UN Development Reports Claims 2 Billion Poor and 1 Billion Hungry Worldwide

More than 2.2 billion people worldwide are “either near or living in poverty”， according to United Nations Development Report released on July 24th last month. The Report says that about 1.2 billion people survive on 1.25 US Dollars equivalent or less per day worldwide and 12 percent of globe’s population is suffering from chronic hunger. The Report also concludes that reason for the hunger is not shortage of resources as global economy produces enough resources to provide sufficient and decent standard of living to every man， woman and child but it is the distribution of wealth where problem lays as world’s 85 wealthiest persons own as much wealth as 3.5 billion poorest people combined. Report considers many aspects including mass poverty， deprivation， social injustice， inequality， and access to basic facilities among others while calculating poverty and claims that 1.5 billion people are living in “multi-dimensional” poverty with overlapping deprivations in living， food， health， education， and safe drinking water. Report also says that another 800 million are living on the verge of slipping back into poverty. The largest concentration of extreme poverty is in South Asia region where more than 800 million are living in poverty and over 270 million are “near-poor” which is almost 70 percent of total population of the region comprising Afghanistan， Bhutan， India， Maldives， Nepal， Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The report pays particular attention to the conditions of children in developing countries. Of these children 7 in 100 will not survive beyond age of 5， 50 will not have their birth registered， 68 will not receive early childhood education，17 will never attend primary school， 30 will be stunted and 25 will live in poverty.