Poverty Is a Crime against Humanity - Essay Example

Poverty is a crime against humanity Introduction Poverty can be considered as general scar or a particular of an individual who lacks exact amount of money to lead sustainable life. Destitution or absolute poverty generally refers to the deprivation of several basic human needs, such as food, shelter, clothes, water, health care, sanitation and education. According to the estimation of UNICEF, almost 1.1 billion children around the globe live with poverty. It is true that, the scale of poverty has significantly increased after the industrial revolution. Poverty reduction can be considered as an important goal for the government of each and every country. In addition to this, it is also an important goal and issue for several international organizations, such as World Bank and United Nations. Growth in poverty scale can hamper social and economic growth of a country. Therefore, it is important for each and every individual of a country to fight against poverty in order to ensure sustainable growth of the country. This essay will discuss nature, scale and significance of poverty. In addition to this, the essay will try to discuss and assess the policies and practical interventions of two international organizations in the response to poverty. United Nations and CARE International have been considered as two international organizations for the purpose of this essay. Discussion Poverty can be considered as greatest scandal of contemporary era. Nature of poverty can be determined through its specific characteristics. Economic aspects of poverty generally focus on the material needs of human beings, such as clothing, shelter, food and safe drinking water. However, the nature of poverty can be divided into six different aspects, such as situational poverty, generational poverty, relative poverty, absolute poverty, ritual poverty and urban poverty. Situational poverty occurs through a sudden loss or crisis. According to several researchers, the effect of this situational poverty is temporary. Typical events or reasons can create situational poverty, such as divorce in a family, serious environmental disasters and severe health issues in a society or community. On the other hand, generational poverty is identified in such families, where two or more previous generations have taken birth with the scale of poverty. It is true that, these families can find it difficult to face this particular situation due to lack of supportive tools and aspects. Absolute poverty generally includes a scarcity of some basic necessities, such as safe and pure running water, food and shelter. It is true that, families with absolute poverty look to focus on survival on daily basis (Moser, 1998). Relative poverty generally refers to the financial and economic status of a family. In this category, income level of entire family is not sufficient to fulfil average living standard. On the other hand, urban poverty used to take place in the metropolitan areas of a country in which almost 50000 people or more than 50000 people live. People, who live in urban poverty level, generally deal with acute stressors and complex chronic aggregates including noise, crowding and violence. In addition to this, urban poor people are strongly dependent on the adequate public and large city services. Rural poverty can be considered as the most common and significant nature of the poverty. This rural poverty can be identified in the nonmetropolitan areas including semi-urban areas, towns and rural areas where less than 50000 people used to live. It is true that, in rural areas, single guardian households used to control entire family (Jensen, 2014). It is known to all that families in rural areas have limited access to public services, quality education opportunities and adequate support for the disabilities. Slowly and gradually, the growth rate of rural poverty is increasing, which is a serious threat for several countries across the globe. In last 30 years, the growth rate of rural poverty has significantly increased comparing to the growth rate of urban poverty rate. People are trying to lead sustainable lives in urban areas to get better living opportunities. On the other hand, government and several public agencies are trying to enhance growth of urban areas due to the significance of industrialization. It is the major reason behind the high growth rate of rural poverty. Poverty line or poverty threshold can be considered as the minimum level of income that is believed sufficient in a specific country. It is true that relative poverty dimensions can offer odd results in several times, especially in the small populated areas. For an example, if median household in an area earns 1 US Million Dollars on yearly basis, then a particular family that earns 100, 000 US Million Dollars can be considered as poor according to the relative poverty scale. However, the specific family can meet the basic human needs according to the consideration of relative poverty scale. On the other hand, if the median household in a poor area earn 50 percent of required spending then the median income level of the area should be considered as poor income level according to the global relative poverty scale (Dasgupta, 2001). People under absolute poverty scale are deprived of basic facilities, such as public services, food, education, health care services and shelter. It is clear from the above mentioned facts that poverty can be divided into six different natures and all these aspects have serious and critical impact on the social and economic growth of the country. Day-by-day, the growth rate of poverty is increasing significantly across the globe. Therefore, government of several countries and different international governmental and non-governmental organizations are trying to reduce the impact of poverty by introduction of several policies and activities (Weiner, 1995). The study about poverty is actually helping several international agencies to develop policies to help the people living under the absolute poverty scale to lead a better and healthy life. According to modernization theory, cultural values and differences have also impact on the poverty. These differences and aspects have helped several organizations to understand different views on poverty. As a result, government along with several international organizations have succeeded to reduce the level of poverty across the globe. Policies of United Nations United Nations can be considered as the leading and largest multinational intergovernmental organization that is specialized in promoting global co-operation. This specific organization has developed several policies to maintain social sustainability across the world. In addition to this, the organization is famous for its taken initiatives to maintain peace across the world. It is also true that the management of the organization has also taken several initiatives to fight against rising poverty growth rate. It is highly impressive that the organization is trying to reduce the occurrences global political activities