An ordinary loaf which very few poor people in the country can afford can still be made available to them if it is wrapped in a single-sheet newspaper.
Sounds strange? A senior human rights activist in Jharkhand has suggested just such an idea which, he believes, has the potential to reduce level of poverty in a developing country like India.
The idea, suggested by 64-year-old Jawaharlal Sharma, is how to share the cost of making the loaf and thereby reducing its prices. This can be done if the bread is wrapped in a single-sheet newspaper that carries all the news, albeit in a brief form, and most importantly advertisements.
Of course, to do this will be required a tie-up with a newspaper house which will pass on the revenue earned through advertisements to the loaf-makers.
Sharma is so consumed with the idea that he wrote a letter to US president Barrack Obama seeking his help in implementing the idea after he failed to make any headway here.
"Yes, it is not only a possibility, but will be cost-effective and help reduce poverty to some extent," he said.
Such a move would help reduce the prices of loaf drastically by 60 to 70 per cent, he claimed wondering how a poor man in the country whose daily earning is between Rs 25 to 30 can purchase a bread worth around Rs 15.
He claimed he was driven to write to the US president after his efforts to convince newspaper houses and business houses in the country of the merit of his proposal failed to yield result, which he regretted.
Apart from the poor masses, Sharma expressed confidence that the idea would be a grand success even among urbanites and particularly passengers of trains and long-distance buses.
Sharma said about a year back, he alongwith like-minded friends had launched a sample product of the loaf wrapped in a single-page newssheet named 'Day-Break'. PTI
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