gap between the rich and poor in india
India is one of the fastest and biggest growing economies in the world today, which averaged 8% growth over the last decade (Pasricha, 2013). However, it is also considered as one of the poorest countries in the world with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor (World Bank, 2010). The disparity between the rich and the poor, which is the difference between individuals or populations in the distribution of their assets, wealth, or income, is a pressing issue in India for a long period of time (Christopher et al., 2014). It has been in the list of the main agenda of political parties in the country but unfortunately there is not much progress in alleviating this problem as measures taken against it are not effective enough as compared to the widening gap.
In India, people can easily see signs of a growing economy and highly developed infrastructure on one side while there are many slums on the other side - economic inequality is visible starkly in India. In simple terms, a person with less purchasing power is the poor while a person with more purchasing power is the rich economically (Choudhary, n.d). A person who has less purchasing power is deeply affected and restricted as he/she cannot afford goods and services that the rich can afford and hence he is trapped in his poverty cycle or poor standard of living. As the rich can afford to access the good resources, he/she is able to upgrade themselves and achieve a better standard of living. Over time, this results in the polarisation of the two groups in the society, creating the poor-rich divide. This poor- rich gap can exist in different forms, such as education, income, housing requirement, food needs, and these areas are all evident in modern India. Many parts of India still suffers from malnutrition, poverty and many other concerning problems, with the rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer.
Chopra (2011) noted that the top 5 % of the households possess 38% of the total assets and the bottom 60% of households own barely 13 %. The disparity is more conspicuous in the urban areas where 60 % of the households at the bottom own a mere 10 % of the assets. Individual income inequality measured by the Gini index has also consistently increased in India and reached 33.90 in 2010, with 0 being the ideal score. (Bandyopadhyay, 2013). Indeed, India’s privileged possess almost all of the wealth in this country of 1.2 billion people. A fraction of the top 1%, which is only about 120,000 people, receive one third of the total income (Vence , 2013). To add on, the richest 10% of Indian society have seen highest growth in income while the poorest 10% have seen the slowest increase in income (Varma, 2013). This evidently shows the extremely unequal distribution of wealth and assets across the country.
It is not only the gap in distribution of assets that is alarming, the difference in the spending and consumption expenditure between the rich and poor households has also raised both in rural and urban areas between 1993-1994 and 2004-2005. According to the survey on consumption expenditure by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), spending and consumption by the richest 5%, zoomed up by over 60% between 2000 and 2012 in rural areas, while the poorest 5% saw an increase of only 30%. In urban areas, the richest segment's spending rose by 63% while the poorest saw an increase of 33% (Varma, 2013). In rural areas, the monthly spending of poorest group was Rs 521 per person while the monthly spending of the richest group was Rs 4,481 per person in 2012. Similarly, in urban areas, monthly spending by the poorest group was Rs 700 per person and for the richest group it was Rs 10,282 per person (Varma, 2013). Certainly, the expenditure of the poor is dwarfed by that of the rich. The difference in the spending and earning among the rich and poor sector, clearly shows the condition of economic disparity in India.
Furthermore, the annual Forbes list of billionaires featured 55 Indians in 2013. Despite being part of the four nations housing the highest number of billionaires, a shocking 42% of the nation lives on less than $1.25 per day, a sum recognized as the international poverty line according to World Bank estimates. Strikingly, the near 500 million people who live in poverty in India can outnumber the entire U.S. population (Vence , 2013). An alarming truth provided by the International Monetary Fund, states that the net worth of India's billionaire community has increased by 12 times in 15 years, and this is more than enough to eradicate poverty twice over in the country. Stemming from the problem of uneven distribution of wealth across the country, almost half of India's children are malnourished; 1000 die every day from diarrhea; hundreds of millions have no access to proper sanitation (Sussman, 2008). In fact, malnutrition in the state of Gujarat, one of the richest states in India, is worse than the average level of malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa (Bandyopadhyay, 2013). These statistics give a grim counterpoint to the high economic growth of the country in the recent years.
It is not only the gap in distribution of assets that is alarming, the difference in the spending and consumption expenditure between the rich and poor households has also raised both in rural and urban areas between 1993-1994 and 2004-2005. According to the survey on consumption expenditure by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO), spending and consumption by the richest 5%, zoomed up by over 60% between 2000 and 2012 in rural areas, while the poorest 5% saw an increase of only 30%. In urban areas, the richest segment's spending rose by 63% while the poorest saw an increase of 33% (Varma, 2013). In rural areas, the monthly spending of poorest group was Rs 521 per person while the monthly spending of the richest group was Rs 4,481 per person in 2012. Similarly, in urban areas, monthly spending by the poorest group was Rs 700 per person and for the richest group it was Rs 10,282 per person (Varma, 2013). Certainly, the expenditure of the poor is dwarfed by that of the rich. The difference in the spending and earning among the rich and poor sector, clearly shows the condition of economic disparity in India.
Furthermore, the annual Forbes list of billionaires featured 55 Indians in 2013. Despite being part of the four nations housing the highest number of billionaires, a shocking 42% of the nation lives on less than $1.25 per day, a sum recognized as the international poverty line according to World Bank estimates. Strikingly, the near 500 million people who live in poverty in India can outnumber the entire U.S. population (Vence , 2013). An alarming truth provided by the International Monetary Fund, states that the net worth of India's billionaire community has increased by 12 times in 15 years, and this is more than enough to eradicate poverty twice over in the country. Stemming from the problem of uneven distribution of wealth across the country, almost half of India's children are malnourished; 1000 die every day from diarrhea; hundreds of millions have no access to proper sanitation (Sussman, 2008). In fact, malnutrition in the state of Gujarat, one of the richest states in India, is worse than the average level of malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa (Bandyopadhyay, 2013). These statistics give a grim counterpoint to the high economic growth of the country in the recent years.
FACTORS IMPACTING ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
Growth Factor
Since "neo-liberal" market reforms were introduced in 1991, India's economy has grown tremendously. The world's largest democracy grew at 6.5 %t annually from 1991 to 2004, and this figure increased to over 9 % from 2005 and 2007 as stated by Sussman (2008). This has resulted in a massive explosion of wealth creation among the middle and upper classes of Indian society. Unfortunately, this rapid economic growth has only benefited one section of society and continues to benefit the already affluent section more, leaving behind a large portion of the population.
Since economic growth has been primarily focused on manufacturing and services and is largely based in urban areas, there is a shift of population from agriculture work which is a slow growing sector to the modern large industrial sector which grows more rapidly. The rural agriculture receive little attention and benefits, and thus those who derive their incomes from agriculture agriculture work are neglected and impoverished. The earnings of different group also s rise differently, with the incomes of the upper-income and middle-income groups increase more rapidly than those of the poor (Chand, n.d).
All these resulted in a slower growth in employment or income for the larger mass of people and small growth in the availability of consumption goods. The development of these industries is also not fast enough to keep up with the economic growth and creating sufficient jobs. The economic survey 2013 says that micro, small and medium enterprises are not growing into bigger industries (Narayan, 2013). This undoubtedly creates the rich-poor gap supported by the fact that less than 30% of the population works in the service sector accounts for more than 67% of GDP while over 50% of India's population engaged in agriculture only accounts for 14% of GDP (Verma, 2013).
Low productivity of agriculture
As mentioned before, a majority of India’s population is involved in agriculture, which is a low productivity economic activity. India’s agriculture industry faces several issues such as subdivided and fragmented holdings, lack of capital, poor irrigation, dependence on monsoon, and other natural factors. Thus, despite the intensive labour effort, there is little economic return. These masses of people have very little earnings to support their family and have a very unstable harvest as noted by Narayan (2013). On the other hand, industries such as manufacturing or service industry have a very high productivity, which enables its workers to generate more wealth or income.
Widening inequalities of income and employment opportunities
The development of the modern sector is capital-intensive in its nature. Since a smaller labour force is engaged in this sector compared to labour intensive industries, wages form a smaller proportion of total income as wages is bound to be low. Also, there is an unequal distribution of assets in the capital intensive projects, partly due to the strategy that places premium on non-wage incomes. It leads to the concentration of income or wealth in those few hands who supply capital as they are able to corner a large proportion of the national income from year to year. Thus, the income is not spread out evenly, and the poor are exposed to lesser resource availability for consumption (Chand, n.d).
There are inadequate employment opportunities for the different groups of people in India. There is a lack of alternate employment opportunities in rural areas other than agriculture. The villages in the rural areas have no alternative solutions to earn their livelihood except farming as very few job opportunities are available. Also, even if there are any job opportunities other than farming, the money earned is still not sufficient for their daily needs. On the contrary, the people living in urban area are exposed to a wide range of job options in the highly developed cities. Since most of the economic activities or businesses are carried out in urban areas, the urban inhabitants are more likely to benefit from it. This makes the bridging of the economic gap more difficult in India.
Moreover, there is an increasing rate of unemployment in the country as the job seeker is increasing in number at a higher rate than the expansion in employment opportunities. The unemployed people could only raise their economic status and to an extent reduce the distance separating them from those at the top, if they could get work. However, the competition for jobs is very intense in India with such a huge population size and the increase in employment opportunities remained less than the rise in the labour force for a very long time. This creates a group of people who is unable to move up the social ladder by earning themselves a living suffers from poverty, widening the rich-poor gap.
Fast population growth of the poor
The disparity between the rich and poor is to an extent also caused by the population growth which is larger among the poor than the all-India rate. Generally in rural areas, there is large number of people living in one family. There is a lack of proper family planning in the rural areas as compare to urban areas in India. Moreover, most poor people are steeped in illiteracy due to poor education and do not trusts the birth control methods or are unable to use them. This increases the burden of the number of people to be fed in the house and also increases the family expenses. With little employment and large- sized families, the incomes are low and consumption inadequate (Chand ,n.d).
Inadequacies of anti-poverty programmes:
Even though much of India’s taxpayer revenue goes into schemes and plans for the poor including subsidies in food and fertilizer to close the economic gap, but most of this money does not serve its purpose due to an inefficient delivery system. In fact, a large sum of the money is lost in corruption. Government corruption is a pressing problem in India, with tens of billions of dollars of the taxpayer revenue wasted as a result of such corruption. Some reports suggest that as much as half of the government money intended for welfare programs and subsidies end up in the pockets of politicians, bureaucrats and businessman instead (Hanna, n.d). With the current rich-poor divide, India cannot afford to waste any of its resources if it wants to raise the economic status of the poor.
Since "neo-liberal" market reforms were introduced in 1991, India's economy has grown tremendously. The world's largest democracy grew at 6.5 %t annually from 1991 to 2004, and this figure increased to over 9 % from 2005 and 2007 as stated by Sussman (2008). This has resulted in a massive explosion of wealth creation among the middle and upper classes of Indian society. Unfortunately, this rapid economic growth has only benefited one section of society and continues to benefit the already affluent section more, leaving behind a large portion of the population.
Since economic growth has been primarily focused on manufacturing and services and is largely based in urban areas, there is a shift of population from agriculture work which is a slow growing sector to the modern large industrial sector which grows more rapidly. The rural agriculture receive little attention and benefits, and thus those who derive their incomes from agriculture agriculture work are neglected and impoverished. The earnings of different group also s rise differently, with the incomes of the upper-income and middle-income groups increase more rapidly than those of the poor (Chand, n.d).
All these resulted in a slower growth in employment or income for the larger mass of people and small growth in the availability of consumption goods. The development of these industries is also not fast enough to keep up with the economic growth and creating sufficient jobs. The economic survey 2013 says that micro, small and medium enterprises are not growing into bigger industries (Narayan, 2013). This undoubtedly creates the rich-poor gap supported by the fact that less than 30% of the population works in the service sector accounts for more than 67% of GDP while over 50% of India's population engaged in agriculture only accounts for 14% of GDP (Verma, 2013).
Low productivity of agriculture
As mentioned before, a majority of India’s population is involved in agriculture, which is a low productivity economic activity. India’s agriculture industry faces several issues such as subdivided and fragmented holdings, lack of capital, poor irrigation, dependence on monsoon, and other natural factors. Thus, despite the intensive labour effort, there is little economic return. These masses of people have very little earnings to support their family and have a very unstable harvest as noted by Narayan (2013). On the other hand, industries such as manufacturing or service industry have a very high productivity, which enables its workers to generate more wealth or income.
Widening inequalities of income and employment opportunities
The development of the modern sector is capital-intensive in its nature. Since a smaller labour force is engaged in this sector compared to labour intensive industries, wages form a smaller proportion of total income as wages is bound to be low. Also, there is an unequal distribution of assets in the capital intensive projects, partly due to the strategy that places premium on non-wage incomes. It leads to the concentration of income or wealth in those few hands who supply capital as they are able to corner a large proportion of the national income from year to year. Thus, the income is not spread out evenly, and the poor are exposed to lesser resource availability for consumption (Chand, n.d).
There are inadequate employment opportunities for the different groups of people in India. There is a lack of alternate employment opportunities in rural areas other than agriculture. The villages in the rural areas have no alternative solutions to earn their livelihood except farming as very few job opportunities are available. Also, even if there are any job opportunities other than farming, the money earned is still not sufficient for their daily needs. On the contrary, the people living in urban area are exposed to a wide range of job options in the highly developed cities. Since most of the economic activities or businesses are carried out in urban areas, the urban inhabitants are more likely to benefit from it. This makes the bridging of the economic gap more difficult in India.
Moreover, there is an increasing rate of unemployment in the country as the job seeker is increasing in number at a higher rate than the expansion in employment opportunities. The unemployed people could only raise their economic status and to an extent reduce the distance separating them from those at the top, if they could get work. However, the competition for jobs is very intense in India with such a huge population size and the increase in employment opportunities remained less than the rise in the labour force for a very long time. This creates a group of people who is unable to move up the social ladder by earning themselves a living suffers from poverty, widening the rich-poor gap.
Fast population growth of the poor
The disparity between the rich and poor is to an extent also caused by the population growth which is larger among the poor than the all-India rate. Generally in rural areas, there is large number of people living in one family. There is a lack of proper family planning in the rural areas as compare to urban areas in India. Moreover, most poor people are steeped in illiteracy due to poor education and do not trusts the birth control methods or are unable to use them. This increases the burden of the number of people to be fed in the house and also increases the family expenses. With little employment and large- sized families, the incomes are low and consumption inadequate (Chand ,n.d).
Inadequacies of anti-poverty programmes:
Even though much of India’s taxpayer revenue goes into schemes and plans for the poor including subsidies in food and fertilizer to close the economic gap, but most of this money does not serve its purpose due to an inefficient delivery system. In fact, a large sum of the money is lost in corruption. Government corruption is a pressing problem in India, with tens of billions of dollars of the taxpayer revenue wasted as a result of such corruption. Some reports suggest that as much as half of the government money intended for welfare programs and subsidies end up in the pockets of politicians, bureaucrats and businessman instead (Hanna, n.d). With the current rich-poor divide, India cannot afford to waste any of its resources if it wants to raise the economic status of the poor.
CONSEQUENCES
Upsurge in Rural - Urban migration
As the urban cities have generally a better economic standard as compared to the rural areas, this triggered the rural-urban migration, where many people from the rural areas migrate to the urban cities in the hope to improve their standard of living. Sometimes, they are forced to move out of villages to seek some subsistence living in the more developed towns and cities due to the impoverishment. They believe that by moving to the cities, they will be expose to better employment opportunities, better education for their children and more adequate basic amenities.
During the process, they may even lose the open space or habitat they had in villages albeit without basic facilities. When they come to the cities, they may not be able to find suitable jobs as they are able to fulfill the education and skill requirements for the industry. Many of them are not able to live in adequate housing and end up staying in slums because they cannot afford proper housing or to pay for taxes. As a result, they are still not be able to access to proper sanitation facilities and clean water supply with the little amount of money they have (Perron, n.d). In fact, roughly one-eighth of India’s urban population or just below 9 million households lives in a slum, according to National Sample Survey Organisation (thehindu.com, 2013).
Slum Housing -> Health and environmental effects
Hundreds of thousands of Indian people die of malnutrition, diseases, unhealthy conditions, and more in slums every year in India. The conditions of the slums are usually bad. Over a third of the slum population in India lives without any basic facilities being provided by the government as the slums are not recognized (Nagarajan,2013).
The slums are usually overpopulated due to many people trying to stay in a limited small space. As a result, large amount of trash, corpses, and human excretion are produced which lead to high levels of pollution such as land and water pollution in the slum area. With poor ventilation, dirty floors, no access to clean water and sanitation facilities, slum is definitely not a place to call home.
As a result of inadequate quality of drinking water, lack of sanitation facilities, and poor hygiene, the spread of deadly illness and disease is a severe problem in the slum community. Diseases such as cholera, malaria, diarrhea and water-borne diseases are prevalent in many slums. Again, children are the most affected ones and there is a high mortality rate on children due to the epidemics. A shocking statistic states that in Indian slum areas, a child is known to be carrying 1,000 parasitic worms within their bodies due to the filthy living environment (Woaria et al., n.d)
On top of health and environmental issues, living in slums also affects the livelihood of the inhabitants. Without a secure and permanent home, it is very hard to find a job. Many of the people in slums earn their living by picking up trash and debris for sale. Without a reliable income, people living in slums are unable to invest in improving their living conditions, making it very hard for them to move out of the cycle of poverty.
