How the poor cope or not at all!

For the last few months, high unemployment figures in the west, falling sales of consumer items, bank closure, relief packages for the car giants in Detroit have captured media attention. The news of the rich who have suddenly become poor, giving up their exotic holidays, buying at cheap stores, giving up purchases of designer clothes, living with their old car for one more year have been regularly appearing in the media.
Very few reports or none at all have come out on how the poor who are already living on the brink, cope. Let us examine food first. In poor communities almost 80 per cent of the daily wage is spent on basic food items, now with lower incomes or no income at all the poor often go hungry, missing out on meals. The first item to vanish from the diet is the source of protective and body building protein such as eggs, fish and legumes. Vegetables and fruit go next, making growing children and pregnant women vulnerable to disease.
Health care suffers when disease strikes, giving up the seeking of early treatment and care for girls and women, rather than boys and men, and often reverting to poor quality public health services, if and when available. Education is the next to suffer, families pulling out girls first and later boys, sending them on to various forms of child labour and exploitation.
At this crucial juncture, as a nation we should not allow the situation to aggravate any further for about 20 to 30 per cent of the population who live below the poverty line. Grassroots workers of CINI are regularly monitoring nutrition, health, education and protection indicators among vulnerable children and women and working with elected representatives to find appropriate local solutions. The Child and Woman Friendly Community (CWFC) approach adopted by CINI is very useful to monitor such vital events. CINI sends its appeal to all donors and supporters to remain by its side so that the poor and vulnerable get a second chance.