CHILD POVERTY

Author:  Dr Indarjit Singh OBE, JP

Just one year ago, we met in a historic conference to address the scourge of child poverty .A satellite address by Nelson Mandela, and presentations by the Chancellor Gordon Brown, Secretary of State Clare Short, and others, reminded us of the unacceptability of some 600 million children living in absolute poverty in a world of plenty.

We all know that human resolve is a fickle creature, easily distracted by other concerns, often far less pressing. We need reminding again and again, that poverty, particularly child poverty on so vast a scale, condemns us all, and we are grateful to the Save the Children, for bringing us back today to underline the resolve and commitment of national leaders, voluntary agencies, and faith communities.

Gross inequalities in health and wealth are not only wrong in themselves, but also a recipe for social disorder and war, with increasing poverty and discontent, with potentially disastrous consequences for us all in our shrinking, interdependent world.

But even if there were no danger of the fallout from a world of gross inequalities affecting us, it would still be wrong to countenance gross disparities of life opportunity in our one human family. I would like to close by reading a few lines from Sikh scriptures, which remind us that there are no high or low in a human race that has common origins and a common destiny. Words that have their echoes, in all our different faiths.