POVERTY IN INDIA

Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India.

          India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas.Poverty is the root cause of terrorism

  India has over one billion people and approximately four hundred million of these live on less than one 46.99 a day.  Around five hundred million live on less than two dollars a day. Unbelievably, eighty percent of the population of India that are living in poverty.  Nearly half of all the children in India are undernourished, much more than in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of health care in IndiaThere are some relief programs that are supplying free samples and other stuff for the poor in India, such as food and toys. Some are trying to teach the poor people more about computers so they can become more informed of what is going on around the world. Multinationals and entrepreneurs are making poor people in India their target for a hub of the computer innovation.  Computer literacy has become one of the more effective tools in combating poverty, opening up windows of opportunity for many who would otherwise not be aware of those options.  This is particularly important in poor India.Other programs offer opportunities to sponsor a child, volunteer, help a special needs a child or give a child the gift of education. Education is one of the most important ways to get rid of poverty.  No amount of money or help will allow people to live securely and independently if they lack basic literacy skills.  By educating those who are mired in poverty, India is not only giving them access to a better life but improving the entire country.  A prosperous people inevitably produce a financially healthy nation.Another way you can help the poor in India would be to sponsor a child.  Sponsorship is offered by both religious and secular organizations and has proven an excellent way of supporting and educating a child whose parents can afford neither.  These programs usually require a small monthly donation that is used to give a child basic necessities such as shoes, food, medical care and school materials.  They often pool money from more than one sponsor for an individual child.  In turn, the sponsor will get a letter from the child at least once a year and receive photographs and updates on his or her progress.  The difference sponsorship makes is significant and often leads the entire family out of poverty.There are many other ways, of course, to help wipe out poverty.  Volunteer work at a school or orphanage is free to the giver and priceless to those that they help.  Simply reading to elementary  school children once a week can make a tremendous difference in their lives.  Helping to repair a school is another way offighting poverty.  Children that learn about the world around them often become involved in helping others as they grow, disrupting the vicious cycle that keeps many Indian citizens poor. Poverty is difficult to overcome, especially if it crosses generation after generation.  By working together and making both small and large improvements, the people of India can be free of this misery and break thecycle of poverty causes one million women and children to die each year and at least eighty million of the people go to bed hungry every night.

      A number of people both within India and abroad think India is a poor country. It is not. The bulk of India's people remain poor because we are not able to give basic education to our children, we are not able to impart skills to our young men and women, and we are not able to get productive work out of them. If we can get another 200 million to 300 million people to join the ranks of those engaged in productive activity, India's GDP will soar.

    The main causes of poverty are illiteracy, a population growth rate by far exceeding the economic growth rate for the better part of the past 50 years, protectionist policies pursued since 1947 to 1991 which prevented large amounts of foreign investment in the country.

      We know of the three scourges of humanity; war, disease, and poverty. We see those manifest in many forms today. And yet cannot we tally our recent accumulation of assets, such as the 500 million who have emerged out of poverty in India in the last twenty years. Or nearly a billion who have been set free into the new global market in China since the emergence of Deng; or the freedom of the world from nuclear annihilation, when Gorbachev saved our planet?

       If every Indian citizen chose to take full advantage of the enormous range of opportunities afforded by the current atmosphere of freedom -- to learn, teach, think, invent, produce and achieve all that he or she is capable of -- then poverty will soon be a thing of the past in this country. Eradication of poverty is a necessary achievement and the sooner the better.