Dead Body Theatre

[Mike Rosing]

On Tue, 29 Jul 2003, Sarad AV wrote:

> India has 30 million middle class people.An income of
> 1000 US dollar per month is considered as middle
> class.
> Thats one reason of strong foreign market in india.I
> guess 30 million may be bigger than the population of
> some countries.
>
> According to reports the number of dirt poor people
> are
> another 25 million,that is those who are below the
> povertly line,that means less than an income of 10 US
> dollars per month.

Out of a population of 900 million (or so) that's definitly the wings of
the bell curve.  The "poverty line" in the US is twice the middle class
income of India.  That's pretty stunning.

> This is what the report and statistics keep saying but
> any daily wager gets a minimum 3 US dollars per
> day,however poor he may be.
> That accounts to 90 US dollar per month.Thats the
> poorest you can find in india for a *working* person.
>
> So its open to interpret what dirt poor really is.

In the US, anyone below $20,000/yr income is "poor".  According
to that, 90% of India is "dirt poor"!!

> That is still too less,considering the present cost of
> living in india.

Yeah, no shit.

> Open drains,diseases,insanitory conditions are still
> visible in india-though its comming down very slowly.
>
> Go to a govt. hospital,the sanitation and facilities
> are poor,escpecially in villages.
>
> A large portion of the indian community depend on
> farming and its upto the 'rain gods' that they yield a
> good harvest.
>
> To eliminate poverty the govt. employs 5 year plans.
>
> here is a detailed list of the plans
>
> http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/welcome.html
>
> The govt. provides rations to all its citizens-that is
> to buy basic essentials like rice,wheat,kerosene
> etc... at a much lower prices that commercially
> available.

Is this kind of a bribe?  Keep the majority happy on rations
and steal the rest for a few?

> Schooling is pretty affordable to the poor in
> government schools and there are enough govt schools
> and provide free mid day meals for children.How ever
> the state of govt schools are sad.
> This year there were over 500 cases of food posioning
> among children in one of the 27 states of india all
> because of unhygenic food supplied.I am not aware of
> the condition in other states.The govt. schools in
> many areas have thatched roofs and some are even very
> near collapsing.Some schools occupy just 1/10th of an
> acre of land and some even less.
> The quality of education is also pretty poor.Most
> schools only teach in the local lingo and finding
> english speaking people in many  regions are hard.Many
> of the students emerging from govt. schools eventually
> joins the labour class.
> In india the average number of students that pass
> tenth grade is only 50 percent of the students
> appearing 10th grade.

Ouch.  But at least it's an attempt.

> As for politics,2 of the states in india are ruled by
> the communist party of india.The case of labour class
> is slighly better here but now a days corruption is at
> the peak,that the ruling party and opposition party
> joins hands to fill up their pockets.
> More over elections in india are won over simple
> majority and there are over one thousand registered
> parties in india.The oppoition against the ruling part
> is usually high.
>
> Rich people constitute around 3 to 5 percent of the
> population.
> Rich people tend to grow very rich because India is
> one country you can be 70 to 80 percent sure that any
> person you approach will accept a bribe be it sales
> tax,income tax or any kind of tax.
>
> Tax evasion is very common among the rich.If you would
> like to reduce your electricity bill for industries
> just bribe them and they will reverse the electricity
> meter for you.
>
> If a few barrels of illicit liquor gets caught,you can
> bribe them to replace it with water.You can get away
> with a lot of things and make a lot of money-if you
> are rich.
>
> Atleast there is'nt much stigma in viewing the
> poor.they are more or les treated as equal and well
> respected.Others aren't really bothered of poor ppl.

the bribery is similar in the US, but there's definitly
a lack of respect between classes.

> These are just a few basic issues.the conditions in US
> are much better than here.
>
> One part is better in india-privacy rights and liberty
> are much better compared to US and even if you do
> small crimes you can get away with it.
>
> I can spit on the road,i can stand on the road and
> block the traffic till i just get shoved off the road
> side.There is no way I get arrested.I can do a lot of
> things and not get arrested.
>
> If u get arrested-for minor crimes,you can bribe the
> cop and you are freed.I never have a swat team that
> breaks down my doors.The streets are guns and snipers
> free.I have no surveillence cameras watching me.

Part of it is because they don't have the resources, and part of it is
because they don't need to control _people_ when they can just gain wealth
instead.  that may have something to do with mutual respect.  I suspect
there's a few 1000's of years of history that helps make things the way
they are.

Thank you for the description.  I knew India had some problems, but now
I've got an idea of the scope and scale.

Patience, persistence, truth,
Dr. mike