Poverty and inequality continue to plague Indian society, even in these days of corporate partying. While India’s fabulously wealthy rulers are busy acquiring luxury cars and private jets, (not to mention the fact that some of this wealth comes dripping with blood) hundreds of millions continue to languish in poverty and misery.
“Oh come on, Mamu,“ I can hear my niece complain as she reads this. “We all know this, it’s nothing new.” She pouts for a bit, ponders her best line of attack, and settles for this: “Why can’t people talk about something else? Why do you always have to write about poverty?”
Yes, of course we know all this. Yes, of course we’ve seen the stats a thousand times before. And yes, to write about poverty in India is to run the risk of sounding like a broken record. But I do believe that originality in social commentary isn’t as great a virtue as it is made out to be. I think it is just as important to simply keep repeating the obvious over and over again (think Noam Chomsky or Arundhati Roy here), in order to push back against the mind-numbing nature of consumer culture.
I believe that it isn’t so much a matter of saying something original, in this context, as of finding an original pretext to say what you’ve said a hundred times before.
What’s my pretext today? A report in The Hindu refers to the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, which has issued a report on “Conditions of Work and Promotion of Livelihoods in Unorganised Sector.” The text of the draft report can be found here. (There are discrepancies between the figures in the Hindu article and those in the draft report, probably because the former is based on the final report, whereas the draft report was issued in April, and was clearly marked “Not to be quoted, for feedback and comments only.”)
Some of the findings of the report, as outlined by the Hindu article:
- 394.9 million workers (86 per cent of the working population) belong to the unorganized sector
- 316 million workers live on less than Rs. 20, or $ 0.49, a day.
- 88 per cent of the Scheduled Tribes and the Scheduled Castes, 80 per cent of the Other Backward Classes and 85 per cent of Muslims belong to this category of people living on less than Rs. 20 a day.
- 90 per cent of agricultural labor households are landless or have less than one hectare of holding*
- agriculture is getting feminized with 73 per cent women being associated with it compared to 52 per cent men.
Then there was this statement in the article that I couldn’t quite figure out in light of the other statistics: “In 2004-05, a total of 836 million (77 per cent) had an income below Rs. 20 a day.” This seems to contradict the second point above, which puts the figure at 316 million. Are they suggesting that the number has actually fallen by nearly two-thirds?!! It seems unlikely. I’d like to get my hands on the report itself to figure this out.
As of 2002-2003, the unorganized sector’s contribution to overall GDP was a surprisingly (to me) high 56.7 per cent, according to the draft report (p. 24).
Poorly paid, super-exploited workers, in other words, are contributing more than half of the overall growth of the Indian economy in these glorious times.
“India Shining”: Does that phrase make you want to laugh or cry? Let me know.
______
*On a different note, this statistic really throws into question the characterization of India as “semi-feudal” by Maoists. If 90 percent of agricultural labor is landless, then we are referring here to waged labor, albeit in agriculture. In other words, this is not a “peasantry” ranged against a “feudal” landholding class, but agricultural wage-labor ranged against an agrarian bourgeoisie.
This is obviously a larger debate, and will have to be dealt with separately.
Sorry for the jargon, Pooja! 
14 responses so far ↓
Preya // August 9, 2007 at 11:55 pm
I agree with your assertion that the message has to be repeated, but what if people become inured and desensitized to the message itself? A person just commented on blog with that attitude, saying that I had written nothing more than another rant about an old topic. And it scares me when my students complain that global warming is “so overhyped.”
leftyprof // August 10, 2007 at 3:33 am
That’s our dilemma, isn’t it? I do think, though, that capitalist culture produces this response. We get inured to stories of poverty and suffering not because we hear about them too often, but because our culture considers these aspects of our societies as given, as inevitable. Once the existence of inequality is naturalized in this manner, then it is pointless to think about it more than absolutely necessary.
When the light turns green, we drive off, and the snot-nosed street kid whose gaze we avoided at the intersection recedes into the distance in the rear view mirror.
In other words, we are encouraged to regard our (undeveloped, neglected) social conscience as a nuisance, because a conscience does not, after all, help you cope with the pressures of daily life.
And then there is the active production of apathy by the ideological warriors of the system. To come to your example, it isn’t an idea that your students, for instance, have arrived at on their own; the notion that global warming is “overhyped” is an argument that naysayers are propagating in order to scuttle the arguments that our side is putting forward.
Showing our students the lineage of their own ideas is a useful way of going about our work.
Pooja // August 10, 2007 at 5:27 am
Oh mamu….can we talk about something else???Why do you have to write about poverty all the time?????
