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Globalization Postcard

India's Poor Left Behind in Push for Growth

By Padma Rao in New Delhi

In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, award-winning Indian civil rights activist Aruna Roy warns that hundreds of millions of people are being left languishing in poverty as the country deregulates its markets to boost economic growth. The middle classes must stop ignoring their fate, says Roy, whose campaigning has culminated in legislation to curb corruption and help the poor by giving them better access to public records.

SPIEGEL: "Incredible India" is the sales pitch New Delhi uses to lure visitors to the country. The country's stock markets are soaring and its economy is growing annually at 8.5 percent. Nevertheless, 26 percent of its citizens live below the poverty line, there is no public health care system in place, no quality education for poor children and millions of minors are forced to go to work. What’s going wrong?

Roy: (Economic) liberalization is all about profits, but looking after the poor is not profit-making. No government can abrogate its responsibility for children’s health, education and life and to ensure children are not forced to work. But these are all areas where there is little profit to be made. Liberalization in India has had a negative impact and not a positive one.

SPIEGEL: But many surveys have proved that globalization has indeed helped poor Indians move out of poverty and into the middle class. So are all those people destined to lose the values you say they possessed when they were poor?

Roy: The middle class doesn’t necessarily have to be insensitive. If you look at the history of the world, the middle class has done a lot for charity in various countries. So why is ours becoming so acquisitive? India’s middle class is allergic to public protests for the rights of the poor, because they only want to see and experience things around them that make them happy. Sadly, even their definition of happiness is skewed. It is typically Indian to clean your own house, throw the garbage out the door to dirty the streets, and then grumble about them. The middle class must understand that for its own sake, it’ll have to take an interest in public affairs. That a child sleeping on the sidewalk or dying on it is worth much more than the filth on the street. To feel ashamed about such a situation is the only way to alleviate it.

SPIEGEL: But you can’t just blame liberalization for all the evils of India’s cities. What about evils inherent to Indian society that persist despite the economic boom? Like aborting female fetuses, like demanding hefty dowries from brides across India, both among the urban rich and the rural poor?

Roy: If there is proper education -- and I am not talking about hastily gathered statistics on literacy -- things will change. Many middle class families today prefer to restrict the size of their families to two children, even if they are both girls. There is a growing realization that girls can now access everything boys can and that confidence is changing traditional society. Indeed, without that kind of social change -- no matter how slow -- there can be no political change. You really need a progressive middle class so that it can make informed political choices.

SPIEGEL: You were a top bureaucrat who gave up your job to fight for the rights of poor Indians and have lived and worked in India’s villages since then. You were awarded the prestigious Magsaysay Prize for successfully fighting for Indians to be granted the right to access information on all issues from the government. You’re angry at the way things are, but are you also optimistic that social change -- no matter how slow -- will come?

Roy: India has some fantastic democratic spaces and is still a better democracy than many western ones. In this country there is no mono culture, there is no one television -- it is diversified and far more pluralistic than Western democracies. Drawn by our two campaigns for the Right to Information and the Right to Economic Guarantee, millions of rural Indians came together and had a huge, important impact on our policy-makers by demanding accountability. This would not have been possible without our democratic tradition. But all Indians -- especially the affluent middle-class -- must take time out to work at improving our democracy.

SPIEGEL: Are there any societies in the world you admire and want India to emulate?

Roy: The one great concept given to us by the West is that of a welfare state. Look at Scandinavia. It is a rich region but looks after all its citizens. Even with all its shortcomings, the British health care system is admirable. There is much to learn from them.