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Poverty Is The Worst Form of Violence

Poverty is defined as a lack of basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, and education. It leads to problems like illiteracy, unemployment, malnutrition and becomes a cycle where one problem contributes to another. The United Nations uses absolute and relative poverty measures. Absolute poverty uses a minimum income line to determine if a family is poor or not poor, while relative poverty compares income between countries. Common causes of poverty include overpopulation, which burdens resources and budgets, as well as lack of education, employment opportunities, infrastructure, and political stability. Natural disasters and war can also increase poverty.

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55 views

Poverty Is The Worst Form of Violence

Poverty is defined as a lack of basic needs like food, shelter, clothing, and education. It leads to problems like illiteracy, unemployment, malnutrition and becomes a cycle where one problem contributes to another. The United Nations uses absolute and relative poverty measures. Absolute poverty uses a minimum income line to determine if a family is poor or not poor, while relative poverty compares income between countries. Common causes of poverty include overpopulation, which burdens resources and budgets, as well as lack of education, employment opportunities, infrastructure, and political stability. Natural disasters and war can also increase poverty.

Uploaded by

Rudra Shakya
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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“Poverty is the worst form of violence”.

– Mahatma Gandhi.

We can define poverty as the condition where the basic needs of a family, like food, shelter,
clothing, and education are not fulfilled. It can lead to other problems like poor
literacy, unemployment, malnutrition, etc. A poor person is not able to get education due to
lack of money and therefore remains unemployed. An unemployed person is not able to buy
enough & nutritious food for his family and their health decline. A weak person lacks the
energy required for the job. A  jobless person remains poor only. Thus we can say that
poverty is the root cause of other problems.

How Poverty is Measured?

For measuring poverty United nations have devised two measures of poverty – Absolute &
relative poverty.  Absolute poverty is used to measure poverty in developing countries like
India. Relative poverty is used to measure poverty in developed countries like the USA. In
absolute poverty, a line based on the minimum level of income has been created & is called
a poverty line.  If per day income of a family is below this level, then it is poor or below the
poverty line. If per day income of a family is above this level, then it is non-poor or above
the poverty line. In India, the new poverty line is  Rs 32 in rural areas and Rs 47 in urban
areas.

Causes of Poverty

According to the Noble prize winner South African leader, Nelson Mandela – “Poverty is
not natural, it is manmade”. The above statement is true as the causes of poverty are
generally man-made. There are various causes of poverty but the most important is
population. Rising population is putting the burden on the resources & budget of countries.
Governments are finding difficult to provide food, shelter & employment to the rising
population.

The other causes are- lack of education, war, natural disaster, lack of employment, lack of
infrastructure, political instability, etc. For instance- lack of employment opportunities
makes a person jobless & he is not able to earn enough to fulfill the basic necessities of his
family & becomes poor. Lack of education compels a person for less paying jobs & it
makes him poorer. Lack of infrastructure means there are no industries, banks, etc. in a
country resulting in lack of employment opportunities. Natural disasters like flood,
earthquake also contribute to poverty.

In some countries, especially African countries like Somalia, a long period of civil war has
made poverty widespread. This is because all the resources & money is being spent in war
instead of public welfare. Countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, etc. are prone to
natural disasters like cyclone, etc. These disasters occur every year causing poverty to rise.

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