The Hindu : Towards eradicating poverty

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 03, 2002

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Towards eradicating poverty

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI DEC. 2. An ethical response to the persistence of hunger and degradation of environment was debated at a public forum, organised by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) here today.

The problems, the speakers said, could be tackled through dialogue and revitalisation of ethical convictions, which could dislodge mistrust and promote better understanding and harmony among the people. There was a consensus among the speakers that food for all could be achieved by improving resources in rural areas, increasing employment opportunities to rural people and equal distribution of wealth.

M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of MSSRF, who initiated the discussion said that though international communities had set a target to reduce poverty from 820 millions by half, it had become a difficult task to achieve, despite various programmes and policies. Though the right to food had been enshrined in all religions, poverty and hunger continued to be the bane among the developing countries, he added.

Martine Lees, Rector, U.N. University of Peace, Costa Rica, said poverty and hunger were closely related to employment and unless jobs were provided to rural people it would be difficult to eradicate poverty. He suggested creation of industries in rural areas to generate employment for the poor. He said it was unfortunate there was lack of commitment and action at a higher level to eradicate poverty in India.

Varsha Das, former Director, National Book Trust, said that right to food was equivalent to right to live. Food, she said, was the most fundamental requirement and added that denial of food would automatically lead to violence. It was an irony that there was mounting foodstocks on the one hand and on the other there were thousands of people going without food. One had to awaken the consciousness of people to know the pain of hunger.

Pedro Medranao, Country Director, UNWFP, said unfortunately there was a tendency to shift the blame and nobody was ready to take the responsibility. Only in India, he said, there was a large section of children suffering from malnutrition.

Asghar Ali Engineer said spirituality could be practiced only if people were free from hunger. He said that justice, truth, non-violence could not be practised if one failed to provide food for the poor. Peace was possible only with the promise of adequate food to people. Referring to riots in various parts of the country, he said that this was due to unemployment. In the case of Gujarat, he said unemployed Dalits and tribals were used to unleash violence on innocent people. It was unfortunate that nobody was following the teachings of sastras, which he said was responsible for the present state of affairs.

K.H.J. Wijayadasa, adviser to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on sustainable development, said unless there was substantial reduction in poverty there would be chaos. Though there was abundant availability of food there was no proper distribution. Food was not accessible to poor, as they had no purchasing power. Unfortunately, owing to globalisation, traditional agriculture had been affected, which in turn reduced the income of rural agriculturists.

In the morning, Lennmart Bage, president of IFAD, released a book on Dr. Swaminathan, which was received by Mr. Martin Lees.

N. Ravi, Editor, The Hindu, welcoming the gathering, said the country's system had been wanting in eliminating the persistence of hunger, poverty and malnutrition and this was rightly pointed out by the Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen. Unfortunately, the political system is not alive to these issues and the time had come to focus on these problems, he said.

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