The Hindu : New Delhi News : Students take a close look at poverty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 11, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Students take a close look at poverty

Staff Reporter

Survey finds meeting UN Millennium Goals still a distant dream

NEW DELHI: For a few students from four prominent Delhi schools, it was an up-close and personal look at poverty. Crossing the huge divide of class, they asked the big question that most politicians baulk at answering: Are we making progress?

Involved in a reality-check exercise to answer the key question, they were on a mission to see how far India was from fulfilling the grand promises made in the Millennium Development Goals envisaged by the United Nations. Taking a giant leap into the world of adults, they surveyed only 35 families in nine localities in the Capital to find out the stark reality on the ground.

While India was to halve the proportion of people whose income is less than a dollar from 1990 to 2015 under the first goal promised to eradicate poverty and hunger, the survey done by the children pointed out this was still a dream.

"With an average of 5-6 members of a family, is Rs. 10 per capita sufficient to sustain? After spending a major proportion of the income on food, education, clothing, rent, medical and other basic necessities, hardly anything is left for any sort of saving," said Rashmi from Sanskriti School in a consultation held at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti on Tuesday.

Reversing their roles in front of India's "official" reporters to the UN -- Union Minister for Statistics and Implementation Oscar Fernandas and Joint Secretary Women and Child Welfare, Loveleen Kacker -- at the function, their data pointed out there was a wide gap between the stark reality of India almost 60 years after Independence and her Father's dream for her.

With India set to present a country report on the achievements of these goals, the children are afraid that the "truth" of the matter will never be revealed. An attempt to correct the picture, this is their small attempt at ensuring a better future.

"Most people do manage two meals a day somehow, but there are a few families who get only one meal a day. The meal is, mostly, sabzi and rice. A majority of the people whom we interviewed did not have a ration card because the access is denied to them. Many times, food items are unavailable at the ration shop, even for those who own a card," she pointed out.

The Government might have tried to get more children to school with their programmes, but the road to universal primary education was still a long one.

"We believed that poor people would be less likely to send their children to school. But our findings were that they were sending their children to school till they could afford to. Most girls finish only primary school and elementary education and take care of siblings, whereas boys go up for higher education. The Government has tried to increase the actual enrolment ratio by offering free mid-day meals and books, but this has not led to imparting quality education,'' observed Prateek of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road.

The fact-finding team also found gender equality was still a distant dream and the attitudes to women have not changed very much. "If the question of liberty and equality arises, women still seek the permission of males before speaking out in front of other people. Some of the women we saw lacked confidence,'' observed Ankita from Ramjas School, Pusa Road.

Denied even basic amenities, the "invisible" people have only one toilet for a hundred people in the area, there is irregular water supply, and only one family they interviewed could boil water to drink.

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