Poverty
Poverty is a worse situation that represents poor quality of life, rising illiteracy and malnutrition, lack of basic and essential elements of living, lower development of the human resource, and others. This is a more significant challenge, significantly hindering the growth of the developing nations. Poverty is the phenomenon in which a segment of society does not have access to meeting the basic needs of life and have a healthier life.
Poverty is defined by the condition where the basic needs of a family, like food, shelter, clothing, and education are not fulfilled. It can lead to other problems like poor literacy, unemployment, malnutrition, etc. A poor person is not able to get an education due to lack of money and therefore remains unemployed. A jobless person remains poor only. Thus poverty is the root cause of other problems.
For measuring poverty the United Nations have devised two measures of poverty and they are absolute and relative poverty. Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developing countries. Relative poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries. In absolute poverty, a line based on the minimum level of income has been created which is called a poverty line. If the per day income of a family is below this level, then it is called poor. If the per day income of a family is above this level, then it is called non-poor.
According to the Nobel prize winner South African leader, Nelson Mandela-“Poverty is not natural, it is manmade ''. The above statement is true as the causes of poverty are generally man-made. There are various causes of poverty but the most important is population. The rising population is putting a burden on the resources and budget of countries. Governments are finding it difficult to provide food, shelter, and employment to the rising population.
The other causes are lack of education, war, natural disaster, lack of employment, lack of infrastructure, political instability, etc. Lack of employment opportunities makes a person jobless and he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basic necessities of his family and becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs and it makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks, etc. in a country resulting in a lack of employment opportunities. Natural disasters like floods, earthquakes also contribute to poverty.
Several issues arise due to a higher poverty rate. Illiteracy increases with poverty as people cannot access proper education and get learning resources due to lack of money. Poverty also leads to rising malnutrition as poor people are unable to afford a proper two-time meal and get a nutritious diet to stay healthy. This leads to increasing illness and diseases that also remain uncured because of a lack of medical aid. Due to poverty, families have lower income that is unable to meet their needs, and thus the children are also forced into child labor to meet the demands. They have to work to support their family and this destroys their childhood. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc.
A poor person remains uneducated and is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There is no proper sanitation and drinking water facilities in slums and he falls ill often and his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. Thus all social evils are related to poverty.
For controlling poverty, there are specific measures that the government can take to solve the issue of ensuring a better lifestyle for all the people staying on the planet. There are specific effective measures like farmers must receive proper and necessary access to facilities for better agriculture. The illiterate people must get adequate access to education and training to understand several aspects of a better life. Every child must go to school, and there must also be new employment opportunities for all types of people.
We can also contribute to control it. We can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child, or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. We should remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.
Poverty leads to severe impacts on the entire society and adversely affects the lives of the people. Poverty leads to illiteracy, lack of proper diet and nutrition, child labor, poor lifestyle and lousy sanitization, and other adverse effects. People are often unable even to get a proper two-time meal and clean drinking water, and due to lack of a healthy diet, the children are mostly malnourished. Children are unable to study and get appropriate education, and thus the cycle of poverty continues in the families for generations. This eventually hinders the overall development of the nation.
Poverty is not an individual-level problem, but it is a broader issue for the entire nation and the planet. This is a significant threat to human resource development and must be taken care of on a priority basis. People must consider essential and effective measures to control the poverty rate.