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                                                           (ESTD 1982) 

                                 dalitindia

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April 23, 2001

 

POVERTY AND MISERY

 

What are the Main Reasons for the growing Poverty and the deteriorating conditions of the People, particularly We SC&ST Dalits in the Country?  Why this increasing absolute Poverty, when the Country both in Govts' and Critics' Views is Progressing fast, and is advancing in almost every other Sector?

 

Not really Population Growth, the Size of the Family, or the Number of the Children in their Families!  Ask the Poor People and see for yourselves!  The conditions of the really Poor Families all over the Country is the same - irrespective of the Population of People or Density of the Population in the Area, or the Size of the Family of the Poor, or the Number of Children they have!  It does not matter whether the Families of the Poor are large or small, big or tiny, with more or few or no Children at all!  It also does not matter whether the Parents and the Children are educated or not, and or are employed or not!  Poverty and Misery of the Poor, the underprivileged and dispossessed, strikes you forcefully as Stark Realities!  This is so everywhere, without any exception whatsoever!  And what is more strange, evil Caste will be there even when you look for the Poor, Poor Families or Poor Habitats!  And really enough - you will find the actual Poor to be only SC&ST Dalits and Nomadic Tribes, including converts of these Communities to Buddhism, Christianity and Islam! 

 

Are there not any Poor amongst the dominant caste hindus or DCHs in short, and the DCH Converts to Buddhism, Christianity and Islam?  Yes, there are any number of Poor and any varieties of Poor, amongst the dominant caste hindus and the DCH Converts to Buddhism, Christianity and Islam.  But they are not living in Misery!  Sufferings, Yes!  After all everyone born suffers from something or the other, at sometime or the other!  Even then, their sufferings are relatively far and few, and are tolerable, unlike the sufferings of the Really Poor Masses wallowing in Misery and Penury!  Relatively, the Poor amongst the dominant caste hindus and the DCH Converts to Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are very rich, and have much better and comfortable lives, when compared to the lives, living conditions and the living environments of the Really Poor in India!  The Really Poor in India, live in fact in virtual Hell on the Earth, in this World itself!  That is why they tend to believe in Hell, and want to avoid it in their Lives after Death, or in any other life anywhere!  This Fear of theirs is what others, particularly the dominant caste hindus, and the DCH Converts to Buddhism, Christianity and Islam exploit or always want to take advantage of! 

 

The Real Causes of Poverty and Suffering of the Poor are - the Greed, Endless Needs, Selfishness, Biases, Prejudices, Discriminations, Deprivals, Injustices, Unfairness, Untruthfulness, Dishonesty, Hatred and the lack of Social Concern of the Elites, Aristocracy and the Authorities controlling the affairs of the Society and State - towards their fellow citizens.  The Elites in India are invariably the dominant caste hindus!  The Problems get compounded further, due to the absence of any Compassion for the Poor helpless and suffering Segments of the Society!  The DCHs' Antagonisms, laced with blatant contempt for the whole of the Working Classes - who produce all the food, create all the assets and provide all the essential and other necessary services for the elites to live in comfort and luxury, with out really working or even struggling to earn what they consume and enjoy, or trying to cook what they actually eat - are Criminal!

 

The DCHs Denigration and Hostility towards the few individuals hailing from the Poorer Sections of the Society, and speaking or working for the cause of the poor is cruel and endless!  To top these all, the main stumbling block and major hurdle in Eradicating Poverty and Ending the Misery of the Poor Masses is the callous attitudes and total dishonesty of those in authority and positions of power, lesser wages and lower payments, lack of jobs and increasing unemployment, and deliberate blocking of even small opportunities!

