[inglor_cz]

How do you explain the differences across South Asia by anything else than cultural attitudes towards cleanliness and dirt?

Singapore is very clean. Malaysia is fairly clean. Cambodia sort of. India and Philippines very much not.

And Zoroastrians are absolutely meticulous about cleanliness, be they poor or rich.

[dartharva]

All such questions are easily answered once you take a look at the per-capita budget each country has for the required expenditures.

India is extremely poor per-capita.

[kamaal]

Nearly all of India is poor. If you step out of major metros, that is as little as 30 - 40 kms from major metros you will see never ending poverty.

Job options are non existent. Farming and some local trade is all you have. There is also total absence of health care infrastructure. Most people have to travel to metros for healthcare. Last time I visited a small town in my weekend motorcycle rides to see my former manager, the biggest political issue in the town was wanting a kidney speciality hospital built. It turns out taking a day off(loss of earnings), traveling to Bangalore, spending money and time for dialysis was bankrupting entire family trees. Similar situations exist for bypass surgeries, and getting stent installed in heart. You will hear these stories for all kinds of major ailments.

Options for schooling and cram schools are absent. Your kids don't get a competitive peer group, or decent enough tuition/coaching to compete with students from metros, and once you lose your chance to study engineering/medicine its just one more generation of poverty your bloodline has to endure.

In the metros, if you have the money you get good hospital and schools. But owning a home is nearly impossible these days. By and large if you don't make it to FAANG in a few years, you just leave and move abroad.

Nearly every young person I know doesn't even try and default goal is either Gulf or Jobs in western countries.

In short, its a brutal Zero sum game, everybody grabs whatever they can, by any means they can, even if they have to burn down the whole thing in the process.