Thousands of families in India do not find enough to feed themselves and, in a moment of complete dejection, they commit suicides, often collectively. There are millions of people who sleep with empty stomachs most of the times. There's a life-and-death struggle on the railroad tracks as there are many people who live dangerously near railway tracks and often risk their lives and don't have sources to feed their families. They also want good food to eat, good clothes to wear, good place to live in, but they are helpless as they don't have any kind of support. This is the dark side of poverty.
It is a pity that after 70 years of India's independence, India lags far behind China in battling poverty and in advancing living standards such as health, education and other social conditions. A total of 48 percent of Indians don't even have access to toilets. Around 65% of rural households have no sanitation facility. A third of the population in India does not have any electricity connection. It's a fact that access to drinking water and electricity within homes continues to be a distant dream for millions of Indians.
Rural poverty is further compounded by India's enormous health burden; India accounts for more than one quarter of the world's TB cases and deaths. In India, most villages don't possess even a small hospital. Unfortunately, in India's noisy political democracy, politicians are not too interested in alleviating poverty.
Since Independence, year after year, India's anti-poverty programmes are getting bigger without getting better. The blunt truth is that India's poverty alleviation programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Pardhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY), Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana and other welfare schemes fail to reach the downtrodden. The outcomes in each programme are poor.
India's various welfare schemes will get a tremendous boost if it can learn lessons from China's experiences and achievements in poverty alleviation through the Southwest Poverty Reduction Project, the Poor Rural Communities Development Project, the Guangxi Rural Poverty Alleviation Pilot Project, the Qinba Mountains Poverty Reduction Project, the Gansu and Inner Mongolia Poverty Reduction Project, to mention a few.
Poverty is a huge stone on the path of India's development. It should be rooted out and the problem should not be tackled slowly. Poor Indians need money to fulfill their basic needs, not charity. The poor Indians deserve better than mere lip service or an entry in the government budget. Mother India would win then and only then if Indian political leaders make every effort to quickly eradicate poverty from the country, bringing prosperity into the lives of poor people through a sound political vision.
China is undoubtedly a world-leader in poverty reduction and improving health outcomes and there is a lot the rest of the world can learn from its experience. China is also willing to exchange and cooperation with India in the realm of poverty reduction. China's formula for reducing poverty could help India to accelerate its poverty alleviation programmes. Can India learn lessons from China's invaluable poverty reduction policies and rapid growth?
The author Rabi Sankar Bosu is the Secretary of New Horizon Radio Listeners' Club in West Bengal, India.
