POVERTY

"to be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around us take for granted."

Poverty

Poverty (also called penury) is deprivation of common necessities that determine the quality of life, including food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, and may also include the deprivation of opportunities to learn, to obtain better employment to escape poverty, and/or to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens.

Contents

Etymology Other aspects Causes of poverty 1 Economics 2 Governance 3 Demographics and Social Factors 4 Health Care 5 Environmental Factors Effects of poverty Poverty reduction 1 Economic growth 2 Free market 3 Fair trade 4 Direct aid 5 Development aid 6 Improving the environment and access of the poor 7 Millennium Development Goals

Etymology

The words "poverty" and "poor" came from Latin pauper = "poor", which originally came from pau- and the root of pario, i.e. "giving birth to not much" and referred to unproductive farmland or livestock.

Aspects

economic aspects of poverty

the necessities of daily living, such as food, clothing, shelter, or safe drinking water. Result of a persistent lack of income. social aspects of poverty lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power.

The World Bank's "Voices of the Poor," based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty.[26] These include:

precarious livelihoods excluded locations physical limitations gender relationships problems in social relationships lack of security abuse by those in power dis-empowering institutions limited capabilities, and weak community organizations.

Causes of poverty

Economics
Unemployment Some countries' governments are believed to purposefully maintain a 2-10% unemployed populace to act as a 'replacement threat' to unskilled private sector workers, by way of maintaining an existing thriving service economy.

Causes of poverty

Governance

Lacking democracy in poor countries Weak rule of law Failure by governments to provide essential infrastructure Poor access to affordable education High levels of corruption

Dalits in Jaipur, India.

Causes of poverty

Demographic and Social factors

Overpopulation and lack of access to birth control methods. Note that population growth slows or even become negative as poverty is reduced due to the demographic transition. Crime, both white-collar crime and blue-collar crime, including violent gangs and drug cartels. Historical factors, for example imperialism, colonialism and PostCommunism (at least 50 million children in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union lived in poverty). Brain drain War, including civil war, genocide, and democide. Discrimination of various kinds, such as age discrimination, stereotyping, gender discrimination, racial discrimination, caste discrimination. Individual beliefs, actions and choices.

Hardwood surgical tables are commonplace in rural Indian village clinics.

Health Care

Poor access to affordable health care makes individuals less resilient to economic hardship and more vulnerable to poverty. Inadequate nutrition in childhood Disease, specifically diseases of poverty: AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis and others overwhelmingly afflict developing nations, which perpetuate poverty by diverting individual, community, and national health and economic resources from investment and productivity. Clinical depression undermines the resilience of individuals and when not properly treated makes them vulnerable to poverty. Similarly substance abuse, including for example alcoholism and drug abuse when not properly treated undermines resilience and can consign people to vicious poverty cycles.

Causes of poverty

Environmental factors

Erosion. Intensive farming often leads to a vicious cycle of exhaustion of soil fertility and decline of agricultural yields and hence, increased poverty. Desertification and overgrazing. Approximately 40% of the world's agricultural land is seriously degraded. Deforestation as exemplified by the widespread rural poverty in India that began in the early 20th century and is attributed to non-sustainable tree harvesting. Natural factors such as climate change. or environment Geographic factors, for example access to fertile land, fresh water, minerals, energy, and other natural resources, presence or absence of natural features. The climate also limits what crops and farm animals may be used on similarly fertile lands. On the other hand, research on the resource curse has found that countries with an abundance of natural resources. Drought and water crisis.

Effects of poverty

The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.

hunger or even starvation lower life expectancy increases the risk of homelessness Increased risk of drug abuse Diseases of poverty suffer social isolation Rates of suicide may increase increase states' vulnerability to natural disasters make states more vulnerable to shocks in the international economy, such as those associated with rising fuel prices, or declining commodity prices. vulnerable to human trafficking

Poverty reduction

Economic growth
World GDP per capita rapidly increased beginning with the Industrial Revolution. The anti-poverty strategy of the World Bank depends heavily on reducing poverty through the promotion of economic growth. The World Bank argues that an overview of many studies shows that: Growth is fundamental for poverty reduction, and in principle growth as such does not affect inequality. Growth accompanied by progressive distributional change is better than growth alone. High initial income inequality is a brake on poverty reduction. Poverty itself is also likely to be a barrier for poverty reduction; and wealth inequality seems to predict lower future growth rates.

Poverty reduction

Free Trade: What could broadly be called free market reforms represent one strategy for reducing poverty. For example, noted reductions in poverty in the 20th century have been in India and China, where hundreds of millions of people in the two countries grew out of poverty, mostly as a result of the abandonment of collective farming in China and the cutting of government red tape in India.

This was critical in fostering their dramatic economic growth.

Poverty reduction

Fair trade

Another approach to alleviating poverty is to implement Fair Trade which advocates the payment of a fair price as well as social and environmental standards in areas related to the production of goods.

Poverty reduction

Direct Aid

The government can directly help those in need through cash transfers as a short term expedient. This has been applied with mixed results in most Western societies during the 20th century in what became known as the welfare state. Especially for those most at risk, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. Private charity. Systems to encourage direct transfers to the poor by citizens organized into voluntary or not-for-profit groupings are often encouraged by the state through charitable trusts and tax deduction arrangements.

Poverty reduction

Development Aid

Most developed nations give development aid to developing countries Aid from non-governmental organizations may be more effective than governmental aid; this may be because it is better at reaching the poor and better controlled at the grassroots level

Poverty reduction

Improving Environment and Access to thePoor

Subsidized housing development. Education, especially that directed at assisting the poor to produce food in underdeveloped countries. Family planning to limit the numbers born into poverty and allow family incomes to better cover the existing family. Subsidized health care. Assistance in finding employment. Subsidized employment (see also Workfare). Encouragement of political participation and community organizing. Implementation of fair property rights laws. Reduction of regulatory burden and bureaucratic oversight. Reduction of taxation on income and capital. Reduction of government spending, including a reduction in borrowing and printing money.

Millennium Development Goals

Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 is the first Millennium Development Goal. Directly assisting local entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create jobs. Access to information on sexual and reproductive health. Action against domestic violence. Appointing government scientific advisors in every country. Deworming school children in affected areas. Drugs for AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. Eliminating school fees.

Cont..

Ending user fees for basic health care in developing countries. Free school meals for schoolchildren. Legislation for womens rights, including rights to property. Planting trees. Providing soil nutrients to farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Providing mosquito nets. Access to electricity, water and sanitation. Supporting breast-feeding. Training programs for community health in rural areas. Upgrading slums, and providing land for public housing.

: Simple living
St. Francis of Assisi renounces his worldly goods in a painting attributed to Giotto di Bondone. 'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be, And when we find ourselves in the place just right, It will be in the valley of love and delight.
Seek no poverty in future

Thank You