The world in reeling in a time of inflation and financial failures globally. India has maintained its stability and balance through the raging financial storm in the West. The situation of homelessness and poverty coupled with financial drainage is the reality of the West right now.
Research by World Institutions
The World Bank recently published an article “Poverty has Declined over the Last Decade But Not As Much As Previously Thought”. It is similar to a paper by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which collaborates a decrease in extreme poverty in India through state funded public distribution systems. This has resulted in consumption inequality to be at its lowest in the past forty years.
Extreme poverty in India was 22.5% in 2011 and it came down from 12.3% to 10.2% in 2019.
The World Bank Policy Research paper states that there has been a greater decline in the rural poverty in India. This is also backed by the similar paper by the IMF, which substantiates that extreme poverty of the country has been eliminated.
The number of extremely poor in India has decreased by 12.3% between 2011 and 2019. The rural areas are ahead in this chart as compared to the urban centres. The last survey based on the consumption of households, was released by the National Sample Survey in 2011.
Reduced Poverty in India
The major role in reduction of poverty in India was the “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna“, according to the IMF. It has substantially managed to keep extreme poverty at 0.8% in 2020. The scheme rations out free food grains to the poor.
The urban poverty increased in the country by 2% points in 2016, close to demonetisation and declined sharply post that, whereas the rural poverty increased by 0.1% points in 2019.
There was no increase in inequality of consumption. Furthermore, the income of farmers with small holdings increased, whereas the real income increased by 10% on an annual basis. In the same round, the income of farmers with large holdings increased by 2%.
Declining Poverty Amidst COVID
On an annual basis, poverty fell in 2019-2020 at a lower rate in rural areas. However, it saw a sharp decline in 2020-2021 as it did in the pre-COVID era of 2018-19. The April-June 2021 period saw the decline in urban poverty with free distribution of additional 5 kg food grain.
The economy is also dependent on agriculture and seeing that agriculture has shown no deviation from its early trends and furthermore, exhibited a healthy growth ratio throughout the COVID era further substantiates the anti poverty schemes. This also ensured that the nation did not see any rise in the rural poverty.
Poverty in USA
United States of America is considered the Super power, and we have seen people comparing state of India with that of highly developed country like USA. The situation is highly ironical, because on one place there is stark difference between the population of India and USA. Whereas, all the manufacturing of USA based company takes place in China, India has various pocked of manufacturing. India has a population of 1.38 Billion people while, USA has significantly lesser, 331 million people. This poses a great difference between the economies of the two countries.
India has faced stark poverty since independence because we were looted of almost a great wealth during colonisation period. On the other hand, USA was colonised by those wealthy Europeans who looted Asia and Africa. Still, according to the US Central Bureau there are 37.9 million Americans who are poor which makes upto 11.6% of the population. The report also claims that since mid-1960s the status of poverty in US has remained unchanged.
But, the situation is far worse than that. According to the report of CNBC, the measurement of US poverty is not accurate. The measures developed by the government falls short of the correct assessment of the situation. While, the Supplemental Poverty Measure developed by the Central Bureau incorporates the food, clothing and basic amenities. And the report claims that the indices is not able to keep up the pace with the changing way of life in America.
Homelessness In USA
In reality, Americans are struggling greatly with the problem of homelessness. A country with such a small number of population and having large mass of land. Along with that, having control on largest amount of resources in the world is not able to provide for the homes to their citizens.
In a report in 2022, New York times reports that the situation of homelessness in America is far worse than expected. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, Seven million extremely low-income renters cannot get affordable homes, The report also categorically claims that big cities run by the Democrats is facing the challenge of homelessness, building up from decades.
India Outshines USA
The declining poverty of India is a result of the entrenching of the grass root policies of the Modi government during this past decade. The decline in rural poverty is a sign of the effectiveness of the “Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna” as well as as the boost in the infrastructural development in connecting the rural roads, provision of electricity and better irrigation facilities have yielded better financial grounding for India. Meanwhile, USA is like a prodigal son who has squandered away all his wealth on meaningless pursuits. The youth of the American economy is debt ridden and struggling to make ends meet. The general disillusionment of the American public from their healthcare services is also setting upon the economy. Being a First World country, the state of homelessness in the USA is a big crash to the “American Dream”.
References
- https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/economy/claims-of-spike-in-poverty-in-india-during-covid-19-patently-false-paper-co-authored-by-arvind-panagariya-10278451.html
- https://kreately.in/how-poverty-has-declined-in-india-under-modi-government-according-to-imf-report/
- https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/07/why-poverty-might-be-far-worse-in-the-us-than-its-reported.html