The Indian community in Singapore has made big progress in recent years, especially in education and income. Minister for Home Affairs and Law K Shanmugam shared this on April 19 at an event by the Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda).
He said more Indians are getting university degrees now, with 41 percent of those aged 25 and above holding degrees in 2020.
This is a big jump from 16.5 percent in 2000. While part of this change is due to immigration, the minister said the main reason is the community’s own improvement.
The school dropout rate among Indians has also gone down. In 2000, 38 percent of Indians had not finished secondary school. By 2020, this number dropped to 18 percent.
Shanmugam, who is also the Chairman of Sinda, said it is still high and there is room to do better, but it is a big improvement.
The minister mentioned that Indian households saw a 40 percent increase in their median monthly income between 2010 and 2020. It went up from SGD 6,000 to SGD 8,500 in that period.
Sinda CEO Anbarasu Rajendran said the association has played an important role in supporting the Indian community. In 2024, the group helped nearly 31,500 people through different programmes. Rajendran said this was possible because of 578 partners and over 400 volunteers. In the same year, Sinda also received SGD 1.7 million in donations.
Just a few days ago, Prime Minister Lawrence Wong had also praised the Indian community in Singapore. Speaking on April 13 during a dialogue with Indian youth, he said that even though Indians are a small group in numbers, their contributions to Singapore in business, industry, and government are very big.
He also mentioned that Indian candidates will be fielded by the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) in the upcoming General Election on May 3.
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Some new Indian faces expected to contest include former Agency for Integrated Care CEO Dinesh Vasu Dash, orthopaedic surgeon Hamid Razak, and trade unionist Jagathishwaran Rajo.
In the 2020 elections, PAP did not introduce any new Indian candidates, which had raised concerns about representation. This year, the community is expected to have stronger presence in the election.
