Should we aid the poor in India?

"Surely India should welcome the experience of Sri Lanka in its rural policies, and especially in its experience in creating a literate society through public education. Maybe Sri Lanka could also offer some financial aid to eradicate or at least alleviate the plight of street children. In 1994 UNICEF estimated there were at least 11 million in India! Sri Lanka has many children’s homes so that few are left to live on the streets.'
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by David Bandara

(June 02, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains in many places in India. India still has the world’s largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected. Poverty in India is very visual with individuals and whole families sleeping on the streets or in makeshift shelters. Begging is rife and tourists are besieged at every opportunity. No one knows for sure how many street children there are but according to some charities, the number runs into many thousands.

It would be incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth has been very uneven.

Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka can be proud that its social policies have cushioned the effects of absolute poverty, despite difficult circumstances. Virtually every child attends school in uniform, and basic literacy is over 90%. Medical facilities are available to everyone and no one is denied hospitalisation where needed. There are slums but nothing to be compared with those seen throughout India and those surrounding many cities in Africa and South America. The problem of rubbish is possibly worse in many Indian urban areas and added to by cows that are allowed unhindered to wander the streets. Thousands of old overcrowded buses, with their windows removed, ply the streets choking out black smoke.

This is not the India that the government wishes to convey to the world. A vast country where over 25,000 farmers have taken their own lives since 1997, knowing that their debts are impossible to repay. A country where millions have no access to clean drinking water or electricity. It is the rising middle class with access to excellent private education, private hospitals, and private transport that the world is encouraged to see. Newly built houses and apartment blocks can be seen alongside shopping malls that vie with the best in many western countries.

Little of this new wealth and confidence is going to the rural and urban poor. In contrast, Sri Lanka has made some very positive gains in alleviating the plight of those in poverty. There are numerous ways in which the government is trying to uplift their lives, and education with all its faults, brings some positive changes. Villages are being provided with water and electricity and numerous roads are being renovated to make for better access. More must be done but compared with India Sri Lanka can be proud of its achievements.

Surely India should welcome the experience of Sri Lanka in its rural policies, and especially in its experience in creating a literate society through public education. Maybe Sri Lanka could also offer some financial aid to eradicate or at least alleviate the plight of street children. In 1994 UNICEF estimated there were at least 11 million in India! Sri Lanka has many children’s homes so that few are left to live on the streets.

Thank you India for your assistance so far but now your need is greater than ours. Let us know how we can help. As a start many of the better off schools in Sri Lanka can sponsor charities that are dedicated to helping these street children. Just imagine if every student at Ananda College donated just 5 rupees a week to this charity, this would bring well over one lakh of Rupees each month. Isn’t this an educational goal as well as a religious fulfilment?

- Sri Lanka Guardian