The Importance Of Poverty In India

1900 Words8 Pages
Have you ever walked by and saw that poor lady or man struggling to pay for food but uses that money to pay for cigarettes and wondered why? Or have you ever wondered why 33 percent of the world’s poorest people live in India? Did you know that there are more cases of Malaria each year than the number of upper-class people in India? Many things contribute to Indian’s poor health and that main thing is the huge poverty rate in India. Poverty in India has played a huge role in the health of Indians because poverty affects people 's lifestyle, increases drug abuse, leads to slavery, leads to damage in brain development, and increases the risk of countless illnesses.
Those with a low income or in poverty tend consume quite a lot of tobacco. Tobacco isn’t cheap and costs a lot to buy. The average 88 mm cigarette cost around 12-13 Indian Rupees which is about 0.21 US Dollars, and a pack of 10 88 mm cigarettes costs around 95 Indian Rupees which is about 1.52 US Dollars. With 70% of men and 22% of women with a very low income consume a type of tobacco. Meaning quite a lot of Indians in poverty buy tobacco right? They could have used that money to buy food, clothe, get education, and savings but instead it’s used on tobacco, and leads to more poverty. In the Article ‘Poverty, Tobacco, and Health: An Indian Scenario’, Shah and Vaite have done an experiment and discovered that 400 street children in Mumbai of which earning about 2 US dollars a day spend 21% of their income on