India the land of wealth and the land of poverty India has dethroned France and
the United Kingdom as a fifth and sixth economic power respectively today with
more than 1.3 billion inhabitants grows at a breakneck rate of 7.3% one of the
fastest growing economies on the planet in 2050 India will have a larger economy
than the US and by 2075 it is very likely to move past China becoming the
number one economy on the planet each year several Indian billionaires join
the list of the richest in the world proof of the country's economic growth
with a human overpopulation of more than 1.3 billion people India in a few years
will surpass China as the most populated country in the world it is very possible
that it will surpass 1.7 billion by 2070 at that time the earth will have an
estimated 10 billion human beings let me put it this way that means that in the
future 2 out of 10 of all humans on the planet will be Indian or live in the
country India will soon become a world-class power but it's inequality
presents a risk to the planet almost 25% of the world's poor are found in India
and ironically today India is as rich as France how is it possible at a country
that is crowned as the fifth largest power in the world has more than a
quarter of its people below the poverty line today we will see the contrasting
sides of India and answer this question because it is so wealthy yet
impoverished at the same time let's begin
there's no denying that India is a rich country today it has a gross domestic
product of two point four trillion dollars wealthier than both France and
Great Britain and in two years it will surpass Germany the catch is this
enormous wealth is not as evenly distributed as other economies in that
tier the inequality in India is one of the most problematic in the world the
richest 1% of all Indians pocket nearly one-third of the excess wealth generated
by the economic growth between 1984 and 2014 that is almost a third of this
income went to a group of only 8 million people in a country with a population of
1.3 billion let's illustrate this further imagine that we have a country
of 150 people in the case of India a single person hoards more than one-third
of the money between all of them leaving the rest of the two-thirds of the wealth
to be divided with the rest of the 149 people I'm sure most of you watching
right now will imagine the richest 1% as these billionaires as in other more
developed Western countries but if we actually take a look at how much an
average individual of this 1% truly make we realized that it doesn't take that
much money to be a part of this exclusive group so what do I mean by
this let me explain more so how much do the richest 1% of Indians really earn
the average income of this exclusive group is around $20,000 per year that is
roughly $1,800 to $2,000 per month you could say that this is a lot of money
but compared to the Western powers such as Germany France or even Spain that
barely even qualifies as a medium wage income that same 1 percent of Indians is
now 10 times richer than 35 years ago while the practically non-existent
middle class has not even managed to double their income in the past 40 years
of continuous economic growth with their efforts since then they have managed to
increase the majority of their population $2 a day
to a staggering $3 per day if you're lucky then you can even make 5 dollars a
day one out of every 5 Indians as in extreme poverty extrapolating that data
to the total population one in five of individuals are less than $2 per day
this would give us a figure of around 270 to 350 million individuals in
comparison if all those found and poverty in India had their own country
there would be the third most populated country on the planet just after
India itself 80% of the poor live in rural areas away from large urban
centers such as New Delhi or Mumbai the poorest 40% of the Indian population
lives equal to or worse than their Southeast Asian neighbors such as
Bangladesh and Laos the most shocking aspect of India is its absence of a
middle class in one of the richest and ironically most unequal societies on the
planet tens of millions of Indians still cannot read and millions will never have
quality education decent health or even an opportunity to escape poverty when
India gained independence from England I had more than 70% of its population
below the poverty line today India has made significant progress in reducing
that percentage to only 21 percent and only 10 years ago this percentage was at
31 percent so there are clear advances of course but the structures of
inequality are still present to this day and will continue to prevent the
growth of income of the poorest Indians in a proportionate or equal rate why is
this inequality so present that's a great question but there is no single
answer there are thousands of factors that come into play
literally thousands but today we will only cover the most evident ones firstly
the poor quality of education for a large part of the Indian population I'm
referring to the more than 30 percent of the population being illiterate that's
almost more than 400 million people the illiterate population of India is almost
equal to the entire population of the South American continent this problem is
significantly worse for women for women the literacy rate is pretty much dead
50% meaning half of all Indian women still cannot read or write now obviously
this part of the population has not had the opportunity to go through a system
of a primary secondary and university education this is millions of brains and
potentially brilliant minds that will never reach their maximum potential on
the other hand the fortunate people who have had the secondary and university
education will automatically perform better in life raise their standards of
living and if they have children they will surely have the same or better
educational opportunities as their parents these individuals are sure to
gain a much higher income than the illiterate 30% of their society it is
