Development has many dimensions. It has to be inclusive, it must be poverty reducing and it must be environment-friendly, C. Rangarajan, former RBI Governor and former chairman, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, wrote in foreword to India 2030: A Socio-Economic Paradigm, published by SKOCH Media. Since liberalisation India has witnessed satisfactory economic growth. There have been impressive success stories of the sectors like telecom and ICT, where India has become a global leader. India Inc. today not only competes but also dominates in various fields globally. But has the growth been inclusive? The answer is, definitely, ‘not satisfactory’.
Before we discuss about what we have achieved, where we are lacking and what needs to be done, let’s first take a look at what we mean by inclusion. The underlying theme of SKOCH Group’s intervention since 1997 has been on inclusion. We loosely divide inclusion in three categories – Social Inclusion, Financial Inclusion and Digital Inclusion.
By Social Inclusion we mean empowerment of people by making them aware of their rights so that they can themselves work towards alleviation of poverty.
Financial inclusion is the process of ensuring access to financial services or making available timely and adequate credit when needed by vulnerable groups, such as weaker sections and low income groups, at an affordable cost. Moreover, it must also be appropriate, fair and transparent.
Digital inclusion entails empowerment of people through information and communication technology.
The World Bank defines Social Inclusion as: “The process of improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society, and the process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity to take part in society.”
What impacts Inclusion?
Before taking charge as the prime minister of India, Narendra Modi pitched for social inclusion through empowerment. In an interview to Skoch Group in August 2013 Narendra Modi said: “The means that we use to provide support to the poor should be such that they empower the poor, and not such that their poverty is used to maintain political power.”
Modi has now ruled India for almost five years as the Prime Minister. Let’s take a look where we stand today on key parameters of social inclusion.
Income inequality in India is among the highest in the world. It is not only high when compared to the countries with similar per capita income, but also increasing. In the last three decades the country has witnessed high economic expansion. However, the benefits of the high growth have been appropriated mostly by the rich. For the first time in 2005 income of top 1 per cent of India’s population became higher than the entire bottom half of the population.
| Share of Total income (%) | 1951 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2004 | 2010 | 2014 | 2015 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom 50% | 20.5 | 21.3 | 22 | 23.3 | 22.4 | 20.6 | 18.8 | 16 | 14.7 | 14.7 |
| Top 1% | 11.5 | 13.2 | 13 | 7.3 | 10.5 | 15.1 | 18.4 | 21.2 | 21.3 | 21.3 |
While the rich 1 per cent’s share in the national income has been increasing, the bottom 50 per cent has witnessed a gradual contraction in their share to the national income. In 1951, the top 1 per cent of the population controlled 11.5 per cent of the national income. This increased to 21.3 per cent in 2015. On the other hand, the bottom 50 per cent accounted for 20.5 per cent of the national income in 1951, and its share dropped to 14.7 per cent in 2015, according to the World Inequality Database.
In 2004, the bottom 50 per cent accounted for 18.8 per cent of the national income, which was slightly higher than 18.4 per cent controlled by the top 1 per cent of the population. However, since then the top 1 per cent share is getting bigger and bigger, while the bottom 50 per cent is witnessing contraction in their pie.
Clearly the rich is getting richer at the cost of poor. 73 per cent of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the richest 1 per cent. Billionaires’ wealth jumped by 31 per cent during the year, while wealth of bottom 50 per cent population increased by a paltry 1 per cent.
Billionaires’ wealth increased by Rs 4,891 billion to Rs 20,676 billion in 2017 from Rs 15,778 billion in the previous year, as per the Oxfam India data. Wealth of elite 1 per cent increased by Rs 20,913 billion. This amount is equivalent to total budget of Central Government in 2017-18.
In 2000 the total number of billionaires in India was 9. It jumped to 101 in 2017. Out of this 17 new billionaires were created in 2017. Even among the rich, there is huge gender disparity. Out of 101 billionaires, only 4 are women – 3 of them have inherited family wealth.
The fight to defeat poverty is lingering. Poverty eradication has been a political rhetoric since independence. In the run up to the 1971 general election the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave the slogan “Garibi Hatao”. It was the underlying theme of her campaign in 1971 as also in the subsequent elections. Political groups, across the ideologies and party line, be it Congress, BJP or other parties, have promised to eradicate poverty election-after-election. The slogan and pre-poll promises often resulted in huge gains for the political parties and leaders. But it is a pity that even 70 years after the independence political rhetoric revolves around poverty eradication even as tens of millions of people live in the condition of abject poverty.
The latest official data on poverty is for the year 2011-12, which shows that 269.3 million or 21.9 per cent of India’s population lived below poverty line. There has been gradual decline in poverty. It fell from 45.3 per cent in 1994 to 37.2 in 2004-05 and further to 21.9 per cent in 2012. According to the World Bank, 16 per cent people in India were below poverty line in 2017.
