Opinion

10 shocking facts about India

In a country with a population strength of 233.6 million, India has the most adolescent school dropouts (47 million) in the world. Well, that’s what a joint study by Unesco Institute for Statistics and the Global Education Monitoring Report has found!

According to the Census 2011, 27.3% of children the age group of 6- 14 do not attend school at all, while surprisingly, it is Lakshadweep where the dropout percentage is only 5.8%.

Photo Credit: Nick Kenrick, CC.

Photo Credit: Nick KenrickCC.

Why just education, India is a land of many surprising facts. Here’s our Top 10 list:

  1. We, Indians, waste food worth Rs 58,000 crore every year, including all “delicacies” that you took on your plate but could not gulp down at weddings, canteens, hotels, social and family functions, and households. As per the United Nations Development Programme, Indians waste up to 40% of the food they produce.
  2. Breathing the Mumbai air a day is equal to puffing 113 cigarettes. According to the Maharshtra Pollution Control Board, confirmed the data saying the Respirable Particulate Matter (RSPM) of the city’s air should be 100 units i.e. 50 cigarettes a day. However, on an average, it is equal to 100 cigarettes a day.
  3. India has around 3,40,000 manual scavengers, 99% of whom are Dalits. Scroll.in reported that as many as 1,268 cases of scavenger deaths inside sewers in 2014-2016.
  4. India is among the most corrupt countries in the world. It ranks 76 on the Corruption Perception Index of Berlin-based corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI).
  5. Thanks to huge wastage, India might not have any drinking water left by 2040. According to a UN report, India will be the centre of “water-scarce” countries by 2025, where 3.4 billion people face the brunt.
  6. India is one of the countries with the highest number of road accidents. The Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD) claimed 134,000 casualties in road accidents annually, while government figures recorded in 2009 put the toll at 125,660. The CADD said about 70% of these accidents are due to drunken driving.
  7. A shocking quantity of 5.6 million metric tons of plastic waste are generated annually in India. A report bythe Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) states the capital city of Delhi itself produces 689.5 metric tons of plastic waste every day.
  8. There is only 1 teacher for every 50 students in India, says UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report 2015.
  9. The Guinness Book of World Records puts India in the third position after the USA and the UK for the number of records it makes every year.
  10. Only 1% Indians pay Income Tax. As per the data made public by the government for assessment year 2012-13, about 2.87 crore Indians filed income tax returns for that financial year, while 1.62 crore people did not. This makes the total number of taxpayers about 1.25 crore, which is nearly 1% of our total population (123 crore at that time).

 

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