Poverty: A Challange for Modren Day Human Development | PKKH.tv
PKKH Exclusive by Atiq Durrani
There are different definitions of poverty round the world but in the simplest definition Poverty is defined as an economic condition of lacking both money and basic necessities needed to live with dignity and happiness; such as food, water, education, healthcare, and shelter.
According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.
In 1990 World Bank defined the poverty line as $1 per day, meaning that the person having income of One Dollar per day was not considered as poor but if he was having an income below 1 dollar per day he was considered to be below the poverty line. A dollar a day, in nations that do not use the U.S. dollar as currency, does not mean converting dollar to local currency according to the exchange rates. Rather, it is determined by the purchasing power parity, which would look at how much local currency is needed to buy the same things that a dollar could buy in the United States.
In 1993 it was revised and from 1993 to 2005, $1.08 a day was the poverty line round the world on a purchasing power parity basis, after adjusting to the US dollar. In 2005, after extensive studies of cost of living across the world, the World Bank raised the measure for global poverty line to reflect the observed higher cost of living. Now, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day.
This graph clearly shows that almost half of the world-over three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity live on less than $10 a day.
According to the above definition we conclude that poverty has the following characteristics.
Health
According to World Health Assembly resolution 58.33 from 2005 says everyone should be able to access health services and not be subject to financial hardship in doing so.
Globally, diarrhoea is the leading cause of illness and death, and 88 per cent of diarrheal deaths are due to a lack of access to sanitation facilities, together with inadequate availability of water for hygiene and unsafe drinking water. According to the WHO More than one in six people worldwide 894 million dont have access to improved water sources.
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty and they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
Hunger
Rises in the costs of living makes poor people less able to afford food items; poor persons spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world. Thus, with an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, 13.1 per cent, or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry.
Education
According to UN, based on enrolmentdata, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didnt happen.
Housing
According to US press release About 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing and 100 million are homeless and face the associated challenges of unclean water, poor sanitation, disease, starvation and overall vulnerability. One billion people (32 percent of the global urban population) live in urban slums. By 2030 the number of people living in deplorable conditions is expected to rise to 2 billion people.
Violence
Violence is among the leading causes of death for people aged 15-44 years worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females. And lethal violence is only one of many types of violence. According to experts, many women become victims of trafficking, the most common form of which is prostitution, as a means of survival and economic desperation.
The ILO (International Labour Organization) said about 4.5 million of these, mainly women and girls, were victims of sexual exploitation, and overall the human trafficking trade was estimated to be worth $32 billion a year. For example, in Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to prostitution for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.
What are the causes of Poverty?
Unequal Income
The causes of poverty include poor peoples lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries. The principal underlying cause of poverty and hunger is the ordinary operation of the economic and political systems in the world. Essentially control over resources and income is based on military, political and economic power that typically ends up in the hands of a minority who live well, while those at the bottom barely survive, if they do.
In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifthconsumedjust 1.5%.
The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all consumption.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the worlds 7 richest people combined.
The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world rose 8.2 per cent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the worlds financial assets.
The worlds wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $3.6 trillion dollars (76%).
The worlds billionaires Just 497 people (Approx. 0.000008 % of worlds population) were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of the world GDP).
In other words, about 0.13% of the worlds population controlled 25% of the worlds financial assets in 2004.
In 1960, the 20% of the worlds people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% in 1997, 74 times as much.
Corruption
We often hear leaders from rich countries telling poor countries that aid and loans will only be given when they show they are stamping out corruption.
While that definitely needs to happen, the rich countries themselves are often active in the largest forms of corruption in those poor countries, and many economic policies they prescribe have exacerbated the problem.
Population
Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density (the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometre or square mile) or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources.
Conclusion
Lack of education leads to lack of access to birth control and this ultimately leads to population increase; in 2040 the worlds population is expected to reach 9 billion. Lack of education also leads to unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities and thus polarizes the society.
Unconditional guaranteed basic or minimum income can bring a significant change in the poverty. From experiments of implementing basic income, results showed a dramatic decrease in poverty as well as increased attendance of schools and business growth. In Namibia, where such program pays one $13 a month, people were able to pay tuition fees, raising the proportion of children going to school by 92% while child malnutrition rates fell from 42% to 10% and economic activity grew by 10%.
