As the media exults over the Bombay Sensitive Index climbing the 19,000 peak, P. SAINATH digs up an alarming set of numbers in an article in The Hindu on how India id est Bharat is doing on the indices that matter, and they blow your mind away.
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# According to the Global Hunger Index, India stands at number 94 of the 118 countries computed. Ethiopia—the country that inspired Bob Geldof‘s Live Aid show—came in at 93; Pakistan at No. 88 and China at No. 47. According to the State of Food Insecurity Report, between 1995-97 and 2000-02, hunger grew in India at a time when it fell in Ethiopia. And the 2004 showed that India had added more people to the “newly hungry” in the planet than the rest of the world together.
“In the world of the media, though, only one index matters: the Sensex. Watching which has spawned a whole little industry in itself. The numbers who pronounce on and debate it (in the media, anyway) are impressive. The oracles reading equity’s entrails for omens. Maybe we need a media relevance index. An MRI scan of mass-produced mediocrity.”
# According to the World Health Organisation, of the 536,000 women who died in childbirth in 2005, every fifth one of them was an Indian. That is, 117,000 of them. A total that could only be matched by Nigeria, Afghanistan and Congo together.
“A study done for the WHO in six Indian States found that 16 per cent of households it looked at were pushed below the poverty line by heavy medical costs. Nearly 10,000 families from lower income groups were covered by the survey for the years 2002-05. Some 12 per cent had to sell their assets to meet health expenses. Over 43 per cent had to resort to loans for the same reasons.”
# According to the Human Development Index of the United Nations, India ranks 126th among the nations of the world, below Bolivia, Guatemala and Gabon.
“One study found that if we were to derive the HDI for our tribes only, they would rank in the worst off 25 nations of the world. The study also found things to be worse by the region. The tribes of Orissa, it reports, fall below even the low end of the HDI of sub-Saharan African nations.”
Read the full article here: Indexing inhumanity, Indian style
All the right noises are made….. and reforms are blamed at the end of the day.
Why doesn’t he check India’s performance BEFORE the reforms began to get an idea of what our HDI was?
HDI has in fact been increasing since the mid-80s… roughly when reforms started.
The problem is that the reforms have never been directed at improving the health or education sectors thanks to our ‘leaders’ and bureaucrats. The former have a vested interest in running third grade extortion shops called “private colleges”, whereas the latter have elaborate fiefdoms to exercise their rule over.
Sainath, as always, does a great job in detailing the symptoms, but refuses to get to the cause of the disease. Its not like he doesn’t have the tools or the abilities to go there, but he refuses to do so simply because he doesn’t seem to want to face the fact that MORE reforms, and not less is the answer.
I read this in The Hindu a few days back. The media needs to keep rolling out these mind-numbing stats in a sustained manner. Our conscience could do with some needling, some prodding…
I agree with Alok. As some one observed, “Any fool can pose a question. But it takes a wise man to come up with answers.”
The early 90s saw India opening to globalization – Manmohan Singh-PVNR era. At that time, we all felt that it was the best thing in the post-indepedence era. No doubt, its improved certain things. But skewed.
What globalization has caused is increased consumerism, a hugely credit based spending etc. It has not really improved the quality of life – even in big cities; forget rural India.
We needed guts like Venezuela to be self-contained and self-sufficient economy. But we chose to follow the US of A and everything in that. Even our media is following them – how they feed information, the kind of information etc.
…
What happened to the family planning/population control program?
There are lies,damned lies and statistics.Most of these World Bank data can be tailored to support whatever they want.
All indicators would show that indians are better fed than at any time in the recent past.Land reforms have worked.The tiller owns the land and has political power.(Just look at Deve Gowda,Yadavs,Jats,Nitish Kumar)The Dalits have found their voice.Yes,there is a long way to go.
There is something seriously wrong with english media.They have a sado-machistic viewpoint towards india.The idea of idea has to be ridiculed,humiliated with even false data.They have become incapable of doing serious analysis.
Many of these journalists who from an upper caste background have an existential problem.They usually have had a liberal arts education when they had a whale of a time.Not for them the rigor or discpline of a scientific or technical education.As they approach middle age,the indian reality catches up with them.Their classmates who slogged during their college days have done well in life.But these conceited b******s are now imbecile.Indian political life has no place for these types.They cannot accept that mandal has played a big role in marginalising them,as they are “leftists”.Nor can they accept the fact,it was only their english language skills that separated them from the “hoi polloi”.In a paternalistic command economy they could put on the airs.
But in a liberalised economy it is clear that the emperor had no clothes to begin with.Their frustration is showing.They do not have the intellectual honesty or discpline to analyse,understand or describe present day india.
Well said Alok. The newspaper ‘The Hindu’ of which he is the rural editor always picturises India in a bad shape while it gives due [in fact more than deserved] respect to China’s so called development.
You are comparing oranges and apples here. Sensex at 20K reflects the confidence of investor community on the 30 largest publoc companies. Hunger and poverty reflects a governance failure.
Aruna Urs,
Rightly said!….extrapolating a little further…Godhra incident: a ‘secular’ picnic that went wrong because the picnic makers insisted on roasting themselves from inside. Following that incident, a furious reaction by ‘majority’ community and some ‘inaction’ by the local gorvernment = ‘genocide’
Yes DB, nobody talks about Coach S6 of Sabarmathi Express. Tejpal and his Tehelka are as good as a used condom.
KL:
Are you honestly telling me that everyone who has taken up a liberal arts course is doing it because he couldn’t get into engineering? Do you really think the beginning and end of everyone’s life is scientific or technical disciplines? Can someone not consciously choose to do liberal arts? Aren’t there those who have done so? In case you have forgotten, there is nothing self-contradictory between liberal arts and serious analyisis. It all depends on the individual. Your comments suggest that if a student is bright, he will automatically go for engineering/medical. There is such a thing as personal choice,likes, dislikes and so on. A relative of mine was an excellent student through out school but had decided from 8 std that he was taking Arts. Before his board marks even came out in other words. There are many like him.
Looking for a reply…
KL,
Nicely analyzed. I think we must start ‘Hail the great journo P Sainath’ campaign. That should make him happy. Seriously these stats are worrying. But the answer to these problems should be coming in the form of pragmatic solutions rather than some ‘analysis’.
May I suggest a simple but effective practical solution to improve HDI in India? Friends of Sainath like Ms Roy should invite all their friends including Sainath to live among the deprived tribals wherever they are. A sustained effort in this direction will do wonders to our HDI….
Is India sleeping?
All it takes is to go 100 km away from B’lore or Mysore to see for oneself how our rural economy has crumbled. Agriculture has been successfully dismantled, our villages have been visciously politicized by Hindutva, linguistic and parochial politics of every hue and all social ethos that held communities together have been flushed down the toilet.
The problem is not with the English media but with the English-speaking crowd that refuses to see reality, that thinks everybody is doing as good as itself.
Wow GK! Take a bow! You are a genius!!
Extending GK’s line of thought, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and whatever problems that are happening elsewhere in the World are due to ‘Hindutva’ practiced by George Bush and the BJP:)
GK will have ‘Indutva’ where the ‘Minority’ community will have its own policemen, courts and areas for living. The Majority community can practice ‘Indutva’ by producing ‘thought-specialists’ like GK and P Sainath:)
Gatekeeper
When was rural India different? Are you telling us that this situation is a product of economic growth? you are trying to connect dots on two planes. You are wrong. I am from a village near Periyapatna (72kms from mysore) and nothing has crumbled here.
“All it takes is to go 100 km away from B’lore or Mysore to see for oneself how our rural economy has crumbled. Agriculture has been successfully dismantled, our villages have been visciously politicized by Hindutva, linguistic and parochial politics of every hue and all social ethos that held communities together have been flushed down the toilet.”
GK, can you please elaborate on this. How has rural economy crumbled? with respect to which reference year and what conditions? and can you elaborate on the specific social ethos that have been flushed down the toilet? Can you elaborate on the vicious politicization by the Hindutva?
I will tell you that 60 kms east of Mysore i was stunned to see the number of crosses and churches that had mushroomed even by early 2000s when compared to the late 90s. The change was very rapid and highly inorganic. No population changes colour, like that. I have also seen a sudden spurt in reports on terrorists and an overtly perceptible wearing the religon on their sleeves in west mysore. Why Mysore and why Mysoreans? do you know the ummah mind?
The situation in villages was definitely different. They were never rich; I am not claiming that. But whatever little social resources was there has been squandered. Even before getting to argue this, we should realize that India’s consumption was culture based. Once consumption became commerce based or lifestyle based, India’s villages were bound to face the heat.
Many villages around Bangalore sustained themselves by growing the kanakambra flower. Now kanakambara has no fragrance. It can either be worn in the hair or used for puja.
