Poverty As Capability Deprivation - Essay Example

Poverty As Capability Deprivation The capability deprivation approach provides an interactional model to poverty, which clearly stipulates effective points at which a person can possibly intercept poverty, thereby completely eradicating it. Another vital human capability that poverty deprives is body integrity. This refers to the numerous freedoms and liberties that people should freely enjoy, such as the ability to move from one location to another and the freedom to enjoy security from sexual molestation and other forms of sexual harassment. Such security improves the quality of life that people live in their independent societies. Poverty denies people such little liberties. Everyone wishes to travel for either business or pleasure and every place on earth is virtually accessible. However, the monetary value attached to travel through the expenses limit people’s movement. Most people, therefore choose to live happily without the pleasures of travel. Sexual integrity, on the other hand, is integral to human survival. People acquire diseases through unregulated, unprotected and involuntary sex, depriving themselves of the capability of life. Poverty makes it possible for the rich to molest the poor sexually. The poor have no effective representation in most cases. The poor security infrastructures in their societies make them more susceptible to rape and other forms of sexual violence. Poverty refers to any lack of materials or resources that are needed or wanted, or that make up richness. According to this argument, poverty is a relative time that acquires meaning based on the context. The United Nations defines poverty as the state of lacking the basic resources necessary to support human life, most of which constitute clothing, food and shelter. In reference to this, the United Nations thus develop an effective mechanism for determining poverty using an imaginary line known as the poverty level. This therefore refers to the degree of lack in which people survive on less than a dollar a day, a type of poverty rampant in the developing world where resources are sparsely distributed and the national wealth unevenly shared by the elite and political leadership. Poverty is a vicious cycle that sustains itself, thereby depriving people of abilities. The modern society requires a literate citizenry. The employment opportunities in the modern day societies demand an entry level academic qualification. Additionally, private investment also requires adequate business management skills acquired only in the formal schooling environment. Nussbaun further explains the vicious cycle theory in her approach to poverty as a capability deprivation and in her subsequent formulation of the ten specific capabilities. In her argument, she asserts that poverty denies people opportunities to express their potential, thereby stunting human growth and development. Human lifestyles are defined by a myriad of factors. One of this poverty. In essence, poverty refers to the divide between the rich and the poor. More specifically, it refers to the lack of basic wants. This comes from the fact that one may lack the money to afford the fundamental necessities in life. Poverty as a capability inadequacy provides an exhaustive relationship between wealth distribution in a society and its subsequent effects. It also investigates the factors that influence poverty, key among which is education. Knowledge broadens the mind of an individual besides imparting the technical know how. This encourages innovation even in those who eventually miss formal employment. However, education is expensive and varies in quality. This implies that the rich access better schools and colleges and, therefore, stand better chances of employment. From such a basic point, it becomes clear that poverty denies people opportunities to add quality to their lives. While the rich access better education and get better employment opportunities and thus live better quality lives, the poor miss the opportunity to obtain high quality education, yet others still miss education in totality. The difference in the quality of life for the two categories of the population becomes evident. The majority of the poor are always uneducated; most of their beliefs become retrogressive too. Education eliminates such detrimental mindsets and revamps self-esteem, which thereafter becomes essential in moving people through the economic classes of society. The story “The Swamp Nurse” written by Katherine Boo depicts some of these retrogressive mindsets in the beliefs of society most of which risk the lives of both their children and the very women (Boo 12). The relativity of the term “poverty” implies that poverty exists even in the modern societies most of which comprise urban centers such as towns and cities. The urban poor are a category of people living in the urban centers where the money resource is the most influential tool of survival, but lacking it. Such people face numerous challenges, which together with poor city planning result in the rise of informal settlements in most cities. The capability deprivation, therefore, is more effective in eradicating poverty since it underscores the actual factors that result in the recurring nature of poverty and its effects (Sen 3). Different governments all over the world have the public services which are effective mechanisms of the government offering the basic services to the people, safeguarding the interest of the population. The public system is an effective means of eradicating poverty and its depriving effects among a population. The most important aspects of human life that the government safeguards through these mechanisms are health, education and security. As stated earlier, education is the most