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Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari on Tuesday said widespread poverty and unemployment were realities in India and the fruits of development had reached people unevenly in the country.
"While much has been achieved by us as a people in the decades of independence, the fruits of development have reached the public unevenly. We still have starvation deaths, which exist with high levels of malnutrition and under nutrition. Widespread poverty and unemployment are realities. So is the lack of basic civic amenities such as healthcare, education, water-supply, sanitation, transport and communication. Acute social and gender inequality and related discrimination are pervasive in our society. India ranks 135 out of 187 countries on the UNDP's Human Development Index," Ansari said at the inauguration of the 89th Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie, near here.
Stating that India had the dubious distinction of being home to the largest number of poor in the world with around one-third of the population below poverty line, he said this was compounded by the existence of the social discrimination and inequality based on caste, religion and region.
"This does not mean that successive governments and generations of civil servants in independent India have not tried to address the maladies that afflict our economy and society. Programmes aimed at poverty alleviation, employment generation, literacy, food security, healthcare and shelter have been launched. Subsidies for food, energy and agricultural inputs have been provided at a heavy cost to the exchequer. Nevertheless, the outcomes of these programmes could have been better," Ansari said.
"Besides the magnitude and complexity of our developmental challenges, poor programme implementation or leakages in the public services delivery have been diagnosed as reasons for our under-achievement in the development agenda. The figures of leakage and wastage of resources are astronomical. If these are plugged and resources utilised more efficiently, realisation of our development goals could be hastened substantially," he said.
In this overarching philosophy of governance and public administration, Ansari said the civil service became the principal vehicle for delivery of public goods and services to the people. A politically neutral but committed to public service bureaucracy was thus a sine qua non for the smooth functioning of a democratic government, such as India, the Vice President said.
VICE-PRESIDENT HAMID ANSARI'S TAKE
- We still have starvation deaths, which exist with high levels of malnutrition and under nutrition.
- Ansari was inaugurating the 89th Foundation Course at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie
- One-third of the population is below poverty line
- The problem is compounded by the existence of the social discrimination and inequality based on caste, religion and region