 

Major Problems in the Country today are caused, contrary to popular belief - by Industrialisation, commercial activities and consumerism!  Due to consumer interests, commercial activities go up!  Because of commercial activities Imports and Industrialisation increase!  Imports means more payments of Foreign Exchange, and hence the need for more exports to earn the Foreign Exchange!  That means more exploitation of the People, to deprive them of food and other essential goods and services, and divert them and the resources towards export!  With Industrialisation, poor loose their jobs!  It looks strange, but is true!  The Lands of the Poor are taken away for the Industries!  Thus the Poor then loose their livelihood!  Soon the Poor loose their homes!  Thus they become landless and homeless!  Water in large quantities are taken, consumed and forcefully diverted to these Industries!  The remaining Water is also polluted by the wastes effluents, and the sewage discharge of these industries!  Land is also polluted!  Air is also polluted!  The Poor are thus left with No Job, No Land, No Home, No Water and No Clean Air!  On the other hand the DCHs, irrespective of the fact that they have Children by the score, eat and grow like fattened pigs, throw money like waste water in any market on any thing at any time they come out!  So the number of children definitely appears to be not a problem in this country, definitely not for the elites!

 

Consumerism promotes an acquisitive Society, wasteful and callously indifferent towards others.  It encourages showmanship, unreasonable competitiveness with neighbors, and mad corrupt individuals full of greed and selfishness for money, riches, property, luxuries and vanity!

 

Commercialism promotes false needs, unwanted demands, unimportant requirements, impermanent assets, hollow needs, fake goods and services, accumulation of unearned profits, concentration of wealth and economic power in few private hands.  These lead to social economic and political control of the Govts and the Society by private individuals, and also Power over the Masses!  In the end, these lead at least in this Country - in this caste based prejudiced biased unfair unjust and unreasonable Indian Society - to impoverishing the Poor further and marginalising them more and more!  When in this Country, we talk of the Poor, individuals actually don't matter!  What is relevant in making an individual or individuals families and whole communities Poor, is the Caste or the Poor Castes - such as the SC&ST Dalit Castes and OBCs! 

 

Industry takes away all the Resources from the Society, grabs the poor man's fertile Land and Homes, either by deceit or force, or through the State Authorities - including Police Court and Judiciary!  Also come against the Poor, are the exercises of Economic Power and Discriminations - giving ultimately the Poor only paltry financial compensations!  The Industries and the Industrial Complexes appropriate increasingly, most of the available local Water Resources, all the Power sources of the Community, and of the Nation's Wealth!  But the Industries produce, increasingly lesser and lesser number of Jobs, while filling the pockets of some and coffers of a few, to enable them lead a wasteful vain flashy semi-permanent meaningless lives!  The irony of Industries in this Country is that, they Employ non-Working Class of People like DCHs, and pay them unreasonably more and more, for lesser and lesser works, while it refuses to employ the Traditional Workers from the actual and real Working Classes of the Society - the Ati-Shudra SC&ST Dalits and Shudra OBCs!  That is the exact reason why the Industries in this Country increasingly fail to deliver goods and services!  Even when the Traditional Workers are employed, they are employed only at the lower levels where the actual work has to be done physically; but contrary to the Industries' Traditions, they are given lower wages, and on the top of it also often pay them far less!  Thus, where Industries exist, there is more unemployment, particularly amongst the SC&ST Dalit Communities!  And landlessness and homelessness is on the increase!  Poverty and Misery both absolute and relative are also on the increase!  In fact, the increasing and ever widening Relative Poverty kills the People, and their inner soul and humanity are destroyed by the unreasonable Miseries!

 

Modern Industries produce more goods at cheaper prices initially, that too with lesser man-power!  Thus they throw out of Jobs large number of people, the traditional workers!  The traditional craftsmen who were till then engaged, in providing those very same goods and services to the Society, in the rural and semi-urban areas, are suddenly thrown out of business!  They can't compete with the modern industries, particularly when it comes to price, numbers, quicker delivery schedules, finish, quality etc!  But, once the traditional workers are out and disperse, winding up their shops and establishment, the Industries show their true bania colour, increasing the prices, lowering qualities, reducing their production deliberately to create scarcity conditions to increase further prices!  Cumulatively they then begin to throttle and squeeze the people, to make more and more profits for the comforts of few private elite individuals!  Thus, these modern industries in India, lead to loss of jobs, growing unemployment, loss of earnings of the poor, lack of purchasing power of the Weaker Sections, and consequent increase in Poverty and Misery all around!

 

 

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