Poverty as Multidimensional Social Phenomenon - Essay Example

Poverty as Multidimensional Social phenomenon Apparently, poverty could be described as a multidimensionalsocial phenomenon that affects a given percentage of people across the world. As such, poverty has numerous closely related issues that vary from age, gender, culture, and other social and economic factors. For instance, most men in different social set up highly associate poverty to lack of material assets or the failure to accumulate a given proposition that they might anticipate. Conversely, women define poverty as the absolute or lack of food security. Similarly, younger people across the world consider the ability to generate income as the most important asset, unlike men whose most important issue is to ensure that they maintain their status through various economic means. Other factors that drive poverty level on a downward trend include the current status of individuals and their location. For instance, people living in urban area have the tendency to associate poverty with heightened prices in basic necessities and fewer employment opportunities (Lwebuga-Mukasa and Niewezyk 24). On the other hand, people in the rural areas such as farmer tend to argue that poverty is mostly brought about by drought or lack of enough rainfall to satisfy their farm produce. In a general sense, scholars such as Gruskin and Paula (543) have articulated that poverty is not as a result of lacking one thing but it has always been described as the lack of numerous things that are intertwined through peoples’ experiences and other sociocultural issues. Although poverty has been affirmed as an issue that emanates from numerous global issues and patterns, one of the impact of poverty lies squarely on health. Apparently, the lack of health especially through insufficient medical resources, and expensive medical cost for human beings translates to adequate poverty. Poverty as a major facilitator to poor health According to Fine (249), there is a strong link between poverty and health, both good and bad across the world. As such, scholars affiliated to this discipline argue that there must be serious commitment toward the reduction of poverty in order to achieve good health. As a matter of fact, lack of material possession and numerous issues related to social aspects are the main causes of poor health. Consequently, some researches have suggested that there is a close relationship between health and the extreme lack of economic resources. Additionally, research carried out across the world has suggested that the health damaging effects of economic poverty are mostly facilitated by inequalities that are connected to race, sex ,ethnic groups, diseases such as HIV infection and other social factors. As a result, economic poverty might be considered as one that lacks the necessary effects towards the promotion of health. Similarly, the presence of ill health across the globe could also contribute to the emergence and extension of poverty since the health sector has no control over most of its influences. In fact, health is a victim to challenges that present themselves as cycles of poverty, ill health and more poverty. Although the principles of equality and human rights in relation to health dictates that there must be equal opportunities for health facilities in most parts across the world, people continue to suffer discrimination and social marginalization. According to Davidson (16), the issues of equal opportunity to health does not necessarily have to revolve around the health damaging effects of poverty, but mostly reduces differences between populations in conditions such as education, living standards and exposures in the environment that are important in health matters. Due to this, health scholars have argued that human rights and equality perspective should compel health institution to improve the health of poor people, and ensure that they give assistance in issues that are capable of reducing and /or facilitating poverty and marginalization. Of importance to note is that poverty cannot be termed as the absolute violation of human rights, but the lack of government to take action on poverty eradication is what could be assumed or termed as a violation of rights. Gruskin and Paula (541) argues that most of the strategies that do not absolutely focus on poverty and health issues without opening enough perspective on equity and human rights are highly like susceptible to failure because they have no consideration on main factors that make an impact in the relationship between poverty and ill health. Moreover, the lack of systematic focus on marginalization and discrimination is likely to bring about high levels of poverty, which in turn result to ill-health. For instance, improvement of financial and geographical accessibility in preventing health issues might not serve the necessary impact without gaining support from the expected end or group of interested individuals. Needless to mention, a high percentage of policies and programs have been dedicated towards the reduction of poverty and the improvement of the same. Poverty and its effect on health It is apparent that poverty and its related issues pertaining to health continue to increase particularly after 2000. Historically, the effect of poverty have been documented since the nineteenth century where there was evidence that people who had extremely low conditions of employment and / or low income were highly likely to have a wide range