India's Promise - The Other India
Monday, May 28, 2007DARREN GERSH: As the India of gleaming office parks takes off, the other India worries it is being left behind. 800 million people here survive on less than $2 a day. They live in places like this Delhi slum, a squatters' camp built on government land. Rama Devi came here 14 years ago. After a two year wait, she now has electricity and a new refrigerator, but she still doesn't feel like she's getting ahead.
RAMA DEVI (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): The agricultural labor from the villages comes here and then, because there are too many, there's not enough work for everybody. Because my son had no work and fell ill, I have sent him back to the village to be with my sister.
GERSH: Employment is growing in IT and software services, but those are skilled jobs out of reach of the vast majority of the 14 million Indians who enter the workforce every year. The poor people we spoke with also complain prices for basic goods are rising. This man says the price of limes has doubled in the last year, but not his income.
TRANSLATOR: Nothing is happening for the poor man. What's happening for the poor man?
GERSH: The growing inequality has helped fuel a violent Maoist insurgency across the heartland of India. It is the most dramatic sign of economic discontent. But there are others. This man says the people he knows aren't being helped by the call center jobs sprouting up around Delhi.
TRANSLATOR: It's only the rich people who are benefiting. Every morning, these people go to work. Some of these are employed, some are not employed. Rich people exact a lot of work from these poor people, but they don't pay them sufficient money.
GERSH: The Indian government is responding. It has ramped up spending on education and infrastructure. The power lines in this Delhi slum are new. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is deputy chairman of the commission that crafts the government's economic plans. He doesn't think the discontent will derail reform.
AHLUWALIA: But it is a tempering factor. Politicians are continually reminded that it is not good enough to talk about growth unless you can say, well, and you know what I mean by growth, because your life is getting better.
GERSH: Life is getting better for many in this Mumbai slum. The government is encouraging developers to buy land to build high rises here. Displaced slum dwellers get new apartments on the lower floors and in return, the developers sell the top floors to Mumbai's growing middle class. Yakob Wadagale lives here with his wife and three children.
YAKOB WADAGALE: Right now, we are staying in this type of slum. There is no privacy and very small areas. The living area is very small.
GERSH: Construction will begin here soon, and Wadagale will trade in the 100-square foot home he owns for twice the space.
WADAGALE: Our life standard will improve. That's why we are really happy.
GERSH: Outside the big cities, the economy hasn't changed much at all. Six out of 10 Indians rely on agriculture for most of their incomes and agriculture is growing just 2 percent a year. This farmer says the price of corn is up, but there is no water for irrigation and no help from the government. But not everyone wants to trade a more traditional life for the chance of making it big in the city.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going there and working there (INAUDIBLE) hours under some other people's control, we don't like that.
GERSH: And many of those who have left the village seeking a better life in the city say they haven't found it.
TRANSLATOR: Yeah, it's still better than life back in the village. A lot of us come here to work as laborers. But after coming here and working, our life hasn't really improved. In terms of being able to feed ourselves and move ahead in life, there's been no improvement in that.
