Since India’s independence, the subject of poverty in India has
remained a major concern. According to the common definition of poverty,
when a person can no longer meet the required levels to maintain
specified standard of living, they are considered poor.
This means that in India alone there are almost 220.1 million people
living below the poverty line that's almost 25% of the population which
you'll agree, is a truly staggering amount.
The poverty in India is not the same everywhere; from the perspective
there is the type of poverty and from another there is the severity of
poverty. India is a large country containing a vast amount of people,
all with different religions, political views and social standings -
this coupled with the fact that the distribution of wealth and resources
is highly unequal it means that different regions, and in some cases
peoples suffer more from others.
This becomes apparent after just
a short amount of time spent in the country. For example, states such
as Goa, Delhi and Punjab have relatively low poverty ratios whereas %38
of the population of Bihar and Orissa live below the poverty line, the
figures are even worse for Calcutta and Maharashtra pushing nearly %50.
The
poverty and situations that people are forced to live in coupled with
the burning desire to survive have resulted in people doing some
unimaginable things to stay alive.
Some sources suggest that now
almost 60% of the worlds poor now call India home. iIt is also the
country with the highest rate of Malnutrition among children under the
age of 36 months: a massive 46%.
