President roots for total elimination of poverty, says development must reach to the most needy

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday called for banishing poverty once and for all from the country and also emphasised on the need to see that economic development reaches to the poorest of the poor in the society.

Addressing the nation on the eve of 68th Independence Day, the President said, "The decisive challenge of our times is to end the curse of poverty. The focus of our policies now has to move from alleviation of poverty to elimination of poverty. The difference is not mere semantics: alleviation is a process; elimination is a time-defined objective. In last six decades, the poverty ratio has declined from over 60 per cent to less than 30 per cent. Even then, nearly one-third of our population still lives below the poverty line."

"Poverty is not a mere statistic. Poverty has a face, which becomes unbearable when it scars the visage of a child. The poor cannot, and will not, wait for yet another generation to see the very essentials of life - food, shelter, education and employment - being denied to them. The benefits from economic development must percolate down to the poorest of the poor," he added.