this comment is not exactly about the monitoring techniques but about the basic issues involved in poverty alleviation.
we probably need a little more insight into where poverty begins and how it spreads. poverty of course is the shortage of cash and kind required to meet the daily requirements of life. if u have no food u r in poverty. if u have no cloth u r poor. if u have no house to spend the night u r in poverty. if u cant afford a minimum of entertainment u r deprived and poor.
similarly if a country fails to provide minimum facilities as above to all of its citizens the country is in poverty.a country is poor if it fails to offer its citizen sanitation , transport, education , jobs and security. and opportunities to grow .
now coming back to the basic reasons for pverty, faulty distribution of wealth stands out. this is linked firmly to many important factors like the political situation , traditional beliefs, historical influences etc. which are very difficult to tackle thru outside intervention. crux of the matter is that nothing wortwhile can be done in this except soft campaign to change the thinking of the people .
the next main reason of poverty is the lack of resources . this is where donors are coming in. they make up for the shortage of cash to some extent. but the issue is how do tackle the problem of distribution . monitoring by the donor agencies is an option. surveys and analysis are useful here. but the real test is to ensure that the money that the donors give away reaches the right target which is basically controlled by the government of that country.
the point i am trying to make is that we have to look for more effective means to fight poverty. which brings us to the third and probably most important reason of poverty. it is the population . this is the one factor which defeats any attempt to alleviate poverty. there is simply no way in which the scarce resources of a poor country can be distributed among its millions. becoz it doesnt add up to anything when we consider the share of the individual. the denominator is such a large number pushing the ratio to zero or therabouts.
now the purpose of writing this piece. why cant we think of redistributing the world population in a more equitable manner . on this earth we have places and countries where we need people to live. in other parts there is no place even to stand erect. why cant we think of evening out world population ? just as an idea. an intellectual exercise. an early morning dream.
we probably need a little more insight into where poverty begins and how it spreads. poverty of course is the shortage of cash and kind required to meet the daily requirements of life. if u have no food u r in poverty. if u have no cloth u r poor. if u have no house to spend the night u r in poverty. if u cant afford a minimum of entertainment u r deprived and poor.
similarly if a country fails to provide minimum facilities as above to all of its citizens the country is in poverty.a country is poor if it fails to offer its citizen sanitation , transport, education , jobs and security. and opportunities to grow .
now coming back to the basic reasons for pverty, faulty distribution of wealth stands out. this is linked firmly to many important factors like the political situation , traditional beliefs, historical influences etc. which are very difficult to tackle thru outside intervention. crux of the matter is that nothing wortwhile can be done in this except soft campaign to change the thinking of the people .
the next main reason of poverty is the lack of resources . this is where donors are coming in. they make up for the shortage of cash to some extent. but the issue is how do tackle the problem of distribution . monitoring by the donor agencies is an option. surveys and analysis are useful here. but the real test is to ensure that the money that the donors give away reaches the right target which is basically controlled by the government of that country.
the point i am trying to make is that we have to look for more effective means to fight poverty. which brings us to the third and probably most important reason of poverty. it is the population . this is the one factor which defeats any attempt to alleviate poverty. there is simply no way in which the scarce resources of a poor country can be distributed among its millions. becoz it doesnt add up to anything when we consider the share of the individual. the denominator is such a large number pushing the ratio to zero or therabouts.
now the purpose of writing this piece. why cant we think of redistributing the world population in a more equitable manner . on this earth we have places and countries where we need people to live. in other parts there is no place even to stand erect. why cant we think of evening out world population ? just as an idea. an intellectual exercise. an early morning dream.
Yes, it is a dream! An impractical dream. Which Keralite is going to settle in Mongolia as part of the project?
ReplyDeleteAnd my BIG question. Why nobody is talking about reducing population?
population is an amply misunderstood concept. we are conditioned to consider population as a liability, a burden. as we have no means to feed the mouths we think reducing their number is the solution. conveniently forgetting the hands which can create wealth. the real tragedy is that we are not in a position to engage those hands , provide them work. so before falling for the hyped panacea called population control let us do some thinking, think some weird thoughts, if u want it that way
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