Pooja // August 10, 2007 at 5:28 am
And yes I do think that India is shining!!!!!
therealpotato // August 10, 2007 at 11:51 am
In other words, we are encouraged to regard our (undeveloped, neglected) social conscience as a nuisance, because a conscience does not, after all, help you cope with the pressures of daily life.
This is an interesting way of thinking about it… Joe and I struggled with this when we moved to New York and were asked for money by homeless people dozens of times a day. You learn to shut yourself off to the legless veterans and the HIV-positive moms, and become a little less human yourself, because after all you have to get to work on time and pay your own rent, so you don’t become one of them. It atomizes us, it forces us to look after our own interests at the expense of that social conscience.
the notion that global warming is “overhyped” is an argument that naysayers are propagating in order to scuttle the arguments that our side is putting forward.
I agree, but I also don’t think that means that all of those same students don’t think it’s a problem. Our generation in the US is bombarded with so much advertising and ‘hype’ that it’s impossible for anyone (without the help of a political analysis) to separate out the few things genuinely worthy of attention. Kids are (rightly) skeptical of everything that’s thrown at them by the media, and now that global warming is mentioned in every commercial and by every celebrity, they’re applying that same skepticism.
It also doesn’t help that most of the descriptions of the problem, and its potential solutions, are sanitized in the media; if you’re just watching what’s on TV, you could be forgiven for drawing the conclusion that everything will be fine if we all just drive hybrid cars and use Al Gore light bulbs.
capitalistvampires // August 12, 2007 at 1:31 pm
India is really shining with corruption, suicides of farmers, police firings and rapes etc.
Naveen // August 13, 2007 at 10:07 am
Wasn’t “India Shining” the slogan of the BJP in 2004? I read an article a while ago that talked about how the BJP spent crores upon crores to foster this image through campaign ads etc. Obviously it was a way to distract the Indian middle-class from the images of Gujarat pogroms that had come to define BJP rule.
Naveen // August 13, 2007 at 10:45 am
I see the numbers like this: 836 million earn less than Rs.20 a day, which is the general population. (I find this unbelievable too, and if true means the scale of poverty is much deeper than I understood!) Those defined as “workers” are around 450 million of which some 400 million are in the unorganized sector and 79% of those (320 million) earn less than Rs.20 a day. I think they don’t count farmers as part of the organized or unorganized sectors.
Preya // August 13, 2007 at 1:00 pm
And then there is the active production of apathy by the ideological warriors of the system. To come to your example, it isn’t an idea that your students, for instance, have arrived at on their own; the notion that global warming is “overhyped” is an argument that naysayers are propagating in order to scuttle the arguments that our side is putting forward.
Showing our students the lineage of their own ideas is a useful way of going about our work.
This is an important point. I happen to teach in a place Bill O’Reilly calls a “liberal progressive stronghold,” so, in reality, I have the advantage of dealing with kids who, out of habit, say, “Can I recycle this piece of paper,” rather than, “Can I throw away this piece of paper.” I just worry about the kids who don’ live here and don’t have the advantages that my kids have. In any case, your post is about India, and the figures you mention are stunning.
leftyprof // August 13, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Thanks for all the comments, folks (and that includes you, Pooj!!)
Naveen: Yes, “India Shining” was the BJP’s election-year campaign slogan. It has since become the prevailing commonsense, especially among the urban middle classes.
Therealpotato: I think I agree with what you are saying, despite the double negative!
On the global warming question I tend to feel a lot more pessimistic than I do on any other issue. It really feels like we’ve gone past the point of no return, which is why the consumer politics-oriented arguments make so little sense.
Preya: Sometimes the liberal strongholds are precisely the ones that are most closed off to radical points of view, no?
In the final analysis, of course, it isn’t so much a question of what we write in these blogs, or even what we teach in our classrooms. The material realities of people’s lives have as much, if not more, of an impact on what they think. (Pooja–that’s true of your situation too, although I’m sure you’ll stick your tongue out at me for this as well!)
therealpotato // August 13, 2007 at 3:00 pm
It really feels like we’ve gone past the point of no return, which is why it the consumer politics-oriented arguments make so little sense.
Yeah. I identify with that feeling, although I think we have a responsibility to do everything we possibly can to at least mitigate the damage. Which is why I personally cringe every time I see Live 8 or some other stupid Celebrity Bullshit Against Global Warming event… that sort of thing is just beyond pointless.
The floods in India and Bangladesh have now been officially blamed on climate change by the UN, by the way.
Renegade Eye // August 14, 2007 at 3:24 am
Very good post.
The Maoists portray India as semi-feudal because they are limited by the Stalinist theory of two stage revolution. If they accept India is capitalist, they would logically have to be for workers power and socialism. Instead they would be happy working in a capitalist first stage government.
Random thoughts on 60 years of independence « LeftyProf // August 14, 2007 at 4:05 pm
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