Counting the Uncounted

 

Counting the Uncounted

“Do not count me in rupees,” poverty would say,

“Count me in footsteps lost to the water’s way,

In the meals a mother forgoes so her child may eat,

In the dreams that fade, where the dark and daylight meet.

Count me in the voices hushed when hope grows thin,

In the lives left waiting for change to begin.”

This poem reminds us that behind every statistic is a human story of missed opportunities and quiet struggles. Economists may measure poverty through indices, and income thresholds, but for those who live it, poverty is the silence of unrealized potential. It is the gap between survival and opportunity, between existence and dignity.

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