemployed. Moreover,

Update 20

45

during 2009-2012, 13 million persons have left agriculture. Therefore, for the first time since independence, absolute number of
workers involved in agriculture is declined and therefore a
structural shift is occurring in the job sector.
Four writers commented in EPW:
Total employment increased by 25.5 million between 1993-94
and 1999-2000, of which 5.1 million was in agriculture. Over the
five-year period, 1999-2000 to 2004-05, there was an additional
22 million rise in agricultureclearly a retrograde development,
especially at a time when agricultural output was growing
slowly. In other words, there was no structural shift taking
place with workers moving out of agriculture until 2004-05,
underlining low productivity in agriculture as a whole, and in
the economy.
Post 2004-05, for the first time in Indias post-Independence
economic history, in the five-year period, 2004-05 to 2009-10,
as many as 23.7 million of Indias agricultural workforce
abandoned agriculture, or nearly 10% of the total workforce
in agriculture. In fact, non-agricultural employment grew by
25 million, which is how total employment grew by only 1.1
million. Between 2009-10 and 2011-12, non-agricultural
employment increased sharplya 27 million increase in
absolute terms, while at the same time the numbers in
agriculture fell by 13 million in a matter of two years. This is a
historically unprecedented development in Indias economic
history. [Explaining Employment Trends in the Indian Economy:
1993-94 to 2011-12, Santosh Mehrotra, Jajati Parida, Sharmishtha
Sinha, Ankita Gandhi, EPW, 09.08.2014, p 50]
Interestingly, during the period of 2005-10, manufacturing
sector shedded 5 million jobs:
Manufacturing sector employment remains a concern, despite
rapid manufacturing-output growth. The increase by nearly 12
million in manufacturing sector employment in the first half of
the decade (2000-05) was offset by a decline of 5 million in the
second half of the decade (2005-10). [Turnaround in Indias
Employment Story, EPW, 31.08.2013]

46

Update 20

Therefore the jobs lost in agriculture have gone to anywhere

other than manufacturing. An website reported:
The displaced agricultural people as is evident have not got jobs
in manufacturing. They apparently have gone to the low-paying
construction sector, which has seen 44.04 million being
employed in 2010 up from 26.2 million in 2005. This means that
there is employment of more deskilled people rather than
skilled. [19 m Job Losses, 04.03.2013, http://www.sarkaritel.com/19m-job-losses-indias-demographic-deficit/, accessed on 28.09.13]
Another daily commented:
Unskilled workers who left agriculture flocked to construction
employment. Such employment increased by only eight million
(17 to 25.6 million) during 1999-2000 to 2004-05. But it grew
sharply to 50 million by 2011-12. This was an increase from
under two million a year to seven million a year. While a part
of this increase in construction employment was in housing real
estate, it was infrastructure (roads, bridges, airports, ports,
energy projects) investment which drove most of the
employment growth. [Jobless growth no more, 17.04.2014, http:/
/www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/jobless-growth-no-more/
article5919426.ece]
In fact, according to the survey reports provided by NSSO,
after a jobless growth during the first decade of 2000, there are a
turnaround in the job sector during 2010-2013. The writers in
EPW commented further:
The only non-agricultural sector which has experienced
phenomenal growth in employment during the first decade of
the millennium is the non-manufacturing sector in general and
within this construction in particular. The 18 million increase
in jobs in the construction sector were offset by the 5 million
decline in manufacturing sector, resulting in industrial
employment increasing by 13 million in the period 2005-10. The
68th round data suggests that industrial employment has
increased by 15.7 million during 2010-12. The disaggregated
data for 2011-12 brings good news for Indias manufacturing
sector. It suggests that employment in manufacturing rose by
8.9 million in this two-year period, while non-manufacturing

Update 20

47

Table 10: Employment in Organised and Unorganised Sector

(in million)
Year
1999-2000
2004-05
2009-10

Organised

Unorganised

Total

54.1 (13.6)
62.6 (13.7)
72.88 (15.8)

342.6 (86.4)
394.9 (86.3)
387.34 (84.2)

396.8 (100)
457.5 (100)
460.22 (100)

Bracketed figures are in per cent

Source: Computed from NSS 66th round, for 2004-05 and 1999-2000, NCEUS
(2008), quoted in EPW, 31.08.2013

