Blog Action Day - Poverty

While visiting my friend Michelle 's blog in Ukraine I came to know that today is Blog Action Day on which bloggers worldwide a choose burning topic to blog about. This year 's theme is POVERTY. India is a land of untold wealth, natural resources and man-power yet she is in the vicious grip of poverty and destitution.

Illiteracy,the vagaries of nature, feudal and caste system, over population, corruption in society, lack of proper governance, unemployment, disturbances in society like terrorism and communal violence and colonial rule are some of the causes which have enslaved my countrymen into poverty.

We have made phenomenal progress in the past 60 years of Independence but we are hampered at every step by the above mentioned reasons.

Let me introduce you to some people from impoverished backgrounds.And tell you their stories


This is Jagarnath, who is the odd-job man for our church. He belongs to a poor peasant community. His large joint family struggles to maintain a small farm in a nearby village and Jagarnath has to come to the city to work in order to earn extra money.He can read a little bit and has learnt some city ways. But he turns to his village customs when he needs to remedy something.

Sometime ago he had pain in his eye. Mom and I sent him to a semi-govt. charitable hospital. He returned after a couple of hours and said he had to pay Rs 25 (about 50 cents) to see a doctor, so how could it be charity.

They took him into a room where a man vigorously washed his eye which he did not like at all.Then they made him read some writing on a chart (vision test). A man said his eyesight was weak and he had to buy eye-glasses for Rs 400 (about $10).

Jagarnath found this absolutely ridiculous and walked out of the hospital in a huff. He showed us a scrap of paper which we could not decipher.

We tried to send him to another place which was completely free but he refused . He took some leaves of the neem tree, heated them and bandaged them on his eye like a poultice and after a while his pain was gone.Good old village treatment!

This is Teerathnath, Jagarnath 's younger brother. He also comes to the city occasionally to earn money as a daily wage labourer when there is a financial crisis at home.We provide both brothers and other working visitors from their village free shelter on our church campus.

When he went home his wife made us some rustic sweets as a thank you present. I have seen that the poor are very large hearted.

This is our goat lady. She comes over to take grass and suitable leaves and greens for her few goats.We give these people our vegetable and fruit peelings for their animals. In India nothing is wasted.

The man and two women are daily wage migrant labourers from Bilaspur

They are prisoners of abject poverty so contractors hire them and bring them to the city to work on building sites. Sometimes they work as bonded labourers when they cannot repay their debts.

These are the children of one of the women.They can 't go to school as they hang around the place where their mother is working.

There are several NGOs and Govt. organizations who are providing education and help to children like these.

I could go on forever but let me end with this powerful video in which you can see the wealth and poverty of India rubbing shoulders. Yet the divide between the rich and the poor can be likened to the chasm between heaven and hell.

We are called to do whatever we can to provide succor to the dregs of society and show them the love of God

Check out Julia 's blog for a stirring post on the same subject

This is the witness

of Job who faithfully walked with God.

12 because I rescued the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to assist him.
13 The man who was dying blessed me; I made the widow's heart sing.
14 I put on righteousness as my clothing; justice was my robe and my turban.
15 I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy; I took up the case of the stranger.
17 I broke the fangs of the wicked and snatched the victims from their teeth. Job 29 ;12-17 (Bible)