07 August 2010 By Arun Kumar According to a new Oxford University study, 55
percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645
million people, are living in poverty. Using a
newly-developed index, the study found that about
one-third of the world’s poor live in India. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been
developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development
Initiative and the United Nations Development Program
(UNDP) as a more precise and comprehensive means of
estimating poverty levels. It will replace the Human
Poverty Index that has been used in the UNDP’s annual
Human Development Report since 1997. The MPI assesses a range of factors or
“deprivations” at the household level as well as
income and assets. These include: child mortality,
nutrition, access to clean drinking water, sanitation,
cooking fuel, electricity, and years of schooling and
child enrolment. “A person is considered poor if they
are deprived in at least 30 percent of the weighted
indicators,” the study states. As measured by the new index, half of the world’s
poor are in South Asia (51 percent or 844 million
people) and one quarter in Africa (28 per cent or 458
million). While poverty in Africa is often
highlighted, the Oxford research found that there was
more acute poverty in India than many African
countries combined. Poverty in eight Indian
states—Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West
Bengal—exceeded that of the 26 poorest African
countries. The study examined poverty across 28 Indian states,
concluding that “81 percent of people are
multidimensionally poor in Bihar—more than any other
state. Also, poverty in Bihar and Jharkand is most
intense—poor people are deprived in 60 percent of the
MPI’s weighted indicators. Uttar Pradesh is the home
of largest number of poor people—21 percent of India’s
poor people live there. West Bengal is home to the
third largest number of poor people.” The last figure is particularly significant as West
Bengal has been ruled since 1977 by a Left Front
coalition government led by the Communist Party of
India-Marxist (CPM). Far from being “socialist” or
“Marxist”, the Stalinist CPM has been responsible for
implementing the pro-market agenda of economic
restructuring carried out in other states and
nationally by openly bourgeois parties. The result has
been a decline in living standards for the majority
and a deepening divide between rich and poor. The Oxford University research also exposed high
levels of poverty among India’s oppressed castes and
tribal peoples. The poverty level among India’s
so-called Scheduled Tribes is 81.4 percent. “The
intensity of poverty is also very high among Scheduled
Tribes, who are deprived in 59.2 percent of weighted
indicators on average,” the study stated. The MPI for
Scheduled Castes was 65.8 percent and for Other
Backward Castes (OBC) was 58.3 percent. The figures expose the Congress-led government’s
claim that India’s economic growth has been
“inclusive”. In fact, successive Indian governments
led by Congress and the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya
Janatha Party (BJP) are responsible for economic
policies that have boosted the profits of big business
and the wealth of a tiny layer at the expense of the
working class and rural poor. By focussing on a broader range of factors, the
Oxford University study has highlighted the continuing
lack of basic facilities for the majority of the
Indian population. Governments at the national and
state levels have failed to provide even the most
rudimentary assistance for hundreds of millions of
people. Moreover, existing public services have been
further undermined by the policies of privatisation
and restructuring. Only 31 percent of India’s population had access to
improved sanitation in 2008. As a result of the lack
of health care and food, 61 million children in India
are stunted, the largest figure for any country,
according to a UNICEF report. It also stated that the
health of children suffers not just due to poor
hygienic conditions and lack of nutritional food but
also because mothers often suffer from anaemia and
malnutrition during pregnancy. Sharply rising food prices, including an average 83
percent increase since 2008, have been devastating for
the country’s poor. Their situation has been further
aggravated by recent fuel price hikes announced by the
Indian government. The United Nations World Food
Program (UNWFP) recently painted an alarming picture,
reporting that nearly 350 million people—roughly 35
percent of India’s population —was food insecure and
consumed less than 80 percent of their total energy
requirements. More than 1.5 million children in India are
estimated to suffer from malnourishment and 43 percent
of children under five years of age are underweight,
according to the latest UNWFP report. The proportion
of anaemic children has increased by six percent in
the last six years, with 11 states reporting 80
percent child anaemia rates. Another study that used a household income of $US2
a day as the poverty benchmark found that India not
only has more poor people than sub-Saharan Africa, but
also has a higher level of poverty. In India, 75.6
percent of the population, or 828 million people, live
below the poverty line as compared to 72.2 percent, or
551 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. On the other end of the scale, the wealthy few in
India have amassed great riches. While impacted by the
global financial crisis, the number of US dollar
billionaires in India on the Forbes list rebounded to
49 in 2010, after falling to 24 last year. The figure
falls just short of the record high of 53 in 2008. The Financial Express commented that year:
“The wealth amassed by Indian
billionaires—estimated at 340.9 billion dollars by the
US business magazine Forbes—is nearly 31 percent of
the country’s total GDP. This gives them nearly three
times more weight in the economy than their American
counterparts and over ten times of those in China. The
GDP share of Indian billionaires’ wealth is more than
four times of the global average.” The situation is similar this year. While 49
individuals preside over what for most Indians is
unimaginable wealth, the majority of people are
struggling to survive from day to day. In India’s
financial capital of Mumbai, more than six million
desperately poor people, half of the city’s
population, eke out an existence in the slums.
Mumbai’s gleaming skyscrapers that symbolise India’s
economic growth sit alongside makeshift hovels. Like their counterparts around the world, India’s
business elite likes to justify their position in
society on the basis of their own personal initiative,
acumen and drive. In reality, their wealth is the
product of the exploitation of the country’s huge
reserves of cheap labour and depends on the continued
impoverishment of the rest of the population. This
worsening social divide will inevitably produce a
rebellion against the appalling conditions created by
profit system and the ruling elites that defend and
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