Friday, February 28, 2014

Is Poverty relevant for Growth? / Relevance of Poverty in Growth

Factors Related to Growth of a Economy/ Country

Below Poverty Line (BPL), the three words of a hell. We rarely spare a thought for those living Below the Poverty Line and what life means to them. Government claims that number of such people and families is decreasing slowly, and yes it is, BUT very slowly. These are the people who just get below that a dollar a day, sleep empty stomach and get lost in the over a billion crowd of India.

India has made notable progress in terms of income and human poverty reduction over the decades, particularly in the 1990s. In spite of this, one third of the population is still below the poverty line. In addition, a fifth of the population with income above the poverty line is vulnerable to receding back into poverty due to unexpected income loss and other shocks. The challenges of reducing income poverty for this huge mass of population and creating employment opportunities for them are enormous. There are also big challenges in reducing human poverty and enhancing capability. There are a number of factors related to growth of a country. Poverty affects and effect growth in a major way.

Labor being the main asset and income source of the poor, there is a need for creating enabling environment for the poor to get more remunerative employment. Policies need to be adopted to raise productivity and returns to labor in both agriculture and non-agriculture sectors. Conditions need to be created through upgrading the skill levels of the unskilled labor to facilitate their participation in the dynamic non-farm activities and increasing their access to non-agricultural employment. 

Joseph Stiglitz in Globalization and its Discontents, page 5: “despite repeated promises of poverty eradication made is the last decade of the 20th century; the number of people living in poverty has actually increased by almost a hundred million. This has happened simultaneously as the world income actually increased by an average of 2.5 % annually”.

Checking the government’s Data, India has roughly 50 Million Tons of food grains laying unused, the cost of storing which is about Rs 11,000 crore per annum, which is about Rs 2200 per ton. This is ignoring the wastage and pilferage costs. To feed 200Million BPL population on an average of 8 KGs per month per person, we have enough stock for TWO and HALF Years and still there are millions who die every year due to hunger and destitution.


To realize the country’s growth potentials, there is a need for increasing investment through raising domestic public and private savings and generating more external resources. Also in particular, there is also a need for upgrading the stock of infrastructure to support diversification of production, raise productivity, expand trade, provide basic services and reduce poverty. There are many parameters on which poverty depends such as education, agriculture, employment level, dependence on agriculture, etc. These have been discussed as below:

Poverty Index
When people like Lakshmi Mittal, Azim Premji, Anil and Mukesh Ambani have successfully placed themselves within the 100 richest billionaires of the World in the Forbes listing, India has also placed herself as the 48th poorest nation with 31.4 percent value in the Human Poverty Index (HPI). Barbados tops the rank in the HPI among the developing countries with a value 2.5 percent. According to the report 16 percent of the population still remains and live with out having sustainable access to improved water resources and there is a probability at birth for 15.3 percent of the population of not surviving to the age of forty. Hence poverty index is important for the growth.


Education Level:
Education happens to be the least a government can provide to its citizens, else the cost of not providing education will me much more dearer to a government and the nation’s future. Education level has a direct impact on the economic progress of the country and thus there are many reasons to find a link between education and economic growth. Few of the most basic reasons are:

1.      Intelligent electorate choice: The first this an educated man would do is to stop voting for uncommitted, uneducated goons behind the grab of statesmen.
India, which is plagued by the mafiya and the gunda raj and who have direct linkages with the politics makes sure that light of education doesn’t fall upon these masses so as to keep them in dark. This enables them to muster votes of the uneducated by alcohol, money or power. There is a growing distress in the educated population of the country who form the minor part as compared to the large pool of uneducated vote bank. The feeling that their vote won’t make any difference in making an intelligent electorate choice deters them from the pooling booths, thus making matters worse.

Standard of Living: Rise in Standard of living has been directly linked to the level of education. High growth and rapid progress is not possible in  a society whole population is not literate. If people with education earn more than those without, shouldn’t the same be true of countries? If not the rate of change of output per hour worked, at least the level of output per hour worked in a country, ought to depend on the educational attainment of the population. If spending on education delivers returns of some sort, in much the same way as spending on fixed capital, then it is sensible to talk of investing in human capital, as the counterpart to investing in fixed capital. The process of education can be analysed as an investment decision.

Health and Poverty
"The biggest enemy of health in the developing world is poverty." Kofi Annan
Health issues are directly related to poverty. Poverty creates ill-health because it forces people to live in environments that make them sick, without decent shelter, clean water or adequate sanitation. As per the data provided in the human development report, the total infant mortality rate for India is 67 deaths/1,000 live births and the maternal mortality ratio is 540 per 100,000 live births. Due to various causes also 93-children/ 1000 live births die before they reach the age of five.

Malnutrition And Relationship With Poverty

Malnutrition has long been recognized as a consequence of poverty. It is widely accepted that higher rates of malnutrition will be found in areas with widespread poverty. Malnutrition is the result of marginal dietary intake compounded by infection.

