Acharya Mahaprajna
Let us look at the present scenario. According to the UNDP report mentioned earlier, there are five hundred and thirty crore people in the world (since then increased further). Out of them, one hundred and thirty crore are rich or live in rich countries, and four hundred crore people are poor who live in developing countries.
This is a disquieting disparity. It means that 70 per cent are poor. The poor get only 19 per cent of the income of the world. The balance 81 per cent goes into the pockets of the rich (the 30 per cent). In this context of stark disparity, any talk about eradication of poverty appears ridiculous. The key to the eradication of poverty is in the hands of the rich countries. They could remove poverty if they want, or contrarily, they may even enhance it they so wish.
The question is why would they want to do it?