With a change in the ethos of people living in Bangalore, which was the market for kanakambara flowers, things changed. Kanakambara can’t be sold to industries. Some villages near Yelahanka started growing other flowers that were water intensive. Needless to say, they had to give up after sometime due to unavailability of water. You will probably hear a similar story if you talk to arecanut growers. They are still breaking even but do not forget to ask them how things have changed.
Speaking of social resources, look into the status of gomalas and ugranas today. Probably, Vandana Shiva is a good reference here. But why bother when she is of the ilk of Sainath.
And whenever there is a breakdown in such traditions and a pool of unemployed people is created, ideologies are quick to exploit them. I remember at least one instance in Kunigal where a Ganesha idol was found desecrated. A major backlash followed in which people who formed the Hindu muscle power were Vokkaligas from villages surrounding Kunigal.
I have myself seen Sangh Parivar activists scouting for recruits in rural areas to be sent to Ayodhya for Karseva. Trains would leave with hordes of karsevaks, most of them drawn from rural areas such as Magadi.
And speak of spread of Islam in Mysore? What about our oor habbas? Why have they suddenly become so popular? Villages that do not have enough to eat do not forget to have annual habbas. Who is financing them? Anybody’s guess.
What about Ayyappas? How many of us knew about malle? You go to any village now and men in the prime of their youth have adorned malle. How did this happen? There are even reports that people were selling the cattle they had or raising loans so they could go to Sabarimala.
What is more insidious is how Hindutva politics has spread to nooks and corner of K’taka. But then, you only see what you want to see. And the majority always has the power to make its progression look normal while religion worn on the sleve and crosses and churches stand out.
And the Devanga community was told for a long time that they were in doledrums because the Muslims entered and changed the rules of the game. But today, we know the Devanga community is where it is because of the influx of China silk.
How conveniently we look for demons to hide the real devil.
Sainath deserves kudos for his efforts in unearthing the plight of India’s poor.
But, he doesn’t go the full mile in finding pragmatic solutions. The key here is about being pragmatic: All comers will have to leave their ideological blinkers at the door. Sainath will have to dismantle all his leftist crappola if he wants to have a reasonable shot at solving this problem. Ideology inhibits creativity. Not left, Not right, just what will work.
Murdeshwar huduga :
Ignore all those that disparage the liberal arts. India is a third world hell hole precisely because of a lack of proper liberal arts education. Great nations are built on the imagination of those that pursue the arts. Writers, artists, philosophers: all needed in abundance to create a great civilization.
Between a mediocre writer and one has had the “rigors of scientific or technical education”, give me the writer any day. I bet he has more interesting ideas than the technician!
TS,
It is out in the full now, I guess. Meanwhile, why am I being moderated when others are not? To the best of my knowledge, I have never used expletives or gotten personal with anyone.
Murdeshwar huduga,
I was just reacting to Sainath and people of his ilk.There is no way one can compare a liberal arts education to a scientific/technical education.Nor can we have an uniform education system.These are self-evident to any reasonable person.
But there seems to be no moderation when certain leftist types start denigrating india.Ravi Vyas contributes regularly to the Hindu Literary Supplement.He writes a column called “Classics Revisited”.He is one of the saving graces of the communist rag.Writing about social scientists in the context of the narmada judgement by the Supreme Court and Miss AR’s antics,he remarked that most lefties seemed to be unaware of entities called the ‘State’ and ‘market’.
The commie rag publishes many articles datelined from bengaluru detailing achievements by indian researchers in the many companies in the city.
India is a strange mix today.There are no simple ways to describe it today.It is heart rending to know about kanakambara growers or devanga weavers.But to some extent this is inevitable,given the scale of change.The lack of social capital in *some* villages is a fact.
But to say the villages are collapsing is not true.I am an “outsider” though you have accepted me.I can talk from a tamil brahmin’s viewpoint,who has lived most of his life in madras.My paternal grandfather was a landowner.It was a typical agrahara you will find in karnataka.
Within three generations from 1920s to 1980s there is not a single brahmana landowner left in the village.(You might feel that a substantial number have ended up in bengaluru,though no one among my close relatives is in KA)This has meant that thevars(a dominant peasant caste) t have gained but the most spectacular rise has been that of the dalits.Their social position has improved dramatically while the thevars have power at panchayat level.The access to education has improved.Because this is an agrahara,there is loss of social capital.Another community ,the nadars(this is in southern TN) have prospered in trade.The nadars are found in mumbai and even bengaluru.
