Some 600 delegates from 40 countries are meeting in Indonesia for a meeting of the World Economic Forum. No doubt India has sent a big delegation of criminal beggars for a few days of fun and frolic in Jakarta. Lots of hot air will be generated about " inclusive growth " and on how to reduce poverty. However, not one delegate will utter the greatest truth staring us in the face and that is that there can be no reduction of poverty unless we reduce the numbers of the poor and that means not just slower growth of population but actual reduction in numbers. Of 1.2 billion people India has 450 million under the age of 18 years. A report released by Bachpan Bachao Andolan says that there are 60 million child laborers in India generating Rs 1.2 trillion per year in black money. They are employed in back breaking labor such as brick manufacturing and dangerous industries such as recycling car batteries and making fire crackers. The charity, Oxfam reckons that food prices will double in the next 20 years from present levels which are already the highest ever ( HT, June 01 ). As numbers of the poor increase more forests are cut down for agriculture increasing CO2 and global warming which in turn will cause extreme weather conditions reducing food production further. So why does no one talk about reducing the number of people. For politicians in poor countries poor people means easy election victory by promising freebies to the poor. For rich western countries once starvation sets in it will be easy to force genetically modified food on poorer countries thus enslaving billions of people to keep whites in luxury. The abyss is ready. The lemmings are queuing up.