Orphan children

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Comment by RATHINDRA PRASAD LAHIRI on March 3, 2009 at 7:52am

For India's poor, dreams die first



Urban poverty is likely to be India's biggest challenge
India is booming and the rich are getting richer.
A new Indian government report estimates that the middle class grew from 162 million to 253 million between 1993 and 2005.

Despite India's massive economic growth, the benefits are simply not trickling down to poor people.
Growing inequality is instead leading to greater poverty and spreading to the cities, as more and more people move in from rural areas looking for work.
It is now beginning to worry policy makers who think that urban poverty is likely to be India's biggest challenge.
Arjun Sengupta, the renowned economist and a Member of Parliament who heads a government commission which examines the condition of unregulated workers, is the author of a recent report which revealed that an overwhelming 836 million people live on less than 20 rupees ($0.50) a day.
"We have been growing at a very high rate compared to other countries. But all this growth has been limited to a small fraction of our population.
"Only 23% of our population had a growth in their purchasing power and their consumption power," he says.
Tens of thousands lie down on pavements under the open sky. For them this is home.
Their only aspiration is to earn enough to feed themselves and survive. That's all.
For all of India's impressive progress the number of Indians living in extreme poverty is roughly equal to the current population of the United States.
Unless India commits itself to greater social spending and intervention, there is growing recognition here that it cannot hope to reduce poverty and those living on the margins of its society will continue to be left behind.

Comment by RATHINDRA PRASAD LAHIRI on March 3, 2009 at 7:51am

Times of India , Delhi dated MARCH3, 2009 in page 8,

A division Bench of Delhi high Court comprising of Chief Justice APShah and Justice Sanjeev Khanna asked Delhi Police " Is it not alarming that 17 children go missing every day in Delhi , the Capital of India ?
It is an alarming situation . In the past six months, more than 2000 children have gone missing ."
A media report had claimed that 2210 children have gone missing in the capital between June 1, 2008 and January 12, 2009.

Comment by RATHINDRA PRASAD LAHIRI on March 2, 2009 at 6:59pm

Sordid facts about India
The rich give not because they feel for the poor but because they need
something from God in an immediate transactional basis.
Please witness how the rich generally behave towards domestic
servants., mostly children
Indifference is the respectable fact of contempt. Rich treat their
dogs better than they treat slum children .
Next movie ? “ Kutta Malabar Hills” ?
According to the Indian Statistical Institute’s survey of India’s 575
district , urban poverty is the bleakest in Mumbai, the city that is
being advertised as the future Shanghai , the number of people living
below poverty line has increased by 20% in the last five years .
Murshidabad , once capital of Bengal , Bihar and Orissa combined of
Nawab Siraj ud Daulah, described by an astonished Clive as richer than
London by an astonished Clive when he saw it for the first time , is
now the poorest district of the country with the maximum people below
the poverty line in the whole of India.
The United Nations World Food Programme says that the largest
concentration of hunger in the world is in India : 230 million or 27%
of the world total. Fifty percent of child deaths under five are
underweight , as compared to only 28% for sub – Saharan Africa . And ,
70% of children under five are anemic , a figure that has arisen by
six percent in the last six years . The numbers below poverty line has
risen by 20% in the last five years when every minister of the Union
Of India has proclaimed that the era of dross has given way to the age
of gold.
- abstract from M.J.Akbar , Times of India , Delhi edition dated March 1, 2009.

Comment by Viviana on March 2, 2009 at 6:18pm

What a wonderful hearth!!!