EOP{700 Million earning $2 a day, Millionaires increasing @ 20%, this is India }

The Times of India has published a story about growing numbers of desi millionaires, which is based on the Annual World Wealth Report. People may say this as an interesting and inspiring story.








My heart bleeds when I go through the detail of the report.



Why?

Firstly, look at the Survey of World Wealth report:





# Millionaires are increasing at 20% in India, second only to china.



# India had 83,000 millionaires in 2005 that was 70,000 in 2004.



# One in every 13,000 in India is a millionaires compared to one in every 100 in the US.



One can jump with joy by going through the details of increasing millionaires. Why not? They can do it because they see one side of the story.



This is one side, sorry, not exactly, but a tiny part of the story. Let me tell you about the other part.



There are 700 million people in India earning less than a couple of dollars a day and mired in poverty.








Do you know the numbers of the people living under poverty line in India? Just have a look here.



# India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country.



# 700 million people living on the earnings of less than $2 per day. This number is more than the combined population of dozen of European countries.



# In its almost 1 billion citizens, an estimated 350-400 million are living below the poverty line. They hardly earn $1 dollar a day. About 75 per cent of them live in the rural areas.



# After almost completing sixty-years of independence, more than 40 per cent of the population is still illiterate. Do not forget, in India if one can write or speak his name, he is termed as literate.



What a huge gap between have’s and have not’s.



Should we have the time to count the numbers of millioners in our country?



It is a 700 million poor versus 83,000 millionaires’ story.
 SOURCE:
http://www.indiadaily.org/entry/700-million-earning-2-a-day-millionaires-increasing-20-this-is-india/