Poverty is terrorism too

Is there a direct relation between poverty and social angst? What happens when newspapers give a daily dose of page three luxuries, champaign parties and new desirable products launched in the land where one third of the world's poor live? It sows seeds of revulsion and revolt। See how people went berserk to get a packet of food in Kosi flood affected area. If it doesn't create a pain and anguish in your heart, you must get your level of human feelings checked up. Like volcano is a natural phenomenon, eruption of public angst against injustices and unfair system too is. There has to be a social upheaval against the pot-bellied politicians and officials living sinfully luxuriously and boasting of a new, powerful India in business forums keeping their eyes wide shut on 30 crore Indians living in abject poverty and 25 crores going to bed hungry every night. Poverty is as vicious and deadly as terrorism that seeks to eliminate the unyielding. Though we worship god and bask in the glory of our scriptures that say-serve humanity, our priorities remain hooked somewhere else. The highest number of terrorist outfits and anti-national movements are being launched in areas that are reeling under abject poverty and neglect. It may be true that the most dreaded terrorists come from highly educated regime, yet their foot soldiers are found amongst the disadvantaged and the poor. Nation's gravest threats emanate from areas of tribal density and unfathomable poverty like Bastar, Telangana, Orissa and North-East. There is a plethora of reports corroborating the link between poverty and social unrest. In its update on 'International Comparison Programme', the World Bank has revised it's international poverty line norm from $1 a day to $ 1.25 [approx. Rs 55/-] a day. Based on this, the World Bank said that "out of an estimated population of about 100 crore in 2005, the number of poor people living below $1.25 a day has increased from 42.1 crore in 1981 to 45.6 crore in 2005. This is the biggest challenge facing India." The study also pointed out that even as the number of people living on the earlier poverty line norm of less than $1 a day had come down, there was still a large number of people living just above this line of deprivation and their numbers were not falling. On Wednesday, August 27, the Asian Development Bank offered a new measure of poverty - earning of $1.35 per day on purchasing power parity which puts more than half of India's 1.1-billion populations [54.8%] in the category of poor. Thousands of families in India do not find enough to feed themselves and in a moment of complete dejection they commit suicides collectively. In Bihar, a story appeared that a labourer was furious to find his meals salt-less and in a fit of anger he beat up his wife causing an instant death. Moments later his daughter returned with one rupee and fifty paisa in her hands and stated her mother had sent her to market to fetch some salt, but the shopkeeper had asked her to bring more money-Rs. 1.50 was not enough to buy salt. But by that time the anger had taken life of an innocent poor lady.
Source: THE TIMES OF INDIA
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