For the rich and the rich-er

Lakshmi, is a 65 year old woman who has been sweeping houses in Delhi’s posh South Delhi colonies for at least four decades now. Her husband, an alcoholic, did little to support the family of six after the first few years, and died after a long illness. Her children grew and married, two daughters were deserted by their husbands, a third was widowed and the son decided to focus on his wife and children. Lakshmi used to live in a jhuggi near the places of work but in the beautification drive she and her ailing husband were packed into tempos with little warning and driven to a far off destination where they were given a tiny plot of land for which they had been made to pay their entire earnings. There was no drinking water, electricity or transportation and within days the couple went to live with their daughters. Lakhsmi travels 20 kilometres every day to sweep and clean the houses, and says that life has become far more difficult and expensive over the years.

This is the story all around. A new study has confirmed what all outside the government knew for a long while now: that the percentage of those living below the poverty line is 35-36 and not the 20 plus that government statistics placed it at. Serious economists maintain that it is far more in real terms, as those living just above the threshold of defined poverty are in almost the same position as those living just below. Foreign newspapers have finally started recognizing that India’s growth is confined to a small class of the privileged, and does not extend to cover the people who continue to live in dismal conditions.

A recent report in the International Herald Tribune sought to highlight the contrast between the two classes, speaking of the situation in Indian villages just a few kilometers out of Delhi. But one does not even have to travel outside, and can stop at the road separating the two big Indian hospitals, Safdarjung and All India Institute of Medical Sciences to see the suffering as the poor stand with their ailing relatives in the blazing sun, trying to cross the road for treatment. Inside the queues are long, every corridor is crowded and while the doctors at least at AIIMS try to do a valiant job, it is impossible to give relief to the hundreds who have traveled long distances for medical aid. The conditions are sad, and yet for the poor these are the only hospitals where they can get proper treatment for incurable ailments. As the doctors point out, by the time the villager comes for help he or she is already in their last stages, and chances of survival have decreased dramatically.

Despite the need, the UPA talking proudly of growth has not even bothered to open new government hospitals in the city or the National Capital Region. Private hospitals are expensive and arrogant and do not like to treat the poor. Acres and acres of land have been acquired in the NCR by builders to construct residential ‘gated’ colonies with spas and swimming pools, or huge shopping malls and restaurants that cater only to the very rich. Housing for the poor, hospitals for the poor, schools for the poor are no longer on the government agenda that is looking at privatization in all sectors to benefit the chattering classes.

Drought, floods, disease and of course now suicides are taking a toll with the poor finding it almost impossible to get relief, employment, treatment and food. Prices are spiraling and as families like Lakshmi know, dal at Rs 80-Rs 100 is no longer a staple diet. Salt and chilli has replaced dal, with vegetables a luxury for the urban poor. Gastroenteritis in India is a bigger killer than HIV AIDs or swine flu, but it affects the poor who die like flies of dehydration and related complications. Curable diseases become incurable in the absence of doctors and medicines. Vaccinations do not exist in the rural areas, where dispensaries now do not even stock life saving drugs, and hospitals function often without qualified doctors and operation theatres.

So where is this growth going? Why is it not visible on the ground? Why is it that the contrast between the rich and the poor has become so vulgar, with designer stores selling clothes and bags for lakhs of rupees while the poor starve with not even Rs 20 a day to spend on their food and livelihood? How can the Prime Minister of India, and the government of supposedly elected representatives not see the poverty when they talk of growth? How is it that when they get into office they only see themselves and their corporate friends and the chattering classes, quite forgetting the toddlers with bellies swollen from malnutrition when they visit their constituencies for votes? What kind of people are we that we do not react, do not care? NREGA are just schemes that give a little at times in an environment where the poor receive absolutely nothing. But these fall far short of the requirement.

The anger and frustration is growing. So is the helplessness, the fear and the distress. The government talks of growth and security, the masses live in poverty and insecurity. This disconnect, this chasm can only weaken democracy. Institutions are already being hit with the people questioning the system, and its ability to protect them in every sense of the term. If the simmering resentment erupts, it will further weaken the social and democratic fabric of India. It is time for the government to put the money where its mouth is, and work for the masses instead of for the select few.