Poverty alleviation: correcting imbalances of resources

During the period 7?9 February 2001, a major event was organized by TERI called the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. The event was inaugurated by the Hon?ble Prime Minister of India, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who gave a thought-provoking address, which not only highlighted the need for the developed countries to take action globally for protecting the environment and pursuing sustainable development, but also reflected on the need to address the problem of poverty effectively in the developing world. Mr Vajpayee said, ?Consumerism of the super-rich has become a curse for the global environment. We can hardly hope to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development by globalizing this curse.? This is indeed a powerful statement that has serious implications for the way Indian society and this nation must develop. The enormous disparities in the world community reflects itself within developing societies such as India as well, and is tantamount to the globalization of the curse that India?s Prime Minister has referred to. He also made a major appeal for setting up a Global Poverty Alleviation Fund, contributions to which, he suggested, could come through an imposition of an international levy on capital flows between developed countries, and all capital repatriations from developing countries. Much attention and a great deal of hope has been raised by recent meetings on the subject of poverty, including the Millennium Summit convened by the UN Secretary General in September of last year. But there appears to be no translation of those widely expressed concerns into commitments for provision of resources to really make an impact on poverty alleviation. Perhaps, a widespread debate is now timely and overdue for correcting the imbalance in resources between the North and the South and to ensure that alleviation of poverty is not merely the subject of high-level meetings round the globe but actually results in a handfull of rice and basic nutritional requirements flowing in the bowls of the impoverished round the world.