Conclusion

Abstract

The problem of rural poverty has become a central issue of our time. At least 750 million people or more than one-third of those living in Africa, Asia and Latin America are trapped in absolute poverty, and 80 per cent of them live in rural areas. They suffer from chronic malnutrition and live on the bare margin of subsistence. Two-thirds of them never go to school and very few expect to live beyond the age of fifty. They have limited access to clean drinking water or health facilities and virtually no security of employment or a decent livelihood. The unprecedented progress which the world has seen in the past three decades has simply by-passed this unfortunate segment of humanity.