Poverty

Poverty is not just a lack of money. Poverty also means not having enough food, education, healthcare, and shelter.  Also, it is about not having the capabilities to realize one’s full potential as a human being.

What is poverty?

In definition, people define it as a condition where people’s basic needs for clothing and shelter are not being met. Generally associating poverty is with lack of money. For instance, poverty is measured on the basis of those who live on $1.25 per day or less.

But not just money but also we should see poverty, as deprivation of a person’s capabilities to live the life. They have reason to value, the capability approach look, at the range of options available for the individual to choose from and the freedom to exercise that choice.

According to the capability approach,

An uneducated man is poor not because he has a low income, but because he lack of capability to find a good job. His lack of education, that is to realize one’s full potential.

In India, measurement of poverty generally relies on the income approach, ignoring the capability approach as lack of income was basic criteria for identifying poverty earlier.

So from the above information, we can conclude that poverty is not just a lack of money”. it is more than that. Money or income is just one aspect of poverty. The incapability to utilize the full or optimum human potential is also considered poverty.

Few Ways to overcome Poverty:

Free Education :

According to report published by  UNESCO, It says If students who are from weaker sections and low income countries, are provided free educations and certain skills, it will help to cut the global poverty level. Education develops skills and abilities, corrects some of the imbalances that come out of marginalization, and decreases both risk and vulnerability. 

Security to food and Water:

When a person doesn’t have enough to eat, they lack the strength and energy needed to work. Contaminated water can lead to illnesses. 

What’s more, improving access to clean water can mean that those who live in rural communities. (often women and girls — see our first point on marginalization and equality) It will save their time walking to the nearest water point.

Current estimates suggest that women and girls collectively spend 200 million hours every day walking long distances to fetch water for daily use.

Why can’t these problems be looked into and our governments come up with solutions for these basic needs.

Here are mentioned few suggestions

Say no to Wars:

We all know countries spend hefty amount o their budgets in military. It has become a fashion to show o their military power, proving them to be strongest nation. Consider North Korea or example, people of  this country is suffering from severe poverty, but government still chooses, to build nuclear bomb. This is just waste of money and keeping their people in poverty. So wars should be avoided as there is no lack o money, it is just not utilized efficiently or its own benefits.

 

We’ve seen this play out time and again: While estimates around data for the country vary, Syria’s poverty rate has increased from approximately 12% in 2007 to 83% in 2019.

Conversely, in Nepal, a decade-long civil war came to a close in 2006, which correlates with a sharp increase in gross national income (GNI) and gross domestic product (GDP) year over year.

One of the Indian economist Amartya Sen has said that,