Table 11: Organised and Unorganised Employment in Major

Sectors, 2009-10 (in million)
Major Sector
Agriculture
Manufacturing
Non-manufacturing
Services
All Sectors

Total Employment

Unorganised

Organised

244.85 (100)
50.74 (100)
48.28 (100)
116.34 (100)
460.22 (100)

242.11 (99)
34.71 (69)
30.38 (63)
80.17 (69)
387.38 (84)

2.74 (1)
16.03 (31)
17.90 (37)
36.17 (31)
72.84 (16)

Bracketed figures are in per cent

Source: Calculated from NSS 66th Round, Employment and Unemployment Survey,
2009-10, quoted in Economic and Political Weekly (EPW), 31.08.2013

(mostly accounted for by construction) rose by 6.8 million. This

clearly is a turnaround from the previous five-year period which
brought forth concerns over an absolute decline in workers
engaged in manufacturing sector. [Turnaround in Indias
Employment Story, EPW, 31.08.2013]
The authors of the above excerpt called the present experience as a turnaround. But they did not mention that the most
of the jobs generated during the recent times are of informal
nature. It will be seen in the coming discussion that according to
the definition of government, informal jobs largely mean low
quality jobs, jobs of casual and contract nature. Therefore the
commentators in their analysis either gave no importance to this
phenomenon or deliberately undermine this incident of
informalisation of jobs.
In this respect we want to draw the attention of the readers

48

Update 20

Table 12: Sector-wise Distribution of Workers by OrganisedUnorganised Enterprises and Formal-Informal Employment
(In million)
Sectors
2004-05

Organised
Formal Informal

Agriculture
Manufacturing
Non-manufacturing
Services
Total
2009-10
Agriculture
Manufacturing
Non-manufacturing
Services
Total
2011-12
Agriculture
Manufacturing
Non-manufacturing
Services
Total

Unorganised
Formal Informal

Total
Formal Informal

0.2
5.0
2.0
19.5
26.7

4.1
10.3
7.2
10.0
31.5

0.1
0.6
0.1
1.1
1.9

264.2
38.0
20.1
76.8
399.0

0.3
5.6
2.1
20.6
28.6

268.2
48.3
27.3
86.7
430.5

0.3
5.3
2.5
22.7
30.9

13.0
11.1
15.8
13.5
53.5

0.1
0.4
0.4
1.4
2.3

231.5
33.9
29.6
78.7
373.7

0.4
5.7
2.9
24.1
33.1

244.5
45.0
45.4
92.2
427.1

0.5
6.1
2.7
24.2
33.5

17.7
14.6
19.7
16.1
68.1

0.1
0.4
0.3
1.2
1.9

213.6
38.7
32.7
85.8
370.8

0.6
6.5
2.9
25.4
35.4

231.3
53.3
52.3
101.9
438.9

Sources: Based on various rounds of NSSO, EPW, 09/08/2014, p 52

to the term of informalisation which is quite ambiguous in governmental definition and analysis. According to the definition of
government, Informal workers consist of those working in the
informal sector or households, excluding regular workers with
social security benefits provided by the employers and the
workers in the formal sector without any employment and social
security benefits provided by the employers. As per the definition of the government and their agencies, a garment worker
working with a sewing machine in a small-scale unit (less than 10
workers per unit functioning without power) denied any employment contract or social security are informal. Even a
worker working in ancillary units of automobile sector will be
called by the government agencies as informal though he/she is
used to work with modern machineries and in modern manufacturing conditions or standards. The Table 12 and data given
alongwith this section provide share of formal and informal

