F14-Poverty

'68% of Indians still earn less than $2/day. About 30% Indians earn less than $1 a day.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_di0YsP7bQM   Sep 11, 2022 'We may be celebrating a little too early' says V Raghunathan, Economist and Author as he shares thoughts in conversation with Sakshi Batra on how India's achievements are largely accounted in absolute terms and not in per capita terms. He believes that India has a long way to go when it comes to improving per capita income even it has overtaken the UK as the fifth-largest economy.

'Revadi culture' exists because poverty exists And poverty exists because government’s economic policy has delivered GDP growth but not jobs and incomes to the large masses of people Arun Sinha, AUG 25 2022, https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/main-article/revadi-culture-exists-because-poverty-exists-1139367.html

There are two sets of actors in the revadi culture: the political parties and the target sections. The political parties distribute revadi to get the votes of the target sections. Why are people willing to barter their political choice for freebies? Because they do not have a decent income to fulfill their family’s needs and make savings to live with respect, dignity and financial security. Do the upper and middle classes want freebies? No. They might even feel insulted by a suggestion of it.

More than 75 per cent of the country’s farmers own less than a hectare (2.47 acres). They supplement their income from small fields by working as labourers. That is a huge part of the population. There are more than 110 million beneficiaries under the PM Kisan-Samman Yojana. Of them, 82.5 million farmer households (75 per cent) supplement their farm income with wage labour. That translates to 82.5 x 4 = 330 million Indians (taking 4 members to a family on average).

These 330 million Indians live extremely vulnerable lives. If the crop fails in one season for any reason, they slide into poverty. If even one working male of the family suffers long illness or remains unpaid for his labour for months, the family has to live hand-to-mouth. For lack of food and nutrition, other members might fall ill, and that means greater misery. Can we fault these 330 million Indians for seeking revadi?..

The onus to end the ‘revadi culture’ also lies on Prime Minister Modi, the BJP and the other parties. They have to rewrite the country’s economic policy to provide jobs with decent incomes to a large part of the population. That should be the next set of reforms the country must contemplate, design and implement. If people have good income and savings, they would stop seeking revadi, the revadi-for-vote market would shut down, and democracy would become freer and stronger.

NATIONAL MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY INDEX INDIA BASELINE REPORT

https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2021-11/National_MPI_India-11242021.pdf  I

https://countercurrents.org/2022/10/india-ranks-shamefully-in-world-hunger-index-107th-out-of-121-countries/   by Vikas Parashram Meshram  17/10/2022

The Global Hunger Index is a comprehensive means of measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional and national levels. The Global Hunger Index criteria is usually calculated on the values ​​of four indicators. The first measure is how malnourished the population is. That is, how many people in the total population are living with fewer calories than they need. The second criterion is the health status of children. This means how many children under 5 years of age are underweight for their height. The third criterion relates to child stunting. This means how many children under the age of 5 years are not tall enough for their weight. The last criterion is related to infant mortality. That is how many children under 5 years are dying before completing 5 years.

Simply put, undernutrition, severe infant malnutrition, stunted growth and child mortality are the factors used to measure the Global Hunger Index, which has a total of 100 points, based on which a country’s level of hunger is indicated. That is, if a country has a score of zero, it is in good shape, and if one has a score of 100, it is in very bad shape. India’s score is 29.1 which falls into the severe category.

The Global hunger Index - India denying its own data! CFA India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shd26EMq09U 
The Global Hunger Index has placed India at 107th position below Pakistan, Nepal and even Sri Lanka. India government reacted with a strong rebuttal alleging flawed data collection, poor methodology and conspiracy to malign nation's image.
Every time when some international agency or an NGO come with an index that paints India in a poor picture, the government comes up with a strong denial. Then things move on, creating a win-win situation for both. But economic data can be verified and cross checked. So who is lying in the Hunger Index?