ADBI E-Newsline

"About 37 million Indonesians are currently living below the poverty line. Through the National Program for Community Empowerment, the government has allocated Rp 10.4 trillion ($1 billion) to every district and Rp 1.7 billion for employment-related development activities to help tackle poverty. It is hoped that the management of this enormous fund, which has its origins in foreign debt, comes with high levels of transparency and supervision.

For development, more important than 'productive investment,' is investment in the poor, in particular in children's health and education. Many countries that have applied this are currently reaping the results, such as Malaysia and Korea. Without it, a vicious circle will only take place."

"Like other developing countries Pakistan has poverty, illiteracy, population growth, unplanned urbanization, unemployment, gender discrimination dysfunctional families, rural-urban as well as cross-border migration, and non prevalence of a comprehensive social security and support system. All these problems are contributing factors for promotion of human trafficking. During last 10 years, estimated number of 200,000 women and girls, between 12-30, has been trafficked from Bangladesh to Pakistan.

The reason why women and children are primary targets for traffickers is that they can in turn be sold to cater to a variety of needs ranging from sex-slavery to menial labor. Women and children trafficked within the confines of national borders may be used to settle disputes, or sold off to begging mafias. Recently trafficked women are also suspected of being used to operate 'baby farms', which cater to the growing demand for adoption in richer countries. Incidences of trafficking being linked to organ trade have also been reported."

"The global economic crisis is also a social crisis in Asia, with an estimated 60 million people remaining mired in poverty due to falling growth rates, according to the Asian Development Bank's managing director general. Rajat M. Nag said the estimated three percent drop in GDP between 2008-9 in developing Asia -- excluding Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- meant 60 million would fail to emerge from poverty. An extra 10 million people would be undernourished and around 56,000 more children aged under five would die.

Developing Asia at present exports 60 percent of its production to Japan, the Eurozone and the United States. Asia must boost consumption -- an important part of poverty reduction -- by saving less and spending more. The regional savings rate is very high, largely to compensate for the lack of welfare programs. Service industries should also be encouraged. At present, services in Asia are difficult to access because of protectionist or other measures."

"In Hiware Bazaar, what was once a perennially drought prone area is now a green zone. The village has neatly laid concrete roads, public toilets and sanitation systems. The men have virtually no vices as liquor and cigarettes are banned. Cattle grazing and tree felling is not allowed. The magical transformation has taken place because of voluntary labor of the residents to create a watershed and utilize the resources in a proper way.

Almost all of the population was below the poverty line just two decades ago. Migration to neighboring towns and cities was common. Today, this village is studied by researchers and activists as a model of rural sustainability through people's participation. Roadside plantations, cement concrete check dams, minor lakes and other watershed development programs were implemented through the voluntary donation of labor."

"Hundreds will be left without work next month with the closing of Phnom Penh's Stung Meanchey dump, an icon of poverty that has become an unlikely safety net for some of the city's poorest inhabitants. The site, which opened in 1965, is the main source of income for about 1,000 families. Despite a 50 percent drop in the price of recycled goods since last year, every week new people are arriving at the dump because it can still provide enough to live.

In April, the municipality approved a proposal that would turn the dump into a source for methane gas that could potentially provide electricity for 3,000 families. In order to collect the gas, a joint German-Cambodian company will cover the landfill with soil and plant trees on top. Yet news that the dump will be closed has instilled fear, rather than relief, in the people who depend on it. The 1,000 tons of trash that arrive each day will instead be trucked to a new site located about 15 kilometers outside of the city, where no scavengers will be allowed."

"Hundreds of child laborers in informal and/or illegal coal mines in Bamyan and Sar-e-Pol provinces, in central and northern Afghanistan respectively, have respiratory and eye infections and are exposed to other dangers, according to health officials in both provinces. Most child laborers said they were working in the mines to help their families but only got 150-300 Afghanis ($3-6) a day.

