Tackling inequality the big challenge for new government

Recent Maoist violence highlights the conflicts that centre around the model of India’s economic growth

Experts believe that the Maoist movement has grown in the country because of the incompetence and non-governance of successive governments. Photo: AP

New Delhi: The deaths of nine people from violence related directly to the general election—occurring in and around polling booths—are an early warning to the next government that it must start thinking about how to balance economic growth with social justice and equity, experts said.

These deaths—mostly in areas hit by Maoist violence—highlight the conflicts that the incoming government will have to deal with.

While five paramilitary soldiers and three polling officials carrying voting machines were killed in an attack by Maoists on 24 April in Jharkhand, a poll officer was shot in Kashmir on the same day. These conflicts, which fuel extremist attacks, centre around the model of India’s economic growth.

Whether to grow first, and then worry about distribution of wealth, or to make sure that all sections of society grow together, and how much of one can be compromised for the other, will be some of the tough decisions facing the new government.

With the aspirations of the youth fired up, S.L. Rao, former director general at National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), said the new government will have to factor in these aspirations while thinking about addressing inequality.

“While inequality in the country has increased in the past 10 years, the good news is that the majority of the poor have not become poorer,” Rao said. “The overall poverty ratio has reduced and this means that while a few of the people have become extremely rich, the mass of the population is also doing better than before.”

Planning Commission figures show that the number of Indians who were below the poverty line declined to 22% of the population in 2011-12 from 29.8% in 2009-10 and 37.2% in 2004-05.

However, unemployment rates have not shown a drastic change although the rate at which the economy grew increased from 4% in 2003 to 4.5% in 2013 (with years of much higher growth rate— 9.6% in 2007 and 9.5% in 2006).

JAWED EQBAL

PGDM 2ND

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