Goal 1
No poverty
What a utopian world would it be, where there is no poverty, of any kind? Where nobody has to beg for a penny or go to sleep hungry? Right? Wrong. The world we live in aims to eradicate, poverty from the face of earth, by 2030. This is the first Sustainable Development Goal, set by the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP). We’ve come a long way, a little closer to our aim. From 1990 to 2015, poverty has reduced as much as more than half times than before. From 1.9 billion in 1990 to 836 million in 2015 as stated by various sources. As much as this is a huge achievement, it can’t be ignored how further we still have to go.
The goal was formed keeping in mind that this is one of the growing problems of modern world. Many fails to understand the gravity of the situation. More than half the population still lives with less than $1.25 per day. How are we expected to progress and develop if majority of people don’t have enough food to survive? Poverty is multidimensional. It just doesn’t include not having enough money to operate, it includes various other factors as well. Keeping all these factors alive we move forward.
Over the course of 25 years, multiple nations have taken various steps to eradicate poverty. For example, in India, the government opened a larger pool of job prospects. Giving an opportunity to the needy to earn a living. Another such initiative was, providing loans at minimum to no interest to farmers. Not only India, several other countries are taking their own share of measures to remove extreme poverty. If we go on with this rate then by 2030, we could remove 4% of extreme poverty, however if the aim is to remove completely then some larger initiative has to be taken in the historical movement. The aim must be a little tough to imagine but that doesn’t mean it can’t be achieved. As it’s said, be the change you wish to see, so even these tiny steps will lead us to what we want.