THE UN in its annual report, which was published yesterday, has recognised India’s role in decrease in global poverty. The UN’s Millennium Development Goals report further points out that though  poverty has dropped across the globe, there has not been much improvement in the condition of vulnerable sections of society. Eastern Asia, particularly China, has seen the sharpest decrease in poverty, with figures expected to drop below 5 per cent by 2015.

 

Poverty figures have dropped significantly also in India and are estimated to come down to around 22 per cent by 2015. Poverty in India stood at 51% in 1990. In India and China together, people living in extreme poverty decreased by 455 million between 1990 and 2005. Another 320 million people will see an improvement in their financial status by 2015.

 

The report also gave an analysis of the world’s eight social and economic targets, which include eliminating extreme poverty, promote gender equality, to fight HIV/AIDS etc, and how far it will be successful in achieving these goals by 2015. It noted that although the 2008-2009 economic crises dealt a big blow to the world’s poverty eradication goal, it has still come a long way and achieved great success. By 2015, the world poverty will fall below 15%, compared to the set target of 23%.

 

Despite all the success, not much has been done for the vulnerable sections of the society; for instance, poor children are still not getting proper nourishment, though the cases of tuberculosis are declining. Also, the report evaluated the efforts towards environmental sustainability. It said that while South America was doing the least towards this goal, Asia, especially, China, has achieved some success. Asia’s afforestation programme has helped the continent experience a net gain of 2.2 million hectares per year during the past decade.