22/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
to 32 per cent in 1994 - an eight-fold increase. The total number of
people living in poverty went from 14 million to 119 million during
this same period (p. 3 7). Of these 119 million, 60 million live in
Russia (p. 3 7).
In Ukraine, average daily calorie intake plummeted from 3,500
calories in 1989 to 2,800 in 1994. Children are the hardest hit. In
Russia, there are 30 times more new cases of diphtheria among
children- 500 cases in 1989, 15,000 in 1993 (p. 31).
In Moscow, an estimated 60,000 children live on the streets
(p. 32).
In Bulgaria, the number of reported crimes has more than
quadrupled, totalling 223,000 in 1994 as compared to an annual
average of 50,000 in the 1980s (p. 34).
The Highly Industrialised Countries
In the industrialised countries, more than 100 million people live
below the threshold of absolute poverty - defined as the equivalent of
50 per cent of a country's mean individual disposable income (p. 2).
In 1971, there were 25 million poor in the US, according to the
then president of the World Bank, Robert McNamara (McNamara,
1973, p. 110). By 1985, there were 11.4 million more-36.4 million
poor, about 14 per cent of the total population (Poverty in the United
States: 1995, Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, 1996).
In the US, more than 47 million people do not have health
insurance (p. 31).
In London, there are 400,000 homeless, according to official
figures (p. 32).
In the heavily industrialised countries, more than 5 million people
are homeless (p. 27).
More than 130,000 rapes are reported every year, this being only
the tip of the iceberg (p. 2 7).
In the US, 2 million people are victims of violent crimes every year
(p. 34).
An Innovation of the UNDP: The Creation of the Human
Poverty Index (HPI)
The team that worked on the 1997 edition of the UNDP report sought
to measure poverty in the Third World using criteria other than