Poverty – a chance to think, decide and act together
The International Day for Eradication of Poverty is being observed since 17th October, 1993. The day is designed to raise awareness on the need to eradicate global poverty and destitution. However, the first event took place in Paris, France in 1987 when 100,000 gathered on the Human Rights and Liberties Plaza at the Trocadéro to honour victims of poverty, hunger, violence and fear.
Eradication of poverty was the first goal of the Millennium Development Goals and it should also be part of the post 2015 development agenda. This year the theme is ‘leave no one behind: think, decide and act together against extreme poverty.’ It explains the need that exists to recognize and underscore the demanding challenges that hinder the progress of eradication of extreme hunger and poverty. It also points out to leaving no one behind, aiming to eliminate discrimination of anyone on the basis of poverty, ethnic origin, gender, age, disability or economic and social status. There is an urgent need to bring together everyone for a better understanding of more sustainable models of development.
The world has managed to reduce the number of people living in poverty over the last few decades, especially due to continued efforts by governments and nations together as a whole. Still, 1.22 billion people lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2010, compared with 1.91 billion in 1990, and 1.94 billion in 1981. Today, we see challenges faced by governments as the income disparity in the developing countries keeps increasing, with not much impact of globalization on the standard of living of the poor. This also means a huge number of people across the world are deprived of basic amenities like education, healthcare, electricity, safe drinking water, sanitation and employment among others. In April, 2013 the World Bank set out the goal of eradicating extreme poverty within a generation. The target is reduction of extreme poverty to no more than 3 percent by 2030. The challenge is that people are now becoming chronically poor compared to earlier. For instance, in rural Kenya and in South Africa, 30 per cent to 40 per cent of those who escaped poverty fell back into the trap again. In case of India, it is around 20 per cent.
In 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below the Tendulkar Poverty Line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05, that was a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period. According to UNDP, 37.2 percent of the population is poverty ridden. As India debates its poverty line cutoff a lot of work needs to be done to pull out vulnerable people out of this vicious cycle ensuring sustainable development for them. Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. believes that the private sector along with the government will play a key role in development of the nation in the decade ahead.
Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd. urges the private players to take up initiatives through their CSR arm helping the poor develop livelihood plans in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, land resource development, rural tourism and handicrafts. Also, efforts need to be aimed at addressing the challenge of financial inclusion through a range of financial products and services that reduce the vulnerability of the poor. Empowering women remains a key area of intervention. In view of the emphasis of mutual cooperation, an action plan needs to be developed to reap substantial benefits for all.
Let’s us all join hands together in achieving the greatest human goal ever…
By Rahul Choudhury
Media Team – Innovative Financial Advisors Pvt. Ltd.
The Tendulkar Committee headed by Prof. Suresh Tendulkar estimated in the poverty headcount ratio in 2004-05. The expert group headed by Dr. Rangarajan dismissed the Tendulkar Committee methodology on estimating poverty and estimated that the number of poor in India was much higher in 2011-12 at 29.5 per cent of the population.
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