Importance of Poverty Eradication - Research Paper Example

?Poverty eradication has been the principal issue governments all over the world have to tackle with. It is one of the most complicated to solve problems. The right to live in this world, right for food and water, right for residence, right for education etc. are the evergreen slogans in the history of political movements that have happened in the world. But despite years of planning and aggressive strategies worldwide, the cry for poverty eradication is till heard in many parts of the world. For the United Nations, ‘End poverty by 2015’ is one of the Millenium Developemnt goals (United Nations, September 2010). According to European standards, the categories of people who have been considered as poor have been “1. the long term unemployed and the young unemployed, 2. the elderly, 3, single parent families, 4. second generation migrants, 5. refugees and returning minors, 6. marginal groups- e.g. gypsies, travellers, homeless, 7. underpriveleged urban districts, 8. impoverished rural areas” (Cullen, 5). The American definition for 2011 is that “for a family of four including two adults and two children, total yearly income has to be below $22,350, to be called poor as is given in the US Department of Health and Human Services website. While addressing the issues that the poor people face, as members of the subculture of poverty, one major concern has always been the physical eradication of poverty and its negative manifestations which lives of the poor people miserable. Community development is universally accepted as the most effective method to address poverty and its problems. The community development program of 1980s in Ireland was a landmark in the history of the fight against poverty (Cullen, 11). Cullen, in his study on nine poverty elimination projects implemented in Ireland, has revisited the methods and strategies followed by various organizations and agencies who participated in these projects and has concluded that “community development is a process that deliberately activates, encourages and supports groups of people to participate in collective action in pursuit of common interests, and which contributes to social justice and equity” (Cullen, 11). During the John-Nixon era, in the US, “community action programs” were abundant and quite popular (Joseph, 49). Though they set the stage for the emergence of a welfare state, they were also criticized as capable of only peripherally addressing the issues of poverty (Patterson, 146). Notwithstanding these opposing viewpoints regarding community solutions to the subculture of poverty, the global intellectual discourses have always seen community solutions as the most viable way out (Cullen, Joseph, FAO and Gaiha). The best available community solution to the subculture of poverty will be to set up community level revolving funds partially sponsored by the government and partially by the industrial houses of the country. To raise the funds, the government will have to introduce a special tax of 0.1% of the profit, on the corporate companies, which have a profit margin above a fixed ceiling. These funds along with a government contribution will then be transferred to the local authorities to be utilized for ensuring a minimum of 200 days’ work for all those able-bodied persons who have been listed as poor. The form of work has to be fixed at local level, by the local administration in consultation with the community leaders, and according to the local resources available and prevailing local conditions and necessities. For example, if in a place having water scarcity, the work has to be provided in water conservation activities, which can contribute to the local economy in a productive way. And the newly generated water could be given back into the community at a reasonable cost. Similarly, in an area where the major vocation is agriculture, work can be provided in community-level agro-processing industries. This solution will have to involve “massive commitments of Federal funds” in contrast to the prior community action programs, which were simply fancy-solutions designed simply to avoid such commitments (Patterson, 146). But the income from the special tax instituted will take a part of this burden off the shoulders of the government. By asking the local authorities to manage these funds in a revolving pattern, it is assured that the funds are used for productive, income-generating purposes alone and are not wasted in an unrealistic one-time mega-project. By making it necessary for the poor people to earn the government aid through working, this project can reverse the “dependency” model of poor-welfare schemes (Cullen, 64). And it can add on to their self-esteem. It has to be realized that the role of the government is crucial in formulating policies in different fields of development so that all the citizens are entitled to secure jobs, comfortable income, food, housing and other essential requirements. Given this commitment, reinforced by activities such as tax collection, it is primarily the government itself that has to shoulder the blame for having poor people under its rule. Especially, it is in the sector of employment creation that this role becomes most crucial. This is why Lawrence has opined, “until we can create a coherent employment policy to produce jobs with wages that can truly support a family- no matter how the family is constituted- the poverty will not go away” (Joseph, 96). It is this lacuna in the employment policy that creates and sustains poverty. This is why the solution offered by this essay has been in the area of employment generation with the primary responsibility on the government alone. As part of the employment generation scheme, adult literacy classes will be organized for which the funds have to be met with on a contributory manner form the government as well as the ‘poor’ worker. Attending these classes will be mandatory for getting recruited for work. This is in view of the importance of literacy in overcoming the phenomenon of subculture of poverty becoming hereditary. By educating the parents, an indirect and more stable effect on the learning capabilities of the children is envisaged. The literacy part of the project has to get incorporated into the work-hours itself so that the workers are not required to spend extra time on their literacy classes. Instead, the hours of work has to be fixed in such a way that the hours spend in literacy classes will be counted as real work and added up to a day’s work. It has to be noted that this scheme will be different in essence from the Rural Public Work (RPW) projects being implemented world wide as an effective community solution for poverty (FAO and Gaiha, 111). In the RPWs, the government funds are constantly flowing into the scheme as far