Bangladesh is doing the best in different economic and social indicators. It is trying to come out of the “Basket Case”. Kudos to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is floating over Natural Gas and this may turn Bangladesh into a rich country.
Don’t Forget India’s Poor
Economic reforms have left them behind, but there’s no shortage of policies that could help
By Jean Drèze
http://www.time.com/time/asia/covers/501041206/two_indias_vpt_dreze.html
Posted Monday, November 29, 2004; 20:00 HKT
When I came to India 25 years ago, professors rarely traveled by car. At the Indian Statistical Institute, where I did my Ph.D., “simple living and high thinking” was the maxim. “Simple thinking and high living” would be a more likely maxim today. Many university teachers now own a car and also an air conditioner and other gadgets. The so-called middle class in India (read: the upper class) has become rich beyond its members’ wildest dreams. They have literally transplanted themselves to the First World without applying for a visa.
What about the poor? The statistics speak for themselves. Half of all Indian children are undernourished, and half of all adult women suffer from anemia. According to the latest U.N. Development Programme Human Development Report, India has among the highest undernutrition levels in the world, along with Ethiopia and Bangladesh. In fact, Bangladesh is doing better than India in many measures of development, such as rates of infant and maternal mortality and of school enrollment. Despite India’s faster economic growth, Bangladesh is progressing quicker in health and nutrition indicators: in 1990, India had an infant mortality rate of 80 per 1,000 live births, compared with 96 in Bangladesh. Today, the ranking is reversed: 67 in India and 51 in Bangladesh.
This is one illustration of the lopsided nature of economic growth in India nowadays. The gains of faster growth have been largely captured by the privileged. The poor, for their part, barely manage to continue their slow exit from hunger and misery. It is often argued that rising inequality is the price of economic dynamism, and that nothing can be done about it. This claim is misleading. Recent experience in India points to many ways of ensuring that the gains of economic growth are more widely shared. The state of Kerala has a long history of constructive action, with exemplary results—including near-universal literacy and a life expectancy of close to 75 years. More recently, Himachal Pradesh has achieved a remarkable transition to universal schooling, also driven by state policy. In Tamil Nadu, health and nutrition interventions have radically improved the well-being of children. There is no dearth of useful signposts.
The main reason these opportunities are not better used is that the poor count for very little in Indian politics. They are on the margin of the democratic process. It is true that voter turnout rates in India are quite high. But democracy is not just a matter of voting. It is a question of sustained, informed participation in democratic institutions, such as village assemblies, citizens’ associations, trade unions and political parties. This is quite difficult to do on an empty stomach. As Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the architect of the Indian constitution, warned many years ago: “Political democracy cannot succeed where there is no social or economic democracy.”
If anything, the élitist orientation of public policy in India has intensified during the recent period of “economic reform.” Today, India’s international credit rating and the “sentiment” of the stock market receive far more attention in economic policymaking than the lives of its poor. The silver lining is the presence of a countertrend of political assertion by marginalized groups—working people, women, disadvantaged castes, among others. This political awakening is the best hope for greater equity in Indian society.
Jean Drèze is an honorary professor at the Delhi School of Economics and the co-author (with Amartya Sen) of India: Development and Participation