India Produces Surplus Labour For The capitalists As Well As For The Imperialists

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By Dr. Sawraj Singh

India produces one commodity in over abundance and that is population. W e have produced surplus labor not only for our own capitalists but also for the Imperialists. They have plenty of people of choose and pick. We have taken upon over selves to assure the world of a surplus or even a glut in the supply of labor .It does not matter if we can take care of all the people we are adding to the world population. We are going to beat China and become the most populated country of the world in just 7 years (2022), 8 years sooner than was predicted (2030). At least, India has one field where nobody can match it.

India is not going to stop growing in this area. The population is going to continue to climb all the way through the 2060 to reach 1700-1800 millions, before it may level off. At the time of independence it was about 330 millions. In one century, it will multiply more than 5 times. Quite a remarkable achievement! Compared to the explosive growth,    China’s population will continue to decline. The Western countries have been talking a lot about India beating China. I am sure they do not find it very flattering that India has beaten China in a different way than they had expected. However, they should also share the blame for not letting India control its population like China has.

We can clearly establish a relationship between the uncontrolled growth in population and decline in human development index. We can compare India with China and North India with South India and the fact will become obvious that by controlling population, human development index can be improved. China has controlled its population and has been able to improve the quality of life of its people and the reverse is also true in India’s case.

Similarly, Kerala, in the South, has been able to improve the quality of life of its people more than any state in the North. The gap between China and India and between South and North India continues to widen instead of narrowing

One wonders what will happen to the Swach Bharat (clean India) campaign. The uncontrolled population is one of the biggest reasons for the congestion and the filthy conditions which we see in many places. We are already overcrowded and are unable to maintain proper order and cleanliness. What will happen when the population grows further? We are already utilizing the resources more than the capacity of the earth to replenish them. With the growth in population, we are going to tax the resources still more. We will need more houses, more factories, more water and more food. Already, a large proportion of population does not get enough to eat. We can hardly meet the need for the water now. What is going to happen to with our water supply when the population grows more?

The World population will grow from 7.3 billion to 9.7 billion in 2050 and to 11.2 billion in 2100. The growth will be concentrated in nine countries; India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the USA, Indonesia and Uganda. It is clear that except for the USA, all the other countries  are in Africa or Asia (Third world) In the USA, the growth in population is also in reality is growth of the people of the third world. The white population in the USA is going to decline. The growth will be particularly due to migrants from the third world or because of the children of the people of such background who have already settled there. If we take into consideration this explanation for the rise of the population in the USA then it becomes clear that all the other countries which will experience maximum growth in population are the countries with a relatively low human development index.

Out of the other eight countries which are going to have maximum growth in population, India is the main country which will provide enough workforce to maintain the world capitalist order. The Western imperialist countries are reaping the benefits of the glut in population in so many ways. They can directly take some of these people to their countries and do menial jobs for which they do not have enough people such as janitorial jobs, farm workers, truck drivers, taxi drivers, security guards, nurses, research fellows, teachers, laboratory workers, engineers and doctors. We are even providing our girls for their entertainment. The London police recently arrested 450 Indian girls in one day for prostitution. Some of our population will work in joint ventures of the foreign and the Indian corporations and some will work directly for the foreign corporations. Another way the imperialist countries take advantage of the glut in India’s population is by buying goods and services at an extremely cheap rate. For example if one item requires one hour of labour, then in the western countries that can cost about ten dollars in the wages. However, in India they have to pay just 25 cents for the cost of labour. Clearly, the uneven exchange is a great way for them to exploit our cheap labor.

Let us imagine that India follows the example of China and brings down its population to about half (a billion from the expected about two billons) and concentrates in improving the quality of life for its people. It will solve the problem of unemployment, wages will become decent and the overall availability of goods and services will improve considerably. This can drastically cut migration to the other countries and significantly reduce opportunities for the foreign corporations to exploit our cheap labor here. Now, imagine a situation where there is a zero migration from India to Canada, USA, Europe, Australia or New Zealand. Without the workforce from India, these countries will encounter very big, if not an insurmountable difficulty in running their systems. The conclusion, the Indian growth in population is essential for the survival of the world capitalist order.

The Imperialists and the Indian capitalists are very much aware of the fact that an uncontrolled growth in India’s population is essential for their survival. How can we expect these people to control India’s population? All their claims that they are trying to control the population are false. Similarly, their “Clean India”, campaigns are destined to fail if the population keeps growing like this.

Only the people’s movements for a better quality of life can make a difference. If the people become more aware and conscious of their rights to have a minimum guaranteed quality of life then we can bridle capitalist and imperialist greed. They only look at the population as a commodity to be exploited to maximize their profits.

Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].