India vis-à-vis top economies of the world and the biased Media
Total Views | 72
Nagpur/New Delhi, Oct 7: RSS Sarsanghchalak Dr. Mohanrao Bhagwat raised the issue of economic challenges being confronted by the country making special mention of rising unemployment and poverty during the course of his annual Vijayadashami address on October 5 at Nagpur.
Dr. Bhagwat touched upon the issue of economic progress and referred to various steps like the start-ups initiated by the government in the past years and urged the people to be part of this process of rebuilding our economy which has shown signs of improvement.
A couple of days ago speaking at the Swadeshi Jagarana Manch program in New Delhi RSS Sarkaryawah Dattatreya Hosabale expressed serious concern over the rising income disparity, increasing poverty, and job scarcity and said that poverty is posing a demon-like challenge in front of us all in the wake of rising inequality of income and joblessness.
He however hastened to add that several steps were taken in the last few years to address these challenges. We should be sad that 20 crore people are below the poverty line. And 23 crore people are earning less than Rs 375 per day. Poverty is a demon-like challenge in front of us. It is important that we put to death this demon," Hosabale said.
"There are four crore unemployed people in the country, 2.2 crores in rural areas and 1.8 crores in urban areas. A labor force survey pegs the unemployment rate at 7.6 percent...We not only need all-India schemes but also local schemes for generating employment," he said.
Hosabale also suggested reviving cottage industries and more initiatives in the skill development sector to further increase its penetration in rural areas.
Talking about inequality, Hosabale questioned whether it is good that despite being one of the top six economies, half of the country's population gets only 13 percent of the total income.
"....India is among the top six economies of the world. The top one percent of India's population has one-fifth of the nation's income. And at the same time, the country's 50 percent population gets only 13 percent of the total income, he said asking, is this a "good situation?"
As expected the English Press and Media made ‘stories’ of these observations made by the RSS General Secretary terming them as ‘aspersions on the economic policies of the Modi government and agencies like BBC were at the front of this disinformation campaign.
BBC tried to connect the observation made by Hosabale that 20 crore people are still living under the poverty line in India with the economic policies of the present government. India is emerging among the top five economies of the world and at such a crucial juncture the country also has 20 crore people living below the poverty line. There can be no great paradox that this, the BBC commented.
https://www.bbc.com/hindi/india-63127558
The BBC has its own infrastructure and resources to get the correct data. It also has a team of experts world over to monitor the news, events, and happenings. In spite of this, this time also the BBC has played its old agenda of presenting biased news.
The Indian English Print media too toed the same line in using these observations as criticism of the Modi government’s policies by the top leaders of the RSS.
In reality, India comes to the sixth position on the hierarchy of big economies of the world that included the US, China, Japan, and Germany. If one looks into these economies one gets startling revelations in respect of poverty in these countries.
Let’s take the case of the US. It is the most developed nation and a top economy in the world. But 11.4 % people of the total US population lives under the poverty line. And mind you, these are not the figures put forth by any NGO or a private institution. It is officially accepted by the US Administration when it is considered one of the top rich and developed countries.
According to a PEW report of 2014, had there been no social welfare programs in the US the country would have witnessed an increase in poverty and income disparity.
It is very difficult to get the correct figures from China because of its iron-curtain policy. But the condition in Germany is also the same as in the US in respect of poverty. According to a news report published by DW in 2020: “The past 10 years have seen an increasing number of people in Germany at risk of falling below the poverty line. In one large city, nearly a quarter of residents fall into this category”.
https://amp.dw.com/en/poverty-in-germany-on-the-rise/a-54553080
Out of the total population in Germany 15.5 % are poor and everyone among the five newborn children is born in poverty.
https://m.dw.com/en/1-in-5-children-in-germany-grow-up-in-poverty/a-54260165
According to a 2020 news report in Japan, the middle class is almost on the verge of extinction and poverty is increasing. There are about 15.7 % people of the total population lives below the poverty line in Japan.
It is also a startling fact that the number of suicides is the largest in the US among the richest countries of the world and one of the main reasons for this happens to be unemployment. The World Economic Forum said in 2015 quoting a Lancet Report: "the study published in Lancet Psychiatry looked at the period 2000-11 across four regions – the Americas, northern and western Europe, southern and eastern Europe and non-Americas and non-Europe – and the 63 countries across these regions included Mexico, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Greece, Spain, Egypt, South Africa, Japan, the UK, US, and Australia. Although Hong Kong was included, China and India were not. The researchers found that there had been an increase in the relative risk of suicide associated with unemployment across all regions of 20% to 30%. There were an estimated 233,000 suicides a year between 2000-11, of which around 45,000 could be attributed to unemployment."
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/02/the-link-between-unemployment-and-suicide/
The fact is that India reported fewer suicides as compared with these four top economies of the world. This is also a factor of the Human Development Index. In spite of this reality, the BBC had reported a ‘bad presentation’ by India as regards the Human Development Index.
Bharati Web
Mes, Pune
Related News
