Eradicating poverty: A vision for the future

Naman
Maharaja Sawai Man Singh Vidyalaya
India

Some people think poverty is a curse, but it is not always so. Many great people of the world have come from poor families. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and Abraham Lincoln are two examples of this. A person may be poor in materialistic ways but, spiritually and mentally, a person need not be poor. Poverty depends on one's own thinking. A person can learn many things from poverty, such as not becoming greedy like rich people and believing in simple living and high thinking.

Here are some of the facts: half the world (nearly three billion people) live on less than two dollars a day; the gross domestic product of the poorest 48 nations (a quarter of the world's countries) is less than the wealth of the world's three richest people combined; nearly a billion people will enter the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names, even though less than one per cent of what the world spends every year on weapons would be needed to put every child into school.

Development is a complex issue. Its ecological, cultural, social, economic, institutional and political dimensions can only be understood in their systematic interrelationships. We need to envisage another type of development if we are serious about eradicating poverty. This sort of development would be geared to the satisfaction of needs, so as to bring about an end to poverty. It would also be endogenous and self-reliant, that is, it would rely on the strength of the societies, which undertake it. This new type of development would also be in harmony with the environment and this would require major structural transformations.

Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs. However, no single explanation has gained universal acceptance. Some possible factors include:

• lack of functioning democracy
• lack of social integration
• crime
• historical factors, for example, imperialism and colonialism
• war, including civil war and genocide
• lack of education
• lack of social skills
• exploitation of the poor by the rich
• individual beliefs, actions and choices
• inadequate nutrition in childhood in poor nations may lead to physical and mental stunting
• discrimination of various kinds, such as age discrimination, gender discrimination, racial discrimination.

Poverty cannot be removed in one night. It is a long job. It can be wiped out, however, step by step. And the steps are:

• government action and charity from the business sector and private individuals helps in the eradication of poverty
• education, which is a way of helping the poverty-stricken to better themselves and increase their standard of living.
• the injection of money into the economy by the government, foreign investment or foreign aid, which may help decrease poverty by creating jobs
• family planning, which is a useful tool in the eradication of poverty
• drug treatment centres, which will aid in the task of eradicating poverty.

Poverty may be caused by many factors such as, for example, a lack of jobs, the lack of skills, or having been born into poverty or having been forced into poverty by lifestyle choices. Irrespective of the cause of poverty, the eradication of poverty should be a worldwide goal, as it brings benefits to everyone. This is why help should be forthcoming from all sectors of the population, including the government, the business sector and private individuals, to rid society of the problem of poverty.

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