A Tale Of Two Difficulties Destitution and Starvation

 “Anyone who has struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.” 

Destitution, more commonly referred to as POVERTY is one of the most common and also the most severe problems that we are facing today. What is poverty? It is nothing but the lack of financial resources to satisfy a person’s basic need for necessities. Poverty as a social evil is so deeply embedded in our economy that it has become almost a characteristic of the Indian society, roughly 7% of the Indian population lives below the poverty line The global Covid 19 pandemic has also contributed towards the worsening of this issue. Due to the onslaught of the pandemic and the resulting prohibitory lockdown, the condition of the people has worsened, the poor have now become poorer and have taken to the streetsin their search for a means of livelihood. The middle class and the small scale industries have been the worst affected. The condition of those who used to work on daily wages has gone from bad to worse since the need for construction labourers has gone down to nil. During the initial stages of lockdown, well to be honest during the time when lockdown was actually IN EFFECT, many households had let go of their househelps and were doing all the daily chores themselves, this led to the househelps losing their source of income. Now when the lockdown has been officially lifted, many of them are still finding it difficult to look for households where their services are required. They were pushed deeper and deeper into the clutches of poverty because of this, despite of the so called government schemes to help the poor, help has not yet reached to most of them. Poverty is now further tightening its grip on our economy and what’s more heartbreaking is the fact that we are unable to do anything about it lest prevent it. We are not even in a position to provide three meals per day to the disadvantaged, there are hundreds of people who are dying of the lack of food and thousands who are not getting a proper nutritious meal. According to a countrywide survey nearly 14% of Indian population is malnourished. This problem was already prevalent in our country before the pandemic, thousands were still starving and dying every day and the pandemic has just added fuel to the fire. Poverty and unemployment particularly amongst the lower strata is now more evident than ever, courtesy of the pandemic and to some extent the magnanimous population of our country and also the mismanagement on part of the government. 

I had not witnessed the extent to which poverty and starvation had increased before I actually got to see it with my own eyes. One day as I was visiting a relative I happened to see some 20-25 children in the ages of 5-12 years begging for food at the signal. Imagine, 20-25 children, and this particular incident is of kapoorthala chauraha which happens to be a place where so many cases of child beggars were never seen. Those who have been to the place would agree with me 

in saying that this is definitely the effect of the pandemic which has led to increased poverty. It has led to children who have their whole lives ahead of them begging on the streets for money enough to afford them just the bare means of life and nothing more. Whether it is some selfish human being using them for trafficking purposes or are they actually poor is a fact unknown to people. It is our duty as citizens to help alleviate poverty in our country, after all extreme poverty anywhere is a threat to human security everywhere. Isn’t it disheartening enough to see thousands of people die everyday due to the virus, do we really need to see thousands more die of hunger and poverty? I believe the question that we all need to ask ourselves as human beings is that are those who are below the poverty line less than us in demeanour, do they deserve to die of starvation while we throw away extra food daily? When God does not discriminate then why should we? 

If we all come together to stand for this cause and do just a bit from our side to alleviate poverty then we can surely make a huge difference and improve the condition of those who need us in these difficult times. As gandhiji said “be the change you want to see.” Poverty is not being without money but being without hope. Let us all hold the hands of those who are suffering and let them know that there is always hope for a better tomorrow. A noble man once said that “there are so people in the world so hungry that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread. I say that we rid god of so much responsibility and provide bread to the needy ourselves. If we possess love and understanding in our heart only then can we serve the purpose for which we were sent to this earth , to love and care and nothing else and in doing so bring meaning to Nelson Mandela’s words; 

“ Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity, it is an act of justice.” 

Raj Lakshmi Singh 

Creative team Ray Foundation