65% of the Indian population living under poverty line

Over 65% of the Indian population has people living under poverty line in India. They are all a matter of concern because of rampant illiteracy and unemployment. They cause epidemics and crimes largely breed amongst them.

The poverty in India solutions does not just lie with the Government. In fact the sad but true fact is that all those in power are busy amassing wealth for themselves and contributing a few percent towards the benefit of the people in their jurisdiction.

Leaving them aside the cure lies amongst every citizen of the country, who is in the position to contribute to a better India, in terms of time and money. Educating slum dwellers is amongst the prime needs today.

About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.

Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.

There are effective programs to break this spiral. For adults, there are “food for work” programs where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads, and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty. For children, there are “food for education” programs where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and global poverty.

Hunger and World Poverty Sources: United Nations World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, UNICEF.

v	Almost half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.
v	The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
v	Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
v	Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.

 

1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day). (globalissues.org)