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`A nation of billionaires with billions of poor'

Staff Reporter

Translation of book `Everybody Loves a Good Drought' released

BHUBANESWAR: The inequality between the rich and poor in India is widening due to neoliberalisation policies that are being followed by successive governments, said noted development journalist P. Sainath here on Tuesday.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the release of the Oriya translation of his famous book, 'Everybody Loves a Good Drought', Mr. Sainath said, "we are now more inequal even than during the colonial era. The inequality has become more critical due to present economic policies and model of development." He said India had become a nation of billionaires with having billions of poor people. "Though the country has ranked sixth in terms of having billionaires' population, the country has lagged behind in human development index. Currently its rank is 126th in providing health, education and sanitations," the Rural Affairs Editor of The Hindu said.

While millions of school children were outside the schools, the country had some of the costliest schools in the globe, Mr. Sainath said.

Criticising the model of development being followed by different governments, he said, "the impact of the process would be terrible for a state like Orissa that has a sizeable tribal population. Still thousands of people are migrating to brick-kilns in Andhra Pradesh every year. The migration has only increased over the years." There would be huge stress on the country if the inequality was allowed to become wider, he warned.

The reputed development journalist said he was working on his next two books on dalits and agrarian crisis in the country.

Mr. Sainath's book, which was based on economics of poverty in some pockets of Orissa, was translated into Oriya by Abhaya Singh. The translated book, `Marudi Padile Sabhinka Mauja', was released by former Lok Sabha Speaker and veteran socialist leader Rabi Ray at the ongoing Bhubaneswar Book Fair here.

Mr. Ray said those who were in power must take note of the book to mend their approach. "Time has come to adopt pragmatic approach rather than being swayed away by the wind liberalization," he said.

Among others noted Oriya novelist Bibhuti Patnaik and educationist Sarbeswar Das spoke on the occasion.

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`A nation of billionaires with billions of poor'

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