Pros And Cons Of Poverty In India

Poverty affects over 767 million people in the entire world. In the United States alone, poverty affects more than 42 million people. According to feedingamerica.org, of that 42 million affected, 13 million children and over 5 million seniors live in poverty. Poverty is grouped into two different categories; absolute and relative. Wikipedia.org defines absolute poverty as the absence of enough resources to secure basic life necessities. This includes not having safe drinking water, not having clean bathroom facilities, not being able to get proper healthcare, not having access to education and not having proper shelter. Absolute poverty is also referred to as living in extreme poverty. Relative poverty, according to wikipedia.org, is the condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live. The meaning of poverty varies from country to country and person to person. For example, while some people in the United States would be considered as living below the poverty line, a person from another country may consider that person rich. However, poverty is simply when an individual is unable to meet their basic needs. This includes not being able to clothed, house or feed oneself or one’s family. Poverty is a problem that will not be easily solved. There have been many attempts to try and end poverty, but yet it continues to grow. In a country such as the United States that’s

During the film, the subject of poverty was actively depicted. Even though this issue has raised great concerns for India in the past, statistics show that this problem has gradually decreased. In 1978 the percentage of people living on less than $2

Imagine how would our world be if all human beings had the same opportunities, a world where equity ruled our society. In this case, poverty will be extinguished. Unfortunately, there are still some countries where the wealth is very poorly distributed, and a great portion of the population is below the poverty line. Such is the case of India, an Asian country located in south-central part of the continent. One percent of the population in India holds close to half of the country’s wealth. The book The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga, is a great novel where you can notice the things that people who are poor, must go through and how difficult it is. It is so rigid to get

Poverty is a big problem in the United States. According to Charles Zastrow, “in 2012 over forty-six million people, about fifteen percent of our population was living below the poverty line” (p. 117). In other words, there were a great amount of people living below the poverty line the poverty line. The poverty line is the minimum level of income needed for secured needs of life according to the government. Poverty causes malnutrition, homelessness, School dropout’s drug abuse, and much more.

Documentary in Nepal: Living on a Dollar a Day, is a documentary following three people, two from Canada and one from Nepal as they live life on only 107 rupees (which is around 1 dollar) a day. After watching “Documentary in Nepal: Living on a Dollar a Day,” I have a greater idea of how different it is to live in a wealthy country than a poor one and just how blessed we are in Canada to make and live with so much more money. The difference between our world and the poorest countries, besides wealth, is also evident in the youth. In countries like Nepal, the children are hard workers and people are happier overall. Another example of this can be found in Haiti.

It is clear that citizens in impoverished nations are stuck in a poverty trap, where they are unable to escape even with the assistance of aid from well developed nations. Many citizens are contributing money to charities because there is a moral obligation to donate if it does not put us into a state of economic instability. On the other hand, no matter how much aid is being given to nations stuck in poverty, this money is not helping any of the citizens. The money is going directly into the hands of corrupt governments and corporations, who constantly use it improperly. This aspect of money misuse is clearly illustrated in Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers. Boo focuses the book on the impoverished slum of Annawadi, located in Mumbai, India. Throughout the book, Boo shows examples of how the citizens of Annawadi are stuck in a poverty trap because of the country’s inconsistent and inefficient systems, leading to the failure of sustainable growth and poverty reduction to the nation. India is not the only place falling victim to this problem; many other third world countries grapple with the same issues. Other than helping the nations, aid has made impoverished nations circumstances even worse, pushing it into a further state of poverty. The main components of the failure of aid are due to developing countries not having proper infrastructure and institutions, no efficient government, and a dependence on aid.

The two authors argue the main issue that India is continuing to face are due to the lack of concern for citizens especially for the poor citizens and women. Dreze and Sen proceed into their work as they continue to portray the way in which the citizens of India were being oppressed by the new economic and political policies. One of the issues Dreze and Sen use as an example of how India rapid economic growth is problematic is the countries lack to foster participation for economic growth. The lack of inclusion in economic growth leads to a wealth disparity between the citizens. The authors continue on depicting several other issues another one being the lack of enhancement to the standard of living despite generating economic growth from the use of public goods. The standards of living are a huge issue with India as it signals there is a large disparity within wealth. Dreze and Sen continue to document the lack of social and living standards especially in the case of education, medical care, and physical services like clean water, electricity, drainage, and sanitation. The authors proceed to make note how without a development of a social structure within India high economic growth can harm the citizens and ultimately neglect civil, political, and social rights. Dreze and Sen then

In India, some of the worst off will earn daily wages by scouring through piles of trash looking for recyclables to sell for money. The definition of wealth in the slums is determined by a person’s ability to afford shelter for their plastic. 60 million Indians live in the Urban slums and 300 million under the World Bank poverty line - $1.25 per day (91). In china, the poor face the same issues. Although China has made considerable efforts to help out their poor, but their efforts continue to fall short. As living conditions continue to stay rough, people continue to move towards the cities, farmers are abandoning their land and crops in search for higher incomes. However, for a while, the migrants were rejected city services. Often children and spouses are separated for long periods of time, in most cases young parents are forced to send their children home to their village while they work in city factories in order to send money home. A large issue is that people in China are historically unaware of the labor laws that the should be followed (94). In both countries, even when people are aware of the social services they could receive, most are not allowed to get bank accounts, the only means they would have to receive government compensation. Plus, both countries have historical caste systems that often prevent any economic mobility (98). Most of the time, caste systems will determine where

While poverty is inevitable, poverty drags down the development of the world. Living conditions, cause of poverty, barriers to ending poverty, and non-poor contribution can’t afford to be taken lightly. Poverty does not have one clear definition. It is a complex concept referring to multiple situations. By poverty we normally associate it to a situation in which a person fails to earn sufficient income to purchase necessities to life. The basic needs of life are, enough food, clothing, drinking water and shelter on the material level. The most obvious effect of poverty is hunger; however hunger can also be a cause of poverty. This is because hunger deprives those living in absolute poverty of the skill and strength to carry out productive work. Poor families are deprived of basic social needs like health and education.

In a community with plentiful opportunities for commerce how can poverty be an issue? Poverty can be a reason children go hungry. Poverty can be a reason for senior citizens going without needed medications. With poverty comes many issues. Poverty has become a drain to every population, ethnicity, and culture in the world today. Being poor and being in a state of poverty are often used interchangeably, but are not the same thing. Poor can be situational. One can be too poor to afford the materialistic things wanted while maintaining the possession of the things needed. Poor can be the feeling one has two days before payday. On the other hand poverty is the inability to consistently maintain bare necessities. Poverty is having a job but not being unable to afford food, shelter, and clothing. Poverty can mean being homeless and exposed to living in shelters or cars for prolonged periods of time. According to the census bureau more than 45 million people, or 14.5 percent of all Americans lived below the poverty level last year. Dick Gregory’s “shame” and Wallace Stegner’s “The Dump Ground” are similar stories of poverty shown through perception, childhood experiences, and socioeconomic status.

The logic of poor peoples purchases as they attempt to meet a wealth image they cannot obtain is obscene. It is impossible to provide for their families and live a rich lifestyle under little earnings. Stated by Isabel Sawhill, “None of this means that providing lower-income families with more money is necessarily a bad thing” (Sawhill). The political system works in a matter to benefit poor families with money they do not earn. Poor individuals complain about being poor while it is quite simple to overcome poverty and rely on a career. Pursuing a career and presenting a humble attitude can help with overcoming poverty and presenting a better reputation. Poor individuals need to visualize more than spending money on unnecessary items, work to flip their money without relying on the government, and be themselves not a false image.

Poverty traps are economic anomalies that continually reinforce poverty within a country’s, or multiple countries’, economies. There are many different types of poverty traps such as savings traps, “big push” models, nutritional traps, behavioral traps, geographic traps, etc. that all affect an economy in different ways. Not only can poverty be enforced through these traps, but also through the way an economy is run or the moralities of the government. According to Mark Koyama (2015), poverty traps are important due to more than 3 billion people, nearly half the world’s population, living on less than $2.50 per day, and about 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty on just $1.25 per day. Among these 3 billion some people living in poverty, one billion of them are children of which thousands are dying daily. It is necessary to study these different poverty traps in order to begin to decrease the distressingly high percentages of people living in poverty.

Poverty is the lack of the basic needs of life, including food, shelter, clothing and safe drinking water. For a person to live normally, it is important to meet a certain level of physical, social, and emotional needs. People who live in poverty have difficult time to achieve those as they are not welcomed in many places. Because of their low incomes, they have troubles in maintaining their health, hunger, education. Poverty has become a large issue around the world. It is something that many of us know about but we’re not realizing just how big of a problem it is. This paper will include basic information about poverty, its effects, facts and statistics which can make people aware and want to help reduce poverty.

Unfortunately, it was estimated that roughly 1.2 billion people in 1993 lived in extreme or absolute poverty, that which Robert McNamara regards “‘a condition of life so characterized by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable standard of human dignity’” (Singer 219, 220). These estimates can be projected at nearly 2 billion today. A large majority of the people living in absolute poverty resides in underdeveloped countries. Among the nearly 4.4 billion people in these countries, “3/5 lives in societies lacking basic sanitation; 1/3 go without safe drinking water; 1/4 lack adequate housing; 1/5 are undernourished, and 1.3 billion live on less than $1 a day” (Speth 1).

From the time of independence, India has been suffering from acute poverty, most of it is chronic in nature. If we look at the percentage of people below the poverty line, we do notice a sharp fall, but the absolute number remains increasing at a high rate.