One day, sitting idle on my couch, I was going through a magazine. As I was flipping the pages of the magazine, I saw an article with a headline "WHAT'S THERE IN NUMBERS".
Instantly, I replied to myself, we need NUMBERS to measure the value of anything in this world, be it weight, height, temperature, price etc. Numbers form the basis of measurement. Without Numbers, we wouldn't be able to scale anything. A common answer to a common question. But I still wasn't able to decipher why the author has used such a common title for an article. With that, I decided not to waste my time reading that article. I didn't know at that time that these three words will change my thinking forever.
A few days back, I saw the Global Hunger Index Report 2012 released by International Food Policy Research Institute. I was completely shocked and bed stricken to see India lagging behind at 65th spot out of 79 countries in global hunger index, even behind our neighbours Pakistan, Srilanka, Myanmar, Nepal. I wouldn't count China here because it would be a foolishness on my part to even compare 2nd ranked China with lowly 65th ranked India. India and China aren't comparable in any sense. But, people still compare them, don't know why ?
Leaving this China topic behind, let's move forward. I was not only shocked by the number but it was bewildering for me. After reading the report, the only sentence which came to my mind was "what's there in numbers". For the past decade or so, we Indians have clamored about our growth story. We have taken pride in being one of the top five fastest growing nations of the last decade. An average growth of about 8% p.a. may have been impressive but what's the point of achieving such high numbers when the growth is not inclusive. The needy, poor in our country are feeling left out because they haven't been benefited by this illusionary growth story. We have been so mesmerized by these growth numbers that we have overlooked the plight of poor in this country. We haven't even dared to look whether the benefits of this growth are reaching the desired people or not. Poor people, especially children are dying because of hunger. According to a data, in India, around 6 million people have died out of hunger in the last decade or so. These are staggering numbers. Don't we Humans know, Hunger is the worst method to die from. Let all of us come forward and make efforts for a better, hunger free India. Hope never dies.!!!