The incidence of multidimensional poverty dropped to 27.5 per cent in 2015-16 from 54.7 per cent in 2005-06, as per the 2018 global Multidimensional Poverty Index of UNDP.
According to the UNDP data, 364 million Indians still experience acute deprivations in health, nutrition, schooling and sanitation. One in four multi-dimensionally poor people in India are under 10 years of age. Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) looks beyond income to understand how people experience poverty in multiple and simultaneous ways. It identifies how people are being left behind across three key dimensions: health, education and living standards, and 10 indicators – nutrition, child mortality, years of schooling, school attendance, sanitation, cooking fuel, drinking water, electricity, housing and assets.
According to World Poverty Clock launched to monitor progress on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), 3.6 per cent of India’s 137.22 crore population live in the condition of extreme poverty. In absolute term the number stood at 4.9 crore as on 4th February 2019. Extreme poverty is defined as people living on or below $1.9 a day.
While, our fight against poverty lingers, the good news is that India is no longer the home to the largest number of poor in the world. As per the World Poverty Clock, India now has the third largest number of people in extreme poverty after Nigeria and Congo.
Although, there is no official figure to show how many people have been lifted out of poverty in the past five years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claims that poverty has been reduced significantly through the government schemes introduced during his tenure.
“It is good to see more people being removed from the shackles of poverty,” Modi said in February without giving any number. He claimed that over 12 crore farmers and their families and over 3 crore salaried professionals and their families would gain from the initiatives taken in the interim budget for 2019-20. In the budget the government announced a scheme to provide cash support to farmers.
Congress party in its manifesto has promised that it would give the poorest 20 per cent families of India a minimum income of Rs 72,000 annually. This 20 per cent people are living in abject poverty and the free cash transfer scheme is aimed to eradicate poverty from them. The promised scheme is named Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY).
Releasing the manifesto, Congress party President Rahul Gandhi said his party has declared a war on poverty. “Our first promise is to transfer money — Rs 72,000 per year — into the accounts of five crore poorest households for a period of five years,” he said.
If implemented properly the cash transfer scheme could play a crucial role in eliminating poverty. However, there is a big question mark on the resources. Where the money come from? Moreover, providing jobs and access to basic infrastructure would be more sustainable solutions than free cash.
“Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her”
– Mahatma Gandhi.
Factors that affect Gender Inequality
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is focused on improving sex ratio and enabling girls’ education. There is good improvement in access to education. Girl’s enrolment in secondary education increased to 80.97 per cent in 2015-16 against 76 per cent in 2013-14, as per Unified District Information System for Education 2015-16.
There has been steep decline in the Child Sex Ratio. In 1961 it stood at 976. It fell to 927 in 2001 and declined further to 914 in 2011, the lowest ever since Independence. Health Management Information System (HMIS) data indicate that there has been an improving trend in Sex Ratio at Birth since the inception of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme in 2015.
Sukanya Samridhi Yojana is aimed to provide financial security to girl child. Under the scheme, a parent or legal guardian can open an account in the name of the girl child until she attains the age of 10 years. The minimum deposit that needs to be made every year is Rs 1,000, and the maximum amount that can be deposited in a year is Rs 150,000.
Modi government has put in place a new legislation that entitles a woman to a minimum 26 weeks of paid maternity leave. Under Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana, launched in December 2016, a cash incentive amounting to R5,000 paid to pregnant women and lactating mothers. Increased maternity leave should have led to higher participation of women in the workforce. However, it has flip side. The new legislation is discouraging companies from hiring women.
Because of the new law 1.1 to 1.8 million women lost jobs during the year 2017-18, over and above the usual job loss due to attrition related to maternity, according to a study by TeamLease. Gender stereotyping leads to denial of opportunities and marginalisation of women. It is manifest in pay gaps, work segregation, denial of promotions to leadership position, the glass ceiling and lower levels of equal work opportunities.
Women labour force participation in India is among the lowest in the world. Out of 131 countries India is ranked 11th from the bottom. Female labour force participation stands at 27 per cent. This has declined significantly over the last two decades. In 2004, it stood at 35 per cent.
There is more than 50 percentage point gender gap in labour force participation in India. India had the largest gender gap in median earnings of full time employees in 2015. Women constitute a very high proportion among the low skilled informal worker category. They are mostly engaged in low-productivity and low paying work.
Child Marriage is a bane in India and is at the root of several problems. It has a negative impact on physical growth, health, mental and emotional development, and education opportunities.
Boys and girls both are affected by early marriage. But girls are affected in much larger numbers and with greater intensity. Early marriage is often followed by teenage pregnancy, which virtually eliminates any chance the girl would have to study and become self-sufficient.
