Poverty
Don’t let all the potential of girls and boys go to waste. Just because they were born into hunger and poverty, doesn’t mean they can’t have a bright future. Together, we can empower poverty-stricken families to fight hunger and end poverty for this generation and beyond. When you donate money to HelpAid programs that fight hunger, you support our lifesaving work. Removing poverty means it is necessary to increase productivity of the poor. The poor should be given more employment. More investment should be made in public and private sectors to generate employment.
HelpAid aims to educate citizens about the government initiative/poverty alleviation programs. The main objective of the schemes introduced by government was to create wage employment for families below poverty line and improving the quality of life in rural areas.
Poverty alleviation programs are:
- Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) which was launched in April 1999 to help the families below poverty line by providing financial assistance and technology arrangement.
- Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY) was generating employment for those men and women who do not get sufficient days of employment in rural areas.
- Prime Ministers Rozgar Yozna (PMRY) and Swaranajayanti Shahari Rojgar Yojana (SJSRY) were launched to provide self-employment to the educated unemployed in the urban areas.
- Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS and Pradhanmantri Gramodya Yojana (PMGY) were launched in 1999 and 2000-01 respectively.
Some of the issues are:
1. Issue: Unemployment:
Lack of access to job training and opportunities continue the poverty cycle for Indian families. Many metropolitan cities in India have many jobs available but only for skilled workers. We don’t want poverty to hold back talented and hard-working youth from finding good jobs!
How HelpAid will help: HelpAid plans to have a Career Readiness Centers, which will prepares youth/job seekers for the workplace with career counselling, resume writing instruction, mock job interviews, exposure visits to local companies, soft skills programs, job fairs and motivational talks from other successful youth and business professionals.
2. Issue: Illiteracy:
The Indian educational experience is decidedly lacking. Densely populated areas, like the slums, have an inadequate teacher-to-child ratio. Conditions are so poor and supplies so scarce that students barely have the chance to learn in the classroom.
How HelpAid will help: HelpAid aims to have Childhood Development program which helps to bridge the “readiness gap” by poorer children. Basic lessons on alphabet and numbers, shapes and color, singing and speaking, poetry etc. give them a head start and clear advantage in India’s competitive lottery-based placement system. Scholarships allow determined youth to continue their schooling or learn vocational skills because the development of country depends on the children and youth of the country.
3. Issue: Health:
Poor hygienic conditions make life miserable for those who live in the slums of India. About one-third of Indian children suffer from lung problems due to pollution and unsafe living.
How HelpAid will help: Access to regular health care and medicine give sponsored kids a real advantage over their less-fortunate peers. HelpAid team plans to train their peers on proper health and hygiene and provide basic first aid in their communities.
4. Issue: Child Labor:
Due to lack of support and education children are forced to work depriving children of their childhood, their ability to attend regular school. Child labour causes children to be mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful.
How HelpAid will help: Importance of education and career guidance programs will be organized in the streets of slums through ‘street plays’ in the regional languages to help people understand the need of education and eradicate child labor.
