We have been insisting that trying up with a wrong model for a country like India with more than one billion people, with 78 per cent of our people having a daily income of less than Rs. 20 as per a Government appointed Committee report would not be correct. According to an estimate, about half the population is living below poverty line. There is malnutrition of children as per HDI Index. We are below even our neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc. On certain Scores. Daily, there are reports that even after the measures initiated by the Government suicides are taking place not only by the farmers but even by the workers not only in the unorganised sector but even in the organised sector, in the export-oriented units. We were discussing the other day that about more than 71 workers engaged in the diamond industry have committed suicide. This is only tip of the iceberg. We do not know what is happening to the industrial workers, organised sector, unorganised sector. I am constrained to comment that the Government seems to be very insensitive. It is because, only a few hours back, we had been asking the Labour Minister what concrete steps he proposes to take. You are thinking of bailing out, Stimulus Package I, Stimulus Package II, liquidity crunch, monetary measures, lending rate cuts, and all these things. But what do you propose to do about the workers themselves? It is because the employers are never passing the benefits they are having from the Government to the workers. This is the reality. Even the Minister admitted that what is going to happen next year. It is because, everyone has the apprehension that next year it may be more severe. In such a situation, we had expected that the Government should have taken some concrete steps for job creation.
