POVERTY: A threat to prosperity
It is impossible for a beggar on the streets to get educated and therefore a good employment in the future. His dreams of living in a decent house are shattered, in fact it's a big achievement for him to get at least one square meal a day. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam once said "In a democracy the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of a nation." Thus, we have to end poverty of all forms to ensure prosperity.
Poverty has been, and still is, the biggest challenge to mankind. To overcome this challenge, we must delve deep into the subject and understand the root cause of poverty. For this we must first understand its definition. According to the Human Development Report of 1997, poverty can be viewed as denial of opportunities to lead a long, healthy, creative life, and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-respect and the respect of others. Since one can interpret the meaning of a 'decent' standard of living differently, the definition of poverty varies from society to society and person to person. A family without a car may be considered poor in the US, whereas, a person deprived of even the basic amenities such as health, education, sanitation, shelter and even food is considered poor in India.
According to the World Bank, a person in extreme poverty lives with or below $1.90 per day. As of 2015, about 736 million people still live on less than US$1.90 a day, 10% of world's population live in extreme poverty down from 36% in 1990 and 80% of the people in extreme poverty are living in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. While extreme poverty has been on the decline globally, regional disparities still exist.
Poverty is that devil which cripples the mental strength and compels people to incline towards the wrong side of life. It even pushes them to commit crimes such as theft, kidnapping, hijacks, corruption and even terrorism. Lack of proper food results in deprivation of nutrients. Lack of nutrition results in weakening health and productivity which affects the economic growth of a nation. A weak economy would reduce the job opportunities. Lack of jobs would make the person idle. An idle man is a devil's workshop, more so when he is deprived of even the basic necessities to survive.
It need not just be the denial of physical opportunities, poverty is also a state of mind. The rich, in terms of money and power, may be poor in their hearts and minds. Man is mainly controlled by two basic emotions - pleasure and pain. He would always want to avoid those things which hurt him. At the same time, he would want to keep acquiring those things which give him pleasure. He is never satisfied with what he has and would want to acquire more even if it would cause pain to others. Thus, it is this selfish nature of man and the greed to acquire more power, or to put it in two words, their insecurities and dissatisfaction, that creates poverty in their minds. This is more dangerous. When poverty creeps into the minds it not only leads to self destruction, but also the destruction of the society. So poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere.
Despite such vast growth globally, what is the reason for the existence of such poverty? As per the figures mentioned above, we find that atleast 1 in every 10 people are denied the opportunities to lead a good life. In fact they are deprived of even the basic necessities for survival. Majority of poor are from Asia and Africa. The two continents lie in the tropical zone, so there is no dearth of resources. Despite this poverty exists in vast numbers here. The reason for this is historical. Several countries from, both, Asia and Africa were victims of the colonial rule. The very basis of this rule was to exploit and loot.
Being blessed with natural resources and a young population, India was one of the richest in the world in the past. The disintegration of the Mughal rule and the disunity among several small states in India gave way for the British to enter into Indian administration. The main aim of the British was to help economy grow in their home country by amassing the wealth of their colonies rather than governing its people. The drain of wealth by the British was well elaborated in the book written by Dadabhai Naoroji - "Poverty and the Un-British Rule in India". He explained how their oppressive economic policies have led to the impoverishment of locals. The rise of industrial revolution abroad, destroyed the local producers. For instance, Malmal - the costly royal muslin cloth which is a type of cotton textile had its origin in Bengal. It was popular all over the world and was extensively exported. However, when the British came and taxed the cloth as well as sold their own produce cheaply, the demand of malmal declined leaving local weavers out of jobs. So most of them shifted to agriculture and this gave rise to disguised unemployment in the sector. Even today we see the overcrowding of the agriculture sector. While the roots of this stem out of colonial rule, the existence of this even today is due to the uneven economic growth in India.
The world is committed to end poverty. In fact the first Sustainable Development Goal of United Nations Development Programmme is to end poverty in all its forms everywhere. Rapid growth in countries like India, China and other Asian nation has raised millions out of extreme poverty, however progress has been uneven.
The goal targets to reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030. This includes creating a policy framework at national, regional and international levels for development strategies that is pro poor and gender sensitive and mobilization of resources to Least Developed Countries to help implement programmes that end poverty. It also aims to build the resilience of the poor in vulnerable situations of climate change related extremities and natural calamities.
Apart from this, four other Sustainable Development Goals and three Millennium Development Goals also focus on providing the basic needs to eradicate poverty which include - ending hunger and achieving food security, promoting healthy lives, to providing quality education and clean drinking water and sanitation. It is everyone's right to live a good life that provides opportunities to realise his or her dreams and to prosper.
When a nation has gotten rid of all forms of poverty, every person is given the opportunity of health, education and thus a good employment. Easy accessibility to all the basic amenities such as nutritious food, clean environment and drinking water etc. would improve their productivity, thereby improving the country's economy. Thus, the whole nation prospers. This sense of security and a nutritious diet would bring peace of mind to every individual. This would help him evolve intellectually thereby leading to an advancement in the society.
India is one of the fastest growing nations. It has successfully removed millions out of poverty, with close to 44 Indians escaping extreme poverty every minute as per the World Poverty Clock. As of 2016, the incidence of multidimensional poverty has almost halved between 2005–06 and 2015–16, declining from 54.7% to 33.8%. India is on its way of ending extreme poverty by meeting its sustainable development goals by 2030. It has implemented several schemes for both the urban poor and the rural poor such as the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to provide housing for all by 2022, National Urban Livelihood Mission, MGNREGA, Antyodaya Yojana and many more. Right to free education from 6-14 years has become a fundamental right. The government should focus on making our economy more conducive for small and cottage industries or MSMEs to grow. More initiatives such as MUDRA, Self employment scheme for poor, etc should be encouraged. The main aim of India should be to increase job opportunities to all for eradicating poverty. For this our economy has to grow at minimum 9% every year.
Since nearly half the population of India are dependent on agriculture and the related sector, government should work towards improving its efficiency at the earliest. Agriculture shall be made irrigation dependent instead of monsoon dependent. Transport network to remote villages should be made easily accessible. The Gram Sadak Yojana is the way forward. Investments in cold storage facilities should be incentivized. Government should focus more on facilitating the inputs instead of providing them through subsidies. Schemes like SAMPADA and food industrie mega parks need more investment. Contract farming will help farmers earn a fixed income monthly. Other initiatives such as APMC and eNAM are being implemented in large scale to help farmers sell their produce profitably. The true development of India would be achieved if we eradicate all forms of poverty completely.
Opportunity today means prosperity tomorrow. And where there is prosperity, there is no poverty. Joint efforts by everyone is vital in order to remove poverty from the country and the world to bring proper physical health, mental health, complete literacy, home for everyone, and other needed things to live a good, decent life.
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