Rising Inequalities and Inter-State Disparities in India

Rising Inequalities and Inter-State Disparities in India *Dr. Ramesh. K ___________________________________________________________________________ Proponents of market led economic order argue that economic reforms initiated by India since 1991, have made lumbering elephant to become a raging tiger. Its Impressive economic growth performance, especially in 2000s, (before the global financial crisis slowed it down) is cited as the solid proof of the efficiency of market oriented economic reform and openness of the economy, as compared to the previous Nehru Mahalanobis Model which ensured only a slow growth, sometimes called as Hindu growth rate. But the important question to be raised is: Has this higher growth led to any kind of tangible development to those for whom it matters most. It is time to examine whether Nehruvian model, which ruled for nearly more than two decades until early ‘80s, was really dismal and growth performance as bleak, as it is projected to be? Economic growth is only a process, an intermediate target of public policy-an inevitable means to achieve certain predetermined ends. Unless it leads to substantial economic and social development, growth does not make any sense. i.e. besides enhancing living standard and welfare for the entire population, the growth process must help solve inter-regional disparities. A great deal of interstate variation in growth performance and widening of disparities in per capita income of many states and rising inequalities in respect of so many variables/ indicators, have been observed by many reputed authors. They bear testimony to the fact that neo liberal economic order, has been hostile towards poor illiterate, and disadvantaged. It is also felt that rising inequalities along with the so called double digit growth (until recently) rivaling that of China, needs to be investigated. Rising inequality has emerged as one of the important problems, not just in India, but all over the world. Indeed, in the recent times, Professor Paul Krugman and Joseph E. Stiglitz have voiced their concern over rising global inequalities, especially in the U.S. and also the affluent west. Nearer home, in the Asian region, South Asia has suffered from rising poverty and growing inequalities. While China has been attempting to tackle it, with authoritarian regime, India, the largest democratic country is struggling to come to grips with all kinds of economic and social inequalities, despite its high growth profile in the last decade. Besides economic and social inequalities, cutting across gender, region and religion there are serious inequalities in income, (consumption especially food), health, education and all dimensions of human development. ______________________________________________________________________________ *UGC Post- Doctoral Fellow, Dept of Politics and International Studies, Pondicherry University, Puducherry-605014