as it is functional. But in the scheme prescribed by this essay, once the funds are given to a community, it becomes their responsibility to spend it and earn it back in the form of productive returns so that it could be re-invested in a new job-generating scheme. This imparts a greater responsibility on the community as well as gives an impetus for productive work. This design also leaves great space for a community leadership to emerge, capable of managerial skills and power to make decisions. The stakeholders of this community solution will be primarily the poor people and also the society as a whole. While the employment generated will directly benefit the poor workers, the productive work that they undertake will give economic mobility to the community and society as a whole. A third stakeholder could be the government itself, as by providing a one-time incentive, it would get in return constant productive activity. But it has to be stressed that the stakeholder who is of utmost importance to this ‘solution’ will always be the poor people. Among the poor, women have to be given first priority while enlisting at least one member from each poor family. This is made mandatory because previous experiences from all over the world regarding community action to alleviate poverty have shown that women are the best managers of community level work and they are the best managers as far as local finance management is concerned (FAO and Gaiha, 147). For example, the experience acquired from Tamil Nadu Integrated Nutrition Project, in India, which employed women for manufacturing nutrition supplement for rural children was a booming success in this regard (FAO and Gaiha, 147-49). This strategy supports the feminist cause as well. The fact that women could be the more eligible participants in community level action against poverty also points to the needs of other minority and underprivileged groups as well. Poverty has strong roots in race, and class equations, which is clearly proved by the definitions of poverty given in the beginning of this essay. The gender, race, and class status could very well affect the outcome of the given ‘solution’ also. Just like showing a leaning towards the marginalized gender group, this project also will have to give more opportunities to minority races and the working class. It is evident that the literacy part of this program needs to target the minority gender group, minority races and less privileged economic class. Because, they are the groups, which are most affected by the evils of illiteracy. This becomes clear when Cullen observes, “working class children derive far less benefit from education than their counterparts in the higher income groups” (63). Similarly, Patterson has drawn attention to the “disadvantaged minority groups” (38). Lone parents being categorized under the definition of the poor, it is also seen that “more than 80% of these are women” (Cullen, 71). In the community solution being offered by this author, the institutional settings of the solution is also carefully delineated with the belief that it can decide the success or failure of a community level action to alleviate poverty. Hence it is recommended that a committee be formed under the chairpersonship of the local administration head with half the members drawn from the local government and the other half from the local community. The community members need to be given veto power in this committee, when, within them, a two-third majority thinks, a particular action proposed, is not right. Also, proper representation has to be there for women, racial minorities and the workers themselves within the community members. This kind of an organizational set up can bring the power of decision to the community and all the same ensure that their decisions are within the legal parameters prescribed by rule of law. Another aspect of this solution will be that the homeless worker who is a beneficiary to this project can opt to save a portion of his/her earnings with the revolving fund, with an assurance of a reasonable yearly interest and a special incentive. Once the worker signs the agreement to this effect, the amount will be automatically cut monthly from his/her wages and will go straight to the common fund. Similarly, a worker is also given a similar saving option for the future education of his/her children. The special incentive, in all these instances will be the sole responsibility of the government. And also a minimum wage will be fixed for the workers, which is based on a national level standard. The resource-mapping of the chosen community will be the first step in implementing the scheme. Community participation will be ensured in this process at all levels. It is based on this resource map that core areas of intervention will be identified. The whole project for each community will be flexible enough to undergo changes as per the needs of the community in a given period of time. Another crucial aspect of this ‘solution’ will be that, revolving fund will be replenished by the government (if necessary), after conducting a performance audit and finding positive outcomes. If the community leadership is able to make some additions to the existing fund through the implementation of the project, a share of the profit will go to the workers, based on a performance audit of their individual work. This will serve as an incentive for them to give maximum input into their work. Last but not least, the organizational structure of this ‘solution’ will be flexible enough to include innovative ideas that are proposed by the workers and the community members and common platforms will be organized for different communities to share their experiences and compare them. Works Cited Cullen, Barry, “Poverty, Community and Development: A Report on the Issues of Social Policy that Have Arisen in the Work of the Nine Projects of the Second European Programme to Combat Poverty, 1985-1989”, Dublin: Combat Poverty Agency, 1989. Print. Patterson, James.T., “America's struggle against poverty in the twentieth century, Page 3”, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000. Print. Joseph, Lawrence. B., “Families, poverty, and welfare reform: confronting a new policy era”, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1999. Print. Food & Agriculture Organization and Gaiha, Raghav, “Design of poverty alleviation strategy in rural areas, Volumes 115-116”, Rome: Food & Agriculture Organization, 1993. Print. Websites “2011 HHS Poverty Guidelines”, aspe.hhs.gov, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Web. 29 March 2011, http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/11fedreg.pdf “Summit on the Millennium Development Goals 20-22 September 2010”, www.un.org, United Nations. Web. 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