The Development Divide

The recent announcement of the cheapest mobile phone handsets by Reliance set me thinking. This is development. Telecom has been one of the hallmarks of our development. The growth and reach have been so dramatic that today mobile phones have tremendous outreach, to all sections of the society. Be it a business tycoon, a housewife, a school teacher, college going students, a housemaid, rickshaw puller......it has made communication within reach to all and sundry. Not to mention the dropping call rates that have made distances shorter.

The same trend can be seen across many sectors. Things once viewed as luxury items are all within the common man’s reach. Be it television sets, refrigerators, computers, branded clothing, air travel (another major revolution) and the like. The sharp reduction in the prices of all these items within a short span of time has brought all these within reach of the common man. Now, my contention here with all this is, who do we consider to be the common man.

While it is true that the prices of the above items have been coming down, at the same time it is also true that inflation rates have been going up drastically, and prices of essential commodities have been going up. Cost of food grains and vegetables have gone up. Real estate prices are at an all time high. Costs of day to day household goods are increasing. Subsidies are coming down. This now means that sustaining the household at the basic level is becoming more expensive. After this basic level of sustenance is achieved, it becomes much easier for the household to then acquire the items that were once supposed to be more prohibitively priced like telephones, televisions, air travel etc. The different trends across these two segments of products point towards a dangerous trend. While it is becoming more and more difficult for the poor to sustain even the basic needs of the household, the standard of living of the lower middle class to the higher classes keep on increasing, and yet we talk about bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots.

What efforts are we taking to correct the above anomaly? Practically nothing, in fact, in our scramble for development, we are fuelling this divide even more. While it is true that mobile telephony, real estate and aviation are revolutions of our time, and the cost of automobiles, air conditioners internet usage etc. have brought them within reach of a large mass, and that is a healthy trend, it is also true that there is some correlation between the trends of the two segments.

With the retail boom, industrialization, urbanization, the property prices have soared, which has made it difficult for a common man to acquire shelter for himself. Also, with acquisition of more and more land (including agricultural land) for industrialization, the costs of agricultural produce have gone up. Rapid urbanization has led to migration from traditionally agricultural belts. This again leads to rise in prices of agricultural produce. It does not help that with increasing population, the sizes of land holdings are coming down, making agriculture unviable. Government support for SEZs, in agricultural areas, not only leaves the farmers to fend with more problems with livelihoods, it also gives industries more incentives, hence bringing down their prices but leaves lesser land for agriculture and increasing the costs for farm produce. Also, with subsidies coming down in agriculture, there are lesser incentives and increasing costs in agriculture.

While it is true that support to industry is imperative for growth and development, it should not come at the cost of agriculture and the primary sector. We need development, and costs of mobile phones to come down, but the development has to be balanced and not increase the divide between the haves and have-nots. Only if there is a balance can we say that we are truly developing and only that will lead to a healthy society and sustainable development.