“To
feed people you develop program, but to eradicate hunger, you develop leaders”
Being poor - the fourth
status one could have in the world, for no reason as one is not poor by birth.
Nobody in this world wants to be poor or love/like to born in a poor family. To
born in a poor family is not a crime but to die as poor is the biggest crime as
the nature gives the opportunities to everyone. The need is only to utilize
those chances for the betterment of one’s life. What poverty is?
United
Nations: Fundamentally, poverty is the inability of getting choices and
opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to
participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and
clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on
which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to
credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals,
households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often
implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean
water or sanitation.
World Bank:
Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions.
It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and
services necessary for survival with dignity.
Poverty also encompasses low
levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation,
inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and
opportunity to better one’s life.
Even a
man of today had touched the MOON but still most of humanity lives on just a
few coins a day. One can see the inequality both in the wealthiest nations in
the world or the poorest. It’s very harder to escape poverty as poorest does
not have access to education, health, and other services and also cannot even
raise their voices in political debates. The gap between rich and poor is widening
as the world is progressing.
Poor
cannot blame for its poverty to anyone. There may be the several causes of
poverty like bad policies of government, lack of responsibilities in the people
or individual, unemployment, exploitation by the people, influential work
places and businesses run by the other so called human with power and because
of all these and many other reasons
inequality do exists in every society.
Poverty
kill a man loudly, silently a society and engulf a nation at the end. Hunger is
closely co related or you can say is the symptom of poverty. According to United
Nations, about 21,000 people die every day of huger or hunger related causes.
It means one person every four seconds and it is children who die most often. A
poor man does not have enough money to buy food and become malnourished due to
which his health status badly affected and makes him less easily to do work.
And at the end he remained trapped in severe poverty.
Almost
half the world — over 3 billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day. The GDP
(Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million
people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.
Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign
their names. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on
weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it
didn’t happen.1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the
world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access
to safe water, and 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million
died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per
day).
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” ― Aristotle
They are involved in selling their kidneys, even their
children which is the height of senseless behavior but one has to do that to
save life, they are also engaged in furnishing and painting tall buildings and dangerous bridges of the world. Doing the
risky duties of electric pole line man or edging their lives as sewerage cleaners.
Low income holders are earning their bread and butter by working in the risky pesticides
companies, in the under developed countries they are spraying chemicals in
the fields without even having shoes in
their feet and spend their entire lives in improving agriculture with knowing
that they do not have enough food for their children at home.
Men and women of all ages are begging around the streets. And
they considered it their right. Poverty makes a civilized man or more specifically
a society to behave in an uncivilized manner.
“It is too difficult to think nobly when one
thinks only of earning a living.” ― Jean-Jacques Rousseau
At the end of the 20th century, HIV/AIDS emerged as the newest
communicable disease to become part of this cycle of poverty. 63% of the 38.6
million people living with HIV live in sub-Saharan Africa, the world’s poorest
region, and in many countries the poorest individuals are most likely to be infected. In many societies of the world to earn
livelihood sex working is considered an easy job that leads to many infectious diseases. Even
science has explored the seven seas and skies but still, it’s running behind
the cure of HIV.One cannot deny the link of this AIDS and poverty.
According to Balyamujura et
al, poverty relates to the
spread of HIV in three interrelated ways: 1.
Deep-rooted structural poverty, arising from such things as gender imbalance,
land ownership inequality, ethnic and geographical isolation, and lack of
access to services.2. Developmental poverty, created by unregulated socioeconomic and demographic changes such as rapid population growth,
environmental degradation, rural-urban migration, community dislocation, slums
and marginal agriculture.3. Poverty created by war, civil unrest, social
disruption and refugees. High levels of rape and the breakdown of traditional
sexual mores are associated with military destabilization, refugee crisis and
civil war.
“Poverty
is the worst form of violence.” ― Mahatma Gandhi
Poverty
drags the man to the edge of humanity. Having nothing at home to fulfill his appetite
and also of his children lead a person to become a dacoit, thief, terrorist or
a target killer or involved themselves in the ill legal immigration business,
they may even become smuggler or drug dealers. With the time, ratio of youth doing
these kind of activities is increasing because of unemployment..Because he and
his family has to survive until the death invites them. This world allows those
to live, who survive in the fittest manner.
“Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build
museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why
poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in
luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.” ― Muhammad Yunus
This
poverty exists because of economic system that allows the accumulation of
wealth. We
must include social solutions that take into account how economic and other
systems really work. It’s very necessary to eliminate this disease of poverty
from the world to save the lives of future generation and also to provide
bright future. Although many organizations are involved in anti poverty
programmes but this world need food not only to fill their stomachs but also
for their thoughts. Now this world needs people with satisfaction who really
make this place heaven, like the heaven above.
“You can turn painful situation around through laughter. If you can
found humor in anything, even poverty, you can survive it-Bill Cosby”
No comments:
Post a Comment