Update 20

49

workers in organised sector. But the table hides the fact whether
the worker works with modern machineries or modern working
conditions. Hence, by informalisation of workforce, the government means that both of the above type of workers are informal which is not correct according to Update. In fact, it is the underdevelopment nature of the Indian industrial development
which is ignored by the government agencies. The same nature
of ambiguity is seen in the definition of organised and
unorganised sector also.
In advanced industrialised countries, informal worker is defined as those who l has no formal contract with his employer,
lhas no systematic work conditions, l gets irregularly and unevenly paid, l has no forum to express his grievances, l has no
fixed hours of work and mostly earns hand to mouth, l is not
covered by any kind of social security system and has poor
knowledge about the need to protect himself socially and economically. In this analysis it is taken for granted that the workers are working with modern machineries and modern working
condition. In a backward economy like India this definition cannot be applied. Hence, from the data supplied by the agencies of
the government we cannot judge the actual status of the workers. Hence our analysis will be half-hearted and limited if we
follow the government definitions about informalisation. But
we have no alternative datasource supplied other than by the
government. In fact, by the term informalisation, the commentators may mean jobs of poor quality, casual, contract nature.
We are compelled to use this meaning.
We are going back to our discussion. The jobs generated in
recent times are of informal nature said by many critiques. ILO,
an arm of United Nations, said in its Global Employment Trends
2014: total employment in India expanded from 2009/10 to
2011/12 by a much healthier 13.9 million, though many of these
jobs are in the informal economy, (Unemployment levels rising in
India, experts say, 26.01.2014, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Unemployment-levels-rising-in-India-experts-say/
articleshow/29403619.cms). Raghuram Rajan, the present governor
of Reserve Bank of India, and also one of the authors of Economic Survey 2012-13 said that India is creating jobs mainly in

50

Update 20

low-productivity construction and not formal jobs in manufacturing, which typically are higher productivity. (Indias Economy
Leaves Job Growth in the Dust, 15.03.2013, http://www.bloomberg.com/
news/2013-03-14/india-s-economy-leaves-job-growth-in-the-dust.html)
Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), a think-tank of the Planning Commission said in its report Joblessness and Informalization:
Challenges to Inclusive Growth in India:
Most of those moving out of agriculture (during a period in
which farm productivity was on the decline) ended up being
casual labour in the construction industry with little or no social
security, the study said.
Out of 44 million total employment in construction by 2010,
42 million (informal labour) hardly have any kind of social
security benefit attached with it. In other words, 95% of
workers in construction sector hardly have any kind of social
security coverage, the study said....
The study said what makes India different is that the share of
informal workers in the total workforce is well above the other
emerging market economies93% of all workers compared to
55% in Brazil....
IAMR calculated that the prevalence of informal or casual labour
has been increasing not only in the small and medium scale
unorganized sector but also in the kind of labour big
manufacturers hire. While the informal nature of employment
is predominant in the unorganized sector of the economy, its
prevalence is increasing even within the organized segment as
well, it said. Almost half of the organized sector labour too is
of casual nature, the think tank added.
By 2010, 60% of the organized manufacturing employment was
in the nature of informal contracts and 80% of the organized
non-manufacturing employment was in the nature of informal
contract, the study said. [UPA policies leading to jobless growth:
Study by govt body, 08.02.2013, http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.
com/2013-02-08/india/36992167_1_inclusive-growth-jobless-growthservices-sector, accessed on 09.02.13]
From Table 11, it is revealed that 69% of the manufacturing
jobs are created in unorganised sector whereas 31% are in

Update 20

51

organised sector. If we follow the definition and criteria of the

government, it clearly reveals the under-developed nature of
Indian manufacturing sector. Even in services sector, 69% jobs
generated are in unorganised sector.
If informal jobs mean low quality jobs, casual and contract nature of jobsTable 12 (last row) shows that in 2011-12,
out of 101.6 million (33.5 + 68.3 = 101.6) organised sector jobs,
68.3 million (i.e., 67%) jobs are informal in nature and 33.5 million, i.e., 33% are formal. Strikingly, the percentage of formal
workers in organised sector was 26.7 million or 46% in 2004-05.
Therefore, within this period (between 2004 and 2012) formal
workers in organised sector has declined by 13%!
If we judge only the manufacturing sector, it is revealed from
the same table that 29.5% of the jobs were formal in nature in
2011-12. In 2004-05, it was 32.7%a decline of 3 percentage
points.
Now if we group both organised and unorganised sectors together, we find from Table 12 that only 7.5% are formal nature
of jobs in 2011-12 including vast masses of agricultural jobs which
are informal in nature.
Therefore, by the governments own definition and database,
it can be concluded that the period of liberalisation is in fact a
period of informalisation. Hence it is not striking that the pundits of mainstream media and even the analysts of the government are calling this period a era of jobless growth as well as an
era of informalisation.
The recent report of NSSO, Informal Sector and Conditions
of Employment in India portrays the dismal picture of the informal workers. Follow the next excerpt:
Nearly three out of four people working in the non-agricultural
sector in India are in informal jobs, new data from the National
Sample Survey Office (NSSO) shows.
Eighty per cent of these informal sector employees have no
written contract and 72 per cent get no social security benefits,
according to this data....
In 2013, Credit Suisse economists Neelkanth Mishra and Ravi
Shankar estimated Indias informal economy at 90 per cent of