effective poverty eradication tool. However, the quality education varies from one society to another. It thus becomes imperative for the government to pacify the conflicting quality levels of education, thereby ensuring that both the rich and the poor access some useful level of education. This does not only make the population more employable but imparts positive and motivational ideologies in the population, improving the quality of life. Education is the most effective way of eradicating binding social beliefs. The education system provides an effective environment in which members of the society test their social beliefs and obtain practical results of their inefficacy (Nussbaum 11). Education promotes knowledge on the social values, revamping the society’s understanding of social and gender justice. Fundamental human wants are classified as the basic needs. These should be availed to everyone. Different governments all over the world have the public services which are effective mechanisms of the government offering the basic services to the people, safeguarding the interest of the population. Additionally, health services are integral in improving the quality of life and improving another basic human capability, which is human health. Under the right circumstances, everyone is born healthy, and a healthy life becomes imperative if one is to enjoy the life capability. However, different environments present different challenges making it impossible to live healthy lives. The population, therefore, requires quality health care services. Just as education varies in quality among institutions, it is the mandate of the government to ensure that every member of the population has equal access to high quality health services. Effective educational, health and security services in a society are capable of eradicating poverty in the modern day societies and move people freely among the societal economic classes. The most important of such beliefs that further cultivate poverty among the population is poorer approach to social and gender justice. Poor societies and families have extremely limited resources, thereby necessitating sharing and prioritizing. Unfortunately, such families lack the knowledge of most of the life factors, key among which are family planning and sex education. The story reveals that most of the female children in the poor village had become mothers; worse still, the story does relate the children to their fathers who most probably are also children. This indicates that the society depicts intense gender bias against the female child and the female gender in general. Most poor societies, as evident in the developing world, show little regard to female children. Most of them get married early to earn the family some income in the form of dowry, thereby implying that they do not receive formal education up to a self-sustaining level. This is a great portrayal of gender injustice, thus part of the social injustice in the society especially in the poor societies. The preference for the male child over his female counterpart discourages communal development since the elite society reveals that in most cases the femael child performs just as well as the boy child, if not better. Social justice arises from the ten capabilities that every human enjoys. These include life: everyone is entitled to one life, which is of a similar value to another person’s. The society tries to uphold the equality of life by instituting laws, but poverty deprives this capability. Poverty denies people access to good quality health care – a factor that results in the death of people at different stages. The average life span of a human is fifty years; however, death occurs at different levels with poor societies as depicted in the story, experiencing a higher infant mortality. Poverty, therefore, deprives people of life, which is the most basic human capability. In conclusion, the capability deprivation approach becomes more relevant in combating poverty than the low income theory. By viewing poverty as a form of deprivation, the government easily identifies the key areas of development and communally institutes them to uplift the living standards of the people, thereby possibly eliminating poverty in its totality. The dictates of the social contract theory, which forms most modern democracies, explain that the people of a society come together and sign contracts with a select few of their members to govern them over a period. The governance process refers to a myriad of activities most of which uphold the interest of the society. Poverty eradication is certainly one of such interest. Any government therefore owes it to its subjects to eliminate poverty. The capability deprivation approach to poverty makes it easier for the government to identify the areas of interest and revamp them to improve the quality of life of their population. This is more effective than the low income approach which is never applicable, for different people within the population have different levels of competency with some out rightly unemployable and cannot therefore earn an income capable of sustaining a high quality lifestyle. However, through the capability deprivation the government certainly realizes that poor security is a key depriver of the life capability. The government sets up an effective police service, which protects the interest of every citizen, thereby increasing the life span of the population. Works Cited Boo, Katherine. “Swamp Nurse.” The New Yorker 06 Feb 2006. Print. Nussbaum, Martha. “Capabilities as Fundamental Entitlements: Sen and Social Justice.” Feminist Economics, 9.2/3 (2003): 33-59. Print. Sen, Amartya. “Poverty as Capability Deprivation.” Development As Freedom. Random House Digital, Inc. 2011. Web. 5 May 2012. Print. Read More