What makes the Indians sad?
Poverty in India.
When I see people who can't have a proper meal in a day, who don't have enough money to get proper treatment if they fall ill, who can't get their kids proper education due to financial constraints or they are so poor that they prefer their children working rather than studying -- I'm sad, I'm infuriated, I'm disheartened.
We still have one-third of our population living in poverty today (on international scale).
Percentage population living on less than $2 per day 2009.
Among the nations we are estimated to have a third of the world's poor. In 2010, World Bank stated, 32.7% of the total Indian people fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day, while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 per day.
See: Poverty in India.
P.S. By saying this, I am not criticizing my nation, but it's a cold hard fact that poverty prevails to some extent. But still, mitigation works have been in process by the government and things have started changing for the better.
When I see people who can't have a proper meal in a day, who don't have enough money to get proper treatment if they fall ill, who can't get their kids proper education due to financial constraints or they are so poor that they prefer their children working rather than studying -- I'm sad, I'm infuriated, I'm disheartened.
We still have one-third of our population living in poverty today (on international scale).
Among the nations we are estimated to have a third of the world's poor. In 2010, World Bank stated, 32.7% of the total Indian people fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day, while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 per day.
See: Poverty in India.
P.S. By saying this, I am not criticizing my nation, but it's a cold hard fact that poverty prevails to some extent. But still, mitigation works have been in process by the government and things have started changing for the better.
Poverty in India
Poverty rate map of India by prevalence in 2012, among its states and union territories
Poverty in India is widespread, and a variety of methods have been proposed to measure it. The official measure of Indian government, before 2005, was based on food security and it was defined from per capita expenditure for a person to consume enough calories and be able to pay for associated essentials to survive. Since 2005, Indian government adopted the Tendulkar methodology which moved away from calorie anchor to a basket of goods and used rural, urban and regional minimum expenditure per capita necessary to survive.
The World Bank has similarly revised its definition and benchmarks to measure poverty since 1990, with 2 per day income on purchasing power parity basis as the definition in use from 2005 to 2013. Some semi-economic and non-economic indices have also been proposed to measure poverty in India; for example, the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index placed 33% weight on number of years spent in school and education and 6.25% weight on financial condition of a person, in order to determine if that person is poor.
The different definitions and different underlying small sample surveys used to determine poverty in India, have resulted in widely different estimates of poverty from 1950s to 2010s. In 2012, the Indian government stated 21.9% of its population is below its official poverty limit. The World Bank, in 2011 based on 2005's PPPsInternational Comparison Program, estimated 23.6% of Indian population, or about 276 million people, lived below $1.25 per day on purchasing power parity. According to United Nation's Millennium Development Goal (MGD) programme 270 millions or 21.9% people out of 1.2 billion of Indians lived below poverty line of $1.25 in 2011-2012.
Poverty in India is a historical reality. From late 19th century through early 20th century, under British colonial rule, poverty in India intensified, peaking in 1920s. Famines and diseases killed millions each time. After India gained its independence in 1947, mass deaths from famines were prevented, but poverty increased, peaking post-independence in 1960s. Rapid economic growth since 1991, has led to sharp reductions in extreme poverty in India. However, those above poverty line live a fragile economic life.[15] Lack of basic essentials of life such as safe drinking water, sanitation, housing, health infrastructure as well as malnutrition impact the lives of hundreds of millions.
The World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions in May 2014, to its poverty calculation methodology and purchasing power parity basis for measuring poverty worldwide, including India. According to this revised methodology, the world had 872.3 million people below the new poverty line, of which 179.6 million people lived in India. In other words, India with 17.5% of total world's population, had 20.6% share of world's poorest in 2011. As of 2014, 58% of the total population were living on less than $3.10 per day .
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