Poverty As a Social Evil and its Various Aspects - Essay Example

Poverty As a Social Evil and its Various Aspects Poverty is a social evil that has taken over society since times immemorial. In today’s day and age it is imperative to find solutions to not only poverty but also to the various problems that it leads to, for example, as discussed within this project, social exclusion as well as domestic violence. Furthermore, the government also needs to take steps in order to remove this social evil from society, by answering questions such as whether or not it should be providing food and other subsidiaries, as well as shelter to homeless people. Poverty As a Social Evil and its Various Aspects “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” Mohandas Gandhi Poverty is a state of deprivation that a large number of people around the world have been facing for a long time. It is a condition that a human being is not able to shrug off easily; being poor means that a person is not able to afford the basic amenities of life in order to live a substantial lifestyle. It has been estimated that developing countries and third world countries around the world are the worst affected and have families surviving in poverty stricken conditions, and the country and government is not able to do much because of its lack of resources and wealth. Most families that belong to a poverty stricken household are not able to rise out of the issue with ease. This is because poverty carries on from generation to generation and since poor people are not able to easily afford education, their children grow up with no knowledge of how to make their lives better and thus have to carry on the legacy that their parents have provided them with, which they further provide to their children, subsequently. Poor people also face a vast amount of social problems, the biggest being rejection on behalf of society. Most of the people that belong to well off families and are able to afford their lifestyles, shun poor people and make their lives worse than what they were living. There are very few people that are philanthropic enough to help such people out and bring them out of their misery. On the other hand, there are other people that refuse to help such a miserable situation, and in turn create more problems for the poorer sections of society. However, despite being caught up in such situations, it is the right of every individual to be able to have food and shelter in order to survive. Food and shelter are the two necessities a person should have in order to be able to live life properly and if these are denied, then no man will be able to survive. “In the 1990s, the debate has shifted; as millions have become poorer, unemployment has remained stubbornly high, crime rates have risen, and all kinds of other problems like homelessness, single parenthood, drugs, truancy, substance abuse, suicide have multiplied, the focus has moved on to individual pathology. In the USA, the poor have become a target for re-moralization through coercion.” Thus, poverty is an important contemporary issue that needs to be addressed. Two major problems, that poverty stricken people have been facing for a long time; have been discussed within the scope of this paper. They are social exclusion and domestic violence. These are two issues that are rampant within the poorer sections of society due to various reasons which have been talked about further. Furthermore, this paper aims to discuss whether or not poor people should be provided with food and shelter by the government in order to maintain a substantial lifestyle. The next social problem that most people under the spell of poverty have been facing all around the world, we will move on to discuss the issue of domestic violence. First, we must understand the concept of violence; it is an illegal act or a crime that a man carries out in order to blame someone else and in the process help himself feel respite of the situation that he must be caught up in. Violence refers to beating up or causing harm or injury to someone else with or without reason. Domestic violence refers to violence being carried out in the household, usually by the male spouse on his wife or children. Such violence is not acceptable at all within society, however, it is rampant in poor households of the world and there has not been much that has been done about it. Most poor people are uneducated and illiterate and thus are not able to understand how to carry out a civil lifestyle and treat people around them. They lack the kind of sophistication that other people might possess in terms of dealing with people around them. They do not know how to present themselves in society because of the lack of resources and available opportunities due to their poverty stricken state and thus are shunned away by people. This causes frustration in a man; being socially rejected comes off to any human being as a very difficult thing to take because every man wants to be accepted and have people to understand his or her point of view. Thus, in order to vent out their frustration, most people take to beating other people, usually within their households. Women and children are the worst that have been hit by domestic violence as most men come back home and beat their wives and kids up. Most of these cases occur within poor households due to the lack of education and awareness regarding violence. Most women belonging to such poor households lose their self respect and confidence thus not being able to raise a voice or a hand against their husbands. Men engage in beating their wives and children up by taking out their anger and pushing it towards excuses. It is obvious that living a lifestyle that is not acceptable within society causes a man to rethink his decisions about life. Furthermore, being poor puts a man into depression because he is constantly taunted by the kind of life that he desires to have and the far reach that such a life is for such a poor man. Husbands have to feed their children and their wives and are not able to provide for them, which causes them to indulge in crimes and illegal activities. And when things go wrong in these aspects, they come home and take to beating their wives or children up. In most poor households, the men also take to substance abuse or the misuse of alcohol and drugs which brings their irrational, animal instincts out. This further leads them to come home every night and beat their wives up for the pettiest of reasons. In most third world and developing countries around the world, the problem of domestic violence is widespread. Many people have tried to escape the impact of such