Ladies in Action : World Poverty

Do you know about 20,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations which is equal to one person for every four second. Sadly, it is children who die most often. Although there are tonnes of food in the world but still such situation occurs due to hunger people are still trapped in severe poverty.

What is world poverty and what are the causes? Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education. Relative poverty is defined contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which people live.

Among the causes of world poverty are :-

Overpopulation
Global distribution and resources
High standard of living and costs of living
Inadequate education and employment
Environmental degradation
Economic and demographic trends

Overpopulation is the situation when there is a large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space. It can result from high population density where the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometer or square mile. In undeveloped country people live by simple farming, gardening, herding numbers of people because these labor-intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food. Whereas, in developed countries they produce large quantities of food through mechanized farming, which depends on commercial fertilizers, large-scale irrigation, and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas.

Global distribution and resources when there is an unequal distribution of resources in the world economy, developed countries continue to practice a form of colonialism, known as neocolonialism. The affluence of these countries is based to a large extent on favourable trade with the developing world. Developed countries have been able to get inexpensive natural resources from poorer countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, including oil for power, ores and minerals for manufacturing durable goods, and manufactured goods made by low-wage workers in factories operated by multinational corporations. This practice contributes to the dependency of poorer countries while not raising their standards of living.

High standard of living and living cost also contributes to poverty. The standard of people living in developed nations are generally higher and tend to have a high cost of living since people in developed nations may have more wealth and resources than those in developing countries. Thus, people who have what would be considered adequate wealth and resources in developing countries may be considered poor in developed countries. Due to the high cost of living people in developed countries cannot obtain adequate food, clothing, and shelter without ample amounts of money. People who cannot find or maintain well-paying jobs often have no spare income for discretionary or emergency expenses, and many rely on government welfare payments to survive.

Inadequate education and employment is also a major factor contributing to world poverty. In poor countries illiteracy and lack of education is very common. Although the government of these poor countries are trying to inculcate the importance of education , they are not affordable to provide good public schools. Without education, most people will not be able to get an income-generating work and chooses to concentrate on making a minimal living . Even in developed countries, unemployment rates may be high. When people do not have work, they do not make any money that causes high unemployment leads to high levels of poverty.

Environmental degradation , economic and demographic trends as well as individual responsibility and welfare dependency also involved in causing the world poverty . Environmental degradation where the deterioriation of the natural environment leads to the shortage of food, clean water, materials for shelter, and other important resource. Through economic and demographic trend it could be seen that changes in labour market and in many developed nations the number of people living in poverty has increased due to rising disparities in the distribution of resources within these countries.