The yearly statistics of death due to cold wave comes as a chilling reminder of how miserable the poor and homeless are in our country. In this context the rosy statistics of rising GDP, of being third largest economy, a rising economic powerhouse, sounds almost like saying that though the patient is sinking, the medicine has helped in improving his complexion!
Sadly in this country life has been, quite literally, dirt cheap. This shows up in every calamity - be it annual floods, cyclone or frequent terror attacks and winter deaths are no exception. And mind you we are a tropical country and we do not have to put up with the kind of harsh winter our peers in Scandinavian or North American countries have to.
Thanks to Himalayas our snow-bound regions are confined mainly to our northern fringes. But we still manage to have 'cold wave' deaths even in places where there is no snowfall and are quite far away from the Himalayas.
Thanks to Himalayas our snow-bound regions are confined mainly to our northern fringes. But we still manage to have 'cold wave' deaths even in places where there is no snowfall and are quite far away from the Himalayas.
Today a Delhi-based social worker came on TV and said that people were dying not due to cold but due to lack of clothes. It is all the more sad to hear. It means they just don't have the purchasing power to buy proper clothing to withstand cold weather. Moreover, very little is known about what happens to the homeless in towns such as Meerut, Kanpur, Hoshiarpur or Patna where our TV channels sparingly train their cameras.
Since most of these homeless people are from the fringes of the society - migrant workers, beggars, drug addicts, mentally unstable persons - politicians have little interest in them as many are not even registered voters. Why just blame politicians? A recent column in Hindustan Times revealed how even religious charities in Delhi were shying away from feeding these sections.
Our pink press may rave about some thirty-something scion of Indian Inc figuring in Forbes richest list, but the abysmal levels of country's per capita income almost seems to mock at all these achievements. Going by per capita figures even countries like Algeria or Tunisia look quite enviable compared with us. Maybe we can take cold comfort from the fact that ours is a tad better than Pakistan or Afghanistan!
It is high time our leaders and financial experts stopped thinking in terms of GDP and started using per capita income as a yardstick of progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment