Perpetual poverty of India

(This is in response to a write-up in ET dated 09/10/11).

Not only the planning commission is out of touch with reality but the govt,the industrialists,the middle class, the religious leaders, social reformers and who ever talk of poverty are out of touch with reality.The success of the successive Govts for past six decades after independence is to have successfully manipulated the governance system and exploited the helpnesses of the masses to keep them in perpetual illiteracy and poverty.It is a shame for our politicians,industrialists and bureaucrats to have framed policies in the pretext of removing poverty and made themselves shamelessly rich. Statisticians have aided the policy makers by providing bogus figures on poverty and measurement of poverty standards.It is really surprising to find that this article is from a planning commissiom member which only shows that there are still some left in the Govt with some conscience and concern for the poor.What the economy needs is policy correction and strict implementation of policies with representatives of common people to keep a watch on policies and their implementation.Taxation policy pursued since 1990s widened the inequality of income and the conditions of the lower middle class and poor the worst beyond imagination.It does not require any superintelligence to understand the poverty in India. It is sufficient if our politicians, industrialists and bureaucrats travel in their cars keeping observing on both sides of the road and visit some slums spread all over the country.

T.V.Gopalakrishnan