It is estimated that nearly 30% of infants, children, adolescents, adults and elderly in the developing world are suffering from one or more of the multiple forms of malnutrition, 49% of the 10 million deaths among children less than 5 years old each year in the developing world are associated with malnutrition, another 51% of them associated with infections and other causes. 

Poverty declined during the 90s to below 30 per cent, especially in the country’s rural areas. But this impressive record hides the uncomfortable fact that 193 million people are still poor and await a change in their fortunes. Poverty has declined mainly because of better economic growth, improvement in real wages and the spread of poverty alleviation programmes. 

Per Capita Income, Poverty and Growth
It is a fact that richer the people, lesser will be the poverty, and higher will be per capita income. This fast is bolstered by the fact that within India, states which have higher per capita income have lover poverty as compared to states whose per capita incomes are lower. According to the Indiastat.com, per capita income of Punjab is highest with about $6000 while that of Bihar is at about $3000. Correspondingly the poverty in Punjab is about 5 percent of its population while that of Bihar, it is at 40 percent. At the same time growth rates of these states depict the same story. Poverty ridden state has a growth rate of only about 1 percent while growth rate of Punjab stands at about 3.2 percent. This shows a clear picture of Poverty: i.e. lesser the poverty, higher is the growth and higher is the per capita income. Higher per capita income means better standard of living.

Poverty and Savings
Savings are very important in a nations economic growth and development. Higher savings leads to higher investment and thus higher circulation of money into the economy. This leads to a higher multiplier effect thereby nudging the growth up. However, if the population is living in destitution, they won’t have enough money to sustain their basis needs leave apart the savings.
If we look at the past trend of India, as and when poverty has decreased, savings have increased. In 1991, we had 45 percent of our population below poverty line and our savings were meager 20 percent with the country growing at the Hindu Growth Rate of 3 percent. With the decrease in poverty  to 26 percent below poverty line and stress on savings by the government our savings rates have risen to 37 percent in 2007 in simultaneous with the growth of 8 to 9 percent.  

The above were the factors that affect growth centered at poverty.
Poverty is relevant to growth big time.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Women Empowerment in India

                 
Despite the facts that India has a strong written Constitution proclaimed being for equality and welfare of the women ,barbaric and savaging practices still continue to haunt women I form of female foeticide , Child Marriage, Child Labour , Dowry, rape, sexual harassment, pornography, etc. The condition of the Indian Widow is quite deplorable as she is despised by her family as well by society. Deprived of basic amenities and necessities, she is forced into prostitution by culprits who walk around her with a roving eye.

Marriage has become a profitable business which puts the bride on the debit side and groom on credit side. In the name of dowry, thousands of women are married, disfigured or burnt alive. One should learn from Nisha Sharma of Noida (U.P), who had the guts to get her prospective groom and in laws behind bars for making mind-boggling dowry demands.

What women needs is social, political, economical, cultural, educational, psychological and physical empowerment in form of security and good health. Various laws have been formed but not implemented. Supreme Court still has thousands of cases pertaining to women which remain either pending or unresolved. Stringent laws should be made and implemented as done in Middle East countries. Those who torture the women, physically or mentally should be subjected to rigorous imprisonment.  Rapists should be hanged till death. Capital punishment should be enforced upon those who murder the women. Women should get access to primary education and health care. Women too should be equally paid. Government should ensure those women forks are equipped with at least basic knowledge of computers. Good job opportunities, education, scholarships for brilliant girl student from economically weaker background are provided.

Women are the pivotal point of familial universe. She is synonymous with nature and sustaining life. A nation’s progress and prosperity can be judged by the way it treats its women folks. Therefore men must rise to the occasion. They must respect the fact that women are equal part in life.
  

The very issue of women empowerment arises because of stark reality that women are still marginalized and sidelined from mainstream as a use and throw commodity. The indeclinable gender has disfigured the very face of humanity. This discrimination originates well before the birth of a girl and is sustained through her womanhood. In India, which is the world largest democracy, women constitute nearly fifty percent of the total population. India is also an agrarian economy where land, the main source of sustenance is connotatively associated with women.

 A peep into history will provide names of stalwarts who stood for the cause of women’s emancipation. Adi Shankaracharya, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar etc are just a few names worth mentioning. But a handful of good willed people alone would not be able to build the foundation for women’s emancipation. The women themselves have to come forwards empowerment irrespective of their class, cast, creed or religion women should draw inspiration from empowered women like Indra Gandhi, Sarajini Naidu, Kiran Bedi, Ashwaria Rai, lata Mangeshkar and many more

Even though the position of women in Vedas and Upanishads was put on a high pedestal to that of Mother or Goddess, her condition in reality was not that satisfactory. The Manusmriti views women as a precious being to be protected first by her Father, then by Husband and later by Son. In modern times men have substituted precious being with a precious commodity has is to be possessed, utilised and thrown away.



