Poverty in pooR_Planners' Country

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Today on Sunday Times a very interesting article caught my eyes, "End of Poverty."

Few statistics from the article:

• 214 million people are living on less than $1 a day in East Asia Pacific
• In South Asia more than 437 million people live under similar condition
• 50% of the world lives on less than $2 a day
• 1 billion people across the globe cannot read or write
• 1.2 billion people don't have access to safe drinking water
• 35% of the world's poor live in India, out of the 1 billion population in our country 350-400 million people are below poverty level and 75% of them are from the rural areas
• More than 40% of India's population is illiterate
  
• 50,000 people die every day due to poverty related causes
• 800 million go to bed hungry every day

ITC's 'Sunfeast' & SRK has taken up rural rehabilitation. Not enough. Will we marketers, planners (including myself), agencies and Corporate India do something to eradicate poverty? Let 2007 be a new beginning. Let us all take up this noble cause and start contributing towards the betterment of our own people.