Growth, poverty and equity

Growth, Poverty and Equity by Professor Ruddar Datt is an attempt to examine whether India is able to attain the long-term objectives of maximum production and full employment, the attainment of equality and social justice for the poor and the downtrodden in our society. While India has become one of the fastest developing economies of the world, its record in reducing poverty and unemployment has not been very encouraging, more especially in the last two decades of reform. The country is faced with a paradox. India's growth rate is likely to be 9-10 percent during the next decade, the country has 34 billionaires and its middle class, roughly 200 million is growing at a rapid rate. On the other hand, there is slowing down of poverty reduction with increase in GDP growth, increasing unemployment despite high GDP growth, decline in wage share and real wages of labour, widening gap between the living conditions of rural India (Bharat) and urban India. In 2004-05, India still had 300 million people below the poverty line. This is accompanied by a massive wave for establishing SEZS (Special Economic Zones) a blatant example of subsidizing business tycoons, and on the other hand, there is prevalence of massive malnutrition among the poor, the growth of slums and serious shortage of housing for the poor and weaker sections.