Poverty - A state of mind

During my last visit to our office on the outskirt's in a 2nd tier city in south india, i took time to talk to the local village panchayat and the local self-help groups. Was surprised to hear that there are a huge number of needy in the different wards of the panchayat. In many cases the reasons for the problem lie with the alchoholic male members of the family, who earn and drink leaving nothing for the family, and in other cases, the only earning member being severely ill and thereby unable to earn any money. And if these families or the earning members have no work for a day, and the money does not come into the household, they go without food for that day. And all help that the local self government or even the state government can do in such cases is an emergency fund of a maximum of Rupees 500, which might not mean much to cover for the expenses. And the saddest part of all is that many people who are afflicted by Hepatitis, TB or other serious illness, will keep on ignoring the symptoms and work or male members drink to forget the symptoms, for if they do not work, they have no food for that day, untill they can no longer stand up and work, and by then it would be too late. Can we do anything about it?. Can we give these people hope for the future?. Or they are to blame for they had had their chances and let it go again and again?. Or the governments responsibility is to provide affordable health care to all, but their economic upliftment out of poverty is for theirs to mend?.