New Delhi, Oct 3 (IANS): Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Sarkaryavah Dattatreya Hosabale has expressed concerns over the ever-increasing income inequality, unemployment and poverty as "demon-like challenges" which have to be ended.

Hosabale said that in the last 75 years, India has made remarkable achievements in many fields, but the amount of poverty-stricken, unemployment rate and income inequality in the country still remains a challenge like "demons" and it is very important to end it.

Speaking in the webinar 'Swavalamban Ka Shankhnaad' organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a Sangh affiliate, on Sunday under Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan, Hosabale said that even today 200 million people in the country are below poverty line. The per capita income of 23 crore people of the country is less than Rs 375.

He further said that the unemployment rate in the country is 7.6 per cent and four crore people are unemployed. Describing the unemployment situation in both rural and urban areas of the country as alarming, the senior Sangh leader said that 22 crore people are unemployed in the rural areas while 18 crore people are unemployed in the urban areas.

Referring to India's rapid economic progress, Hosabale said that India has become one of the six big countries with the largest economies of the world, but the ever-increasing economic inequality in the country remains a big challenge even today.

He said that the top one per cent of India's population has one fifth of the nation's income. And at the same time, the country's 50 per cent population gets only 13 per cent of the total income.

The union leader blamed the wrong economic and education policies of the previous governments for the condition of the country, and said that the present Narendra Modi government at the Centre has done a good job to improve the situation.

"Ten years ago, 22 per cent of the people were below the poverty line, which is now only 18 per cent. The per capita income of the people has also increased in the last ten years and the new National Education Policy can also help in eradicating poverty in the coming years," he said.

However, along with this, he still stressed the need to do a lot, saying that for a self-reliant and self-sustaining India, work will have to be done on many fronts. Along with the government, the society and the industrialists of the country also have to come forward. Instead of looking for a job, the younger generation will also have to become a source for creating jobs by adopting the path of self-employment. There is a need to inculcate a sense of respect for labour in the society and also change the mindset of the people. To make India a prosperous country, everyone has to work together on many fronts, he said.