52

Update 20

all employment and half of total GDP. They estimated informal

employment in the non-farm sector at 84 per cent, substantially
higher than the NSSOs estimate. Only sub-Saharan Africa had
a comparable extent of informalisation....
Seventy-two per cent of this workforce was in the informal
sector, the NSSO found, with the proportion being higher in
rural than urban India. Nearly all of the self-employedthe
largest component of the workforceare in informal jobs, while
over 40 per cent of those in regular or salaried jobs are also in
informal work arrangements.
In real terms, informal jobs mean vulnerability, the numbers
indicate. Of those in the informal sector, 42 per cent were in
temporarily employment.
Wages were lower in the informal sector; while regular/salaried
employees earned Rs 401 per day, those in the informal sector
earned Rs 225 per day.
Nearly 80 per cent of all informal sector workers had no written
contracts, 70 per cent got no paid leave and 72 per cent got no
social security benefits. Eighty per cent were not members of
any union or association....
Manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trade,
transportation and storage were the main sectors employing
informal workers, the NSSO found.
Most enterprises hiring informal workers are tiny; threequarters of all informal workers are in enterprises of less than
six persons, the data shows. [80% in informal employment have
no written contract, 28.08.2014, http://www.thehindu.com/news/
national/80-in-informal-employment-have-no-written-contract/
article6358038.ece, accessed on 18.10.14]
Strikingly, the 6th Economic Census, the preliminary report
of which published recently, said that job-creation between 2005
and 2014 is much higher than the enumeration by the NSSO.
Moreover, it said that the most of the jobs created indicates
greater amount of informalisation:
In stark contrast to the findings of the NSS 68th round (201112), which found annual employment growth to be 1.5 per cent,

Update 20

53

the economic census estimates the rate of job growth per annum
as being 4 per cent between 2005 and 2014 a two decade
high....
India adds 12 million people to its working-age population every
year, but the total number of jobs only increased by 27 million
over the latest census period (eight years). Further, the average
number of employees per establishment is a measly 2.2, down
from 2.4. While 20 per cent of establishments dont have fixed
premises, 38 per cent operate from residences. So though there
is significant job growth (not taking into account employment
intensity, which is probably why the NSSO data looks so
different), it is mostly in the informal sector.
It is no secret that a large reason for the informalisation of
employmentof the 59 million enterprises in India, only 1.1
million are registered companies.... [Get on thejob, 01.08.2014,
http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/get-on-the-job/,
accessed on 18.10.14]
According to the 6th Economic Census, 12 million people are
added to the working-age population each year (i.e., 10 lakh
people per month), but the jobs created per year between 2005
and 2014 are a mere 2.25 milliona shortfall of 9.5 million jobs
per year!
If we look into the employment figures from a different angle,
it is revealed that in India,
The current workforce at the all-India level is 47.2 crore. More
than half the population (52%) is self-employed, while 18%
work as regular wage/salaried employees and 30% as casual
laborers. More people are self-employed (56%) and work as
casual laborers (35%) in rural India. In Urban India, it is the
waged/salaried (43%) who constitute a majority. They are
followed by the self-employed (42%) and casual laborers (15%).
Nearly half the population (49%) is engaged in agriculture,
while 24% are working in secondary sector and 27% in tertiary
sector. [Unemployment rate increases in India, 23.06.2013, http://
a rt i cl e s. t im e so f in d ia . in d ia ti m es . co m /2 0 13 - 06 - 23 / in d ia /
40146190_1_urban-india-urban-women-rural-women, accessed on
18.10.13]

