Does it mean rise in status of a handful of people with college degrees and well payed jobs, people traveling in cars, going to malls and strongly believing that India is going to be the next superpower.
Or are we also talking about the development of the people who still lack basic facilities and where millions of Indians face oppression on a day-to-day basis which goes unnoticed.
While media goes frenzy over 9% growth in GDP of India, adding forex reserves and the increasing number of billionaires in India, it hardly makes a hue and cry about few of the other facts of the very same India we talk about:
- 836 million people in our nation exist on less than rs. 20/- a day according to the government of India.
- India still ranks 128th in human development index, ranking below many sub-saharan african countries.
- More than 166,000 farmers have killed themselves since 1997 - a death almost every half an hour, which signals to the deep agrarian distress India is facing.
- 70% of Indians still lack access to basic sanitation facilities.
- There are 160 million dalits in India who face oppression on a regular basis because of being at the bottomest ladder of our caste rigid society.
- A recent survey by the Indian health ministry, backed by UNICEF, has found that almost 46 percent of children under the age of three are undernourished.
- About 35 percent of children in sub-saharan africa region are malnourished.
- More than 50% Indians still don't have access to electricity.
While these are just few of the indicators of the lack of economic development we are facing, there are other pressing social issues in India like casteism, women rights(including dowry and female foeticide), oppression of tribal rights, exploitation of labor, etc.
With the growing inequality in india, it is also propogating a social unrest, with the divides between urban and rural india widening, and the forced displacement of millions of rural population in the name of development whether it is for narmada dam or tata's plant at singur. 15% of the population(urban upper and middle class) shouldn't decide alone what is best for the rest 85% of the population(rest of the india). capitalism, free markets, and globalization shouldn't get unprecedented control at the cost of putting lives of millions of indians at stake.
With more and more instances of govt. oppressing the poor in the favor of the rich, and imposing its rule at any cost, questions the democratic principles, civil rights and our faith in the political machinery of the country. with the rise of communalism, naxalism, fundamentalism, fascism, regionalism, etc., things cannot be overlooked in the name of "india shining", but a more active participation is needed by the youth of the country, in the social, economic and political spheres, backed up by concrete actions.
what is the best way to work towards this ?? even i am in the process of figuring it out .
