One of the major tasks of the world leaders at the conference held on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the United Nations was to review the actions taken to banish poverty from the face of earth in accordance with their declaration at the turn of the new millennium five years ago.
Even after an elapse of five years no firm step has unfortunately been taken to implement the declaration though the year 2015 was set as the deadline to achieve the noble goal.
Commenting on the abject poverty gripping the world, particularly the African continent the Guardian newspaper said in a report that the poverty posed the most serious danger to the world. The report attributed the growing poverty to a number of factors such as globalization, unforeseen climatic changes, deteriorating environmental and ecological situation combined with unwise political decisions that force poor countries to become more and more dependent on others.
The British newspaper began its report by highlighting the poverty in Gomby village in the African country of Malawi. One of the villagers explained that their problem was not just lack of enough food. As it is they have only one meal a day. They were terrified at the thought of the approaching winter when their fast depleting food stock would be exhausted and they would have no food at all. This is not the case of an isolated village but the plight of millions in that country as well as in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Zambia, Chad and parts of Botswana. People in these regions who mostly work in farms are accustomed to long spells of hunger that last up to two months. But if this period extends to four months or beyond it will undoubtedly be a catastrophe.
A UN study puts the number of the poor in the world at one billion. As their daily income is less than one dollar, they do not have the money to buy enough food, get clean drinking water, and provide basic education to their children. They can’t afford to have proper health care; they live in neighborhoods that suffer from infectious diseases including AIDS. In most cases dictatorial governments ruling in their countries have aggravated their squalor and wretchedness.
In the sub-Saharan countries 90 percent of the population work in tiny farms. The lack of capital investment makes them depend on scanty rainfall or foreign aid. The situation worsens further as one goes deeper into the south.
The real statistics on poverty and hunger will, undoubtedly, prick the world conscience and goad it to find a solution at the earliest. There were more than 313 million people in the south of Sahara living in a state of abject poverty, according to studies made in 2001. Approximately 850 million people around the world go to bed without dinner. They include 300 million children with 80 percent of them suffering from diseases related to hunger or malnutrition. The report also noted that a man or woman dies of hunger every 36 second.
The situation has been compounded by the threat of an impending bird flu outbreak that has the frightening potential for mass killing as no medicine has been invented to protect human beings against the disease. The disease could be as menacing as the plague or cholera of the Middle Ages. Combined with poverty and poor health care the disease could wreak havoc in the African continent. It could be more fatal to the region than to any other part of the world.
Therefore it is time for the rich nations of the world and the World Health Organization to take urgent steps to equip the poor countries, particularly in the African continent, to meet the emerging catastrophe.
The danger will never be confined to the poor regions as the disease-carrying birds are free to migrate to any place. Therefore every one has a responsibility to bring the disease under control whatever be the cost.