54

Update 20

Within the self-employment category, there are 52% people

which is too high with respect to many developing counties.
FICCI, an organisation of the business magnets, told that this
high amount of persons included in self-employed category reveals under-employment: Terming a vast majority of the selfemployed as under-employed, Rajiv Kumar, secretary-general of
the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(Ficci), said: The majority of the section comprises street vendors, hawkers or people who dont have jobs and cant afford to
sit unemployed. (NSSOs 51% self-employed data reflects huge under-employment: economists, 04.07.2011, http://www.businessstandard.com/article/economy-policy/nsso-s-51-self-employed-data-reflects-huge-under-employment-economists-111070400033_1.html)
A recent study says that under-employment in India is high
and open unemployment rate is low because the poor and destitute cannot afford to remain idle or jobless. Hence rate of unemployment (or open unemployment) in India is low and that conceals high amount of under-employment. A report says:
The most important challenge is the large number of working
poor and under-employed engaged in low-productivity
activities in the unorganized sectors. By the current poverty line
(equivalent to about US$ 1.25 per day in terms of purchasing
power parity or PPP), one-fourth of all workersabout 118
millionare poor. They are largely either casual workers or
own-account workers. If the current poverty line is raised to
about US$ 2 per day (in terms of PPP), the percentage of
working poor will increase to nearly 58 per cent and the number
of such workers would be around 276 million. [India Labour and
Employment Report 2014]
To assess the gravity of the unemployment situation we are
presenting here a few more revealing facts:
l

One out of every three persons in the age group 15 to 29

years who have completed at least their graduation has been
found to be unemployed in the report on Youth
employment- unemployment scenario, 2012-13 which is
based on a survey by the Labour Bureau in Chandigarh.
[28.11.2013, http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/one-out-of-

Update 20

55

three-young-graduates-unemployed-in-india-labour-ministry/
1200806/]
In rural areas, the unemployment rate for graduates and
above for the age group 15-29 years was estimated to be at
36.6 per cent. In urban areas, the same was 26.5 per cent.
[ibid]
The Labour Ministry said that the majority of persons
employed under the age group 15-29 years were either selfemployed or casual workers. It said unemployment rate in
the 15-29 age group stood at 13.3 per cent. [ibid]
As the population of Indias youth (aged 15-24 years) morethan-doubled during 2001-2011, the unemployment rate
among this section rose from 17.6 per cent to 20 per cent,
show the latest Census data. [03.07.2014, http://www.businessstandard.com/article/economy-policy/jobs-fail-to-catch-up-withindia-s-growing-youth-population-114070300112_1.html]
In absolute terms, this army of unemployed youth is
staggeringly hugearound 4.7 crore of which 2.6 crore were
men and 2.1 crore women. [02.07.2014, http://economictimes.
indiatimes.com/articleshow/37623861.cms]
Among dalits, unemployment rate in the working age
population of 15-59 years was a 18 per cent. In the 15-34 age
group, 21 per cent dalits and 22 per cent adivasis were
reported to be unemployed. [ibid]
Disadvantaged social groups such as Scheduled Castes (SCs),
Scheduled Tribes (STs), and large sections of the Other
Backward Classes (OBCs) are mostly concentrated in lowproductivity sectors such as agriculture and construction and
in lowpaying jobs as casual labourers and Muslims are
concentrated in petty so-called low productive selfemployment. On the other hand, upper-caste Hindus and
others (comprising minorities such as Jains, Sikhs and
Christians), have a disproportionate share of good jobs and
higher educational attainments. There is an overlap between
poverty and poor quality of employment as well. [India
Labour and Employment Report 2014]

56

Update 20

The unemployment rate among educated women is, on

average, about 50% higher than men. [23.06.2014, http://
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/45-lakhgraduates-jobless/articleshow/37051581.cms]
l Only 12% job seekers in India got a permanent recruitment
in 2012 while as many as 75% of aspirants were placed in
temporary agency jobs and the rest found other services as
their livelihood. [04.03.2014, Times of India]
Interestingly, quality of jobs are poor, most of the jobs are
informal in nature, 30% jobs are casual, large section of educated youth remained jobless, etcsuch are the standards of jobs
and nature of job-creation in India. Moreover the employment
scenario is dismal at the national level. Despite these facts the
productivity is increased substantially during recent years:
Between 2007 and 2011, labour productivity increased by 6.4
per cent on an average, while employment expanded by just
1.0 per cent. This situation is prominent in India, where total
employment grew by only 0.1 per cent during five years till 200910 (from 457.9 million in 2004-05 to 458.4 million in 2009-10),
while labour productivity grew by more than 34 per cent in total
during this period. [Jobless growth continues in India, 21.02.2012,
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/jobless-growthcontinues-in-india/article2916682.ece, accessed on 27.09.13]
l