Indian inequities
Despite two decades of rapid economic growth, India’s wealth gap is worsening.
Men sort out items for recycling in the Dharavi slum on February 2, 2009 in Mumbai, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images)
In many ways India is an economic success story, showing record growth over the past two decades. But in that same period of time, income inequality in the nation has doubled, ranking India last among emerging economies. So why is the gap between the haves and have-nots widening? And how does this effect India’s aims at becoming a global superpower?
Despite two decades of rapid economic growth, India’s wealth gap is worsening.
Storified by The Stream · Wed, Feb 29 2012 08:26:05
India is the world’s fourth largest economy and has long been touted as a rising economic superpower. Its rapid growth has also been marked by growing social inequalities. As this cartoon by Ingram Pinn illustrates, many of the nation’s poor are being left behind.Although many of India’s major cities have experienced construction booms, widespread slums remain. About 410 million of India’s 1.2 billion people still live below the poverty line.India has had one of the strongest GDP growth rates of the last decade, surpassing many other emerging economies, as shown below. But that growth is now slowing as foreign investment dwindles and inflation remains high.According to some metrics, the wealthiest, as a group, in India are only equal to the poorest in the United States.India is home to more than half the world‘s malnourished children, more than the number found in all of sub-Saharan Africa.Internet and mobile penetration in India is growing rapidly as well. The numbers of both rural internet and mobile users are expected to nearly double in the next year.India’s rising internet use comes at a time when the government is mulling restrictions to some online content deemed culturally inappropriate. Kapil Sibal, India’s Minister of Communications and Information, was widely mocked online, with the hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal trending across India after the news broke.Kapil Sibal may have absolutely no idea how the Internet functions but damn he sure does know how to troll an entire nation.rishi alwaniEarlier this year, the country saw massive rallies, organised primarily via social media, in support of anti-corruption activist Anna Hazare, who led a hunger strike that ended only after the government passed new graft legislation.To address growing inequality amid rising costs of living in India, some 800,000 workers participated in what organisers billed as the world’s largest labour protest on Tuesday. The general strike, which involved major Indian workers’ unions, demanded improved labour laws and a higher minimum wage.
