Freedom from poverty and hunger still a distant dream for majority as India turns sixty, says ActionAid

New Delhi, 14 August 2007: Sixty years on from Independence, crucial concerns for the vast majority of Indians remain equal citizenship, livelihood and right to education, health and land says anti-poverty agency ActionAid. 

“Though India at sixty is being proclaimed an economic miracle in many quarters, displacement, destruction of livelihood and violation of fundamental rights have reached a new high,” says Babu Mathew, Country Director of ActionAid India.

“India’s capabilities have grown if measured in terms of production, export ability, nuclear power, militarization, higher education, science and technology… But if we look at what is happening to the vast majority of Indians we can’t fail notice there is malnutrition and even starvation deaths.”

“As we race towards double digit growth we need to be aware that more than half of India is really still below the poverty line and one in four Indians go to bed hungry every night,” says Mathew.

A recent report by the Indian health ministry, the National Family Health Survey backed by UNICEF, has found that almost 46 percent of children under the age of three are undernourished. One third of world’s poor reside in India.

After six decades of growth, the problem is not just that entire sections of the population such as Muslims and Dalits are left out of the development race, but that the most marginalised are finding themselves under attack, say campaigners.

Homes, land and forest where urban poor and indigenous families have survived for generations are now deemed to be standing in the way of economic development and are being pushed aside. ActionAid has dubbed such development ‘Deadly Growth’.

"Whenever excluded people come forward to demand justice there is brutal state retaliation and repression to any democratic dissent," said Kapileshwar Ram, a dalit community leader from Bihar. Nandigram where at least 14 people lost their lives threw a stark spotlight on community struggles to protect land from being grabbed for Special Economic Zones.

"It is said that India lives in her villages. After the deadly growth that we are witnessing it must be said that India is dying in her villages," says Jagat Patnaik programme manger of ActionAid which in India works in 24 states and two union territories.

“What stands out is the cruel contrast between India's economic boom and the increasing marginalisation of those who are left out,” he adds.

A few weeks ago, eleven Adivasi children in Keonjar district of Orissa died of hunger, while between January and July 24 farmers killed themselves under the burden of debt in Bundelkhand district of Uttar Pradesh.

In July, Indian television reported a labourer in Orissa who sold his newborn to perform the last rites of his wife who died during childbirth. These instances bring us face to face with stark reality for millions in the country.

“Economic development should provide opportunities and rights to people, so that they can exercise their choices for a decent life.” says Mathew, “This is what will make inclusive growth a reality.”