Speaking of October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, perhaps many of you do not know how the day came about.
Well, for those who don’t know what happened on that date until the UN finally declared it International Poverty Eradication Day, you must listen to the following history.
The following is the history of International Poverty Eradication Day, October 17 below.
You should know the origin of October 17, the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty!
As mentioned above, not many people know that behind the commemoration of this date is one of the international commemorations in the world’s spotlight.
On October 17, 1987, Joseph Wresinski, a poverty activist, managed to gather 100,000 people.
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Joseph Wresinski gathered the crowd as a form of respect for the victims of hunger, poverty, violence, and threats at the Human Rights and Freedom Square of Trocadero, Paris.
The masses agreed that poverty violated human rights and emphasized the importance of uniting to ensure that these rights could be respected.
Since then, all people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and social origins came together on October 17 to build commitment and show their solidarity against poverty.
The movement, promoted by a French politician, immediately attracted the attention of the United Nations.
Finally, in 1992, the United Nations (UN) established October 17 as International Poverty Eradication Day.
By resolution 47/196, adopted on December 22, 1992, the General Assembly of the United Nations declared October 17 as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.
The United Nations invites all countries to make this date a momentum to present and campaign for eradicating poverty.
From this determination, all UN countries always commemorate this day, including Indonesia.
Every year International Poverty Eradication Day is always celebrated with different themes.
Poverty in Indonesia
In 2018, Indonesia’s Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, said that the poverty rate in Indonesia was below 10% for the first time in history.
According to data, the number of poor people in Indonesia as of March 2018 was 25.95 million, less than the number of poor people in September 2017, which was 26.58 million.
The average poverty line in March 2018 was IDR 401,220 per capita per month.
The data shows that this figure is higher than in 2017, which amounted to Rp 361,496 in the first semester and Rp 370,910 in the second semester of 2017.
In 2017, the province with the highest poverty average was Bangka Belitung, with Rp 602,942, and the lowest was South Sulawesi, with Rp 274,434.
Although the percentage of poor people in Indonesia has reached a record low of 9.82%, there are more poor people living in rural areas than urban poor people.
For example, in Maluku and Papua, about 29.15% of the population living in the village is still classified as poor. In the city, only 5.03% of the population is categorized as inferior.
While in Bali and Nusa Tenggara, 17.77% of the population in the village is still in the poor category, and the lowest percentage of poor people is Kalimantan, which is 7.6% in the town and 4.33% in the city.
Poverty is one of the world’s concerns. Every country in the world should always try to eradicate poverty permanently.
Through International Poverty Eradication Day, commemorated every October 17, it is hoped that the problem of poverty will soon find a bright spot and a solution.
This is a brief history of International Poverty Alleviation Day on October 17.
Hopefully, the above information can provide insight and be a reference for all of us. Hopefully valuable and Happy International Day for the Eradication of Poverty!
