effects of poverty
Effects of Poverty on Society
It becomes all the more important to understand the effects of poverty on society when you take into consideration the fact that as many as 1.2 billion people affected by it.
Fast Fact
According to the UNICEF's 2013 Child Mortality Report, 18,000 children below the age of five succumb to poverty each day.How Does Poverty Affect the Society?
Food
There is no denying the fact that poverty is the major cause of hunger in the world. Almost all people who live in what the World Bank defines as 'absolute poverty', are affected by hunger and starvation.- ❍ If the data compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is to be believed, as many as 805 million people across the world were chronically undernourished during the 2012 - 2014 period. Surprisingly though, 13.5 percent of these 805 million people live in developing countries.
- ❍ When we talk of the effects of poverty, children are the worst affected. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2013, 6.3 million children died before they celebrated their fifth birthday. Around 45 percent of these children, i.e., nearly 3 million, succumbed to malnutrition.
- ❍ The problem is not restricted to the third world countries. If the United States Census Bureau is to be believed, 14.7 million American children lived in poverty in 2013, and thus, didn't have access to sufficient nutritious food.
Housing
Not just hunger, even poverty and homelessness are closely related to each other.- ❍ According to the 2014 Annual Homeless Assessment Report compiled by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), 578,424 Americans were homeless as of January 2014. It also revealed that one quarter of these homeless were below the age of 18 years.
- ❍ A significant portion of people below the poverty line cannot afford to have a proper dwelling, and thus, have no option, but to 'sleep rough'.
- ❍ More than 100 million people are homeless in the world as of today, with some sources suggesting that the number far exceeds the 300 million mark.
Health
With insufficient nutritious food and no place to live, it's no surprise that poverty affects people's health as well. In fact, poverty and poor health go hand in hand.- ❍ A person living in poverty cannot afford daily bread at times, leave alone thinking about health-related expenditure. In the same way, a person who is not in the best of his health will find it difficult to work and earn his daily bread.
- ❍ Around ⅓ of the total number of deaths in the world, which roughly amounts to 18 million people, every year are attributed to diseases of poverty. These include diseases like AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, measles, pneumonia, etc.
- ❍ A newly coined term, the 'diseases of poverty' refers to diseases which are more likely to affect poor people than their affluent counterparts. Most of these diseases are attributed to lack of basic health care.
- ❍ The term also encompasses diseases which can push people into poverty, including a range of mental illnesses which hinder the person's ability to work.
Education
- ❍ While children living in absolute poverty cannot afford basic education, those in relative poverty are forced to dropout half way into their elementary or middle schooling due to their inability to pay fees for further education or as a result of having to shoulder family responsibilities.
- ❍ The relationship between poverty and education also works the other way round, with lack of education being one of the most important causes of poverty in the world. It's obvious that the average income for a high school dropout will be less compared to the same for a graduate.
- ❍ The effects of poverty on the child's development are also seen in the classroom, most often in the form of low self-esteem. The fact that children from well-to-do families dress better or have more resources at their disposal can bring about a feeling of inferiority in children living in poverty.
- ❍ With time, this may cause the child to withdraw from the learning environment and indulge in anti-social behavior, thus making poverty one of the most serious social issues we are facing today.