Coal mining in Afghanistan is a largely unregulated affair. Production is about 200,000 metric tons a year, but only about 20 percent is from government mines. Domestic demand for coal remains high, however, and this explains the large number of illegal and/or informal, small, artisanal mines, which use primitive methods and where health and safety, or environmental concerns, are barely a consideration."

"The health situation in the nation's rural areas is quite perilous. It is compounded by the widespread incidence of poverty and superstitious beliefs among rural dwellers. Rather than seek medical aid from qualified medical personnel even where they are available, most rural dwellers prefer to patronize herbal practitioners who rely essentially on trial and error to diagnose patients. Women and children who form the majority in rural areas are more affected by the situation.

It is a sad fact that most villages lack electricity, potable water, good roads, standard schools and modern communication facilities, among others. This is the area where the government takes the greater brunt of rural to urban migration. It is the duty of government to develop every part of the country so that people would be attracted to live and work in the rural areas with relative comfort. Although the government has a significant role to play in making rural areas attractive to medical personnel, doctors too must recognize that the medical profession requires a huge amount of commitment and sacrifice from practitioners."

"It is estimated that up to 70 percent of all marriages in Tajikistan are unregistered. In this poor and predominantly Muslim country many people, especially in the countryside, simply go to the local mullah for a 'nikaah,' or Islamic marriage. The practice became especially widespread during Tajikistan's brutal civil war in the 1990s. In the decade since the fighting ended, the wave of unregistered nikaah marriages has been followed by a corresponding wave of "talaaq" or Islamic divorces, leaving thousands of Tajik women and children destitute and completely unprotected by the law.

'I was pregnant with my fourth child when my husband left me,' says Marhaba. 'Look at this shack me and the children have to live in now. They can't even go to school, because I can't afford it and they don't have birth certificates.' "

"A shortage of cash has led authorities in Uzbekistan to delay paying pensions, according to observers. A media-watcher in the Bukhara region of western Uzbekistan says elderly people in the province have not received their pensions for two months now. The situation seems to be even worse in Khorezm in the northwest, as the cash flow problems are affecting the entire population.

Authorities have started deducting payments for electricity, gas and other utilities at source, apparently so as not to have to hand out so much cash. The benefit delays are a direct result of falling government revenues as businesses slow."

"There are nearly 1 billion people in the world who have been deprived of safe housing, with over a quarter of them living in South and Central Asia. Slums develop when migrants, often times farmers, move into the cities in search of greater economic opportunity, yet the city itself does not experience significant economic growth. Combined with extreme income inequity, such factors contribute to poverty among urban-dwellers living in the slums.

Residents of urban slums usually have extreme difficulty making ends meet. All members of the family, adults and children alike, often have to work all day every day just to earn enough money for simple food. In Hyderabad, India, approximately 40% of girl-children in the slums work as domestic laborers. Girls also complete jobs such as making incense sticks and rolling cigarettes, beedis, while boys do repair work and factory work. On average, these children only earn between 5-10 rupees a day, the American equivalent of 10-20 cents. However, even though children begin to contribute to their families' income much earlier than individuals in developed nations do, many children still do not receive nutritious food and, in turn end up malnourished."

"Malnutrition remains a major problem among children in Laos, with those in rural areas suffering most and less likely to attend school as a result, Lao officials and international sources say. In December, Laos adopted its first national nutrition policy in a bid to address chronic hunger, with involvement from 15 government ministries and institutions.

Laos has seen poverty fall from 46 percent to 33 percent from 1992-2002, but 40 percent of children under five still suffer from chronic malnutrition. UNICEF warned last year that infant death rates remain critical in Laos, citing malnutrition and contaminated drinking water as major causes. School is free and compulsory through the fifth grade, but high fees for books and a shortage of teachers in rural areas prevent many children from attending school."

"Infant and maternal mortality rates in Timor-Leste are being adversely affected by harmful traditions and practices, according to experts. But fighting them is a sensitive issue. After a mother gives birth, she will often stay by a fire for three months. They make a small bed beside the fire and sleep there while the fire burns 24 hours a day.