Inequality in the accessibility to education and health resources
The huge economic inequality causes the less privileged ones to have a lower accessibility to education and health resources as compared to the rich. In poorer states, the quality of education and health services is not as high as those in urban cities due to a shortage of capital. Therefore, many of the less privileged children have to study in schools with poor amenities, with a lack of well-trained teachers or facilities like library. Some of the schools even have unclean toilets and ill-ventilated classrooms, and are located in remote areas. Children from the extremely poor region may also choose not to attend school or even have to drop out from school due to financial difficulties. Additionally, most of the better or elite schools are situated in the more developed cities. These schools are hardly accessible to the poor, either because they are unable to afford the school fees or they are refused to be admitted, unlike the urban dwellers with a higher economic status. As a result, the poor are deprived of good education resources that can provide them with a brighter future and help them to move out of poverty.
In health sector, the rich-poor gap also resulted in the unequal distribution of health services across the country. There is a lack of adequate medical facilities in the poor regions as superior healthcare institutions are largely located in the richer states. Here are some stark facts about healthcare service availability in India: 50% of all the poor villagers have no access to healthcare providers and 37% of them are chronically starved. This shows that the poor regions such as rural villages have very limited access to healthcare providers or they cannot afford the services, hence the majority of them are unable to receive proper medical care. Moreover, many general physicians prefer to work in urban cities with better working environment and wage, and this lead to a lack of health professionals in poorer rural regions. Since the poor are less able to seek quality medical services, many of them die from illnesses or diseases easily and have a lower life expectancy at birth.
Child poverty -> Child labour
Children are the most vulnerable victims of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Children born to parents in lower-income areas are generally at higher risk of childhood mortality and disease. According to data from UNICEF, 28% of Indian children born between 2006 and 2010 were underweight at birth, and approximately 48% of children under the age of 5 were affected by moderate to severe growth stunting as a result of malnutrition. (Childfund.org, n.d)
This also led to the emergence of child labour where children need to work in order to support their families. Official figures states that there are over 12 million child workers in India, but many NGOs reckon the real figure is up to 60 million. The working conditions of the children are usually unregulated and unsafe. The largest numbers work in places like textile factories, roadside restaurants and hotels, or as domestic workers. These poor children are often made to work without food at a very low wage, resembling situations of slavery. Much of the work, such as in firecracker factories, can be very dangerous or hazardous (friendsofsbt.org,n.d). There are also cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers (Childlineindia.org, n.d). These children are robbed of their childhood and have to deal with the cruelties of the society since young. Furthermore, as these children have to work at a young age, they probably do not have the chance receive adequate education, which contributes to more social problems such as low literacy rates.
As the urban cities have generally a better economic standard as compared to the rural areas, this triggered the rural-urban migration, where many people from the rural areas migrate to the urban cities in the hope to improve their standard of living. Sometimes, they are forced to move out of villages to seek some subsistence living in the more developed towns and cities due to the impoverishment. They believe that by moving to the cities, they will be expose to better employment opportunities, better education for their children and more adequate basic amenities.
During the process, they may even lose the open space or habitat they had in villages albeit without basic facilities. When they come to the cities, they may not be able to find suitable jobs as they are able to fulfill the education and skill requirements for the industry. Many of them are not able to live in adequate housing and end up staying in slums because they cannot afford proper housing or to pay for taxes. As a result, they are still not be able to access to proper sanitation facilities and clean water supply with the little amount of money they have (Perron, n.d). In fact, roughly one-eighth of India’s urban population or just below 9 million households lives in a slum, according to National Sample Survey Organisation (thehindu.com, 2013).
Slum Housing -> Health and environmental effects
Hundreds of thousands of Indian people die of malnutrition, diseases, unhealthy conditions, and more in slums every year in India. The conditions of the slums are usually bad. Over a third of the slum population in India lives without any basic facilities being provided by the government as the slums are not recognized (Nagarajan,2013).
The slums are usually overpopulated due to many people trying to stay in a limited small space. As a result, large amount of trash, corpses, and human excretion are produced which lead to high levels of pollution such as land and water pollution in the slum area. With poor ventilation, dirty floors, no access to clean water and sanitation facilities, slum is definitely not a place to call home.