India needs better and strategic Punishment System


Many at times, courts have been in dock for partial judgments and for the acquittal of accused that either belonged to a rich background or had a political clout. Take the examples of Jessica Lal’s murder case or Zahira Sheikh’s case to cite a few. However, even if some judgments are against the odds and the powerful, it still sometimes doesn’t provide much conviction.

 Talking of the hunting of endangered dear by Salman khan and Nawab of Pataudi; the prosecution of the case against the celebrities gave publicity to the crime which was for its benefit. The case made the people aware of the fact that murder of animals protected by law is no longer regarded as innocent fun but will land one jail and a heavy fine as well. It has been a commendable action taken by the police and the court of law.  

   However there have been some reservations about the penalties imposed by the trial court. They should be given more latitude in the form of punishment the can inflict. Putting eminent men behind bars for longer periods deprive them of fulfilling their obligation towards society as well as earning a living. Heavier fines, confiscation of weapons they own and imposing life time bans on hunting would have been more appropriate. Instead of sentencing an actor to seven years of imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Rs, the judge could have given the culprit Rs 70 lakh as fine, confiscated his jeep, guns and ammunitions and one month in imprisonment; it would have solved the purpose better.

 Thus judges, while giving a judgment should consider the culprit and his background and not merely rely on the laws and judgments laid in constitution always. This will help in strategic punishment which will be more effective and appt.

 

Role of Industry in Hypertension of Ecomony

If the American Society for Hypertension hoped to devise an expanded definition of the condition that would be scientifically  and ethically defensible, it sure picked the wrong way to do it. Virtually every key step in its efforts to redefine hypertension from mere high blood pressure to a broader syndrome has been financed by pharmaceutical companies that would gain by selling drugs to more people.

 Hypertension, which is a risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease, is currently defined as a blood pressure reading of 140/90 and above. Some 65 million  Americans have high blood pressure by that definition. But 59 million more are considered pre-hypertensive, which means they have blood pressure readings of at least 120/80. The new concept being debated within the society would move about half of these into the hypertension category based on other risk factors.


With the rise of machines and the industrial ventures, the number of people having hypertension has increased. Industries have crowded all around major cities with some even penetrating near the residential areas. The air is not fresh and clean as it was used to be, creating health problems. The employers of the companies are overburdened with the ever increasing workload and the tensions of finishing job within the deadlines, leaving a negative impact on their health. The swarm of multinational companies has further intensified the competition in this wild goose chase.
 
The rationale is that simple blood pressure measurements fail to identify all the people who may need to be treated to prevent heart attacks and strokes. So the expanded definition would throw in various cardiovascular risk factors, biochemical markers and signs of organ damage that could, collectively, justify a diagnosis of hypertension even if blood pressure was too low to meet the current definition. The proposed definition does not recommend any specific treatment, but it would seem likely to expand the use of medications. 

While this approach has merit in principle, some complain that the new definition is not grounded on solid scientific evidence and inevitably bears the taint of financial ties with the industry. No guidelines produced this way will have much credibility.

 

Thursday, February 6, 2014

What’s wrong in calling India a country of Rapists?

A couple of Weeks ago, there was a strong backlash on the comments posted by the American on a social networking website. She had written "It's the vegetarians that are doing the raping, not the meat eaters - this place is just so bizarre." If one thinks over for a while on this comment, one shouldn't find anything wrong in it.

Why do we Indians get so defensive if someone of foreign says something about us. Even though if it is correct. Lets face it, Truth is Bitter and damn it is. I don’t find anything wrong with the statement. And if you are  reading newspaper or watching TV news regularly, you should admit it too.

One should not be oblivious of the fact that India is a country with highest number of REPORTED Rapes in this country. As per Wikipedia, 24,206 rape cases were registered in India in 2011 alone.  A new case is reported every 20 minutes. Take not of the word “Reported”. The number of unreported rapes is out of my imagination. And all these numbers do not include the Marital Rapes that always takes a backseat when the brutal rapes are already enough to handle.

So clearly, backed by the facts, India stands out PROUDLY as being a nation of rapists. Then why do we Indians become so defensive when someone points a figure. Why cannot we stand the truth and face it upfront.

Every newspaper, every news channel is full of rapes. If rapes weren't enough, we have gone a step with gang rapes. It not one individual but communities involved. There have been cases where sexual assaults against have been openly endorsed by local communities, panchayats and Khaps. A latest case doing the rounds is that of a tribal girl in West Bengal.

 Rapes and sexual crime have become so common that even police take it lightly and many times advise victims not to report such matters. If this is what a large portion of population think, isn't saying India a country of Rapists right.


It’s time to stand up and admit what is right.