‘Citizen review’ of NDA II regime flags concerns on rising inequality, declining democracy

The income inequality in India is leading to a state of hunger and poor nutritional status with 70% population unable to afford a nutritious and healthy diet, states a report titled, ‘Promises and Reality 2019-2023: Citizen Review of 4+ years of NDA II Government’ that has been released at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi, on Monday (November 27).

Coordinated by the Wada Na Todo Abhiyan (WNTA), a national civil society platform, the report aims to reflect and amplify citizen perspectives on the status of governance while also drawing a special focus on the rights of marginalised communities.

“The structure of this report is rooted in the aspiration to build upon our abiding focus on economic and social rights, while also expanding to review the status of civil rights - such as freedom of expression, freedom of life, and freedom of liberty - in the face of the shrinking civic space and the nature of challenges across sectors and communities,” said WNTA.

No official poverty data

According to the report, India has lacked official poverty data for over a decade, but various studies indicate a significant increase in the number who have come under the bracket since the pandemic, especially among marginalised groups.

“Structural shifts in the labour market have led to income collapse, savings erosion, and mounting household debt - particularly affecting rural poverty and food insecurity. Despite robust GDP growth, India remains highly unequal, with the top 10% holding 57% of national income, out of which the top 1% accounts for 22% of it. Conversely, the bottom 50% share has gone down to 13%. The current growth paradigm is weak on inclusive democratic development, exacerbating inequality and excluding marginalised populations,” reads the report.

“Despite economic progress, India's workforce is moving toward agriculture, with the sector's share in GDP increasing, yet farmers are unable to access fair prices. The closure of 70% of MSMEs, which are key contributors to India's growth, also highlights the need for policy support,” it adds.

Media struggles to stay up

Dwelling on the status of democracy, the report takes a critical review of the parliamentary processes and flags many pressing concerns, such as the hurried passage of Bills without debate, limited engagement of parliamentary committees, reduced sitting days, limited budgetary deliberations, restricted access to data for MPs, and the growing presence of elected representatives with criminal records.

It also underlines how the media, the fourth pillar of democracy, is struggling to stay up, in light of increased capital investment from those with business-oriented interests, rising communalism, diminishing space to critique the establishment, and rising attacks on journalists/media organisations not towing ‘the line’. “The stark decline of people in the media and publishing industry from 10.3 lakhs in 2016 to 2.3 lakhs in 2021, as highlighted in the chapter, clearly evidences the prevailing unhealthy trends,” reads the report.

Social exclusion of Muslims

Focusing on the state of marginalised communities, the report reviewed the period that included the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath — both of which had a well-documented disproportionate impact on them.

“While there were unprecedented school dropouts recorded during the pandemic, the enrollment rates in the age group of 6-14 years in 2022 have returned to pre-pandemic figures. It does, however, put forth the need to invest more in children, with critical examinations of the challenges posed by learning loss, nutrition gaps, widespread violence against children, and continuing cases of child labour and child marriage,” says the report.

A need to evolve the fundamental thought process behind development policies is argued while talking about women in the report, where it’s discussed that while there is a strong increase in the overall focus on “women’s empowerment”, there is an imminent need to define this empowerment in terms of wage parity, autonomy in decision-making, and addressing structural barriers for women across identities. “That is the only way to move towards combating challenges such as the steady incline in crimes against women in the past 4 years, with over 30,000 complaints made in just the last year,” says the report.

Gaps in the implementation of constitutional provisions are also underlined in the review of religious minorities. The report discusses studies concluding that consistent social exclusion of Indian Muslims causes constant economic backwardness - with 31% below the poverty line, and questions the lack of any government policies directed to bring them out of this morass. “Compounding this impact, is the diminished sense of safety and security in the community, as evidenced by 204 incidents of cow vigilantism since 2014 and 539 incidents of violence against Christians in just nine months of 2023,” it adds.

Reviewing farmers and urban marginalities, the report further reflects on how the consolidated effect of marginalisation impacts overarching intersectional communities. "The real wages of male agricultural labourers grew by less than 1% between 2014-15 and 2021-22; the number of persons engaged in the farming sector to have committed suicide was nearly 53,000 between 2017 and 2022."

Status of governance

“Even as India pioneers e-governance initiatives like UPI, it still leads the world in internet shutdowns,” says the report. “Balancing technological progress with preserving democratic principles and individual rights in the evolving data governance landscape is a challenge seeing very slow progress."

Concerns about increased surveillance and hollow protection for data users loomed large in the new Data Protection Bill 2023 and the Digital India Act, while India's Freedom House rating also changed from ‘free’ to ‘partly free’ due to government authoritarian actions in 2021,” it adds.

Despite about 80% of NGOs in India focusing their efforts on promoting quality education, ensuring good health, and working towards eradicating poverty, contributing 2% of India's GDP and offering livelihoods to millions, the government often perceives the development sector as a hindrance to development, reads the report.

“Twelve CAG reports tabled in the parliament in August 2023 revealed corruption and irregularities in the functioning of several Union government ministries and departments. The only effective way to fight corruption in a democracy as vast as India is to empower citizens with appropriate tools and institutions to hold the government and its functionaries accountable. However, unfortunately, the track record of the current dispensation has been marked by a consistent undermining of legislations and institutions of transparency and accountability,” it says.

According to WNTA, these critical insights have come from members of civil society, including organisations, rights-based campaigns and coalitions, academics, and individuals who have decades of experience working on the subject they’ve written about. “We hope to draw the government’s attention to these challenges and hope that the policy-making processes are duly informed of the citizen’s perspectives, and are carried out in the quest for equity with dignity,” it concludes.