Consequences Caused by Poverty and Its Solution - Essay Example

Poverty has been universally accepted as a social problem affecting various sectors of society.  According to Bartle (par. 2), “poverty as a social problem is a deeply embedded wound that permeates every dimension of culture and society. It includes sustained low levels of income for members of a community. It includes a lack of access to services like education, markets, health care, lack of decision-making ability, and lack of communal facilities like water, sanitation, roads, transportation, and communications.” It is social in nature because it permeates the smallest unit of every society – the individual in the family and affects his interrelationships with other members of his social class. Because children, as victims of neglect due to the inability of parents to support and sustain their needs, instead of being productive members of society when they grow up, there is a tendency for maladjusted behaviors compromising potentials for revenues for the society; therefore, society needs to address five factors contributory to poverty such as ignorance, apathy, disease, dishonesty, and dependency.

There are many negative consequences to society relating to the issue of poverty, such as lack of access to education, unemployment, inability to access health care, inaccessibility to public utilities and resources.

A large portion of the underprivileged and the poor are women without husbands, the old, children, unskilled, and disabled people with physical handicaps and severe mental conditions. Due to the inability of parents to support and sustain the children’s needs, children of poor families are deemed neglected and abused. According to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), child abuse and neglect is defined as “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm” (USDHHS, par. 1). In related research published by the NSPCC, the information from the report reveals that children of impoverished families are recipients of negative outcomes, such as poor health, increased tendencies for early death, illness or accident, inability to attend proper educational instructions, higher propensities for criminal activities, or increased tendencies to be crime victims (NSPCC, 2).

The long-term effects of child neglect are suffered by society in terms of shouldering direct costs local agencies spending more in terms of providing services for child welfare programs, legal advice, and provision of health care (NAIC, 3). In addition, society is likewise affected indirectly through supporting and sustaining expenses for mental illness, drug abuse, criminal activity, loss of productivity due to underemployment and unemployment, and increased use of health care systems (NAIC, 3).  This simply means that society shoulders direct expenses from welfare, health, and legal programs of poor families. On the other hand, when children of poor parents could not afford to give them proper education, they turn out to perform lower and terms of employment and could have greater tendencies to commit a crime.

In this regard, society through state and federal authorities must enact and collaborate towards eliminating the root causes of poverty to address the ills identified linking poverty to child maltreatment and neglect. As proposed by Bartle, as poverty was directly seen as contributed by the five factors as above mentioned, by eliminating them through a review, reassessment, and active implementation of policies and regulations, the way towards minimizing low income of families and child neglect would be effectively addressed. As emphasized by Downs, et.al, “poverty rate depends more on the overall state of the economy than on the specifics of welfare policy. (Thereby) efforts must be directed at improving the earning power of families through both increased education and training of individuals and their effective economic policies” (50).

Poverty is one of the risk factors contributory to child abuse and neglect through the inability to provide access to education, health care, and another support system that would provide for the holistic development of children. By eliminating ignorance, children would be made more educated and would be appropriately employed in the future. By eliminating apathy, people would care for each other and would ensure that everyone’s needs are addressed. By eliminating disease through access to health care, costs shouldered by society on health expenses would be diminished. By eliminating dishonesty, cheating and fraud would be avoided. And by eliminating dependency, each and everyone would have the capacity to support and sustain daily needs.

Conclusion

Poverty cannot be addressed by pointing fingers at policymakers and regulators and presuming that they will ultimately solve this social ill. Each and every member of society could address the five factors contributory to poverty by maintaining a proactive rather than reactive stance. Social workers, economists, and business practitioners offer a solution to combat the roots of the dilemma. The solution is in the hands of all members of society to fight ignorance, apathy, disease, dependence, and dishonesty now to save children from maltreatment and neglect and make them productive members of our future nation.