The Issues of World Poverty - Term Paper Example

World Poverty [Pick the The shortage of necessities is called poverty; more precisely the lack of fundamental medical care, shelter, safety, clothing and food is within the parameters of poverty definition. Nonetheless, it is hard to define what is necessary for one person and what is for other. Most requirements of human are related to possibilities and are structured on social occurrence and definition (Sen, 1999). According to Valentine (1968) the complete inexistence is the true meaning of poverty and the result of poverty is inequality Valentine (1968). The exact definition of poverty can help to understand objectives and track progress by comparison. The annual income required to a family to survive according to federal governments is the most general definition of poverty, which is established through the statistical evaluation. Michael Darby (1997:4) states that the actual definition of poverty is political, whose purpose is to level the growth related to programs. According to US census, keeping in view the inflation the poverty line regarding family of four in 2000 was $17,050 income. However, this definition of poverty has many issues according to several scholars of poverty such as; treatment of taxes, special work associated expenditures, regional dissimilarities in the price of living, cash income (Blank 1997; Quigley, 2003). Poverty annihilation due to political, ethical and economic urgency is necessary. The statement was given, in Copenhagen, fifteen years ago at the World Summit for Social Development by the global leaders. For growth, since then poverty annihilation has become the prime target, and it is being considered a common destructive element for the whole of humanity. To overcome poverty has become a global goal and it must be achieved until 2015. The goal, which was set fifteen years ago, could not obtain still. Still, poverty lingering everywhere except East Asia and China and at some level India, which have achieved incredulous success. According to the Social Summit 1995, the definition of poverty comprised of lack of participation, deprivation, and social exclusion and today the definition has extended in several other dimensions, and the goal is still very far. In sub-Saharan Africa, the rate of poverty is inflexibly and ineptly high. Moreover, in South Asia, poverty reduction is very low despite a sustainable development. To minimize and eradicate poverty economic growth seems a very significant factor; however, the growth at the same time in other directions is also mandatory such as; education, democracy, liberalism, socio-economic interaction among countries. Moreover, poverty must be annihilate for good but not temporarily; therefore, the implementation of incorporated social and economic policies for extracting the whole output along with development in employment and promotion of justice and reduction of inequality is essential. This goal can be achieved through implementation of adequate industrial funding and technology policies and by providing financial facilitation to underpin the investments. There are other complementary policies, which can be implemented such as developmental trade to foster viable production capacities and attributions. Decent work is promoted by structural transformations if governments have sufficient policies such as fiscal freedom, which makes them able to perform an energetic character by supplementing universal social protection, adequately. Several challenges due to poverty the world has faced until now for instance, hundreds of millions are weaker to poverty and hunger in the current crisis. After the international economic recession in 2000, the previously done efforts to reduce poverty seem in danger. The thing after finance, which augmented the life of the poor, is climate change. The global poverty reduction target does not seem sustainable owing to the negative social and economic influence, which is highlighting the vulnerability of the poor. Therefore, there is need to revise the policies, underscore the strategies to face the coming hurricane of future financial crisis. Every day 25,000 children died due to poverty. They died peacefully, without any announcement among the poorest villages or places of the world, without any media coverage. Due to their meekness, weakness and poverty their death never felt (United Nations Children’s Fund, 2000). Moreover, almost one fourth of the children are found stunted and skinny. The 2005 school enrolment record exhibit that approx 72 million children in developing countries despite of their school going age were not in the school and more than 50% were girls .In twenty first century almost one billion people are totally illiterate (United Nations Children’s Fund, 1999). Moreover, in developing countries approximately 2.6 billion people do not have basic sanitation facility and approximately 1.1 billion people do not have drinking water or water (United Nations Development Programme, 2006). The relationship of inequality and poverty is very old. Therefore, national and international levels inequality is increasing. The dissimilarities of status and income are common. The share of the poor in the overall global income is just 5% as compare to the richest share, which is 75% of the global income. Even in most advanced, democratic and well-established countries the poor have to bear humiliation and disgrace and this augments their agony at the extent. The poor parents of poor children feel disgrace and shame, as they are unable to fulfill the needs of their children. The poor work very hard to get rid of poverty, they work day and night but sometime the unavailability of work counterbalance their sincere efforts and they never able to escape from poverty (Singer, 2009). The rate of global unemployment is rising from 5.7% 