Why India is debating the question of what it means to be ‘poor’

The Modi government’s policies to help poorer people are deeply problematic say experts. Namita Singh reports

Students in Mumbai protest against caste discrimination (AFP)

Despite the long hours, Sanjeev Gahlot works at a mall on the outskirts of Delhi. The 41-year-old and his wife together take in less than Rs 200,000 (around £2,000) a year. Yet he was angry to learn that he and his family would not benefit from a new government scheme providing jobs to the “economically weaker” members of society – because of his caste.

Mr Gahlot belongs to a historically marginalised tribal group, one of a number of so-called “scheduled tribes”, which along with members of formerly oppressed “scheduled castes” are entitled to a range of affirmative action introduced in the decades since India’s independence to try and overturn centuries of persecution.

Now the Supreme Court of India has backed a controversial law passed by Narendra Modi’s government that extends affirmative action to poorer members of the so-called upper castes. The legislation reserves 10 per cent of all government jobs and higher education places for the “poorest of the poor” coming from groups not otherwise benefitting from affirmative action.