domestic violence however this can have adverse effects on their lives, including devastating economic impacts. Most women are afraid to leave their husbands even though they might beat them up every night, for the sole reason that they do not have the education or means to provide for both themselves as well as their children. They fear their husbands beating them up even more and engaging in sexual abuse if they even think of bringing up the topic of leaving them or separating from them. This thus calls for criminal and civil legal remedies to be present in order to safely leave a relationship. However, poverty stricken people neither have access to such remedies nor do they even possess the required awareness to be able to take such action. It might take a woman a very long time to be able to decide things for her if she has lived under the shelter of her husband all her life. Most women are not able to carry out any actions or take any decisions regarding family matters because they are used to being overshadowed by their male counterparts. “Legislation, policy, services and advocacy often focus on physically separating the battered woman and her children from the abusive partner, but do not guarantee a home, food of health care or an opportunity for long-term financial stability. And anti-poverty schemes focus on increasing economic resources and access to program without addressing the impact of violence on family’s basic human needs and do little to prevent a partner to harm the wife’s job.” Being in a perpetual state of poverty prevent women from having the hope of being able to live a life safely. They do not have means to any source of income or food and thus stick to their husbands for being able to receive these amenities easily. They do not have the education or thought process to be able to make a plan of action for them if in case they do decide to leave their husbands and this further leads them into a state of bedlam. “Some require extensive use of the civil legal system to obtain orders for custody, child support or protection. Woman must be able to financially support herself and her children after she leaves her abusive partner. In many locations there are programs that provide housing and temporary cash assistance, child care and free legal representation. However, most of these programs have limited funding, offer short-term resources. As a result some low-income battered women simply are without the income, government support, or access to services necessary to fully implement safety plan.” The aspect of domestic violence is not at all ethical because no human being has the right to beat someone else up with or without reason. When it comes to social exclusion, the very idea of the issue is also not acceptable or ethical because it is the right of every human being to have the liberty and freedom to interact with anyone belonging to the same society and be able to avail of resources and opportunities. No one should be discriminated against on the basis of their wealth or status in society. Only when poor people will be given the chance to succeed will they be able to show whether or not they have the potential and talent to exploit the opportunity to the fullest. Taking these aspects and applying them to a professional stage of life, it is not acceptable to carry out acts relating to social exclusion or domestic violence. It is not alright for a person to beat someone up within the office structure or to even exclude someone of availing the opportunities as other people. In conclusion, poverty is a social evil and root cause of a number of problems caused to man, two of which have been greatly dealt with in the paper. Most people that are poor or living below the poverty line are not even able to afford square meals and provide their family with the same. They have many mouths to feed and an unstable source of income which forces many of them to even resort to actions like begging for food. Most of them do not have a house or a roof to live under and thus are subject to the worst kind of diseases. They are not able to help their situation because of the perpetual state of poverty that they lie within. Even food and shelter becomes a distant dream for such people and they become socially excluded from a lifestyle of being able to achieve these basic resources from society. Thus, the question lies in whether or not such people should be provided with external assistance by others in order for them to be able to gain basic food supplies and a place to live in with their families. Governments in many countries provide the socially backward classes and poor people of the society with these basic amenities. There are a number of food programs taken up in such developing and under developed countries where poor people are given food grains so that they can sustain their lifestyle and be able to feed their families. In many parts of the world, the governments also build housing societies that have basic one room shelters where poor people can dwell. In most places, these houses turn into areas that are categorized as slums because of the unhygienic conditions that they form with time. It is important for people to given food and shelter because providing them with assistance helps to remove obstacles that they might not be able to remove on their own; it helps to improve the economy of the state or country that the people reside within. It also helps to provide the outsiders with a better image of society and the community that all these people live in. It further helps to reduce the rate of crime and also prevents the spread of infectious diseases. This is a very important aspect of providing people with good sanitation and hygiene conditions in the form of homes and shelter because otherwise they get infected with a lot of diseases and spread the same among different people living within the same community leading to a rampant spread of unwanted viruses and bacteria. However, in most cases, poverty is not a choice but a forcible outcome of a situation that a person is not able to pull himself out of. Every man desires a place to live in safe from harsh weather conditions and be able to protect him from diseases. Ever man aims to work in order to provide himself with a square meal a day. Thus, if people are not able to do so and are stuck in a rut like situation, then it becomes the duty of the government to be at a stage to help them because it is the right of every person to live, and simply having a mere existence involves having food and shelter, otherwise survival is no possible. Works Cited Shah, A. (2011). Causes of Poverty. Global Issues. Read More