63 Years On, India is Home to World's Biggest Population of Poor, Hungry, Illiterate

[Agnostic_Indian]

There is a great difference between what politicians say and what actually gets done.

But there is no better option and people all over the world believe what govt says..(more or less ).
even if we do half of what is there in paper will make a big difference.

 

[jbond197]

Instead of us wasting bandwidth on the Indian move primarily motivated by its PR value to India, my suggestion to the Indian government is as follows:

I think India has far more needy people at home who deserve this emergency aid of this $5m. In fact, they need billions to be properly fed, clothed and made literate.

Why don't you in India help the world's largest population of poo r, hungry ad illiterate people who call India home?

Why don't you try and save the 7000 Indians who die of hunger every day? Why don't you feed some of the 200 million Indians who will go to bed hungry tonight, as they do every night?

And while you are it, why don't you refuse $500 million a year in British aid and another $600 million from the Japanese government? After all, it's only a fraction of your massive military budget of over $35 billion a year.

Haq's Musings: 63 Years After Independence, India Remains Home to World's Largest Population of Poor, Hungry and Illiterates

Hmm.. so this is the pain of $5 million aid offered by India. I am wondering why some people are loosing their sleep over such a goodwill gesture. BTW Afghanistan has also offered Aid to flood victims in Pakistan. What do you think about that? Are you not accepting aid from countries who have poor people or have problems in their backyard or is it mere case of hurt Ego?

Pakistan needs help and has approached UN as well (If Pakistan doesn't need aid they should not have appealed to UN) but now its funny to see that people's Ego is getting hurt once India offered aid in spite of its own huge problems.

Rich Man, try to help your country monetarily instead of cribbing about aid offered by others to help the poor flood victims.

 

[RiazHaq]

A pre-requisite for a responsive and accountable democracy is a substantial middle class population.

An ADB report on Asia's rising middle class released today confirms that Pakistan's middle class now is 40% of the population, significantly larger than the Indian middle class of about 25% of its population.

The other significant news reported by Wall Street today says the vast majority of what is defined as India's middle class is perched just above $2 a day.

Most of this middle class growth in Pakistan occurred on Musharraf's watch.

Haq's Musings: 1999-2009: Pakistan's Decade of Urban Middle Class Growth

 

[karan.1970]

A pre-requisite for a responsive and accountable democracy is a substantial middle class population.

An ADB report on Asia's rising middle class released today confirms that Pakistan's middle class now is 40% of the population, significantly larger than the Indian middle class of about 25% of its population.

The other significant news reported by Wall Street today says the vast majority of what is defined as India's middle class is perched just above $2 a day.

Most of this middle class growth in Pakistan occurred on Musharraf's watch.

Haq's Musings: 1999-2009: Pakistan's Decade of Urban Middle Class Growth

Good job Pakistan. However I think the numbers are a little dated. The figures in the report are 2005 numbers.

Now from 2005 to 2009

India's GDP grew by 50% with an 8% increase in population
On the other hand, Pakistan's GDP grew by 28% with a 9% growth in population.

Club that with the last 3 years of WOT in Pakistan and the reported slippage of people from just abover $2 per day to under $2 per day, in my view the situation on ground today is very different from what is shown in this report

But anyway, lots of ground to cover for India..

 

[rohitx007]

63 year only ....................yup its only
i have no hesitation that there are a lot of problems India specially in infrastructure
and the biggest reason behind it is mismanagement of resources.
but again i would like to remind you all here we are talking about a country not about a human being therefore 63 years are not so much time for a nation as we are still not a mature democracy because if we compare ourselves with nations like america , UK and other democratic country then we can see that we a child(democracy or self rule) before all these countries but on the other hand we have achieved so much because we have started our journey from zero.
but due to mismanagement of resources we have achieved very less in comparison to what we are capable of achieving and for this mismanagement our politicians are not sole responsible but we are also responsible for that because still after 63 year "we the people of india" dont understand the rights and duties given to us by democracy and the constitution of india.

