WHO ARE THE REAL POOR ?
The definition of 'poor' varies from country to country. In 1994 my husband and I were invited to do a poverty study in the UK. We visited Easterhouse, in Glasgow, Scotland. This was considered one of the worst slums of Europe. Initially, the homes we visited seemed middle class by Indian standards. Everyone had an assured house, with gas or electric stove, refrigerator, TV, and hot and cold running water. This was above average lower-middle class Indian standards. On closer analysis however, the people were more dispirited and marginalised than really poor Indians. Most of the men had been unemployed for 20 years.
In India, of our famous one billion people, 350-400
million are below the poverty line. There are not many
poor people who earn more than a dollar a day.
This figure means nothing because poverty is comparative.
In India, poverty is hunger. Real hunger. Never having
even three basic meals a day. Poverty is hearing your
children cry themselves to sleep because there is no rice
and dal or a few chappatis to give them. Poverty is lack
of shelter. In an urban area it might be fear of a slumlord.
In a rural area it could be a creditor, the forest department
waiting to evict you, or an alcoholic husband signing
away the one fragment of land you live on, to drink his
last drink. Poverty is being sick and not being able to
afford a doctor. Poverty is not being able to send your
child to school and not being able to read. Poverty is
not having a job and insecurity and fear about the future.
Poverty is living one day at a time. Poverty is watching
your child die a senseless, needless death from
malnutrition or diarrhoea brought on by unsafe drinking
water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of representation
and lack of freedom. Poverty is shrinking from the contempt
of others merely because you were born you. -Mari Marcel Thekaekara, www.infochangeindia.org
THE STATISTICS
Even though statistics are not always fully indicative of the real poverty, it gives some general guideline. Thus the following might give us a glimpse of the hunger in India:
Over half the world’s underweight children live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Approximately 47% of India’s under-five population is underweight. This high percentage is matched by the much poorer African nation of Ethiopia.
Nearly three-quarters of the world’s underweight children live in just ten countries, and over half in just three South Asian countries -- Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
India has more undernourished children than Africa, at 51 million, compared to the continent’s 47 million.
Indian population living below US$1 a day (%): 34.7%
(Note: Global poverty estimates report the number of people living on less than $1 a day.
The World Bank started making international comparisons of poverty about two decades ago. The USA treasury being the power behind the institution, and the dollar being the reserve currency by design, the lower poverty line was set at $1 a day per capita, those below it were considered the “poorest of the poor.” But some institutions suggest that it is more accurate to say that people in poor countries like India are living on less than $0.20 - $0.40 a day.)
Three in four of the people in India who survive on less than US$1 a day live in rural areas. For more than 15 per cent of rural poor people, poverty is a chronic condition.
-Number of children in India who die before the age of 5: 63 out of 1000 ..READ MORE
