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Diocesan Bulletin May 2012 - Eparchy of Idukki

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Post Synod Exhortation’s sections on “Economic Social<br />

Realities”: all variously present an India which is not wholesome in<br />

all aspects of her life: an India which yearns to be a better India.<br />

At the end of the survey of “Economic and Social<br />

Realities” in the Post Synod Exhortation, it was observed that<br />

“this necessarily brief reflection upon the economic and social<br />

realities of Asia would be incomplete if recognition were not<br />

given to the extensive economic growth of many Asian countries<br />

in recent decades.......”(§7). This is certainly true of India; and it is<br />

usually attributed to globalization; but her economic growth has<br />

not lightened the burden of the poor on society, as the following<br />

report of 2006 Economic Survey shows:<br />

The economy of India is now the fourth largest in the world -<br />

this is accredited to trade liberalization. Growth in the Indian<br />

economy has steadily increased since 1979, averaging 5.7%<br />

per year. India, now a global leader in software and business<br />

process outsourcing services, rakes in revenues of US$12.5<br />

billion per annum. 3 However, in 2006, the UNDP’s human,<br />

development index ranked India at 126th out of 177 countries.<br />

Nearly 35% of the population was living below $1 a day, while<br />

at $2 a day it was nearly 80% of the population, which means<br />

some 800 million people, more than the entire population of<br />

sub-Saharan Africa.<br />

This report was from 2006<br />

I have just attended the World Economic Forum in Davos<br />

in the Swiss Alps where the motto, “Committed to improving the<br />

state of the World” seems to encompass our “Better India” and<br />

strive in the same direction. Moreover, just last November, the same<br />

organization held an India Economic Summit in Mumbai and<br />

entitled the ensuing report, “Linking Leadership with Livelihood”<br />

which seemed to have espoused a vision, similar to the theme of this<br />

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sabv 2012<br />

357<br />

Conference of Bishops: It was about livelihood in India, the<br />

betterment of life in India. Here is a brief summary of the economic<br />

situation in India from the India Economic Forum:<br />

With the lingering impact of the global economic crisis and<br />

the unfolding sovereign debt crisis in Europe roiling global markets,<br />

growth in the Indian economy has slowed while inflation and interest<br />

rates have climbed. Meanwhile, recent public protests have clearly<br />

signaled that citizens are unwilling to tolerate the waste, bribery,<br />

patronage and cronyism that are undermining India’s vision of<br />

achieving sustainable and equitable growth in this large, unwieldy,<br />

yet flourishing democracy. 4<br />

If the report had stopped there, I might not have noticed,<br />

since what it says seems to echo some of what you, as Bishops,<br />

have been saying for years, and it only hints at what we would call<br />

the most basic problems of grinding poverty and rampant<br />

discrimination: the yearning for a better India. But then the report<br />

does go on to make what seems to me is a frank and penetrating<br />

critique of business and political leadership, astonishing because the<br />

critique goes beyond economics and politics to enter the domain of<br />

right human conduct, the domain of ethics and morality. The report<br />

speaks of India as<br />

... a world of broken trust where people have lost confidence<br />

in their leaders, in their regulators and in the ability of those with<br />

influence and power to work together to solve persistent problems,<br />

from the unfairness of the global trading system to the creeping threat<br />

of climate change. Many people have come to view politicians and<br />

corporate chiefs, particularly those in the finance and banking sector,<br />

as well as the media, as incapable of doing the right thing instead of<br />

whatever would be most profitable or beneficial to them in the next<br />

election, quarterly report or ratings survey. 5<br />

358<br />

sabv 2012<br />

The task facing the Church in India: the obstacles and<br />

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