Poverty in Madhya Pradesh

Madhya Pradesh has the lowest figures for food consumption, with highest malnutrition, the highest infant mortality rate and the lowest life expectancy standing at 57.7 years. A population of 249.68 lakhs (38.3 per cent) is bound to go to bed hungry, as they are poor and marginalised. The poverty line (implicit) at the all-India level is worked out from the expenditure class–wise distribution of persons (based on URP consumption, that is, consumption data collected from 30-days recall period for all items) and the poverty ratio at the all-India level.

The Planning Commission and the Indian Government also believes the statistics provided by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and this organization mentions that 50 per cent of the farmers in Madhya Pradesh are in debt and the average debt per farmer is as much as Rs 20000. The painful truth is that the issue of health has not yet become a political index of human development. The government has also not included this in the indices of the BPL survey although in MP every person has to spend as much as 75 per cent of the expenditure on health from his own pocket while the government bears 25 per cent of the cost and that too on the overheads and staff salaries. In the context of indices, existence of a household lavatory has come up as a big challenge and as many as four per cent of the people have been impacted by this. To treat a disease, it is very necessary to accept that there is a disease and only then one can move on to the process of treatment. The same principle applies to problems like poverty.
We are so lucky to be safe in Kerala, one of the most developed states of India. But at the same time, we cant turn against our brothers and sisters wailing near to us...
- Varsha V. S