14. On Poverty (105):

14. On Poverty (105):

The evils of poverty are personified in kurals as a sinner and a demon. When the demon takes possession of a person, the latter loses all joy in life. “Poverty is cruel; it afflicts people; “ one may sleep in the midst of fire; but by no means in the midst of poverty”; it destroys the greatness of the kingdom; poverty brings many miseries to a country. The words of the poor are profitless; the destitute that are lazy to work consume their neighbor’s salt and water; a poor man is a stranger to others; prolonged poverty destroys one’s past greatness and the dignity of his speech.”

We are living in a very challenging environment. Of the 6 billion people living on the planet earth today, 4.8 billion, i.e. 80 percent of the world population, live in the developing countries. These 4.8 billion receive only around $ 6 trillion, i.e. 20 per cent of global GNP. Imagine the demography of the next 25 years: about 2 billion will be added to the planet of which 95 per cent will be in the developing world. Besides the critical global problem of poverty, the demographic disequilibrium is another challenge to be faced now.

Global inequalities in income have increased alarmingly in the last hundred years. More than 30,000 children die everyday from preventable diseases. Some 120 million children are excluded from primary education. About 500 million women are illiterate. 1.5 billion people have no safe drinking water. One woman dies for every 260 live births – which is one woman in a minute. More than 20 million have died of AIDS, 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, and everyday 15,000 are infected. About 790 million people are hungry and 1.2 billion live on less than one dollar a day. I am reminded what Subramani Bharatiyar wrote: “Even if there is only one individual person without food to eat, I shall destroy the world.”