total national income has also increased in figures. But
the per capita income today is the same as it was ia
the thirties. The money income average today may
come upto over Rs. 150/- but if it is corrected to the
price level of 1931-32, the average income cannot pos-
sibly be higher than the income in 1931-32. For,
prices today, as I have pointed out, have almost tre-
bled since 1931-32, particularly during the war years.
The currency inflation is indicated by a rise in the
total notes from 181 crores on 1-9-1939 to 1,182 crores
on 1st February 1946.
During the last 11 years, therefore, poverty has not
been reduced to any significant level.
The delegation of the British Trade Union Con-
gress to India in 1928 made the following observations:
<4The vast majority of workers in India do not
receive more than about 1 sh, a day. In the pro-
vince of Bengal which includes the large mass of
industrial workers, investigations declared that
as far as they could ascertain 60 per cent of the
workers were in receipt of wages of not more than
one shilling per day in the highest instance, scal-
ing down to 7d. for men and 3d. in the case of
women and children. Upon these miserable pit-
tance the workers are expected to keep body and
soul together and labour throughout the whole
working day (often in a vitiated atmosphere and
under the most irksome conditions) which on the
average cannot be less than one of ten hours."
We have now less of everything than we want
normally.
We have today only 75 per cent of the food,
35 per cent of the milk, 25 per cent of housing