The complex causes of poverty

Proteeti
Maharaja Sawar Man Singh Vidyalaya
India

'The poverty of the poor is their ruin,' says the Book of Proverbs. And the ruin is not just material. Poverty rapes and kills the spirit of the poor. We underestimate its complexity and cruelty. While the world is globalising and the mainstream media in many developed nations point out that economies are booming, there are an increasing number of poor people who are missing out on this apparent boom, and fewer people who are becoming far wealthier. Some of these facts and figures are an eye-opener to say the least.

Poverty has many faces, changing from place to place and across time, and has been described in many ways. Most often poverty is a situation people want to escape. So poverty is a call to action – for the poor and the wealthy alike – a call to change the world so that many more may have enough to eat, adequate shelter, access to education and protection from violence. Unfortunately, poverty is often an invisible problem. The voices of the poor are seldom heard.

The majority of the world’s people and nations live in poverty. Why is this? Is it enough to blame poor people for their own predicament? Have they been lazy, made poor decisions, and been solely responsible for their plight? What about their government? Have they pursued policies that actually harm successful development? Such causes of poverty and inequality are no doubt real. But often less discussed are deeper and more global causes of poverty.

Behind the increasing interconnectedness promised by globalisation are global decisions, policies, and practices. These are typically influenced, driven, or formulated by the rich and powerful. These can be leaders of rich countries or other global actors such as multinational corporations, institutions, and influential people.

In the face of such enormous external influence, the governments of poor nations and their people are often powerless. As a result, in the global context, a few get wealthy while the majority struggle.

The root cause of poverty is, without a doubt, hunger. One in seven children born in countries where hunger, and therefore poverty, is most common will die before reaching the age of five. Hunger affects mental and physical growth, causing more undernourished and smaller people, who in turn earn less in jobs involving physical labour. This then contributes to the overall poverty of a country and community. Poor, failed or an absence of an infrastructure, lack of opportunities, government corruption, lack of functioning democracy and a lack of social integration are other causes of poverty.

The drastic effects of poverty create a 'poverty cycle' and complicate the subject further. Hunger and starvation, lack of sanitation, human trafficking, diseases and disabilites, poor quality health care services, high crime rates, homelessness and low literacy are some of the effects of poverty. Powerlessness is another cause and effect of poverty, because people living in poverty often have no political power and are subjected to exploitation by the state. They lack protection and report widespread corruption within state education and health care systems. Poor people in many countries speak of being kept waiting endlessly while the rich of the country go to the head of the queue. Situations like these create more problems for those already in poverty and continue to divide the rich from the poor without providing any help. The problem with a lack of voice and power as a cause of poverty is that it enforces a lack of voice and power as an effect of poverty, creating a continuous cycle that deliberately separates the poor of a country from the rich.

Humanity has the means to end worldwide poverty in our lifetime. The real question is, will we do it? Providing subsidies to the poor can help eradicate poverty. The government might provide affordable housing development and urban regeneration, affordable education, affordable health care, providing help in finding employment, subsidising employment of groups that have difficulty finding work, and encouraging political participation.

A concious effort by humankind can make circumstances better for the poor.

Top     Senior Presentations     Discuss this presentation     Previous     Next