Child marriage is a violation of child rights and punishable under the law. As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-4 (2015-16) data, 26.8 per cent of the women in the age group of 20-24 years got married before 18 years. The good news is that it is showing decreasing trend. In (NFHS)-3 (2005-06), the proportion of child marriage among girls stood at 47.4 per cent, as per the government data released by PIB.
India’s education system has lacked large-scale reforms, despite tall promises by successive governments. One of the major promises made by the NDA government has been to transform the education system with a new education policy. Two panels have been formed in the last four years but the policy has not taken the shape yet.
Progress in education sector during the Modi government can be put in two parts. The first is the period during which Smriti Irani was the minister for Human Resource Development, and the second when Prakash Javadekar helmed the ministry.
After the stunning victory in 2014, Modi made a big bet on Smriti Irani by including her in his cabinet and assigning the important Human Resource Development portfolio. Irani helmed the HRD portfolio for first two years of Modi government and was shifted to textile ministry in July 2016. Irani’s tenure as HRD minister was full of controversies.
She had courted one controversy after another. It all started with her own degree row. Then, there were huge controversies around Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s suicide in Hyderabad, confrontation at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in the national capital and unceremonious removal of senior ministry officials and vice chancellors of several central universities. Amid these controversies governance and reforms suffered.
To bring the focus back on governance and reforms Modi shifted Smriti Irani to the ministry of textiles and gave the responsibility of HRD to Prakash Javadekar in July 2016. Javadekar has worked hard to bring the focus back on governance and reforms. He has succeeded in keeping the controversies at bay.
Although, there is no big-bang reform as the new education policy has not seen the light of the day yet a number of important initiatives have been taken by Javadekar mostly through executive route. Manmohan Singh-led United Progressive Alliance government had failed to bring in key reforms in education sector as it had focused on legislative route. Manmohan Singh government was not able to get parliamentary support for more than a dozen significant bills related to education sector. As a result those draft legislation remained draft and never took form of a policy.
The initiatives like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) Act, 2009 and Mid-Day Meal programme have helped India achieve universal enrolment at primary school level. This is in line with the developed countries. However, after elementary level majority of the students drop out and only 23 per cent get enrolled in higher education. Even those who graduate more than half of them are not employable in any sector.
Two large-scale learning assessments are conducted in India. One is government-funded National Achievement Survey conducted every three years and the second is Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) done by a non-government organisation Pratham. The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has been periodically conducting the National Assessment Survey since 2001 for Class III, V and VIII, while ASER has been brought out annually since 2005.
In order to monitor the learning outcomes in the government and government-aided schools, the government has started National Achievement Survey (NAS). This representative sampling survey, touted as amongst the world’s largest such exercise, is conducted for Classes 3, 5 and 8 in government and government aided schools. In the latest report released in 2017, the survey tools used multiple test booklets with 45 questions in Classes III and V related to language, mathematics and 60 questions in Class VIII in Mathematics, Language, Sciences and Social Sciences. The competency based test questions developed reflected the Learning Outcomes developed by the NCERT which were recently incorporated in the Right to Education Act (RTE) by the Government of India. Along with the test items, questionnaires pertaining to students, teachers and schools were also used.
The findings of the survey clearly indicate that the quality of education imparted in the government schools are far from satisfactory. On average, a class VIII student could barely answer 40 per cent of the questions in maths, science and social studies. In class III, students averaged between 63 per cent and 67 per cent in environmental science, language and maths. For class V, it was in the range of 53-58 per cent.
Survey reports by a Non-Government Organisation Pratham presents alarming picture of the quality of education in Indian schools. According to the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2018, 56 per cent of class VIII students cannot divide a 3-digit number with a single-digit; 72 per cent students in Class V can’t do division at all and 70 per cent of Class III student are not able to do any subtraction. 72.8 per cent students of Class III can’t read Class II level text.
One of the main reasons for the poor quality of education system in the country is the pathetic condition of infrastructure. The government investment on education in India is amongst the lowest in the world. Public spending on education, centre and states put together, stands at less than 3 per cent of GDP. In fact, in the last five years it has declined. The public spending on education must be increased to at least 6 per cent of GDP to improve and create modern education infrastructure.
Most of the government’s initiatives have been focused on increasing enrolments. The need of the hour is to focus on the quality of education. Educational institutions can be evaluated on the outcomes such as college readiness of students and employability. The education system needs to be transformed from the current mostly rote learning method to conceptual methods that should keep both students and teachers engaged.
India has achieved significant economic growth over the past decades, but the progress in health has not been commensurate. In the 2014 election manifesto, BJP promised that it would strive to provide “Health Assurance to all Indians and to reduce the out of pocket spending on health care”.
