**Indian poverty levels higher than Pakistan’s, says UN report **
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The report also finds more ‘gender equality’ in conservative Pakistan than in ‘tolerant’ India. *
Its findings amount to a wake-up call for a nation which has taken great pride in its rapid economic growth and the increasing clout of its billionaire business leaders but has failed to share the spoils with its poor. Britain’s Department for Internmational Development has pointed to this chequered progress to justify its continuing aid to India.
The Human Development Report reveals that while India ranks slightly above Pakistan in its level of ‘human development’ – based on life expectancy, schooling and per capita income – its wider poverty level is worse than Pakistan’s.
In absolute terms, 41.6 per cent of India’s 1.1 billion people earned less than 78 pence per day compared with 22.6 per cent of Pakistan’s 173 million.
The report quotes its ‘multi-dimensional poverty index’ which includes measures of schooling, child mortality, nutrition, access to electricity, toilets, drinking water, and hygienic living conditions, and reveals India is poorer.
It found 53.7 per cent of Indians suffering from this broader kind of poverty, compared with 49 per cent of Pakistanis.
More surprisingly, India is ranked below Pakistan and Bangladesh on gender equality which reflects maternal death rates, teenage pregnancies, access to education, and the number of women parliamentarians and in the workplace.
India’s rural development minister Jairam Ramesh said the report highlighted the prevalence of poverty in the midst of economic growth and the possibility that “actually economic development may lead to retrogression of social indices.” Priya Subramanian of Save the Children said India’s poor ranking reflected a lack of political will to tackle poverty.
“It is things like healthcare and education which have India lagging behind Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. These countries are well on track and India, with its fast growing economy, has still not got its act together,” she said.
“While we have a new band of millionaires, on the other side people continue to suffer endlessly. Millions still live below the poverty line and go to sleep hungry. The [economic] growth has not flowed towards them,” she added.
My Comments: India, Pakistan and Bangladesh should work together to learn from each other on promoting economic growth as well as reducing poverty levels.
