CHARLES DICKENS begins his novel, ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ with a series of dichotomies:

’It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It was the age of freedom, it was the age of slavery.

We had everything before us, we had nothing before us.’

This above description seems to be valid for our country where the rich and poor coexist. But disparity of income is eating into the fabric of our society. The sorry state of affairs is such that there are mere islands of affluent people in a huge ocean of poverty.

With the Sensex stepping past the 20,000 mark and a consistent GDP growth of about 9 per cent, Indian economy seems to be going through a boom phase. But has this so-called ‘economic boom’ reached the Common Man? What is the use of growth if it is not inclusive? If it takes a few people forward, whereas the rest are left to fend for them?

India ranks a poor 128 out of 177 countries in the latest rankings releases by the UNDP’s (United Nations Development Programme) HDI (Human Development Index). Many of us use statistics to show the number of Indians who are below the poverty line. But do we even know what the poverty line is? As per the 1999-2000 statistics, in the rural areas a person is considered to be below the poverty line if his monthly per capital expenditure is less than Rs 327.56 and in the urban areas is below Rs 454.11. The above figures are a weighted average of all the state wise poverty figures. Thus in states like Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, the poverty line in rural areas falls way beyond Rs 300. Since most of the country’s population is below the poverty line, it implies that their expenditure is less than Rs10 per day. This situation exists when our county is home to the largest number of billionaires in Asia (Earlier this year, India overtook Japan as the country with the largest number of billionaires).

Behind the record FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) inflow, global Indians making money and the rise in the Sensex, the gory underbelly of poverty in India is truly incredible. Globalisation was supposed to stem this, but that hasn’t happened yet. The standard of living in the cities has gone higher whereas in the rural areas, it’s the same old story of droughts, famines and other such evils. This is leading to an unbearable influx of people into cities in search of livelihood. The rich have grown richer, whereas the poor haven’t moved forward.

It is said that when one person dies, it is a tragedy but when thousands die, it is a mere statistic. Such is the case with the farmer suicides in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. What people don’t realise is that poverty has severe repercussions. Crime, corruption and child labour are just a few of them. The corrupt bureaucracy and the opacity of the system ensure that the common man continues to suffer. Technological advancement are all for the urbanites to see. McDonalds and Baristas are flooding the metros, whereas electricity is yet to reach lakhs of our villages. Roti, Kapda aur Makaan is just a distant dream for many of the poor tribals in our country.

If India is to become a super power in the world, it will have to showcase inclusive growth. The millions of people under the poverty line will have to rise as they have a stake in the future of our country. Poverty is a social evil that will have to be defeated. The people of India, who are below poverty, should not be left to struggle for their bread and butter. The booming Indian economy should include them as well. After all, development is not just moving ahead but also ensuring that no one is left behind.