POVERTY IN INDIA
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POVERTY IN INDIA

Technical analyst
See interview of Jayati Anil Goel
India is a country of extremes. On the one hand, the booming IT branch has caused a furor around the world. However, on the other hand, a large part of the population still lives in extreme poverty. 

Nevertheless, people with professional qualifications have a realistic chance of getting a job in this threshold country,

India is more connected than ever before. Mobile towers, internet lines and television poles stretch from one end of the country to the other. Yet underneath these growing technological networks, much of India’s rickety infrastructure is in desperate need of attention. Broken roads prevent goods from being transported to market. India’s power grid is frightfully overburdened, especially in densely populated urban areas.

 

In India, 54% of rural households have no access to electricity. Progress on electrification in rural areas has been very slow over the last two decades. Kerosene is the main source of energy used for lighting in rural households without access to electricity.

 

let the sun do the cooking Even in the rural villages with electricity, supply is very limited, from 3 to 6 hours a day (in the villages surveyed for the research). Most of this supply comes at night (sometimes even after 10 p.m., so not very useful). Quality of the supply is also an issue, as voltage varies a lot (which can damage equipment, especially pumps used for irrigation). As a result, many villages prefer diesel irrigation pumps and are using electricity only as a back up system.

NGOs don’t often talk about energy poverty and they should.

About half of India’s poverty is concentrated in just 7 of the 28 states: Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. These poorest states also have to contend with the largest and fastest growing populations.  

National pride is already embarrassed by India's contribution of about one third of global poverty numbers. The country’s most critical development indicator is therefore at risk of assessment by virtue of political and economic influences rather than human necessity. 

India could not really lift its poor out of poverty because of rising inequality among its population, 

“We do not have inclusive growth in India, which means we do not have sustainable growth,”Om Prakash Bhatt, chairman of State Bank of India, the nation’s largest lender, said at the summit. “We have to look at the numbers and quality of life” of those living in poverty. 

 

The real problem with India is corruption and very cheap selfish politics. Our dear country is fragmented on many lines; caste, community, religion, region and politics all play important roles. our half country runs on traditional beliefs, and other main reason is the caste system, which leads to non utilization of available resources, and everyone should understand their responsibility to make our country pride. 

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh wants to sustain more than 9 percent growth for at least three decades. The World Bank estimates 828 million Indians live on less than $2 a day.

 

We at least, the educated and the intellectuals, we should be able to rise over these dissensions and think about what we can do to raise our brethren out of poverty.



Jayati Goel

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