prasad1
Active member
In a country quite as large as India, it's hard to identify anything that actually counts as being in the "middle." Yet most of us claim we are middle-class, no matter where we fall on the spectrum, whether compared to the rest of India or the globe. As far as the Pew Research Center is concerned, all those stories about India's burgeoning middle-class have little to do with reality: India is, as it has always been, woefully poor.
A Pew Research Center study looking into the break-up of income levels across the world released last week offers a wake-up call for those familiar with headlines in the English press touting the promises of India's massive middle-class. The study, which looked at changes in income levels across the world's population, points out that the first decade of the 2000s saw a dramatic, historic reduction in global poverty. Yet, despite this, the actual number of people who could be considered middle-income remained under 15%.
Up to 95% of India still qualifies as poor or low-income, the vast majority of India's 1.2 billion citizens. For the globe, the equivalent proportion is 71%. As far as middle-income Indians go, only 2% of the country actually falls into this zone, compared to 13% of the globe, which is itself a disappointing number.
"Although the poverty rate in India fell from 35% in 2001 to 20% in 2011, the share of the Indian population that could be considered middle income increased from 1% to just 3%," the report said. "Instead of a burgeoning middle class, India’s ranks of low-income earners swelled. Many of these were people hovering closer to $2 than $10 in daily income, and thus still a way from the transition to middle-income status."
Indians are clearly some way away from achieving higher standards for the vast majority of the population, and have been completely eclipsed by its northern neighbour China, which saw its middle-income proportion go up from 3% in 2001 to 18% in 2011.
What makes it slightly more ironic is the share of Indians who call themselves middle class. Middle income and middle class aren't the same thing, of course, but one would expect a fair amount of overlap between the two categories. Yet research done by Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav based on a multi-year panel survey by the Centre for Advanced Study of India suggests that about half the Indians in practically any bracket – urban, rural, lowest-income, highest-income – all self-identify as middle class.
https://scroll.in/article/740011/ev...re-middle-class-and-almost-no-one-actually-is
I must be visiting a different India every year, or the people I know are filthy rich. I am the poor cousin visiting from The USA. The people I know would not even think twice about spending $10 on an Average vegetarian meal.
LOL
A Pew Research Center study looking into the break-up of income levels across the world released last week offers a wake-up call for those familiar with headlines in the English press touting the promises of India's massive middle-class. The study, which looked at changes in income levels across the world's population, points out that the first decade of the 2000s saw a dramatic, historic reduction in global poverty. Yet, despite this, the actual number of people who could be considered middle-income remained under 15%.
Up to 95% of India still qualifies as poor or low-income, the vast majority of India's 1.2 billion citizens. For the globe, the equivalent proportion is 71%. As far as middle-income Indians go, only 2% of the country actually falls into this zone, compared to 13% of the globe, which is itself a disappointing number.
"Although the poverty rate in India fell from 35% in 2001 to 20% in 2011, the share of the Indian population that could be considered middle income increased from 1% to just 3%," the report said. "Instead of a burgeoning middle class, India’s ranks of low-income earners swelled. Many of these were people hovering closer to $2 than $10 in daily income, and thus still a way from the transition to middle-income status."
Indians are clearly some way away from achieving higher standards for the vast majority of the population, and have been completely eclipsed by its northern neighbour China, which saw its middle-income proportion go up from 3% in 2001 to 18% in 2011.
What makes it slightly more ironic is the share of Indians who call themselves middle class. Middle income and middle class aren't the same thing, of course, but one would expect a fair amount of overlap between the two categories. Yet research done by Devesh Kapur and Milan Vaishnav based on a multi-year panel survey by the Centre for Advanced Study of India suggests that about half the Indians in practically any bracket – urban, rural, lowest-income, highest-income – all self-identify as middle class.
https://scroll.in/article/740011/ev...re-middle-class-and-almost-no-one-actually-is
I must be visiting a different India every year, or the people I know are filthy rich. I am the poor cousin visiting from The USA. The people I know would not even think twice about spending $10 on an Average vegetarian meal.
LOL
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