of diseases and death related complications from illnesses and injuries that affected them in all their life stages. One of the researches carried out within Canada suggested that individuals who lived below the average level were at a higher chance of dying from chronic, and complicated diseases such as cancer, heart diseases, diabetes and respiratory complications. A similar study on the same suggested that children from families with low income were twice likely to suffer from poor health as compared to children from families that had average or high income levels. Never the less, it is imperative to note that children said to live in families that experience the financial challenges of any kind vary across different socioeconomic platforms. In regard to materialist arguments, individuals across the world who are said to live in poverty mostly suffer from actual material deprivations that facilitated poor diet, housing and sanitary conditions. These issues are directly related to causing poor health. However, during this studies there emerged two schools of thoughts that were related to ways that are deemed to have a great impact on how economic inequality has continually contributed to poor health. One school of thought argues that, income inequality and health puts more emphasizes on the pyscho-social and social cohesion factors that contribute to inequalities across the health sector although it does not pay adequate attention to deprivation of materials or the role played by social policy decisions in supporting health. Conversely, the second school of thought gives an explanation of the socioeconomic differences in relation to the characterization of social structure in both pros and cons. Additionally, this school of thought argues that, there are different lengths and levels of individuals in response to the particular issue (Lwebuga-Mukasa and Niewezyk 25) The Widening Gap Basically, the gap between the best health class and the worst health class particularly in the U.S continues to widen by the day. For instance, Gareth( Para 3) articulates that the said seven richest individuals in Australia are far more wealthier than 1.73 million households of their counterparts. As such, the policies in the federal government are likely to make the gap grow larger. According to a recent study on the level of health care in developed countries across the world, it was confirmed that despite owning a health care system that is among the most expensive health systems in the world, its level of performance was below par. In the Commonwealth Fund report, the U.S was compared to ten other countries including Canada, Sweden, France and the rest based on the various issues. To begin with, it was established that the health care system lacked efficiency, equity and outcomes. Secondly, it was also noted that most of the facilities in the health care were not fully satisfactory to the patients who went seeking for them because they were surrounded by inadequate service quality. Thirdly, the healthcare system was surrounded by additional costs that did not serve the required coverage (Davidson 16). In this regard, families who are in the best health category consist of people who are capable of seeking alternative mode of health care in case the current one is not sufficient. Such families or individual have consistence source of income, which could be described as been sufficient for them. At the same time, the best health category consists of people who can easily be able to secure medical insurances such as Individual Insurance Plan, Family Insurance Plan among others without much struggle. On the other hand, people belong to worst health category are the low income earners whose much interest is based on putting food on the table rather than seeking medical covers for their children. At times, this class of people do not even have the economic power to seek medical attention especially when they fall ill and as such prefer ignoring their health condition, a situation that leads to health complications or even death. Although most studies and scholars have insisted that the rich is in a better position as compared to the poor, a different school of thought argues that people in the U.S are more vulnerable to death due to injuries and illnesses that affect them as compared to an equal class of people in other countries. Moreover, these individuals tend to spend twice the amount of money that is spent by people in other countries. In the general sense, poor health outcome in the U.S is mostly demonstrated by valuable measures on health issues such as rate of teenage pregnancy, traffic fatalities, and heart diseases among other issues. Major health issues that are associated to poverty According to Skolnik (27), there are numerous health issues that bring about poverty in the U.S. Statistically speaking, about 40% percentage of the total population in the country is comprise of people who live below the poverty line. These people are said to have high levels of health risks because they are exposed to many health risks. For instance, these people live in environments where there is poor drainage, a condition that leads to water borne illnesses such as typhoid, cholera among others leads to high rates of rashes, asthma and insect related infections. Similarly, poor diet is directly linked to poverty and as such, it highly contributes to dental problems, diabetes and other chronic diseases. Furthermore, culture has also been associated with health issues