As a result of inadequate quality of drinking water, lack of sanitation facilities, and poor hygiene, the spread of deadly illness and disease is a severe problem in the slum community. Diseases such as cholera, malaria, diarrhea and water-borne diseases are prevalent in many slums. Again, children are the most affected ones and there is a high mortality rate on children due to the epidemics. A shocking statistic states that in Indian slum areas, a child is known to be carrying 1,000 parasitic worms within their bodies due to the filthy living environment (Woaria et al., n.d)
On top of health and environmental issues, living in slums also affects the livelihood of the inhabitants. Without a secure and permanent home, it is very hard to find a job. Many of the people in slums earn their living by picking up trash and debris for sale. Without a reliable income, people living in slums are unable to invest in improving their living conditions, making it very hard for them to move out of the cycle of poverty.
Inequality in the accessibility to education and health resources
The huge economic inequality causes the less privileged ones to have a lower accessibility to education and health resources as compared to the rich. In poorer states, the quality of education and health services is not as high as those in urban cities due to a shortage of capital. Therefore, many of the less privileged children have to study in schools with poor amenities, with a lack of well-trained teachers or facilities like library. Some of the schools even have unclean toilets and ill-ventilated classrooms, and are located in remote areas. Children from the extremely poor region may also choose not to attend school or even have to drop out from school due to financial difficulties. Additionally, most of the better or elite schools are situated in the more developed cities. These schools are hardly accessible to the poor, either because they are unable to afford the school fees or they are refused to be admitted, unlike the urban dwellers with a higher economic status. As a result, the poor are deprived of good education resources that can provide them with a brighter future and help them to move out of poverty.
In health sector, the rich-poor gap also resulted in the unequal distribution of health services across the country. There is a lack of adequate medical facilities in the poor regions as superior healthcare institutions are largely located in the richer states. Here are some stark facts about healthcare service availability in India: 50% of all the poor villagers have no access to healthcare providers and 37% of them are chronically starved. This shows that the poor regions such as rural villages have very limited access to healthcare providers or they cannot afford the services, hence the majority of them are unable to receive proper medical care. Moreover, many general physicians prefer to work in urban cities with better working environment and wage, and this lead to a lack of health professionals in poorer rural regions. Since the poor are less able to seek quality medical services, many of them die from illnesses or diseases easily and have a lower life expectancy at birth.
Child poverty -> Child labour
Children are the most vulnerable victims of the increasing gap between the rich and the poor. Children born to parents in lower-income areas are generally at higher risk of childhood mortality and disease. According to data from UNICEF, 28% of Indian children born between 2006 and 2010 were underweight at birth, and approximately 48% of children under the age of 5 were affected by moderate to severe growth stunting as a result of malnutrition. (Childfund.org, n.d)
This also led to the emergence of child labour where children need to work in order to support their families. Official figures states that there are over 12 million child workers in India, but many NGOs reckon the real figure is up to 60 million. The working conditions of the children are usually unregulated and unsafe. The largest numbers work in places like textile factories, roadside restaurants and hotels, or as domestic workers. These poor children are often made to work without food at a very low wage, resembling situations of slavery. Much of the work, such as in firecracker factories, can be very dangerous or hazardous (friendsofsbt.org,n.d). There are also cases of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of child domestic workers (Childlineindia.org, n.d). These children are robbed of their childhood and have to deal with the cruelties of the society since young. Furthermore, as these children have to work at a young age, they probably do not have the chance receive adequate education, which contributes to more social problems such as low literacy rates.
Articles to read up more about rich-poor divide in India...
1. http://www.datelinedelhi.org/11-lifestyles-of-delhis-rich-and-poor/
2. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/111230/india-economy-wealth-gap-poverty-shivas-rules
3. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/rich-poor-gap-widens-in-india-113081000072_1.html
1. http://www.datelinedelhi.org/11-lifestyles-of-delhis-rich-and-poor/
2. http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/india/111230/india-economy-wealth-gap-poverty-shivas-rules
3. http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/rich-poor-gap-widens-in-india-113081000072_1.html
Video to find out more about the situation of the poor in India:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BbUi3Fgx1s&app=desktop
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BbUi3Fgx1s&app=desktop
"An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics. " - Greek historian Plutarch