India is now the world’s third-largest economy, but this growth hides deep inequalities, with most benefits going to the rich while the majority struggle with poor healthcare, education, and employment. Rural areas face severe shortages of doctors, hospital beds, and clean water, while unemployment and hate speech incidents have surged. Women’s safety and press freedom remain major concerns, reflecting ongoing social challenges. Despite economic gains, India still is in deep problems; this article will try to unmask news channels' rhetoric.
India has become the world’s third-largest economy, with an estimated real GDP of Rs. 187.95 lakh crore in 2024-25, surpassing Japan, but don’t let WhatsApp uncles fool you on this. What we call GDP is nothing, but the sum of the monetary value of goods and services produced by all the sectors in India. As responsible citizens, we must be able to ask the government, who produced these goods and services? How much is the cost? What we are eating, is it safe to eat, or is it adulterated?
This article will explain some really important factors that help an individual understand the complexity of India’s development and its cunning façade.
The most important thing to see is per capita GDP, which is 2,480.79 USD a year, but just after removing the top 5% richest, it shrinks to 1,100 USD. This implies that for the rich, India seems to be doing well, as their children can receive the best education, the best treatment or medical care, and better work opportunities. But the pity is, India is not just about the rich. It is about those 95% of people who make all three sectors work, who build roads, work in sewage, dams, and rivers, and unfortunately, the working class is dying due to unfair and gigantic indirect taxes levied upon them, such as GST on possibly everything, with no efficient government benefits to the people.
Health, education, and employment are not considered important enough for our news media to discuss. India needs at least one doctor per 1,000 patients, according to WHO, but doctors are seeing around 11,000 patients in rural areas like Bihar and Jharkhand. Thus, India needs to fix this gap of 2 million doctors by 2030. Most casualties are seen in rural India. India has just 0.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people, and only about 30% of those are in rural areas. The world is not unaware of the fiasco that happened during the COVID era, where piles of dead bodies were disposed of in a haphazard and unprepared manner. Still, the situation remains the same in rural India. And we must remember that India is not just about Tier 1 cities. The real problems start in rural India.
Water is a necessity, but villages like Sangrur face severe water problems. Not to forget, if Mumbai is the financial capital of India, then just on the opposite side lies the world’s largest slum, where water, education, health, and sanitation do not even count as necessities.
As per the latest data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India’s unemployment rate stood at 9.2% in June 2024, marking a sharp increase from 7% in May 2024. This has become a common thing in India. Looking at premium institutions like IITs and IIMs, it is evident that job creation and package levels have declined.
There is also weaponization of educational institutions, appointing like-minded ideological people to mold the narrative and take away students' power to question. This has been proven to be a fascist move by the government. Famous examples include Jamia Millia Islamia, where several actions have threatened democracy in one of the top-ranked institutions in the country.
In 2024, hate speech incidents in India soared 74% to 1,165 events, with 98.5% targeting Muslims. The peak came in May with 269 incidents. Nearly 80% of these occurred in BJP-ruled or coalition states, especially Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh. The party itself organized 340 such events in 2024, a 580% increase from the previous year. The report highlights calls for violence, economic boycotts, and the destruction of Muslim homes and religious sites. Online bullying and chaos around Muslim festivals are frequent. PM Modi is regularly seen promoting hate films like The Kerala Story, The Kashmir Files, and Chhava, but this was not the case for the film Phule, where showing the truth became a subject of censorship.
India ranked 151st in the World Press Freedom Index in 2025, and the perpetrators of hate are often the ones speaking on public platforms, showing the level of government control. In the Henley Passport Index, India’s passport is ranked 85th out of 199 countries in 2025, enough to make us realize that we are nowhere near the "ViswaGuru" status.
As per the Women, Peace, and Security Index 2023 released by Georgetown Institute, India ranks 128th out of 177 countries in terms of women’s inclusion, justice, and security. Reported crimes against women were 66.4 per 100,000 women in 2022, compared to 58.8 in 2018. Not to forget, the majority of cases do not even get registered unless there is public pressure.
Now we come to see that India has become the third-largest economy, leaving the UK and Japan behind. But the truth is, India is nowhere near their level when it comes to women’s safety, education, employment generation, healthcare infrastructure, civic sense, and per capita GDP. It has already been more than 78 years since independence, and victim cards or past glorification won’t work anymore, not when one chooses to look rationally instead of just praising the government for its freebies. We must understand that questioning the development is not equivalent to being an anti-national, we must learn to question.
Rayyan Rashid is a student pursuing English Literature at Jamia Millia Islamia
Edited by: Sharmeen Shah
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of The Jamia Review or its members.
