1. Does not speak English
2. Does not have a phone
3. Is not an IT engineer
4. Has never travelled outside his/her village
5. Does not have a facebook account
6. Can not read this
7. Is not you and me.
So, the next time we shimmy towards generalizations let us stop and think for a second.
This is not an attempt to extol our relative achievements or the privilege that might have ostensibly been bestowed upon us. It is but a mere reflection of our ignorance, and the great responsibility that rests in our hand to acknowledge it and do something about it.
According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 42% of India falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day (PPP, in nominal terms 21.6 a day in urban areas and 14.3 in rural areas).
2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 77% of Indians lived on less than 20 rupees (approximately US$0.50 nominal; US$2 PPP) per day.
As per the 2001 census, 35.5% of Indian households availed of banking services, 35.1% owned a radio or transistor, 31.6% a television, 9.1% a phone, 43.7% a bicycle, 11.7% a scooter, motorcycle or a moped, and 2.5% a car, jeep or van; 34.5% of the households had none of these assets.
(Source: Wikipedia. i.e- not that far away from our reach)
I agree with you! Though the irony is, India is still considered the biggest mobile phone market, internet market, retail market..etc etc...imagine, if only we (and by "we" i mean our government...democracy in its true sense:)) are able to provide better opportunities and standard of living to the ones below the poverty look, look at the growth potential we are looking at!! Of course, i dont mean so say that improve the standard of living so that the country can grow (economically)..improve it coz it HAS to be improved!
ReplyDeleteAgree with most of your points. And we usually tend to forget this as we project ourselves onto everyone around.
ReplyDeleteHowever the scenario has changed a lot and I wonder how updated the wikipedia stats are. I did a quick search and current number of mobile users in India stands at 700 million and projected to be 1 billion by 2014
So I would say an average Indian definately has a phone.