How To Curb Poverty

“The Bible insists that the best test of a nation's righteousness is how it treats the poorest and most vulnerable in its midst.”— Jim Wallis, Christian writer and social activist

Poverty is one of the biggest problems that our country is facing today. In spite of all the progress that India has made during the years, the problem of poverty has not been eliminated. Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter.

Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways.Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action - for the poor and the wealthy alike - a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and health, protection from violence.

But in spite of all the attempts, overall number of poor in India is increasing and becoming a hurdle. Poverty is just like a disease to which many other problems such as crime, low-paced development, etc are associated. There are number of people in India who still live on the streets and beg for the whole day to eat a meal. Underprivileged children are unable to attend school and, and those have the opportunity drop out after a year or so. People below poverty line live in unhygienic conditions and are so prone to many health problems. With this, the vicious cycle of poor health, lack of education and more poverty keeps on increasing.

Household expenditure is considered to calculate the poverty count in India. In this purchasing power of people for buying food and buying capacity for some non-food items is calculated.

High population growth rate is one of major reasons of poverty in India. This further leads to high level of illiteracy, poor health care facilities and lack of access to financial resources. Also, high population growth affects the per capita income and makes per capita income even lower.

Ever increasing prices of even basic commodities is another reason of poverty. A person below the poverty line finds it difficult to survive.

Caste system and unequal distribution of income and resources is another reason of poverty in India.There is an urgent need to end poverty and find all the possible solutions to eradicate poverty and hunger otherwise, it will weaken the strong pillar of our country.

Conclusion - Poverty must be eradicated from India as every person has the right to live a healthy life.The best way to eradicate poverty is by'Educating the Masses'especially the women and the youths as they are the real foundation and the building blocks of a country. The poor people must be encouraged to set up small scale industries by giving loans at lower rates or helping the economically weaker sections of the society in the form of grants and subsidies.