In September 2018 the government launched Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana. It seeks to provide a health insurance cover of up to R5 lakh per family per year, for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. The scheme will help reduce catastrophic expenditure for hospitalisations, which impoverishes people and will help mitigate the financial risk arising out of health related issues.
Nearly 10.74 crore poor families, or 50 crore people are eligible for the benefits of the scheme.
In the first 100 days of the launch of the scheme 6.85 lakh people got benefited, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. “In the first 100 days, 6.85 lakh patients have been provided hospital treatment. 5.1 lakh claims have availed of the scheme, for which payment has been released. This averages 5,000 claims per day for the first 100 days. No patient has had to pay a single rupee,” Jaitley said in tweet highlighting the achievements of the scheme.
According to the 71st Round of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) findings, 85.9 per cent of rural households and 82 per cent of urban households have no access to healthcare insurance/assurance. More than 17 per cent of Indian population spend at least 10 per cent of household budgets for health services. Catastrophic healthcare related expenditure pushes families into debt with more than 24 per cent households in rural India and 18 per cent population in urban area have met their healthcare expenses through some sort of borrowings.
India fared poorly on sanitation parameters. India has the highest number of people without access to toilets. There is huge problem of quality of potable water and overall cleanliness is poor.
Three initiatives focused on sanitation launched in the last two decades.
Swachh Bharat Mission, launched on 2nd October 2014, has brought the issue of sanitation to the centre stage of public discourse. The initiative has given a fillip to the sanitation drive in the country. Commendable achievements have been registered especially in the area of toilet construction.
Average number of rural toilets constructed during 2004-14 was 89 lakh per annum which jumped to more than double the number (190 lakh) during the last five years. Since October 2014, about 9.22 crore rural toilets have been constructed.
The government portal of Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin (SBM-G) declares that 98.9 per cent rural households have been provided toilets as on 14th February 2019. Government is confident that the mission of declaring the entire country open defecation free (ODF) would be achieved much before the target date of 2nd October 2019. Not only 24 states including Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan are already totally ODF, but even in laggards like UP and Madhya Pradesh more than 99 per cent households own functional toilets now. As regards usage, the government sponsored National Annual Rural Sanitation Survey (NARSS) conducted between mid-November 2017 and March 2018 revealed that 93 per cent people owning toilets actually used them regularly.
How credible are these claims? Well, if the past record is any indication, there has always been a large gap between the reported and the evaluated data in rural sanitation, both in terms of the number of existing toilets and its usage. Though the gap has considerably narrowed down in the last four years – thanks to a very aggressive Prime Minister led campaign to promote usage – there are other serious problems as regards disposal of faecal matter, quality and maintenance of toilets, and inappropriate technology that throw a serious doubt about the sustainability of efforts made so far. Would we continue to remain ODF in future is the moot question!
The ground realities of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan present different picture from the government’s claim. A large number of toilets exist just on paper or are dysfunctional and never used. Districts have been vying to declare themselves ODF mostly on the basis of toilets being built. But the focus has to be on the usage.
By 2027, India is projected to be the biggest labour force. Ensuring jobs to the growing and aspiring population is unarguably one of the biggest challenges for the policymakers. In the run-up to the 2014 election, Narendra Modi had promised to create 1 crore jobs per year. Most of the official and non-official data as well as the ground level work of SKOCH Group indicate that not enough jobs have been created to ensure gainful employment to the country’s expanding workforce.
There have also been huge controversies around the release of employment related data. The main official source of job data in India has been the Employment and Unemployment Survey of households conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) every five years. The last time this survey report was officially released was for the period 2011-12. The latest round of employment surveys should have occurred in 2016-17, as per the five year schedule. This report has not been officially released yet. However, the findings of the report have been widely reported in media.
| Year | Unemployment rate (%) |
|---|---|
| 1972-73 | 5.18 |
| 1977-78 | 2.5 |
| 2011-12 | 2.2 |
| 2017-18 | 6.1 |
Labour Bureau, under the Ministry of Labour & Employment, started doing annual survey on job situation in 2010. The first report was for the year 2010-11. Four annual reports were released during UPA Government. There was no report during 2014-15. The report on fifth Annual Employment-Unemployment Survey covered for the year 2015-16. There is no report since then.
| Year | Unemployment rate (%) |
|---|---|
| 2011-12 | 3.8 |
| 2012-13 | 4.0 |
| 2013-14 | 4.9 |
| 2015-16 | 5 |
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Inclusion is the first magazine dedicated to exploring issues at the intersection of development agendas and digital, financial and social inclusion. The magazine makes complex policy analyses accessible for a diverse audience of policymakers, administrators, civil society and academicians. Grassroots-focused, outcome-oriented analysis is the cornerstone of the work done at Inclusion.
