Jeevika trust - village livelihood in India
 
 
 

 

The two Indias

The new middle classes are often insulated from the poverty in which the great majority of Indians still live.  However, research has shown that failing to tackle poverty will leave everyone worse off.

Peter Foster, The Daily Telegraph, May 2006

Many people believe Indians are growing rich under globalisation, but these new opportunities benefit only the very few, who have never had it so good.

More than ever there are the ‘two Indias’, that of the elite and the growing urban middle class, and that of the impoverished and dispossessed.


Elite 6-7%

 

Middle/ Consumer classes

 

Absolute poor living on <$1 per day ... 34.7% Indians are BELOW POVERTY LINE (2003 UNDP Human Development Report)