The heat from the fire is believed to help dispel 'dirty' blood from the body after birth. This can affect the baby's health as well as the mum. Timor-Leste has one of the fastest-growing populations in the world, with women having an average of 6.5 children each."

"More women in Western India are signing up to become surrogate mothers, with even nurses and teachers lining up, as their husbands lose their jobs. A surrogate is generally paid about 250,000-400,000 rupees ($4,000-$8,000), a huge sum of money in a country where many live on less than $2 a day.

A draft bill on surrogacy is pending before parliament, and meanwhile, hundreds of clinics have mushroomed across the country, with critics saying touts promoting this 'reproductive tourism' care little for the health or rights of the surrogates."

"Some 48.6 percent of Bangladesh's 20 million children aged below 5 years are chronically malnourished, a devastating problem caused by food shortages and high prices. A report said that although the country has systems in place to help impoverished people, they 'should be expanded and better targeted toward areas where malnutrition and household food insecurity are most prevalent.'

The country's economy has grown by about 6 percent a year in recent years, helping to reduce the percentage of people living on less than $1 a day to 40% from 49% in 2000. But one in four households still cannot obtain adequate food. Food prices in Bangladesh had risen more than 20%, eroding some of the gains from economic growth and slowing the pace of efforts to reduce poverty."

"Some 5,000 women spread across 75 villages in rural southern India are now offering chemical-free, non-irrigated, organic agriculture as one method of combating global warming. Agriculture accounts for 28 percent of Indian greenhouse gas emissions, mainly methane emission from paddy fields and cattle and nitrous oxides from fertilizers.

In Zaheerabad, women demonstrate adaptation to climate change by following a system of interspersing crops that do not need extra water, chemical inputs or pesticides for production. The women grow as many as 19 types of indigenous crops to an acre, on arid, degraded lands."

"The sun had not yet risen when the two boys woke up. By 4 a.m., the port on the River Buriganga here in the capital of Bangladesh was alive and bustling. The 'bed' where Yusef, 14, and his younger brother Smaile, 10, slept was made of hard wooden planks on the pier. In a familiar routine, the brothers washed up and then walked around, looking for empty bottles to fill with fresh water that they would later sell. They started their morning by begging for food at local cafes. On a good day, the boys get some leftovers. On a bad one, they go hungry.

Estimates of the number of children living on the street in Dhaka vary from 250,000 to 400,000. Rapid urbanization in the country has created pockets of dense slums and squatter settlements, each of which is home to thousands of street children. Children living in these conditions grow up on the margins of society, without appropriate protection, education, health care or guidance."

"In a country where education is often out of reach for thousands of impoverished children, the Kartini Emergency School in Indonesia is proving to be an exception. Amid the poverty and grime the free school offers its 550 students not only an education, but meals, a uniform, shoes, pencils and books, things that many children in Indonesia cannot afford or take for granted.

Officially, state schools are free in Indonesia but many schools charge unofficial fees when government subsidies are not enough to cover the cost of operations. The cost means many can only afford the most basic schooling, while the standard of education is often poor."

"With well more than 1,500 residents per hectare, Tambora is the most densely populated subdistrict of West Jakarta, and some say in Southeast Asia. Most of the families in Kalianyar live in rented 2-by-2 meter rooms with no indoor plumbing, and in some cases, no windows. The community is ravaged by drugs, prostitution, gambling and violence, and complete neighborhoods go up in flames with devastating regularity.

The mothers at a support group take turns sharing their tales of woe, of unruly children, squabbles with neighbors and stillborn babies. But the parents are no more to blame for their lack of child-rearing skills than they are for being poor. Social workers realize that scholarship alone is not enough to raise the community's children from despair and apathy. They also give motivational training and reproductive health courses to the children, in addition to trips to places most of them had never been to, including cinemas and the zoo."

"Sixteen-year-old Babar is perhaps India's youngest school principal. Since 2002, every evening, between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., he takes on the role of a principal at a school. In October 29, 2002. At the tender age of 9, with a little help from his parents, Babar set up a room to teach on his ancestral land.

