& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Economic Growth Fails to Ease Lives of Asia's-Poor

Depthnews Reports from Bangkok
EVERY night in many parts of the. world, some 550 million people go to bed hungry.
Of the worlds estimated 1994 population of 5.6 billion, more than a billion live in a state of absolute poverty with Income and consumption levels below nationally difined poverty lines. These people survive without many of life's basic necessities on an income of less than US $370 a year.
For the poor, life expectancy in short. Disease, hunger, malnutrition and crime constantly threaten the life and limb of these people.
Although the poor are in virtually every country, the overwhelming majority are in the developing world. The Asia-Pacifit. home to about 3.6 billion people — almost 64 per cent of the global total — has also most of the world's poor.
The annual Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific, issued by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said : “Nearly three-fourths of the world's 1.1 billion poor people live in the ESCAP region. In terms of absolute numbers, the poor are highly concentrated in the region's more populous and densely Inhabited countries such as Bangladesh. China. India, Indonesia and Pakistan. The proportion of the poor in several other countries with small to medium-size popula tions Is also quite high”.
"The latest data indicate that Bangladesh. China. India. Indonesia, the Islamic Repub-" lie of Iran. Nepal. -Pakistan. Philippines. Sri Lanka, and Thailand, together contained some 465 million poor people." it said.
ESCAP also pointed out that the number understated the magnitude of poverty since the data included only the rural poor for Bangladesh. China and the Islamic Republic of Iran. "Afghanistan. Cambodia. Lao People's Democratic Republic. Myanmar. Papua New Guinea and Viet Nam are probably other countries with sizeable populations below the poverty line; the relevant information for these countries is not available." it said.
The rural poor represent more than 80 per cent of the total number of impoverished people in developing coun-
tries. South Asia, home to 30 per cent of the world's population. accounts for almost half of the world's severely impoverished people.
The UN agency also stressed that poverty is not simply and exclusively a rural phenomenon. Neither is it more severe in its impact in rural than in urban areas.
"The urban areas generally have better health, education, water and sanitation facilities, but. the access of the urban poor to those facilities is neither guaranteed nor necessarily qualitatively better than those available to the rural poor. The urban poor suffer from squalid housing, contam- ' inaled water, chemical pollution. and a congested and unhealthy environment, conditions generally worse than those facing the rural poor," the Report said.
Poverty not only continues to worsen in urban areas but. according to the Survey, the decline in the incidence of poverty in these places has not been as fast as in rural areas. "This is because urban poverty is partly a spillover from rural poverty through the migration of the rural poor to urban areas in search of job opportunities."’ il pointed out.
Poverty has also begun to swell In the developed nations. In the United States and Europe. nearly 15 per cent of the population live below the poverty line.
Thus, at present, one out of every five people lives below the poverty line. Some 13 to 18 million people die every year of poverty-related causes. Moreover, the ranks of those suffering extreme poverty are expected to increase four-fold within one lifetime if current economic and demographic trends continue.
UN Secretary-General Ffoutros Boutros-Ghali laments. "The world is suffering from a social and moral crisis which, in many societies, is of immense proportions.'"
He stressed : "It is unacceptable that individuals and societies with the fewest resources — the poor, the unemployed, the weak and the vulnerable (should have to bear) the greatest burden of the economic and social transformation of our world".
As the problem of poverty has become global in scope
and with national boundaries becoming increasingly less rigid, its solution could not be other than the result of the collaboration and cooperation of the international community.
Responding to the socially deteriorating, conditions worldwide, the UN is spearheading the World Summit for Social Development to be held 6-12 March -1995 in Copenhagen. Denmark, It will address three issues.: poverty, unemployment and social disintegration.
Mr Ghall explains this UN initiative "The United Nations' role is to be in the forefront of social progress . . The Social Summit will be both a test and an indication of the commitment of International society to help the most impoverished. This is ,a rendezvous that we must not miss.'' ’
He said it is the ultimate responsibility of governments to ensure that current major problems — poverty, unemployment and social disintegration — are addressed through principles based on social Justice and democracy. Actions to deal with these issues must be built on respect for human dignity, individual freedom and equality of rights anti responsibilities.
The UN official said : The globalization of economies (characterized by increasing interdependence in everything from markets to population movements to decision-making modalities) should benefit all people."
This concern about ensuring that benefits are Spread to all people is shared by the Asia-Pacific where, despite impressive economic growth rates in many countries, large pockets of populations remain impoverished.
"Notwithstanding the economic growth and political reforms recorded in developing countries across. Asia and the Pacific in recent years, the region's fundamental social objectives of the eradication of absolute poverty', enhancement of population participation and realization of distributive Justice have "yet to be fully achieved." ESCAP said.
ESCAP, in anticipation of the Copenhagen meeting, is
holding the Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference In Preparation for the- World Summit for Social Development in Manila 12-18 October.
The centrepiece of the week-long ministerial conference is the draft Social Development Agenda for the ESCAP Region into the Twenty-first Century. The draft addresses critical Issues by identifying specific courses of action to be taken by the countries in the .region, individually and together.
"With this Agenda, the governments of Asia and the Pacific reaffirm their commitment to the region's social de veloprnent objectives by adopt Ing a series of specific, timebound goals and targets, as well as the means for assessing national and regional progress towards the attainment of those goals and targets," ESCAP said
The Agenda, according to ESCAP, was adopted In anticipation and in support of global initiatives to be considered at the World Summit H casts the. three themes of poverty allevi-
ation. social integration and employment expansion in terms of specific priorities and actions for the region. It also builds upon the Social Development Strategy for Asia and the Pacific towards the Year 2000 adopted by the Fourth Asian and Pacific Ministerial Conference on Social Development in Manila In 1991
The Agenda identifies social development goals and targets for the ESCAP region. It also sets out the. means govern-mentq should employ to pursue them.