This report of ‘Washington Post’ dated 2 March 2025 on India is an eye-opener!

The shine of economic growth in India has remained limited to papers only. The ground reality is that during the tenure of the Modi government, families in rural India are going through economic crisis, the separation in the lives of men and women is increasing and the future looks bleak.

According to a report published in the Washington Post on 02 March 2025, “men are migrating away from their homes to cities for meager wages, while their wives are forced to work in the fields in the villages.” This situation is tearing apart the rural society.

The economic policies of the Modi government are only engaged in serving corporate interests. Those who talk of ‘New India’ probably do not want to see that in this ‘new India’ the people of rural India are sinking into the quagmire of poverty. The Washington Post gave the example of Geetanjali Devi of Bihar, who, despite having graduated in history, is forced to do farming because her husband is “engaged in construction work in South India, 1,000 miles away.” Is this the real picture of the Amritkaal of the Modi government?

Amid the hollow claims of growth, the Washington Post reported that “the number of people engaged in agriculture in India had been declining since the 1990s, but has now increased after the pandemic.” It is clear that the Modi government has completely failed to generate employment. According to government data, two-thirds of working women in India are working as laborers in the fields, because there are no jobs for them in the industries. Amrita Dutta, a professor at IIT Hyderabad, said, “We need a policy that will enable people to move out of agriculture to good jobs, but we are stuck.”

The Modi government beat the drum of slogans like ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, but the reality is that “India’s industrial production fell historically in 2017 and it has not fully recovered till now.” The result is that workers have been thrown into the informal sector, where there is neither social security nor permanent employment. According to the Washington Post, “India now lags behind Honduras in per capita income, and more than half of working-age people are unable to make it into the formal economy.”

The Modi government’s priority has been limited to schemes like ‘free food’ and ‘cash handouts’ rather than job creation. “The government’s primary response so far has been limited to cash handouts and other welfare schemes that do not address structural problems,” writes the Washington Post. The real solution lay in promoting rural industries and employment-oriented policies, but the Modi government did not consider it necessary to focus on this.

The most pathetic depiction of this waste is seen in the conversation between Karishma and Geetanjali Devi of Bihar in the Washington Post report. “We are just wasting time here,” said Geetanjali. Karishma admitted that when her husband first went to Kerala, “she could not even eat and her children cried incessantly.” What kind of development is this that is breaking up families and confining women to the home and the farm?

The government should understand that economic growth does not come from just juggling GDP figures. Real development happens when jobs are created, people earn respectable wages, and families stay together. The Modi government’s ‘development model’ is limited to figures and election slogans, but the truth exposed by the Washington Post is a warning of a dark future for an entire generation of India.

What kind of development is this for India’s economy, where millions of people have been left behind in the race of development? According to the Washington Post, “Opportunities are shrinking for marginalized families in India.” This statement by an international media house is not a simple criticism, but a living proof of the hollow economic policies of the Modi government.

At the time of independence, it was dreamt that the industrial sector would take India’s economy forward. But what is the truth? While the contribution of agriculture was 55.4% in 1950, today it has come down to just 16.5%. On the other hand, 48.7% of the country’s population is still dependent on agriculture. The industrial sector, which the government made the ‘prime moving force’ in the name of development, has proved to be the biggest failure in generating employment today.

We need a policy that will enable people to get out of agriculture and get good jobs, but we are stuck. Whose development is the Modi government’s ‘Sabka Vikas’ policy doing? If the industrial sector was actually leading the economy, then today the workers would not have to migrate 1000 miles to feed themselves. Husbands have gone far away to work and women are forced to sweat in the fields.

The government did not even understand that industrial growth is completely dependent on agricultural growth. If there is a 1% growth in agriculture, then industrial growth increases by 0.5% and national income by 0.7%. But here the situation has turned upside down. By 2017, manufacturing in the country also shrunk, and has not recovered till date.

The Modi government coined many empty slogans like Digital India and Aatmanirbhar Bharat, but in rural India, according to the Washington Post, “We are just waiting, wasting our lives.” This depressing situation shows how wrong economic policies have left the villages jobless.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the government had to admit its mistake that the real ‘prime moving force’ of India’s economy is not the industrial sector, but agriculture. But today, even after a quarter of the 21st century has passed, the same mistake is being repeated by neglecting the agriculture sector. Will the Modi government tell what kind of development is being done by pushing more than half of the country’s people into poverty?

The Washington Post says, “Indians have now become poorer than Honduras in per capita income.” This figure is not only a warning, but a slap on those leaders who make false claims of making India a superpower only on news channels. Even today, people in thousands of settlements are sitting in complete darkness and waiting for the future, while the Modi government is busy weaving a web of data for Digital India.

According to the Indus Valley Report of @BlumeVentures

3 types of India have been formed within India

• The first India has 14 crore people, whose per capita annual income is 13 lakhs
• The second India has 30 crore people, whose per capita annual income is about 2.62 lakhs
• The third India has 100 crore people, whose per capita annual income is about 87,470 rupees

According to the report, the income of the 100 crore population of this third India is like that of the poor countries of Africa.

They do not have any separate money left for expenses.