Across 112 countries, 1.1 billion people live in acute multidimensional poverty, according to the 2024 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index report. In India, a total of 234 million people live below the poverty line, the highest in the world, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

Multidimensional poverty was measured by constructing a deprivation profile for each household and person in it covering 10 indicators of health, education and standard of living. Here is another shocking news for India. In the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 105 out of the 127 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2024 GHI scores. With a score of 27.3 in the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India has a level of hunger that is serious.

What exactly is causing poverty and hunger in India? We need to find an answer from the right perspective. One of the sensitive issues during the regime of every government has been black money. As usual, most of the politicians (except a few principled and clean ones) talk nonsense on this issue wherever they go. They keep making promises after promises and continue to fool the common people all the time. As long as there is a criminal-political-bureaucrats-rich people nexus in the country, none can solve the problem of the Black Money.

The Indian deposits keep increasing every year. The second-best Russia has 4 times lesser deposit. USA does not seem to be even there in the top five! Indian black money is safe in Swiss banks. This is the bitter reality today. So, we need to make a pragmatic and realistic statement like this: “India is a very rich country with economically deprived people”. If India is really a wealthy country, then, where is the wealth? Who is holding most of the wealth? What is the extent of black money in India? How on earth currency notes worth crores are getting caught during every election? This is now happening in Maharashtra. Who owns such unaccounted black money?

A few years ago, a study was undertaken by Kotak Wealth Management. The study estimated that India has about 65,000 super-rich households, with a total wealth of around 45 trillion rupees (US$1 trillion.) This was expected to grow to more than 235 trillion rupees (US$5.3 trillion) in future. Dishonest industrialists, scandalous politicians and corrupt bureaucrats have deposited in foreign banks in their illegal personal accounts money that has been misappropriated by them. (…)

In fact, some finance experts and economists believe tax havens to be a conspiracy of the western world against the poor countries. By allowing the proliferation of tax havens in this century, the western world explicitly encourages the movement of scarce capital from the developing countries to the rich. (…)

Unequal distribution of wealth and the unaccounted money are the real causes for poverty and the presence of the economically backward and marginalised people in India. The ultimate culprits are the selfish business groups in the corporate sector, vision-less politicians, corrupt bureaucrats and fake religious leaders. Surprisingly, all these people network together to safeguard their illegal wealth.

Irrespective of any political party, we hear daily from the media about the illegal multi-crore transactions happening among the politicians and bureaucrats. How does a simple MLA or MP or a government official earn crores of rupees withing a short period?

The criminal politicians and bureaucrats enjoy all types of comforts even inside the prisons. All this is possible because of their money power. We, the common people, are always taken for a ride.

The government-initiated Acts/Laws such as The Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018; The Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017; The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016; The Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015; Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 remain mostly on papers. This is an irony.

Together with Rabindranath Tagore let us pray: “This is my prayer to thee, my Lord… give me the strength never to disown the poor… and help me to build a country where the mind is without fear and the head is held high and where the people are not broken up into fragments of narrow domestic walls of disparities and discriminations.”

Besides prayer, every responsible citizen needs to strive for personal transformation and also make sure about the proper implementation of the existing Acts/Laws related to black money.

• M L Satyan, Matters India