The Dravidian movement has empowered substantial segments,even in rural areas, politically and also crucially in technical education.
As a journalist writing in the flagpiece of the kongas,should sainath not have been more careful.Is not adherence to facts sacred?
At the other end of the spectrum even literate brahmanas are feeling angst?Otherwise why else would a non techie like me writing in churumuri?So many things are confusing or seem to be be spinning out of control.The certainities of life twenty years back are now lost for ever.I have my fears and apprehensions.
That is the way life is.Disparities always exist because some are smart and others are not.A journalist is expected to understand the context.There is great change taking place,both social and technological.Add to it the environmental costs.It is the job of a lead writer to understand these changes in the light of a hopefully something near to an ‘universal’ value system.
But the leftists have contempt for everything indian.This is what prompted my outburst.
Gatekeeper,
I too was a frequent visitor to Doddaballapur and have seen the decline of weaving community. They have themselves to blame as they forgot to up thier skills when the town boomed for 3 decades. If everybody is using powerlooms, whats the value add if it is made by Devanga community? And silk weaving is not a “Manifested Destiny” for the entire community. I too know a couple have them who have joined the professional league and thats the way to go.
Aruna,
So much in tune with neoliberal thinking. People have themselves to blame when things go wrong and ignore historical circumstances.
Just that you know, most weavers made the transition to powerlooms sometime in the 80s. And also just that you know, people who switched over to powerlooms are in a somewhat peculair state than handloom weavers as the latter still survive because of their exoticness. People who invested on powerlooms and got them going are feeling the brunt.
And I am in no way saying here that handloom weavers are faring better. I am only saying that their problem is unemployment whereas powerloom owners’ problem is unemployment as well as bad loans incurred due to bad investment.
Gatekeeper,
You forgot to add ‘Hindutva’ to the problems faced by villagers….:)
Yes Sir, Neo-Liberal indeed. A student of The Road to Serfdom.
That explains
Gatekeeper hopefully it explains the truth also. I am a farmer and a trader from Mysoru and hence know the ground situation better than many.
What if Karnataka follow’s Musheraff’s lead and declare a state of emergency and depower our too-bad-for-words politicians and bureaucrats?
Please read Obama’s policy on globalization.
Please read Obama and Hillary about Wall Street’s role in credit crisis which rolled into global recession.
The major share of development or produce of the whole world is being consumed by the big brothers. It is the Richie Rich getting richer.
Then, how can U expect development and improvement as per the HDI.
Why people do not take into consideration the down fall of India from its top of the world status once upon a time.
Nalanda and Taxila universities were in India.
To day we spend millions of precious Dollars and Pounds to educate our children abroad. No body bothers to know what is the state of affairs of the ‘foren’ universities. You do not believe if I say that higher education has become a “business of shame’ in England.( see BBC/south Asia news)
Your ‘would have been PM’ is said to be the most popular Italian in the world. Her ‘yes men’ are in plenty to pull down the economy even further .
People do not believe in war against India any more because we have enough Trojan horses. Trade is enough to ‘flatten’ India.
Despite all these negative forces, if India has improved to this level, it is really appreciable.
When foxes are your friends, you have to be happy if you are still alive and kicking.
There are three types of lies
1) White lie
2) Black lie
3) Statistics !
Better be careful when you are forming an impression of any thing or any body by looking at ‘statistics’ whether it is ‘vital’ or otherwise!
Whilst agreeing with P. SAINATH’s observations, I would like to add that most data presented by him is applicable to north Indian states
I read an excellet article in the Intl. Herald Tribune called “The Daily Me” around the same time this Sainath’s article appeared in the Hindu.
The article says how quote “we generally dont truly want good information – but rather information that confirms our prejudices. We may believe intellectually in the clash of opinions, but in practice we like to embed ourselves in the reassuring womb of an echo chamber”
The chaps who control the “The Hindu” know pretty well what Sainath is upto. I am sure they have the intellect to know that Sainath more or less delivers pure propoganda, and that his ’eminence’ (as quoted in wiki) is derived from consistently and religiously providing the same.
The funniest part, and where the IHT article relates is what the Hindu publishes the day after ANY article from Sainath.
There are always about 4 letters from the allotted 6 odd, commending the article written by ‘his eminence’.
So the culprit are two; one – whose ideology makes him despise everything that may eventually lead to loss of his ‘messiah’ status and the bigger one who knowingly uses the sucker to pander to its core clientele.