India's “middle class” lives barely above poverty line and
below international poverty standards, a recent report by Research Unit forPolitical Economy, indicates. A large number of people who are considered as
non-poor, are people living just above the poverty line. To put it simply, the
report underlines that while there is no clear definition of middle class in
relative terms, even by income, India's middle class continues to remain poor.
R Srinivasan, Associate Professor, Department of
Econometrics, Madras University, opined that comparing India's middle-class
with that in western countries was meaningless as India didn't have an income
distribution data. “Only three per cent
of India's population (around 24 million) are Income Tax Assessees. That means
that a whopping 97 per cent of population will have annual income less than two
lakh rupees. Even if you consider the lowest pay of a government servant, which
is around Rs 20,000, you would realise that they fall under the 3 per cent of
the population who are liable to pay income tax,” he explained, indicating that
the income of only the ones who pay taxes is available for perusal by
government organisations to undertake comparisons. “National Sample Survey (in
2004-05) suggested that in one in four people in India are below poverty line.
This means that roughly 25 per cent of India's working populace earns less that
Rs 12,000,” he said, adding that 72 per cent of working Indians were in the
'middle income' group, and no data regarding their actual income was available
with the government.
A global wealth report by Credit Suisse in October this
year, indicated that there were 24 million middle-class adults living in India.
World Socialism Party
(India)
Email:
wspindia@hotmail.com
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