Behzad Parvez | Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The ever-increasing income inequality, unemployment and poverty prevalent in India has gone to the extent that even Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the patron organisation of the ruling BJP, had to express its grave concern drawing the attention of the government to what it called as “demon-like challenges”.
No less a person than RSS’ Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale has expressed concerns over the fast growing income disparity, unemployment and poverty as “demon-like challenges” and called for an end to them.
At a time when the Modi Government and the BJP are busy projecting their economic policies as a success story, the concern being shown by a top leader of the RSS should come as no surprise. Anybody, having least sense of concern over the state of the nation is always expected to break its silence and spill the beans.
While appreciating that India has made remarkable achievements in many fields in the last 75 years, Hosabale said that the growing poverty, unemployment rate and income inequality in the country remained challenges like “demons” and it is very important to end them.
Hosabale was speaking at a webinar ‘Swavalamban Ka Shankhnaad’, organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a Sangh affiliate, on Sunday under Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan. He said even today 200 million people in the country are below poverty line. The per capita income of 23 crore people of the country is less than Rs 375.
He further said that the unemployment rate in the country is 7.6 per cent and four crore people are unemployed. Describing the unemployment situation in both rural and urban areas of the country as alarming, the senior Sangh leader said that 22 crore people are unemployed in the rural areas while 18 crore people are unemployed in the urban areas.
Referring to India’s rapid economic progress, Hosabale said that India has become one of the six big countries with the largest economies of the world, but the ever-increasing economic inequality in the country remains a big challenge even today.
He said that the top one per cent of India’s population has one fifth of the nation’s income. And at the same time, the country’s 50 per cent population gets only 13 per cent of the total income.
Giving the clear data of discouraging state of affairs of Indian economy and the nation, Hosabale blamed the wrong economic and education policies of the previous governments for the condition of the country, and said that the present Narendra Modi government at the Centre has done a good job to improve the situation, according to reports.
“Ten years ago, 22 per cent of the people were below the poverty line, which is now only 18 per cent. The per capita income of the people has also increased in the last ten years and the new National Education Policy can also help in eradicating poverty in the coming years,” he said.
The RSS leader, however, stressed the need to do a lot, saying that for a self-reliant and self-sustaining India, work will have to be done on many fronts.
Hosabale also urged the society and the industrialists of the country to come forward to help the government to better the situation of he economy. Instead of looking for a job, the younger generation will also have to become a source for creating jobs by adopting the path of self-employment.
To make India a prosperous country, everyone has to work together on many fronts, he said and stressed on the need to inculcate a sense of respect for labour in the society and also change the mindset of the people.
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Photo: RSS Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale
