Child poverty in Canada
Poverty has been always considered as a dreaded menace in our society, which has widely spread all over the world. The worst category of poverty is Child poverty. It refers to the phenomenon where basic amenities namely food, shelter and clothes of children aged below 18 are deprived. It comprises of various factors such as deprivation of material, spiritual, cultural, social, and emotional resources.
For instance, Canada has a reputation of being caring and generous nation since ages and despite being one of the world’s most prosperous countries Canada is not immune to poverty, especially child poverty. Poverty has affected 3 million Canadians and one in five is a child. Poverty among children had led a deep scar
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In a recent report, it claims that 21% of Canadian children live under poverty. Statistics Canada suggests that child poverty in Canada actually increased during recession and is still soaring at an alarming rate. According to the latest report, Toronto has highest child poverty rate. Almost 30 percent children are affected. It has spread to the grass root level making the situation a hidden epidemic. John Tory freshly chosen mayor said, “If ever there was a wakeup call, this would be it”. Tory promised there would be a strategy to curb poverty. He gave a huge emphasis on joining hands from all sections of the society i.e. work of citizens, unions, churches, politicians and other organizations to make a strong impression. In addition to this, minister of children and youth services, Dr. Eric Hoskins stated that people from all races and communities should join hands in order to combat this curse in Canadian Society. To address it more strongly, Canada Child Tax benefit, a tax-free monthly payment was made eligible for families to help them with the cost of raising children under age of 18. It also includes national child benefit supplement and child disability …show more content…
Moreover, subsidies provided only benefit 7 percent of children in Toronto. Nearly 18000 children are not getting subsidies to support themselves. Hence, Toronto has become least affordable cities for childcare in the country.
Factors that determine poverty are gross national product, per capita income and industrialization. To broaden the scope of measuring quality of life Human Development Index came into force. It is the summary measure of average achievements in key dimensions of human developments, which illustrates long and healthy life and to have a decent standard of living.
Considering other countries are putting their efforts to limit the growth of child poverty Canada should also focus on initiating “Save the Children” mission. Canada should intensively participate in “Plan International” and “World vision”. Further studies have shown that Child development index is the most appropriate measurement of child poverty.
*Majority of poverty stricken children are born to poor
The Toronto Star published an article reporting that Toronto currently has the highest rate of children living in households that are considered low income in Canada (Monsebraaten, 2015). The article reports that in Toronto the child poverty rate is higher than the poverty rate of any other age group. This paper will discuss child poverty, how this is a challenge to public health practices and policies, and finally, discuss potential solutions for public policy that address this issue.
When people hear the words “child poverty” some assume that this term may refer to homeless children who are living on the streets. This isn’t necessarily true, in fact some children who go to bed every night with a roof above their head still suffer from some form poverty. According to National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 21% of children throughout the United States live in families who are considered poor. It is crucial for society to be more aware of this issue and to take part in contributing to help reduce child poverty within our country.
implementing strong policies, like the Nordic countries have done (Raphael, 201, pg.397). Supporting parties more interested in programs to reduce poverty can be a start and by supporting and joining them can make a difference. As recommended in Chapter 12, priority should be given to families with children suffering from poverty and steps should be taken to reduce income inequality and improving living standards. Canadians should confront their representatives and ask whether anything is being done to reduce poverty and furthermore raise concerns with agencies, institutions and organizations interested in poverty (Raphael, 2011, pg.458). People should ask their professionals, employers, and unions to raise poverty issues, since they can be
Poverty is a serious issue in Canada needs to be addressed promptly. Poverty is not simply about the lack of money an individual has; it is much more than that. The World Bank Organization defines poverty by stating that, “Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time”. In Canada, 14.9 percent of Canada’s population has low income as Statistics Canada reports, which is roughly about two million of Canadians in poverty or on the verge of poverty. In addition, according to an UNICEF survey, 13.3 percent of Canadian children live in
Grace Abbott once said, “Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time.” Child poverty is one of the biggest issues facing Canadian children today. Child poverty can significantly shorten a child’s life. One of the major reasons child poverty in Canada is so high is because of low wages. These children have a disadvantage to all the other children in Canada. There is major inequality among these children. There are many problems that come out of child poverty and effect the children directly. This paper will talk about the four major effects of child poverty; health issues and nutrition, emotional and behavioural issues, education, and their home environment. (Introduction: dimensions of children’s inequality, 2003).
Although Canada is a rich country there are still people who live in poverty, “In 2011, the government classified about 4.7 million men, women and children –– almost 15 percent of the Canadian population –– as poor” (Macionis, Janson, Benoit, & Burkowicz, 2017) but Canada calculates its poverty rate by “one popular measure known as the LICO, a family has an income below the low income cut-off of it spends more than 63 percent of its after-tax income on the necessities of food, clothing, and shelter, including corrections for different family sizes and the cost of living in particular communities.”
According to CBCnews, “The number of families living in poverty in Toronto is increasing...The United Way of Greater Toronto says 30 percent of Toronto families,
Poverty is an ongoing problem in Canada. Poverty is defined as the inability to obtain the necessities for life . Despite poverty being an ongoing problem, how to properly measure it is disputed among scholars. There are two basic formations for the measurement of poverty: the relative measurement and the absolute measurement. In Canada they are called the low income cut off, or LICO, measurement and the market basement measure, or MBM, measurement. The LICO measurement is individuated to Canada whereas the MBM measurement is a worldwide standard. Of the two the LICO measurement of poverty is most relevant for Canadian politicians. This because a relative measurement allows for policy makers to understand poverty based upon what it means
Duffy and Mandell portray many themes around poverty in their article “poverty in Canada”, but there is one word that really symbolizes the main theme, and
The Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research conducted a study using data gathered from 46 developing countries to examine child poverty. The results found over a third of children lived in absolute poverty or in homes of more than five people.134 million 7-18 year olds lack basic education and over 375 million drink unsafe water. Civil war added to all of this makes for a hard existence (Newbold et al.,
Canada has always taken great pride in its health care system. Publicly funded, Medicare has helped many, but has also aided in masking one of this country’s largest growing problems. Income inequality is highly prevalent throughout Canada, affecting the health of its citizens, and over-burdening its health care system. The growing gap between incomes is largely in part to the economic neoliberalism taking place within Canada. The stress placed on lower and middle income families through various social determents of health is taking its toll on society and its individuals. The oppressed state of undermined
There is a national consciousness in Canada about global poverty reduction, with 94% of Canadians saying it is important to improve health, education and economic opportunity for the world’s poorest, and 76% of Canadians agreeing we have a moral obligation to help expand health, education, and economic opportunity for the world’s
Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, however, many citizens are below the blurred poverty line. (251). The poverty line in Canada is measured by the LICO-IAT (boooook) and the MBM (253). The resources for those below the poverty line are very poor; food banks and shelters are unable to uphold the amount of people that are in need of them. (252). Among the poor, many people have paid employment, however, it is not enough.
The poverty issue has taken center stage in the social front owing to the impact it has on Canadian households as well as the tripartite level of government, that is Federal, Provincial and municipal government. This research paper will therefore assess the genesis of this social issue, the indicators established for proving its existence, the policies enacted and adapted towards its reduction in the country and also the role of the public in combating the challenge.
Currently there are many problems and flaws with the way the Canadian government’s policies deal with healthcare, income inequality and poverty. Time to time changes in policies have been made, perhaps to improve these issues, however, the gap between rich and poor keeps increasing and there is very little improvement in healthcare and the economy. In fact, healthcare keeps on becoming costly. Major issues like income inequality and poverty are not being taken care of by the government. According to Dr. Raphael (2002) poverty is caused by several reasons such as inequality in people’s income, weak social services and lack of other social supports (p.VI). He states, “Poverty directly harms the health of those with low incomes while income