The Journey of India

-- Haridathan Madhusoodhanan, VI-F, IES- Bhavans

Monday, July 18, 2022

"A country's greatness lies in its undying ideals of love and sacrifice that inspire the mothers of the race" - Sarojini Naidu

August 15, 1947, a memorable day in the history of India, the day we had finally gotten freed from the clutches of British colonialism. It also marks the anniversary of the partition of the subcontinent into two countries, India and Pakistan, which occurred at midnight on August 14–15, 1947. Now let me ask an important question,
What are the differences between India in 1947 and India in 2022? Here are some of them:

1) Literacy rate: Our literacy rate is at 77.7% right now in 2022. Which is a huge leap from the literacy rate in 1947, which was 12%.

2) Life expectancy: The life expectancy in India in 1947 was a mere 32 years. The life expectancy in India in 2022 is 70.19 years.

3) Poverty rate: Our poverty rate was at an all-time high in 1947 at 80%. The poverty rate in 2022 is below 10%.

4) Population: India's population was only 340 million in 1947. In 2022 the population of India is a whopping 1.412 billion making it the second most populated country in the world. India has the largest youth population in the world; around 66 percent of the total population (more than 808 million) is below the age of 35. Nearly 40 percent of the Indian population is aged 13 to 35 years (defined as a youth in the National Youth Policy ).

5) GDP: Our country's GDP in 2022 is $3.05 trillion, which is a huge increase from its GDP in 1950, which was $30.6 billion.

6) Science and technology: In 1947, India didn't have many contributions or achievements in science and technology. In these 75 years of independence since 1947, we have accomplished some feats that India in 1947 couldn't. We have built satellites, established nuclear power stations, sent probes to the moon and mars, etc.

7) Education: In 1947, when India got independence, our country had a total of 241,369 students registered across 20 universities and 496 colleges. Fast forward to 2022, India has over 45,000 degree colleges, over 1000 universities, and around 1500 top institutes. Our schooling system is one of the largest in the world and has over 250 million students.

8) Food grain Production: Output of foodgrains in India increased from 50.82 million tonnes in 1950-51 to 308.65 million in 2020-2021. India is the world's largest producer of milk, pulses, and jute, and ranks as the second largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, fruit, and cotton.

9) Medicine: In 2022, we are on the verge of finishing a global pandemic. 67% of India's population is fully vaccinated. We have given 199 crores of doses to date. We have also eradicated smallpox, guinea worm, polio, Elimination of Leprosy, and Yaws, etc.

There are also a bunch of things we have improved on things like gender justice, our military, our right to education, etc.

In short, We have changed from an underdeveloped country to one of the most powerful in the world in just 75 years. So, let's all be proud of our beloved motherland and celebrate this and all the coming independence days with joy and happiness.

Jai Hind!

Haridathan Madhusoodhanan, VI-F, IES, Bhavans