New Delhi: Recent developments have confirmed what Prime minister Manmohan Singh declared quite sometime ago that the Maoist insurgency constituted the single biggest threat to the nation's security. But more than a threat it should be seen as a pointer to the distortions in our development process and the urgency to give a pro-poor direction of the development process to benefit the poor, dispossessed and the oppressed.

Speaking at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analysis a couple of weeks ago, home secretary G K Pillai had said the threat would mean a 'long bloody war' as the armed rebel cadres were highly motivated and trained. Further the capacities of the state police forces were limited. Last year alone, Maoist violence accounted for more than 1100 deaths.

More than a threat the Maoist uprising supported mostly by the adivasis and tribals in Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, points to certain distortions in our development process.

A memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister recently by a group of intellectuals pointed out the impropriety of a government allegedly going to war with its own people and pointed out the deeply entrenched causes for the uprising.

It pointed out that the adivasi communities in the above regions had remained largely outside the purview of development in the past 60 years. Unemployment, want of health facilities, safe drinking water and educational opportunities plagued them all these years keeping them perpetually poor. Destruction of forests and alienation of tribal land had added to their miserable plight. Big dams, power projects, forest industries etc thought to be vital for the progress of the nation had only adversely affected their sources of livelihood driving them to desperation.

Gross injustice:
With India producing several billionaires and aspiring for super power status in the comity of nations, gross injustices are being perpetuated on sections of the population. Over 180,000 Indian farmers have committed suicide in the past few years. Inequalities have only widened over these decades of development.

The public distribution system is n't working, government schools and hospitals do not serve their intended purposes and above all the administrative system is corrupt and inefficient. And when all democratic options are being denied to the poor, they take up arms or join those who promise to deliver them from their miserable plight.

The people rejected the BJP at the polls because of its anti-poor and fascist policies; but the Congress which promised to do better follows policies which have the same harmful impact. Leasing the country and its resources to the corporates and multinationals, they displace the adivasis from their hearths and homes where they were living for thousands of years. The minorities too do not see much difference between the openly communal BJP and the false secularism of the Congress.

We have been boasting how the Indian economy has stood up against global recession and how it is racing ahead with a higher rate of growth. But statistics just keep reminding us that about 25 crore Indians do not even have Rs 13 for their survival for a day.

A draft food security Bill under consideration of the Union Cabinet promises 25 kg of wheat Rs 2 per kg or rice at Rs 3 per kg to BPL( below poverty line) families. But the Justice Wadhwa committee appointed by the Supreme Court to study the Public Distribution System found nearly half the poor do not have BPL cards which will entitle them to governmental concessions and rations.

It is also said that many communities in the country live in a permanent state of famine. Malnourishment affects 40 per cent of Orissa's population. Forty six percent of Indian children are stated to be malnourished.

How the economic boom has left behind millions become evident from the mushrooming slum population.The number of people living in slums has more than doubled in the past two decades and now exceeds the entire population of Britain, according the government's own data. The slum-dwelling population had risen from 27.9 million in 1981 to 61.8 million in 2001, according to available data.

Food, water and shelter:
India's largest slum population is in Bombay, the country's financial and film capital, where an estimated 6.5 million people at least half the city's residents live in tiny makeshift shacks surrounded by open sewers.Delhi, the national capital, has the country's second-largest slum population, totalling about 1.8 million people, followed by Calcutta with about 1.5 million. Central government estimates show that it will cost India four trillion rupees (£49 billion) to build the estimated 24 million housing units needed to accommodate India's slum-dwellers.

Safe drinking water is another issue that defies solution. If we look at the present scenario, we are heading towards a crisis. About 85 % of the rural population is solely dependant on ground water, which is depleting at a fast rate. In the urban areas though about 60% of the population is dependant on surface water sources, the availability and quality are questionable.

About 10 per cent of the rural and urban population does not have access to regular safe drinking water and many more are threatened. Most of them depend on unsafe water sources to meet their daily needs. Moreover, water shortages in cities and villages have become severe with growth in population. Chemical contaminants namely fluoride, arsenic and selenium pose a very serious health hazard. It is estimated that about 70 million people in 20 states are at risk due to excess fluoride and around 10 million people are at risk due to excess arsenic in ground water.

While basic amenities like food, shelter and safe drinking water are denied to millions, the euphoria about some corporate houses putting the millionth car on India's roads, new IPL teams being formed with astronomical sums to profit and fancy projects, hotels and stadia being readied for the forthcoming Commonwealth games look like sarcastic jokes…The fact is that more resources, efforts and plans are on to keep the elite and the upper middle class happy and entertained.

The debate:
A debate is on in media circles whether the Government had abandoned the common man in its pursuit of liberalization. In the course of the discussion, the National Rural Employment Program, the Rs 60,000 - crore loan-waiver scheme for farmers, the Right to Information Act to ensure transparency in governance, Right to Education Act, proposed passage of Bill for higher representation of women in Parliament are all projected as measures undertaken to set right several anomalies. These are all commendable measures but then the implementation is faulty because of corrupt bureaucracy and political manipulation.

The electoral system is at the apex of corruption according to Transparency International India and the system gets totally infected. Politicians and bureaucrats seek to corner benefits for themselves adding to the tax burden of the common populace. The judiciary, the press and the police instead of preventing abuses of freedom collude with one another motivated solely by self interest. Derailment of democratic rights is the result.

The latest move by Sonia Gandhi to once again head the National Advisory Council to ensure proper implementation of the nation's social agenda and the efforts of Rahul Gandhi to democratize the Congress party apparatus, it is hoped, are steps in the right direction.

Christian missionaries have, from the beginning, realized the importance of empowering the tribals and the Adivasis against their exploitation. Violence is counter productive. It is necessary 'to strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees.' Good leadership and education and support from the civil society are needed for the uphill task.

The poor constitute the weakest link in the chain of development and they need extra help to rise to the level of the well off sections.