 

[KingOfGods]

Instead of us wasting bandwidth on the Indian move primarily motivated by its PR value to India, my suggestion to the Indian government is as follows:[/url]

We are not in urgent need of PR Value………….You must be aware of our PR with the world, even including China. Instead its you, who need a PR value very urgently.

This is our culture to help one another in need of help and distress. If not monetary then at least in kind or non-monetary ways.

Distribute joy and happiness and share sadness and pain.........believe it or not, its our nature. Same as Pakistani.................not sure about you!!!

Sorry, but your suggestions are of no importance to the Indian Government. You are not important.

I think India has far more needy people at home who deserve this emergency aid of this $5m. In fact, they need billions to be properly fed, clothed and made literate.[/url]

Don’t worry friend……….we have enough. This minute amount of $5M is not enough for them, as you already accepted. We are well on our way to take care of them……….there are several programs and schemes to address our issues.

As you are so concerned, please whenever you got some spare time from reading Mr. Haq, try to search special schemes of India……..or simply click the link given below:

http://www.indiastat.com/socialandwelfareschemes/27/stats.aspx

Why don't you in India help the world's largest population of poo r, hungry ad illiterate people who call India home?[/url]

Yes…….India is THEIR home, their Nation. They are the largest population of poor, hungry and illiterate, but not the largest population of Jihadi, Mujahideen, and suicide bombers.

Why don't you try and save the 7000 Indians who die of hunger every day? Why don't you feed some of the 200 million Indians who will go to bed hungry tonight, as they do every night?[/url]

Oh really............? And you don't have any..........rite? You are so concerned for your poor neighbor, I am impressed.

What do you think.....what is the official number of poor in the United States???

It was about 39.1 million people in 2008, greater in number but not percentage than the officially poor in Indonesia, which has a far lower Human Development Index and the next largest population after the United States

Even US got poor too!!!!!!!.............Every country have.

Need not to be so concerned; we are more concered, as these are our problem and addressing these issues ………but it will take time, as there is a lot of work to do.

India on track to meet poverty reduction goal: World Bank - Indicators - Economy - News - The Economic Times

And while you are it, why don't you refuse $500 million a year in British aid and another $600 million from the Japanese government? After all, it's only a fraction of your massive military budget of over $35 billion a year.[/url]

These three can be a big amount for you………….not for us.

To prove this, just one example……

massive military budget of over $35 billion = only 2.12% of GDP.

We don't spend on our Military to showoff, but what is really needed for our current and future goal. This budget is quite necessary for a big country like India.

 

[LadyGaga]

Good.I give you a gold medal for achieving this 40% in comparison to India's 25%.India is a very backward country.We are just creating an image in the world,that we are the country to whom the next century belongs.We are so backward that we have to tell lies on the internet about our country.Never mind.Bear with us Indians for sometime.Since we are so backward,we might just disappear from the world map.

A pre-requisite for a responsive and accountable democracy is a substantial middle class population.

An ADB report on Asia's rising middle class released today confirms that Pakistan's middle class now is 40% of the population, significantly larger than the Indian middle class of about 25% of its population.

The other significant news reported by Wall Street today says the vast majority of what is defined as India's middle class is perched just above $2 a day.

Most of this middle class growth in Pakistan occurred on Musharraf's watch.

Haq's Musings: 1999-2009: Pakistan's Decade of Urban Middle Class Growth

 

[RiazHaq]

After 63 years, India remains home to the world's largest population of poor, hungry and illiterate people, a land where a massive female genocide is unfolding, a system of caste Apartheid flourishes, its minorities are routinely subjected to state-organized massacres, two-thirds of its population defecates in the open, and it leads the world in child marriages and honor killings.

And India still has delusions of grandeur with its massive military budget and unprecedented arms buildup to threaten its neighbors.

 

[k7x]

My father was not so rich, he earned less than $2000 per year... but now I am not..

I am getting $5k per month... thanks to my father who spent lot of money (with his 2K annual income) to make my life better..


this is the case for modern inida.. it grows and after each generation you will see poverty reduction..

