That isn’t possible, and it isn’t true. India may be high up on the list of countries exporting her skills to the US, or providing cheap labor to make pricey goods for rich consumers the world over. But no sir/m’am, India does not “export” her poverty to other nations. On the contrary, millions of refugees from neighboring nations continue to flock to India… abused by their own people, or by their respective governments, men, women and children have fled to India to escape the atrocities inflicted upon them.
Despite the resultant furore among the elite or educated population in the nation, no Indian has taken the lead towards the physical removal of such refugees nor has anyone attempted to decimate the existence of countless that are a threat to India’s own progress… the exponential population growth thus caused, the ensuing poverty, infrastructural paucity, inadequate housing or medical facilities, a lack of schools and fundamental educational infrastructure… Hence, without fear, thousands of people add on to the now well-over-a-billion national population. Does the Census have a fix on these numbers? No… these refugees are scattered everywhere… often in camps pitched across different parts of India, depending on where they came from… Sri Lanka to the South, Tibet to the North-East, or from Bangladesh in the East… whether due to floods, famine or fear of their governments’ oppression. As time progresses, they seek work and compete with the local populace.
Despite the front-page “shocking” picture displaying a kid’s gaunt face, sunken eyes on a head that just about sat on a frail, under-nourished body, the article in The New York Times was not quite an eye opener. Pictures of poverty have been shamefully displayed across major media, especially of those from South Asia, Africa, and a few from the Far East… not just today, but for decades.
Almost 300 comments, including those from compassionate readers interspersed with some poignant remarks from some cynics made for interesting reading.
Words-n-Motion 