Sunday, December 17, 2006

Poverty in pooR_Planners' Country

(c) copyright, www.ifpri.com

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.

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