that are major reasons behind the rising poverty growth rate. It is true that government of each and every country has developed poverty reduction programmes in order to get sustainable social growth rate. The management of the organization is supporting the government’s programmes in several ways. United Nations is supporting and promoting participatory development, development of employment opportunities, improved access to several quality social services etc (UN, 2014). The major activity of UN’s poverty reduction programme is to develop effective mechanism in order to support several developed national sectoral programmes and policies. The organization is focusing on the development of the rural areas. Pilot poverty reduction programme can be considered as one of the important practical activities that have been conducted by the management of the organization to calculate the exact number of people living under the below poverty line. The organization has invested near about 1,117,779 US Dollars in order to implement the policy effectively (Wood, 2006). This activity has helped the organization to give a clear view about the rural poverty aspects in several places across the globe. According to the survey of United Nations, more than one billion people across the world used to live in extreme poverty. In addition to this, these people find it difficult to arrange one dollar to lead their daily life. It is quite difficult for several individuals to imagine the mentioned scenario. However, the management of United Nations has developed a rule of law in order to fight against poverty in several global places. According to this law or policy, the government of each and every country are bound to give employment opportunities to these people (UN, 2014). In addition to these aspects, the management of the organization is trying to provide aid and support to several private and public agencies who are taking initiatives to reduce the impact of poverty in global places. United Nations has done a significant job to collaborate the governments of each and every country to fight against a common cause to enhance social growth and sustainability in each and every country across the globe. Policies of Care International CARE international can be considered as one of the largest humanitarian international non-governmental organizations. The organization is strongly committed to reduce the impact of poverty on global society and economy. The organization has developed several policies in order to fight against the growing poverty rate. The organization is mainly trying to focus on women empowerment in different parts of the world. Health services, food, water, shelter, clothing and education are the major issues in poverty. According to the mission of the organization, the organization always tries to work with the government of different countries in order to reduce the impact of poverty. Most importantly, the organization provides self-help capacity and economic opportunity to the people living under the below poverty line. In addition to this, the organization has also taken several initiatives in order to address the discriminations in each and every form. It is true that, the organization has developed policies in more than 80 countries to reduce the impact of poverty. The organization also provides emergency aids, such as safe drinking water, high energy food and high quality sanitary equipments to poor in order to enhance sustainable social growth rate (Care International, 2014). India can be considered as one of the leading developing countries across the globe. But, it is also true that, there are several places in India in which people are living under the below poverty line. They are deprived of the basic human needs, such as food, clothes, water, shelter, health care services and education. Most importantly, these people used to die every year due to several critical diseases and malnutrition. Lack of public health care services is affecting the health-safety aspect of these people. The management of CARE International has significantly understood the issue and needs of poor people. Generally, the management of the organization used to focus on the enhancements of better healthcare services for women who are deprived of fundamental facilities. The management of the organization has effectively collaborated with the Indian government to provide effective and significant primary healthcare services to the poor people. Free emergency treatments for the poor people can be considered as one of the important initiatives that have been taken by the organization. Moreover, the organization is spending significant amount of capital in order to assure effective healthcare resource allocation for each and everybody. Conclusion Rising poverty growth rate can be considered as a serious socio-cultural issue across the world. Each and every country across the globe is fighting against this issue in order to stabilize social and economic growth rate of country. However, it is true that people living under below poverty line, are finding it difficult to access common necessary resources that are required to lead a healthy and sustainable life on daily basis. There are several reasons behind this issue. But, it is important for each and every individual to understand the seriousness of this issue as it can limit the growth rate of the country. Ultimately, this may affect each and every individual in near future. First of all, it is highly important for government as well as several INGOs and NGOs to focus on these issues in order to save the entire world in near future. It is clear from above discussion that how UN and CARE International are trying hard to reduce the serious impact of poverty on the societies around the globe. Poverty is a curse for entire society and community; therefore it is the responsibility of each and every individual to fight against this issue in order to lead a sustainable and health social life. References Care International. (2014). Bihar, India: How CARE helps women in the poorest communities get better healthcare. Retrieved from: < http://www.careinternational.org.uk/news-and-press/latest-news-features/2899-bihar-india-how-care-helps-women-in-the-poorest-communities-get-better-healthcare>. Dasgupta, P. (2001). “Human well-being and the natural environment”. Journal of Global social policy, 32(4), 19. Jensen, E. (2010). Chapter 1: Understanding the Nature of Poverty. Retrieved from: . Mosar, C. (1998). “The asset vulnerability framework: reassessing urban poverty reduction strategies”. Journal of world development, 8(1), 22. UN. (2014). Support for poverty reduction. Retrieved from: < http://esa.un.org/techcoop/flagship.asp?Code=NAM97003>. UN. (2014). United Nations rule of Law: Poverty Reduction. Retrieved from: < http://www.unrol.org/article.aspx?article_id=26>. Weiner, M. (1995). “The Global Poverty Crisis”. Journal of world society development, 9(4), 3. Wood, G. (2006). “A comparative welfare regime approach to global social policy”. Journal of world development, 9(2), 12. Read More