ARE ALL THE POOR, ‘POOR’?

There are three kinds of poor people in our society depending on the option they have in their day-today life.

1.      No Option

2.      Less Option

3.      Multi Option

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o Option: These are the people who do not have anything extra in their life. In simple language we can term this people as ‘rub the ten fingers and lick the five fingers.’ Only if they work, they can have something to fill their stomach, something to cover their body and shelter their bedding. ‘No work – No Food’ seems to be their policy. Not that they cannot do hard work, they do it. Simply because, they are ‘thrown’ into such existence. May be the political situation, social stratification or situational condition is the cause of their plight. The people dying of hunger in African countries and in the rural and villages of India can be the examples.

If at all any little “donation” made by such people, it is worth lakhs of rupees which a rich man has given. During the Tsunami time, people were collecting funds to re-establish the affected people. In one of such collections, a tribal poor woman, may be in her late sixties comes forward and puts five rupee coin in the box telling, “Beta, mere paas keval itna hi hain.”  I tell you, “She gave her everything through that coin”. It is not less than a ‘Widow’s mite.” Mother Teresa once rejected the offer of lakhs of rupees from a rich merchant, just because she loved the ‘no option’ people, just because such people cannot give you anything in return, not even a ‘thank you.’

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ess Option: These are the people who have something to substitute for a certain duration of their life if deprived of work. In other words, even if they are not working for few days, they can survive for few days, because they have ‘learnt the art of saving.’ However, their saving is so meager that it is really the savings which is the result of tightening their waist sash. When a sudden financial crisis arises in their own life or in the life of people who depend on them, they have nowhere to go, but to count the endless stars in the sky. Such are the people, who commit in UP, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and elsewhere in our country who commit suicide when they fail in their crops, when epidemic spreads in their family.

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ulti Option: These are the people whom the Booker winning author Arundhati Roy spoke about, ‘Poverty at the time of Plenty.’ They have multi-options in their life. Either, they will be fed like ‘Big Belly Uncle Sam’ but act as if they are ‘hasthipanjara’ (only bones) in a museum.   They will be having bank balance, or their family members may be in a well to do position, yet ‘go hungry.’ However, the greater crisis, they too collapse;  such as, Bypass surgery of their children, Chronic illness like Cancer which needs lakhs of rupees for the treatment.  It is here they need assistance or else they don’t deserve to be helped.  For me, it is nothing but a paradox.

Coming to the discussion on poor, everybody wants to help the poor. May be with their own ideologies of helping. I am not against it. But I am concerned about the target group one wants to help. Rabindranath Tagore rightly pointed out in his Gitanjali which implies, ‘Stop counting the beads you missionaries…, whose God are you worshiping?’ Having known the strata of poor people, whom are we serving? Is our target group ‘No Option’ people, ‘Less Option’ people or ‘multi option’ people?

People come with cheques of donations with an intention to get tax exemption. Such people aim at the third level of poor people. They earn lakhs of rupees per month or annum and spend not even 1% for the charity. Can this be called a charity? On the other hand, Some people want to organize conscientizing programs for the poor people. Whom are they target for? Is it the Lowest grade of poor people or the middle class poor people? Often it is ‘Less Option’ people. Our sermons to whom it is addressed? Is it privileged or under-privileged? Our writings, media to whom it is addressed? We need a new thinking, new way of looking at the reality, maybe we need to ‘reframe’ ourselves.