not surprising that Indian billionaires control over 54% of the nation's wealth
even so it's not a hopeless case every year more and more people are becoming
literate and the current literacy rate among young men is 90% and that of young
women is at 81% which that over the years more and more of the
population is becoming educated and therefore have access to better living
standards these changes will take decades to show a real demographic and
economic change before the majority of the illiterate adult population it is
likely that they will stay that way for the rest of their lives while the
youngest are the ones which would be more inclined in pursuing continuous
education the second reason for the current state of India is the intrusion
and control of the state when the state maintains a strict control of the
economy and does not let the market operate freely and many restrictions are
put in place there will not be many winners in the market over the decades
the Indian government has grown more flexible but I still maintains a strict
control of the economy with statism encompassing every market with this in
place we can anticipate a lot of corruption and with it present in all
levels statism influences peddling and obstruction of justice
the interference of the Indian state has hindered competitiveness therefore
allowing only a small group of people to become extremely wealthy India is
currently a democracy the largest democracy in the world but ironically
it's probably the decades of statism that could have been responsible for the
Equality issues in the country but now things are changing since 1991 the
country has become a free-market economy since 2014
Narendra Modi an Indian nationalist has been the Prime Minister of India and his
focus was on privatization and liberalization on the economy based on a
neoliberal framework Modi liberalized india's foreign direct investment
policies allowing more foreign investment in several industries
including defense and railroads other reforms included the elimination of many
of the country's labor laws to make it more difficult for workers to form
unions and make it easier for employees to hire and fire these reforms were met
with the support of the institutions such as the World Bank but the
opposition of scholars within the country the third reason of the current
state of India is its poorly written laws and a collapsing health system
governing a country of more than 1.3 billion people is not easy like other
states in the world India as a federation composed of 29 states and
seven territorial unions to give us a clear example the most populous state in
India Uttar Pradesh has a population of more than 200 million people almost
twice the entire population of all of Mexico each state has its own laws and
regulations which sometimes don't even agree with each other most laws are
sometimes unethical unclear or simply poorly written this along with the
corruption that present and almost all Indian
institutions has done some serious structural damage to the country
thousands of political scientists have argued that bad laws unethical
government practices and corruption have seriously aggravated the Indian health
system this is evident from the fact that India has one of the highest infant
mortality rates in the world this deplorable state of health and infant
mortality within the country has caused concern among several international
organizations while globally most countries show significant improvements
in infant and child mortality rates India is lacking in the rate of progress
since the beginning of this video more than 20 children under the age of five
have died due to a lack of medical attention the Indian Constitution
establishes that the country has a universal health system meaning all
Indian citizens have the right to be treated free of charge at hospitals and
receive medicine at no cost this is very clear and ideal and theory but in
practice the health system is so chaotic and problematic and experiences a lack
of medicine oxygen tanks electricity drinking water or even syringes many
individuals prefer private hospitals that generally provide better quality
and service but are typically too costly for ordinary citizens there are
thousands of other causes for which India still maintains such a large
socio-economic gap as the country grows more and more
there are many economic reforms being put in place in hopes of reducing this
gap between the social classes because of course the country is getting richer
today a poor Indian is still twice as rich as they would be thirty years ago
but at the same time a rich Indian is 10 times richer than 30 years ago obviously
the classes are not improving at an equal and proportionate rate which
doesn't allow for a fair redistribution of wealth in terms of GDP yes
India has surpassed France and the UK in wealth but in reality it needs to
raise the living standards of its average citizen increase the rate of
enrolment in a school system increased literacy reduce corruption reduce the
birth rate and promote more development programs for the most disadvantaged each
year more than 27 million Indians are born all with their own goals and
aspirations the Indian political class must make more of an effort in order to
ensure that each new life being born into India will be born into a more
prosperous future to believe in not only for India but for the sake of the
stability of the planet it is possible that India could have more than 2
billion inhabitants by 2100 such a large population could bring Wars political
instability stress on the availability of
food and in turn a higher level of famine so I passed the question off to
you what do you think is the best solution in order to reduce the gap of
socioeconomic classes within India do you think the state of overpopulation in
the country is making it impossible for the social equality to stabilize let us
know in the comments below see you next time