in that a section of people still practice cultures that prohibit them from seeking medical attention. For instance, some husbands are said to prohibit their women from seeking medical attention in case such as cervical cancer, or the concept of accepting that a member of the family is suffering from a mental illness among other cultural barriers. Solution towards poverty as a cause of poor health Having ascertained that poverty is a multidimensional social phenomenon, it is imperative to seek for solutions that are aimed at curbing poverty and thus increasing the state of health in any country. According to Skolnik (28), the wellbeing of people is more important as compared to other factors such as education. As such, the human rights and equity to some extent argues that it is the mandate of the government to grant its people especially the poor the right to access adequate healthcare at all levels. At the same time, good health could be used in ensuring that there is good use of the chances that are offered by education. Good healthcare systems Government across the world should ensure that there is a well-developed system that is aimed at ensuring that the poor people who constitute a large percentage of population in most countries have a consistent and reliable primary health care with minimal or no cost. Such systems should incorporate disease prevention strategies that consist of vaccination programs, health monitoring for risky individuals like children and pregnant women, and other health information that revolve around nutrition and personal hygiene. Moreover, there should be more focus on family planning due to the increased rate of birth. Another important aspect in health care should entail curative services that are aimed at healing some of the health complications at a low cost locally. However, there should be alternatives for situations that seem complicated at local levels (World Health Organization. 9) Adequate Nutrition Adequate nutrition should be considered as one of the solutions to maintaining a good health. By contrast, some scholars may argue that poor people are not capable of affording adequate nutrition. However, much of what they consume should be aimed at providing necessary nutrients that are required by the body especially for children. The government too is responsible for coming up with food programs that facilitate the distribution of food to people who can less afford it. For instance, statistics have indicated that most poor people especially in the U.S can hardly afford one nutritional meal in a day. As a result, governments should lay their focus on vulnerable people such as children who have no care givers, the elderly, the disabled persons in the society and other needy person (World Health Organization10) Civilized Society Apart from the government taking the initiative of taking care health issues alone, any civilized society should ensure that it members are free from issues that are related to poor health. In essence, the civilized society should ensure that its members are in a reasonable state of physical and mental health. Thus, other entities such as non- governmental organizations should allies with a civilized society to bring satisfaction of basic needs (Fine, 252) Howe (43) argues that one of the greatest impediments to any improvement in health is poverty. In essence, most of the surroundings where people are born serve as capable as prescriptions of physical wellbeing for the rest of their life, unless something comes up in the name of favor. Hence, issues such as low income, poor education, and long periods of unemployment are causes of extreme challenges even in developed world. Furthermore, he argues that health is the fundamental reason that can be given as a change agent to poverty to unreliable health and delayed medical resources. In the words of Walter (Para 6), one way to describe wealth is when money no longer matter, instead wealthy people are not concerned with their total earnings. Apparently, much of their gauging is property, natural resources and power that relates to law. Thus, wealth can only be likened to a shark over the rockbound crustaceans for the poor and working class. Works Cited: Davidson, Stephen. Still broken: understanding the U.S. health care system. Stanford, Calif.; Stanford Business Books, 2010. Print. Fine, Michael. Individualization, risk and the body. Journal of sociology 41.3 (2005) 247-262 Gareth, Hutchens. "Policies blamed for disparity Growing gap between rich and poor." Sydney Morning Herald  8 July 2014: 12. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. Print Gruskin, Sofia and Paula, Braveman. “ Policy, equity, human rights and health.” Bulletins of the world health organization 81.7 (2003): 539-545. Print Howe, John P. "Banking on better health." Harvard International Review 35.4 (2014): 43. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. Print. Lwebuga-Mukasa, Jamson and Niewezyk, Paulette. “Is poverty the main factor contributing to health care disparities? An investigation of Individual level factor contributing to health care disparities.” Journal of Equity in health 1.1(2008) 22-40.Print. Skolnik, Richard. Global health 101.Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2012. Print. Walter, Mosley. “Show Me the Money” The Nation 18 December 2006. Web. Print World Health Organization. Global health risks: mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks. 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