Growth has its pains

Success, they say, is at times more challenging to manage than failure. What we need to watch for while pressing for an even higher growth rate, therefore, is the possible negative impact of this growth. It is almost impossible for economic growth to take place in a uniform manner affecting every Indian equally. Even if that was so, the fact the starting point is different for different people would itself breed uneven growth. The challenges of rising inequities and disparities, therefore, must be paid the highest attention especially since they often go unnoticed or get buried under political and bureaucratic rhetoric. But the truth is that we have millions moving into an expanding middle class; and the movement creates its own inequities. Rising prosperity has historically often led to politico-social violence and even revolutions. It is to be expected that employment opportunities would pick up with higher economic growth. The question is whether this would be enough in terms of scale, and would it provide equal opportunities to people across the country?

The larger picture of sub-regional growth rates must also invite attention. We often tend to forget that an overall 7 per cent national economic growth rate may actually imply that the southern states were growing at around 8-9 per cent while the northern states, especially Bihar and UP, at less than four per cent. The implications of such disparate growth rate over the longer term can be well imagined, especially since investment into growth areas may be expected to follow geographically growing areas. Increasing disparities is a recipe for a rising sense of relative deprivation made worse by increasing awareness due to the information revolution. People today are aware of a life that might theoretically be theirs but is still not accessible. At the minimum this leads to corruption. More worrying is the violence, aggravated by parochial politics, that it could unleash.