UN: 234 million people in severe poverty in India

The latest Multidimensional Poverty Index data released by UNDP finds that among the 1.1 billion people in the most extreme condition, 1 in 5 live in India. Rural areas have the most extreme situations. Fr. Nithiya Sagayam to AsiaNews: “Data that also challenge us as a Church. When will we see a true social synodality?"

Mumbai (AsiaNews) - India is among the five countries globally with the highest number of people living in poverty. This is noted in the latest update of the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), released in recent days by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

According to this report, 1.1 billion people, more than half of whom are children, live in severe poverty worldwide; of these, 40 percent live in countries at war or in fragile or precarious peace.

India has as many as 234 million people living in poverty, followed by Pakistan (93 million), Ethiopia (86 million), Nigeria (74 million) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (66 million). Together, these five countries account for nearly half (48.1 percent) of the 1.1 billion poor.

In South Asia 272 million of the poor live in households with at least one undernourished person, even more than the 256 million in sub-Saharan Africa. Globally, about 83.7 percent of the poor live in rural areas. In all regions of the world, rural dwellers are poorer than those in urban areas. Overall, 28 percent of the global rural population is poor, compared to 6.6 percent of the urban population.

“These figures come as a great shock,” comments Fr. Nithiya Sagayam, Capuchin friar secretary of the Tamil Nadu Bishops‘ Conference Commission for the Most Emerginated Social Groups and former executive secretary of the Indian Bishops’ Conference (CBCI) Commission on Justice, Peace and Development.

“We have neglected the social and economic development of the people. Many resources are being shifted to corporate sectors. We have failed to raise our voice against this phenomenon. The Pope has made it very clear that the Church should be the Church of the poor.”

And it is a challenge that touches specifically on the Indian Church, “In all our institutions, where is the policy for the poor? - Fr. Sagayam continues. In schools, it doesn't exist; where do tribals and dalits end up? We would need a social synodality, related to oppression, caste system, divisions, discrimination, rights, rituals... Inequality, low status of women in society, illiteracy, unemployment, stagnant rural wages-these are all issues we don't worry about. India needs an economic-social synodality if we want to give answers to the people and their needs.”

Photo: Flickr / ILRI