How poverty may affect the psychological and social health of the individual - Essay Example

The statistics of World Bank show that the numbers of the people living below the poverty line is increasing all over the world and 1.4 billion people are living with $1.25 or even lesser income per day and approximately three billion people use to get less than $2.5 per day. (World Bank Poverty Overview) Poverty is not only the problem of poor countries but the developed and rich countries like UK and US are also facing this serious threat. Poverty strongly affects the physical, psychological and social health of the individuals and it is revealed from numerous studies that a strong link exists between poverty, mental illness and social discriminations.

The following discussion aims to identify some of the important effects of poverty upon the psychological and social health of the individuals. In this regard, the essay discussed some of the major governing factors that led people towards the state of poverty and also highlight the major social and psychological impacts that poverty draws upon the health of the individuals (Hine and Montiel, p943). Poverty causes abundance of problems and the poor people often face the dilemma of hunger, undernourishment and diseases that make their lives so miserable that they become unable to participate in several social activities.

There are many governing factors that can be sought as the reason behind poverty like bad governance, social inequality, natural disasters, political takeover, lack of accountability, exploitation of one group of people by the others and high level of unfairness prevailing within the social systems. All these factors affect the social solidity and escort to dilemmas such as mounting felony and aggression. It is a widely accepted fact that the people facing poverty enjoy little respect in society and they have less admittance to healthcare, education and other social services (Singh and Vasundeva, p51).

The failure of