–A new UNICEF report tells us there are more hungry people in South Asia, a reminder of the inequalities that exist and the role we need to play to eliminate them–UNICEF reports that the impact of the economic crisis on women and children in South Asia has in the past two years resulted in a jump of 100 million in the number of people who are hungry. More than 400 million people are now chronically hungry in the region. Those earning less than two dollars a day spend up to 80% of that on food. UNICEF economist Aniruddha Bonerjee is concerned that this means that many families “have been forced into choices that one cannot accept” referring to parents feeling forced to pull their children out of school and sending them back to work in order to have enough for food. The region’s poor have born the brunt of the economic crisis and UNICEF regional director has called on India and Pakistan “to urgently reduce their defense spending and increase their social investments…”
One thing such news items assert are the inequalities existing in the world, and most of all the injustice these inequalities stand for. As such they become a reminder that we have the responsibility to put aside complacency and participate in any way possible to lessen their impact, if not their existence.
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