'Ghaans ki Roti'

In Gajnai village, starving tribals were forced to eat Ghaans Roti to quell their hunger. What is shocking and unacceptable is that this is not a new phenomenon. They have routinely faced such a grim reality to survive. Here lies text-book case of falling through the cracks. Read More................'Ghaans ki Roti' still a staple food for tribals in the times of PDS

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Poverty drives mum to sell infant for Rs 500

BHUBANESWAR/KORAPUT: Close on the heels of the death of five members of a poor tribal family within two months in Khaprakhol block of Bolangir district, an alleged case of child sale in Dhenkanal and suicide of a woman in Rayagada have come as a rude shock for the Naveen Patnaik government. Read More................Poverty drives mum to sell infant for Rs 500

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Free TV and a cow for below poverty families

Puducherry Chief Minister V.Vaithilingam Wednesday announced his government would give free of cost a colour television set and one cow to each below poverty line (BPL) family in the union territory.

Making the announcement during the budget presentation, Vaithilingam, who also holds the finance portfolio, however, did not specify the outlay for the project.Read More................Free TV and a cow for below poverty families in Puducherry

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Woman sells Child for Husband's memorial service

PATNA: A poor Hindu woman in Bihar sold her infant son to raise money to perform the 'shradh ceremony' (memorial service) of her husband. But she was arrested before she could hand over the child to a childless couple, a police official said on Tuesday.

Parvati Devi (name changed)-- in her early 20s and a resident of Patwa Toli in Gaya town, about 100 km from here -- said she was forced to sell her 45-day-old son due to abject poverty. Read more......................................................Woman sells child for husband's memorial service

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Poverty forces couple to sell child for Rs.12,000

In Bihar state of India, Pushed to desperation by acute poverty, a Dalit couple was forced to sell their toddler son for Rs.12,000 (US$ 285) to raise money for another baby battling an unknown disease. Read full story here........................Poverty forces couple to sell child for Rs.12,000

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God Save the Poor People

In India, there are millions of people who live below poverty line & are unable to get two square meals a day to fill their stomach. Many of these are beggars & many of those live in Slums in inhumane conditions. As per earlier report India not Shining around 26% of India's population lives below the poverty line, which is defined as 12 rupees per day (0.3 US$ per day).

Here below is a video depicting the plight of those poor people of India & it is prayed to God that we all & Indian Government do something for these less fortunate people.

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Dead become Poorer

"Below the poverty line" (BPL) is a category in India of people who have low income levels & such people are entitled to get government benefits like subsidies on food etc. Now the below poverty line (BPL) headcount ordered by the Rural Development Ministry in Bihar State of India has run into trouble – there are dead people on the list.

Dead men can't be poorer but Bihar State in India may have just achieved this feat. The state's list of BPL or below poverty line families have 101 dead persons on it – all from the Bhojpur district in the state. Interestingly Bihar's rural development minister Baidyanath Prasad Mahto also figures on that list.

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Rich villager loses bride to poverty list

"Below the poverty line" (BPL) is a category in India of people who have low income levels & such people are entitled to get government benefits like subsidies on food etc. Now in Indian society there are many such rich people who enroll themselves illegally in BPL List in government records to get benefits of subsidies being given to poor people.

Here is an interesting story of a Bihar villager who put his family's name on the poverty list despite being quite rich but he could scarcely have imagined that it would cost his son a bride!

That's what happened to Ramnath Singh (name changed), a resident of Bihat village in Begusarai district, about 125 km from here. Until a few days ago, he was a happy man as he was expecting a fat dowry from his son's marriage.

According to villagers, the girl's father Satish Prasad Singh (name changed) had visited the boy's house to hand over dowry in cash a few days ago. He was welcomed with good food and all other comforts.

But then a distant relative informed Satish Prasad that his would-be son-in-law's family figured in the below the poverty line (BPL) list.

'It was shocking for him and he immediately broke off the marriage negotiations,' a villager said.

A nervous Ramnath tried his best to convince Satish Prasad that he was a rich man, far above the poverty list status. He reportedly even confessed that the family had deliberately put its name in the BPL list to get government benefits.

'The groom's father claimed that he owned a multi-storey building, landed property, vehicles and fat deposits in different banks but the girl's father was not ready to believe his words and came back with the dowry,' the villager said.

'The girl's father not only declined to offer the negotiated dowry of Rs.500,000 to the boy's father but also nullified the proposal,' the villager said.

Ramnath felt dejected and admitted that putting the son's name on the poverty list had been a wrong decision. He plans to remove it from the list for future matches for his son, but for now the damage has been done.

The case has once again exposed irregularities in the official list of the poorest of the poor.

In the past it has been reported that ministers, legislators, rich contractors and officials have figured in the BPL list prepared by the Nitish Kumar government.

In the Charpokhri village block in Bhojpur district, about 60 km from here, even the names of 101 dead people have been found in the list.

All this when many landless poor who live in dire poverty are not included.

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Where Children are cheaper than buffaloes

Nearly 300 Indian children who have had to work or been victims of abuse, marched to the venue of the South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (SAARC) summit held in New Delhi, Capital of India. They highlighted the issue of cross-border child trafficking. As per them..............

“Children are purchased like buffaloes,” said the BBA’s Bhuvan Ribhu, quoting a study that is due to be released later this year.

“While buffaloes may cost up to Rs15,000 ($350), children are sold at prices between Rs500 and Rs2,000 ($12 and $45),” he said.

For instance, two brothers in Bihar were recently given away for Rs250 each by their parents and trafficked out of the state in connivance with police, Ribhu said.

Read more.............Help and protect us, children tell Saarc leaders

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Living on less than 26 cents a day, there are 200 million such Indians

Can anyone ever dream off, two third of American population living on less than 26 cents a day? India is nowadays being projected as 'India Shining', it's economy booming, it's GDP growing at 8-9 % per annum. But how much it is benefiting the rural Indian population, below data shall reveal very much. As per one News report here is some startling data. This data is as per one report prepared by The National Sample Survey Organization.

a) More than 200 million people in rural India, lived on 12 Indian rupees
(26 cents) a day or less.
b) In India Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chattisgarh and
Uttar Pradesh are the poorest Indian states.
c) In Orissa and Chattisgarh 55 to 57 percent of villagers lived on 12
Indian rupees (26 cents) a day.
d) 10 percent of the rural population all across India lived on just 9
Indian rupees (20 cents) a day.
e) 30 percent of poor in India's cities lived on just 19 Indian rupees
(42 cents) a day.
f) 10 percent of poor in India's cities lived on just 13 Indian
rupees (28 cents) a day.
g) In Madhya Pradesh, 47 percent of the rural population lived on
12 Indian rupees (26 cents) a day, followed by Bihar and Jharkhand,
where 46 percent were living on that amount.
h) In Uttar Pradesh, 33 percent of the rural population lived on 12
Indian rupees (26 cents) a day, while in Maharashtra, home to India's
financial hub, Mumbai, 30 percent lived on that amount.
i) In Bihar, as many as 55 percent of the urban population were living
on 19 Indian rupees (42 cents) a day, followed by Orissa with 50 percent.

Isn't these are weird statistics & show how benefits of economic boom in India are hardly reaching the rural masses.

Picture Credit: rediff.com

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