FACTS ABOUT INDIAN FIGURES

Statistics can often give a glimpse of the true story, provided figures are not dreamt up. Indian literacy figures tend to include those who can scratch their name on a black board. The poverty line should be held at the waist; but Indian statistics tends to hold it at ankle level. The result is that utterly poor families earning two dollars a day are above the poverty line.

But figures told facts on the day newspapers bugled that 4 Indians were among the top ten Forbes billionaires. Inside pages of the same papers said India had more polio cases now than any other country...and infant mortality had risen above the levels of even poorer countries like Bangladesh.

Wealthy Indians (who don't have to worry about polio or infant mortality) are celebrating non-stop, pretending they are not here but in the West.
(For more INDIA REALITIES stories see www.myspace.com/india_realities and www.ibibo.com/wahPmji)