If we view Indian society today from both social and economic perspectives, we find that our society is facing an alarming situation. Unrestrained sexual indulgence within and outside of marriage has resulted in a startling increase in population that has caused many people to fall below the poverty line.
On Thursday, May 11, 2000, a baby girl born at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi brought India's population total to 1 BILLION people. From 550 million in 1975-in a mere 25 years since this booklet was originally published-India's population has nearly doubled. Back then, 50% of the people, or 275 million, lived below the poverty line, according to an article in The Blitz dated 1" November 1975. The number of people below the poverty line today has, in spite of stupendous efforts to reduce it, remained about the same, or, according to some sources, even increased to one-third of the total population, or 330 million people².
At the Union Health Ministry in New Delhi there is a population 'clock ticking relentlessly: 33 births a minute³, nearly 2,000 births an hour, close to 48,000 births a day, over 17 million births in a year! However even though the death rate is also high-16 deaths per minute, nearly 8.5 million persons per year-population growth continues to underlie all economic, environmental and social problems. It is well known that the country's resources cannot keep pace with the rapid rise in population mentioned above. Housing, trade, industry, employment and education cannot be provided to all at a rate that keeps up with it, thus all plans to improve the standard of living of the poor are in fact in vain.
Over half of India's population (65%) lives in villages, but a good third lives in cities. Sixteen million people live in Mumbai alone, with about half a million more moving there every year, 60% of these live in the slums. Another 100,000 people live on the streets, in empty sewer pipes or in the corners of the railway stations including children in the tens of thousands, many of them orphans, many of them below the age of 5. In Calcutta, the scene is even more ghastly. Even in India's 'garden city' Bangalore there are over 400 slums and nearly half a million slum dwellers.
Those living below the poverty line often do not have proper food or clothing. In the Human Development Report 2000, India fell from 115th to 124th position in the human index. Nearly a quarter of India's people suffer from malnutrition. There are over 150,000 women and children living with HIV/AIDS. There are around 10,000 persons suffering with malaria and another 10,000 with tuberculosis. If you were born in India, you have a 17 per cent chance of surviving to the age of 40.
NDTV reports, in November 20027, that "Fifty-five years after independence, thousands of destitute people in Uttar Pradesh (UP) fail to get even one square meal a day. Nearly 12-60 per cent of people in 770 cities and towns in UP live below the poverty line, with employment and housing schemes failing to reach those that need them most... Every winter morning is a fresh fight against hunger. For most destitute people this ends at the gates of the temple where devotees distribute prasad. They live outside religious places trying to survive on intermittent meals, and are so weakened by hunger that even a common cold can kill them.
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