India Leads World In Suffering: Gallup Poll


Washington: Suffering, on average, has increased worldwide in the past several years, and nowhere more than in South Asia, largely due to negative developments in India, according to a new Gallup poll.

One in seven adults worldwide rated their lives poorly enough to be considered suffering in 2012, leading U.S. opinion poll organization said. South Asia led the world in suffering at 24 percent, followed by 21 percent in the Balkans and the Middle East and North Africa.

Attributing the massive increase in suffering among South Asians "to negative developments in India" Gallup said, Average suffering in India more than doubled between 2006 to 2008 and 2010 to 2012. In 2012, a full quarter of Indians were suffering."

The significant deterioration in Indians' well-being is likely to be rooted in the country's disappointing economic performance, it said.

India's growth rate has now sunk from 9.4 percent in the first quarter of 2010 to 4.4 percent in the second quarter of 2013, the worst quarterly rate since 2002, it noted.

"The Indian government's failure to cut graft and red tape, as well as to liberalize its markets for labour, energy, and land, explains why the World Bank continues to rank the country as a bad place to do business," Gallup said.

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Source: IANS