 

[k7x]

I am not sure about other states in Inida.. but in tamil nadu I can say .

A man is poor because he chooses to be poor.

When govt give free education, free lunch, free unifor, free bus, free electricity , free tv, free gas stove , 1Kg of rice for 2 cents and , all kitchen items basic need for $1.2 per month ..

with this if a person is not going to school and make his life better.. He deserves to be poor.

 

[RiazHaq]

Good job Pakistan. However I think the numbers are a little dated. The figures in the report are 2005 numbers.

Now from 2005 to 2009

India's GDP grew by 50% with an 8% increase in population
On the other hand, Pakistan's GDP grew by 28% with a 9% growth in population.

Club that with the last 3 years of WOT in Pakistan and the reported slippage of people from just abover $2 per day to under $2 per day, in my view the situation on ground today is very different from what is shown in this report

But anyway, lots of ground to cover for India..

Over the last two decades, Pakistan has continued to offer much greater upward mobility to its citizens than neighboring India. Since 1990, Pakistan's middle class had expanded by 36.5% and India's by only 12.8%, according to an ADB report on Asia's rising middle class released recently.

All the hype about Indian education is exposed by the UNDP's Education Index.

UNDP publishes the Education Index which is measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). The adult literacy rate gives an indication of the ability to read and write, while the GER gives an indication of the level of education from kindergarten to postgraduate education.

On this UNDP education index, Pakistan scores low at 0.665 and ranks 137, but it is still ahead of India's score of 0.638 and ranking of 142nd on a list of 176 nations.

 

[karan.1970]

Over the last two decades, Pakistan has continued to offer much greater upward mobility to its citizens than neighboring India. Since 1990, Pakistan's middle class had expanded by 36.5% and India's by only 12.8%, according to an ADB report on Asia's rising middle class released recently.

All the hype about Indian education is exposed by the UNDP's Education Index.

UNDP publishes the Education Index which is measured by the adult literacy rate (with two-thirds weighting) and the combined primary, secondary, and tertiary gross enrollment ratio (with one-third weighting). The adult literacy rate gives an indication of the ability to read and write, while the GER gives an indication of the level of education from kindergarten to postgraduate education.

On this UNDP education index, Pakistan scores low at 0.665 and ranks 137, but it is still ahead of India's score of 0.638 and ranking of 142nd on a list of 176 nations.

Riaz.. After the above mentioned numbers, the HDR 2009 of UNDP released following from eduction pov

Adult Education Ratio: India 66%, Pakistan 54.2%
Combined enrolment ratio in education: India 61%, Pakistan 39%

 

[fallstuff]

After wobbling for decades India is economically doing great. Yes there are 100s millions of poor people living below the poverty line. There are about a good 50-60 million ( 40% poverty) in Bangladesh also living below the same line.

The issue is what India is doing about the poor ? My two cents are , eventually the economy will reach the poor in some way as long they maintain the growth rate. I applaud India, specially the Admin for doing a wonderful job. India's PM has done a heck of a job to hold the growth rate steady. FDI is pouring in from all over the world. Its a good thing PM is more Economist and less Politician.

Mr. Haq keep posting these threads I guess to make a point that "hey people, India is still poor."

 

[RiazHaq]

Riaz.. After the above mentioned numbers, the HDR 2009 of UNDP released following from eduction pov

Adult Education Ratio: India 66%, Pakistan 54.2%
Combined enrolment ratio in education: India 61%, Pakistan 39%

Feudalism is a scourge that has badly hurt rural Pakistanis, and kept overall literacy rate low.

But education index is more than literacy; e.g. it also looks at years of schooling for those who are literate.

Avg number of years of schooling is 13 years in Pakistan and 10 years in India.

The increasing urbanization and greater access to education are already helping to improve the situation, currently putting Pakistan slightly ahead of India in UNDP education index.

 

[Hulk]

How did the data for this report was collected? Only service class in India reports right income that too excludes bribe if applicable.