"Boond boond mein hai yakeen!!"

The above mentioned title is a tag line used by a famous mineral water company. Sadly, it is only a tag line and does not provide any guarantee that the water we consume from this, and many such bottles, is safe to drink.

Have you ever felt that the water you are drinking only looks clean? That its possibly sewage water that had just been bleached, not one treated?? Well, I have, many times. When I first saw this scene in Slumdog Millionaire, where Jamal is refilling used mineral bottles and re-sealing them with quick fix, I didn't really pay much attention to it. It was only when I saw this happening with my own eyes on Muzaffarpur railway station this August I realised how serious this problem is. Most of us buy a bottled water before even thinking twice about what we are about to consume. We just accept it as a matter of fact that it must be clean if it says so.

For some reason, I never purchased a bottle of water. When on a bus stop, I always got my water bottle re-filled from the 1/- "Fresh Drinking Water" fellow. I don't know the reason behind it, but now I think it was maybe because I never trusted any of those mineral water companies.

In India, if all the reports about various mineral water scams are to believed, this is the industry making the largest profit. You can just pick up any bottle, fill it with water from any source, seal it and circulate it in the market. Thanks to us consumers, chances are no one will even notice what is happening.

I hope next time when you buy bottled water, you get reminded of this and regret carrying your own bottle (which I always do, as rule!).

The this-and-that of measuring poverty..

http://www.ptinews.com/news/231843_Income-wrong-tool-to-measure-poverty--Sen

Poverty can be defined as whether households or individuals have enough resources or abilities today to meet their needs.

"The income approach to poverty, which considers people earning less than a certain amount annually as poor, is not an accurate measure of how well people live...precedence to one's capability or the capacity that people have of choosing and leading their lives." Amartya Sen

The above statement is something that I agree with because measuring poverty just on the basis of income undermines the quality of life of people. This also is closely associated with the fact that the amount of money spent on each member of the family may not be equal, but then the "aggregate family income" may not adequately reflect the deprivation of neglected members.

The other option that has been used to calculate poverty is on the basis of calorie intake. According to this method, the minimum calorie level intake for people in urban areas should be 2100cal and 2400cal for people in rural areas. But Abhijit Sen, member of Planning Commission, said that if this was taken into consideration, 64% of urban population and 80% of rural population would be below poverty line. (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/measure-poverty-by-income-not-calories-sen/488417/0).

These stats don't co-incide with the stats given by the rural development committee, which clearly show that there is no consensus on the quantum of populace living below the poverty line.