While reading Pro-Pakistan I found this post very interesting so i thought to post it on my blog as well. There is no arguing that the Indian economy is growing and the country is doing far better economically than let’s say 20 years ago. Indian movies also reflect this reality and are watched all over Pakistan too. But most of the times, the stories presented by Bollywood are very much of a dream, while hiding away all the problems that Indians have to live with in their daily life. Most of the people who watch Indian movies but have never been to India would naturally get a picture of India which Indians themselves dream of. The world must not become blind to the reality though. The same goes for all those who think I am proud to be an Indian . While India claims to be the biggest democracy (this is based on the high population alone), we must not forget that it is the respect of human rights and democratic values, and not mere population and territory that is the gauge of declaring a country democratic. It is definitely big, and uncomfortably populated (very mildly put) but is it a democracy at all? There are many interesting facts about “The Incredible India” today that are incredibly alarming to say the least. But as there are always two sides to the coin, I hope that Indians while being patriotic, can also appreciate the facts presented here as an opportunity of improvement….

India, allegedly a VERY rich nation, has the world’s largest child population, and one would understandably expect the government to prioritise and reflect this in their general policy making. But the numbers (presented below) show that while being ruled by corrupt, bribing, short sighted, wrongly focused politicians, this sham of a democracy is in fact responsible for some of the most horrific human catastrophes known in the history. I just wish that India was feeding its young, innocent and needy citizens before sending a metal object to the moon, or increasing its defence budget even further. After all, what is the point of spending money on defence of a nation that is being murdered via malnutrition by the its very own government? who to defend the country for if the young are not even fed, let alone taken proper care of. After all, they wont be there to reap the benefits of this army protection, and those who survive this hunger will simply be physically and mentally  unfit for the army in future.

Here are some interesting facts about the “Incredible India” for those who say they are proud to be an Indian. This data is provided by CRY India and is based on its experience of working on a range of children’s issues across all regions of India. The statistics are grim. What is worse is that very little is known of what it means to be a part of such horrific numbers:

India has world’s largest child population (below 18).

Malnutrition is more common in India than in Sub-Saharan Africa. SEE UNICEF REPORT HERE.

More than half of India’s children between the age 6 and 14 do NOT go to school.

1 out of every 10 children is disabled in India.

1 out of every 10 children born in India, die before their fifth birthday.

1 out of every 14 children born in India, die before their FIRST birthday, thats approx 2 million children dying before they are even one year old, every year.

1 out of every 6 girls does not live to see her 15th birthday. 3 out of 4 of India’s children below the age of 3 months are anaemic.

3 out of 5 of India’s children below the age of 2 years are not even immunized.

7 to 8 Lakh (800,000) children die every year from simple illnesses like diarrhoea.

More than one in three women in India and over 60% of children (all ages) in India are anaemic.

Almost one in every five children in India below the age of 14 suffers from diarrhoea.

3 out of 4 married women in India were married under age.

While one in every five adolescent boys is malnourished, one in every two girls in India is undernourished. See discrimination against girls in Indian families HERE

Every second child in the country is malnourished.

Every second child habitant in the country doesn’t even have a primary school available to them.

Every 4 out of 5 children habitant in the country do not have a secondary school available to them.

Every other girl in India fails to enrol in a school; those that do are likely to drop out by the age of 12. See discrimination against girls in Indian families here

Every other child aged 6 to 18 does not go to school.

Every sixth girl child’s death is due to gender discrimination.

1 out of 4 girls is sexually abused BEFORE THE AGE OF 4. See details HERE

Female mortality exceeds male mortality in 224 out of 402 districts in India.

Death rate among girls below the age of 4 years is higher than that of boys. Even if she escapes infanticide or foeticide, a girl child is less likely to receive immunisation, nutrition or medical treatment compared to a male child.

More than half of the Indian girls in the age group of 5 to 9 years are illiterate.

1 in 4 victims of commercial sexual exploitation in India are below 18 years of age.

Poor and bonded families often “SELL” their children to contractors (pimps?) who promise “lucrative jobs†in the cities and the children end up being employed in brothels and other such establishments.

There are approximately 2 million child commercial sex workers between the age of 5 and 15 years and about 3.3 million between 15 and 18 years.

Every 2 out of 5 commercial sex workers in India are minors.

500,000 children are forced into this “trade” every year.

3% of India’s children are mentally/physically challenged. If they survive the abuse from elders, they enter politics and rule the rest of the 97%.

20 out of every 1000 rural children are mentally/physically challenged, compared to 16 out of every 1000 urban children. They mainly join RSS (Sangh Shaka) and then also make their way into politics.

1 out of every 10 women reported some kind of child sexual abuse during childhood, chiefly by known persons such as immediate family members.

100 million child labourers in India work in hazardous or exploitative conditions. They work for 12 – 15 hours a day and earn LESS THAN Rs.3 per day.

I feel ashamed even while writing these lines. A government that will spend more money to buy arms, a country that produces enough food to even export out of the country while her own poor can not afford to buy it. While the greedy, venal and mendacious govt officials fill their pockets, get fat and die of heart attacks, the poor children of this country are simply dying of lack of food.

Apart from the problems that exist in India due to its dishonest, corrupt, money hungry, senseless and ignorant government, the blame also goes to parents who themselves are choosing to kill their daughters even before birth, and treating them worse than their sons if born, and even selling them, pushing their children as young as 10 into prostitution and forcing them to sell their bodies for as low as 50 Rs a go.

I wonder sometimes, what has become of the Indian society today, where is the inner human, why there are Indian children still dying just because of diarrhoea, what happened to the good old humanity every society is supposed to have, what happened to protecting our own children from the evils of this world instead of letting them die out of hunger, how a society can come to this stage when every other child is malnutritioned, at the same time when the government spends more money on trying to develop arms that often fail anyway. what use is a 7% GDP when the poor and their children are cursing the rich politicians and the government, how can any kind of god (that they may believe in) be on their side when they can not even look after their own young and innocent, how possibly can they sell God’s children on God’s earth, where is this Indian society heading to? Would I be correct to say that this nation that holds the biggest number of children in the whole world is not fit to bring up their next generation?

India has the world’s most uneven and inequitable society (mainly Hindus) that’s plagued by discrimination of the caste system and the class system etc. The richer getting filthy rich, while the poor children dying of hunger being fed worse than a rich man’s dog.

I think I would be correct to say that “Indian nation is a prostitute nation, wasting their money and energy on a fruitless arms race with its neighbours, whilst MOST of its children don’t even have enough to eat including those who are forced to sell their bodies, making India THE WORST country in the world for child malnutrition and child prostitution†.

Are you still proud to be an Indian?

I certainly am not, fortunately my human values are more important to me than the 7% GDP and a prosperity that comes at such a heavy price of human lives.