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India saw one of the sharpest rises in suffering around the world in 2012, with one in every fourth Indian suffering as a result of deteriorating economic conditions, a recent survey by US-based Gallup showed on Wednesday.
The number of people in the category suffering more than doubled in 2010-12 from that in 2008-10. The survey showed average suffering rose from 10 per cent in 2006-08 to 23 per cent in 2010-12. “The massive increase in suffering among South Asians is largely attributable to negative developments in India, the region’s giant,” Gallup said in a report.
The survey classified respondents into three categories — thriving, struggling and suffering. The respondents were asked to rate their current and future lives on a ladder scale numbered from zero to 10. Those who rated their current lives a four or lower and their lives in five years a four or lower were considered to be suffering.
“The significant deterioration in Indians’ well-being is likely to be rooted in the country’s disappointing economic performance,” said the firm.
The report highlighted the need for policymakers to adopt ways to improve how their people perceive their own lives and their future. “The Indian government's failure to cut graft and red tape, and to liberalise markets for labour, energy, and land, explains why the World Bank continues to rank the country as a bad place to do business,” noted the firm.
In 2011-12, India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth stood at 6.2 per cent which further fell down to a decadal low of five per cent in 2012-13.
In the first quarter of the current financial year, the economic growth stood at a four-year low of 4.4 per cent and the GDP is expected to grow less than five per cent in the second quarter too.
The report highlighted the need for policymakers to adopt ways to improve how their people perceive their own lives and their future.
“The Indian government's failure to cut graft and red tape, as well as to liberalise its markets for labour, energy, and land, explains why the World Bank continues to rank the country as a bad place to do business,” noted the firm. It said that India is ‘trying a different strategy’ to improve the conditions of the people and mentioned about the recently passed Right to Food Act.
Gallup said that suffering, on average, has increased worldwide in the past several years, and nowhere more than in South Asia. One in seven adults worldwide rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering in 2012. South Asia led the world in suffering at 24 per cent, followed by 21 per cent in the Balkans and the Middle East and North Africa.
India's northern neighbour Nepal has fared no better. Average suffering there increased by 17 percentage points between 2006-2008 and 2010-2012. Yet, because of its relatively small population, the increase in suffering had a negligible effect on the regional average. Since Nepal abolished the monarchy five years ago, the country has been mired in a political crisis that has paralysed the economy.
The results of the survey are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews with 2,30,083 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2012 in 143 countries.
