________________
WHAT IS INDIA?
219
Income
in
Countries
Rupees. 4. United States
1,116 2. Great Britain
696 3. Germany
468 4. France
546 5. Italy
333 6. India
30 Some of the Indian and English economists of recent date and fame claim that the average annual per capita income in India which is shown above is more than double what it actually is. But as those figures are from government sources we stick to them and say that even those are enough to prove Lord Sinha's statement.
This then shows that Indians must live within 30 Rupees a year. It means 480 annas for 365 or say, 360 days. That comes to one anna and four pies or sixteen pies per day. (Twelve pies of India are equal to one pence in English money or two cents in American money).
How do they live within sixteen pies when even the bare necessities of life cost a person more than five times that amount?
They do not live, but they merely exist. This means that India is suffering from abject poverty.
Distress and destitution, degeneracy and degradation, diseases and deaths are the results of abject poverty.
These results are not only perceptible but are actually felt every day by all those who are living in this unfortunate land.
This has affected the average length of life in India. The people are gradually becoming dwarfs and weaklings. They are losing their vital vigour and are falling easy prey to diseases. The longevity of the Indian people to-day is only 24-7 years.
Herewith a table giving the relevant and comparative figures :Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com