2007 to 6% 2008 according to the International Labor Organization (2009a). Furthermore, workers such as female and youth are losing their jobs due to economic recession. This is the reason that they are shifting to lower income jobs and bearing income loses. By the end of 2008, in China almost 20 million workers had to suffer due to economic recession (2009a),. These types of incidents would make difficult the efforts of poverty reduction and it would become more difficult to adjust the deprived and poor people in future. Girls are the most effected souls of poverty and due to crises; most of them have to suffer education and health problems. People are unable to make both ends meet then how can they enroll their girls in schools; obviously, food is more important than education (World Bank, 2009b; 2009e) Theories of poverty The initial theory regarding poverty is comprised of many-sided and huge courses of descriptions, whose focal point is the individual as accountable for deprived condition. The conservative theoreticians politically and characteristically accuse the individuals for generating problems themselves; moreover, they empathically stress that if the individuals do hard work they can overcome their poverty and can improve their deprived conditions. However, the other dimensions of the individual theory describe poverty as the shortage of genetic attributions like intelligence, which cannot be transformed simply. However, the theory that individuals are responsible for their situations is not new. It has a relation to the Protestant reformation according to religious doctrine that wealth can be achieved only through the favor of God (Weber 2001). Moreover, the handicapped people such as deformed, blind and crippled have been punished by the God for the sins of their parents. Nevertheless, in the 19th century the concept of inherited intelligence surfaced and the movement of eugenics (bio-social movement) and provide a rational base for poverty and started to infertile the people of limited capabilities and the modern example of this explanations are books like Hurrnstein and Murray’s The Bell Curve (1994). Rainwater (1970) was totally against the theory he critically debates and defines the individualistic theory as “moralizing perspective”. He regrets that he does not understand how this kind of perspective enters in the lives of human beings along with the view point of the disinherited themselves. Culture of poverty is the second theory of poverty. Moreover, it sometime meets similarly to the individual theory of poverty. According to this theory by the transmission, poverty is emerged over generations of sets of skills, beliefs and traditions, specifically, that are individually held and socially generated. According to the theory individuals are not responsible for their depriving conditions instead their culture or dysfunctional sub-culture is responsible. It starts to effect itself once it comes into existence. The poor children normally absorb the fundamental traditions and behavior of their sub-culture and the age of six and seven. Thus, a psychological hurdle generates in their minds which stops them to improve their lives and grabbing chances, which come across in their lives (Ryan, 1976) For ending social leaving out and comprising growth, the time has come up to unlock a dialogue on poverty reduction. This is also mandatory to highlight the process of development like transformation and structural reformations. Moreover, the base of structural changes should not be on postulations that give preferences to private motives instead of public purposes. Furthermore, the structural transformations must not motivate the international comparative advantage, structuring on lower levels of technology and capabilities. The structural changes must be base on fair transactions of education, technologies and economical benefits to the poor and deprived people. Many changes are needed to completely reform the deteriorating conditions of deprived people. References Blank, R. M. (1997). It Takes a Nation: A New Agenda for Fighting Poverty. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press Darby, M. R. (1996). Facing and Reducing Poverty. in M. R. Darby (ed), Reducing Poverty in America: Views and Approaches(pp. 3-12). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Herrnstein, R. J., & Murray, C. (1994). The Bell Curve. New York: Free Press. International Labour Organization (2009a). Global Employment Trends: January 2009. Geneva: International Labour Office. Rainwater, L. (1970). Neutralizing the Dininherited: Some Psychological Aspects of Understading the Poor. in V. L. Allen (ed), Psychological Factors in Poverty(pp. 9-28). Chicago: Markham Ryan, W. (1976). Blaming the Victim. New York: Vintage. Sen, A. (1999). Development As Freedom. New York: Anchor. Singer, Peter (2009). The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty. New York: Random House Valentine, C. A. (1968). Culture and Poverty. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (United Nations Development Programme, 2007). United Nation Development Program (2007). Human Development Report 2007/2008: Fighting Climate Change—Human Solidarity in a Divided World. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan United Nations Development Programme (2006). Human Development Report 2006: Beyond Scarcity—Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis. Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan United Nations Children’s Fund (2000). The Progress of Nations 2000. New York. Weber, M. (2001). Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism . New York : Routelege World Bank (2009b). Crisis hitting poor hard in developing countries. Press release No. 2009/220/EXC, 12 February. World Bank (2009e). In Africa, “Poverty has a female face”. Feature story, 15 May Read More