India: Poverty, a millennium challenge
By Jan Tore Skjelbek/ Fagforbundet (Norway)
 India most certainly is a country where the fight to eradicate poverty is a challenge. Anandalakshmi Vaidhiyanathan PSI’s sub-regional secretary for South Asia got to the heart of the matter when she spoke at a Congress in Oslo,
Norway, on 22 October.
“There are similarities between poverty in India and in Norway, but in India large numbers of people do not have any access to food. In Norway there is food, but for some there is no money to buy it”, Vaidhiyanathan explained. She was invited to a
one-day conference on poverty and the millennium development goals, organised by PSI affiliate Fagforbundet.
She gave the conference a look into a country where there are schools without teachers, where millions of people have to survive on an extremely low budget and where abundance of wealth lives side by side with deep poverty. Good governance is still a big issue in the world’s largest democracy.
‘Honorary workers’
Vaidhiyanathan especially drew the Congress' attention to the 2.5 million child care workers, also known as ‘honorary workers’. They are paid less than a dollar a day, helping millions of poor children through the day. In one Indian state the trade union managed to make them regular public employees, but in the rest of the country they are
living on practically nothing.
“Due to low pay, there is a tremendous brain drain from the public sector, which is without doubt the back bone of India. People continuously are looking for greener pastures in private business. Making it harder to achieve quality public services”, says Vaidhiyanathan.
“We need to put pressure on the government of Indiato make them invest more in public services such as education, health, nutrition and child care”.
Regional variations
Meeting the millennium development goals will be challenging and especially will require action in the poorest states, districts and villages. There are very big variations in millennium development indicators throughout India. For instance, the country average is 66 infant deaths
per 1,000 live births. But it varies from a figure of 11 in Kerala to 90 in Orissa.
The poor and also most populous states, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Orissa, and Madhya Pradesh will be accounting for an even bigger share of India’s population in 2015. The success of fighting poverty will largely depend on the performance of these states.
Trade unions are making a difference, but are also met with scepticism. Trade unions are involved in many essential activities to fight poverty. For example, organizing blood donation campaigns and work for the empowerment of women.
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