Page 227 - SocialHarmony

Poor Welfare Fair: Service to Humanity 231

the poor people have been considered just a vote bank. I have
to stop this tradition of vote bank. A poor man is still a man, he
has sentiments, he has feelings, he has dreams, he has
aspirations and ambitions. We have to do something to realize
his dreams. The dreams that you have been having all these
sixty years, I have to achieve them in actual life, I have to infuse
life in them, and this is precisely the purpose that the poor
welfare fair has been organised.

The poor have to live in debt all their life. You have seen
that most of the poor people find themselves incapable of
coming out of poverty. One of the factors by which they cannot
remove the yoke of debt is that they have taken money on a
very high rate of interest. If you borrowed ten rupees, the
moneylender would keep two rupees in advance, and he will
give just eight and note down 10 rupees in his ledger. After
that, he will get the little land written in his name. If there is a
bicycle, he would keep it with him. If you have nothing, he
would ask for the son to work at his place all his life, he gets
written down all these things. This class of moneylenders
increases the burden of interest to such extent that even two
generations cannot repay this interest, leave alone the principal.
On the other hand, a poor person is very genuine, honest. Once
he borrows money from anyone, whatever the rate of interest,
he has a pang in his heart that he does not wish to keep that
money, he always thinks to repay the money even if he remains
poor all his life, even if he has to sell his house and sleep on the
footpath, even if he has to stay hungry, even if he has to deprive
his children of education, but he wishes to repay his debt before
death. This worry leads him to further sink in debt, the burden
of interest keeps mounting. If the wife possessed a couple of
silver ornaments, they would be sold for sure. A poor man has
to live such a life of agony.

What is the way out of this trouble? What is the remedy to
bring a poor family out of the shackles of interest and make it
free from debt? We have found out the remedy. We visited
village after village and took our sisters and mothers in
confidence, we took our brothers in confidence. Men can