Today the school has classes from 1 to 8 and a staff of 10. But getting 600 students to enroll was no easy task. In this hamlet, abject poverty means education is a luxury few can afford. So Babar makes sure that the education at his school is absolutely free. The government provides funds for the midday meal and books till class 4. For other expenses, he has to depend on donations from well wishers, which is never enough."

"Around 70 percent of children in Bangladesh who complete their primary education are unable to read, write or count properly, according to a report. The report also found students weak in English, which plays a key role in day-to-day life, particularly in business, higher studies and technical education.

The quality of education in remote rural areas was far worse than in urban areas. Many poor students come to school half-fed. They cannot pay attention to their studies in the afternoon classes as thirst for knowledge is replaced by hunger for food."

"India's shantytowns depicted in critically acclaimed film 'Slumdog Millionaire' are an outcome of the planners' failed attempt to build low-cost alternatives, according to a government new report. With the boom in the India's economy in recent years, rural people have been largely attracted to urban areas hoping to get a slice of the growing prosperity. With the lack of affordable houses they are left with no choice but to live in makeshift tenements with few basic utilities.

The report said that housing projects would provide residents with properly constructed homes, linked to basic infrastructure such as sewage, electricity and running water. It would be in sharp contrast to the slums which appear in most of the country's major cities, with their endless warrens of small houses and shops built of corrugated metal, cement and tarpaulins, public latrines and tangles of electric wiring, often illegally linked to the main power lines."

"A fire which razed a Karachi slum settlement and killed 40 of its residents earlier this month has brought to the fore the deplorable conditions in which half of the 12 million people of this port city live -- and official indifference to their plight. The government speculates that the blaze could have been caused by a live wire falling onto the roof of the shanties which were made of bamboo, cardboard and other combustible material.

Over the years, Karachi has become segregated into areas for the rich and poor. The poor have been pushed further out of the city limits due to evictions. Those still inside the city live in constant fear of being thrown out. When they are evicted and provided alternate land, it is usually in the wilderness, far from their places of work, far from schools, health and transport facilities and where their women cannot find any work."

"Remittances from migrant workers are crucial in helping to fight hunger and poverty as they feed millions and exceed ODA from foreign governments to poor countries. In Indonesia, many villages have been transformed by the remittances -- houses with mud floors are rebuilt into permanent structures and thousands of children complete their education funded by the toil of their migrant worker parents.

But as the global economic crisis bites, migrant workers in Malaysia are being retrenched in record numbers as factories shut down, construction projects come to a halt and oil palm plantations reduce capacity. The returning workers are expected to swell the ranks of the unemployed in their respective home countries. In Indonesia, unemployment will be a serious challenge as its own domestic manufacturing sector is forecast to shed 500,000 to a million workers."

"Beijing's rubbish depots are a reminder of this city's underclass -- million of migrants from the countryside laboring in menial jobs. The rubbish collectors are the poorest of the poor, living an unending struggle amongst the filth of Beijing's worst slums. They are part of the global economy, but they are at the bottom of the heap, and now the effects of the financial crisis are crushing any dreams they had of a better future.

Collectors such as Mr. Wang sell what they can to a rubbish depot in the Beijing slums where waste merchants collect it and then sell it on for recycling. On a bad day Mr Wang makes less than $1 for twelve hours of labor -- not enough to keep himself fed, clothed and heated in Beijing's frigid winter. As there is no state pension in China and no free healthcare, people are effectively adrift in a cutthroat market economy. By some estimates, the financial crisis will push another 40 million into poverty this year."

"At the age of 11 Purni Shah was forced by her family to marry a 25-year-old man. Four years into the marriage, her husband died leaving her a child widow. Her fate is not uncommon in Nepal. Over 63 percent of girls marry before 18, and 7 percent marry before reaching 10.

Banned from wearing new or colorful clothes, child widows are barred from eating fish or meat, remarrying, and even showing their faces in the early mornings to 'prevent bad luck.' To make matters worse, many have no citizenship. However, thanks to empowerment training, some child widows are starting to speak out and demand a voice."