Last but the most important factor that can help in reducing poverty is the aid provided by the international organizations like World Bank, UNHCR, UN, IMF and other international organizations. Most of the aids are provided by these international organizations to the corrupt political parties in the government. These funds are sent by individuals of these corrupt political parties to overseas banks which insist on bank secrecy, resulting in money laundering.
The aid that comesfor the poor people doesnt even reach them, but on the other side, for every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment. Ultimately the debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.
Debt in the poorest places on earth has become a modern form of slavery. Unless it is cancelled and the chains are broken, there is no chance of improvement in the conditions of poor people in the world. These organizations will have to find some effective methods so that the aid reaches to the poor, otherwise they are just helping in increasing the gap between rich and poor.
Source:
World Hunger Notes Homepage
Data | The World Bank
Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all
Poverty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A New Approach to Aid: How a Basic Income Program Saved a Namibian Village - SPIEGEL ONLINE
..:: Fight Poverty ::..
Know Your World: Facts About Hunger and Poverty | The Hunger Project
Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic crisis: conference | SAMAA TV
Source
PKKH Exclusive by Atiq Durrani
There are different definitions of poverty round the world but in the simplest definition Poverty is defined as an economic condition of lacking both money and basic necessities needed to live with dignity and happiness; such as food, water, education, healthcare, and shelter.
According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 25) everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.
In 1990 World Bank defined the poverty line as $1 per day, meaning that the person having income of One Dollar per day was not considered as poor but if he was having an income below 1 dollar per day he was considered to be below the poverty line. A dollar a day, in nations that do not use the U.S. dollar as currency, does not mean converting dollar to local currency according to the exchange rates. Rather, it is determined by the purchasing power parity, which would look at how much local currency is needed to buy the same things that a dollar could buy in the United States.
In 1993 it was revised and from 1993 to 2005, $1.08 a day was the poverty line round the world on a purchasing power parity basis, after adjusting to the US dollar. In 2005, after extensive studies of cost of living across the world, the World Bank raised the measure for global poverty line to reflect the observed higher cost of living. Now, the World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.25 per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 or $5 a day.
This graph clearly shows that almost half of the world-over three billion people live on less than $2.50 a day and at least 80% of humanity live on less than $10 a day.
According to the above definition we conclude that poverty has the following characteristics.
- Health
- Hunger
- Education
- Housing
- Violence
Health
According to World Health Assembly resolution 58.33 from 2005 says everyone should be able to access health services and not be subject to financial hardship in doing so.
Globally, diarrhoea is the leading cause of illness and death, and 88 per cent of diarrheal deaths are due to a lack of access to sanitation facilities, together with inadequate availability of water for hygiene and unsafe drinking water. According to the WHO More than one in six people worldwide 894 million dont have access to improved water sources.
According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty and they die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.
Hunger
Rises in the costs of living makes poor people less able to afford food items; poor persons spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than richer people. In round numbers there are 7 billion people in the world. Thus, with an estimated 925 million hungry people in the world, 13.1 per cent, or almost 1 in 7 people are hungry.
Education
According to UN, based on enrolmentdata, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls. Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign. Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didnt happen.
Housing
According to US press release About 1.6 billion people live in substandard housing and 100 million are homeless and face the associated challenges of unclean water, poor sanitation, disease, starvation and overall vulnerability. One billion people (32 percent of the global urban population) live in urban slums. By 2030 the number of people living in deplorable conditions is expected to rise to 2 billion people.
Violence
Violence is among the leading causes of death for people aged 15-44 years worldwide, accounting for 14% of deaths among males and 7% of deaths among females. And lethal violence is only one of many types of violence. According to experts, many women become victims of trafficking, the most common form of which is prostitution, as a means of survival and economic desperation.
The ILO (International Labour Organization) said about 4.5 million of these, mainly women and girls, were victims of sexual exploitation, and overall the human trafficking trade was estimated to be worth $32 billion a year. For example, in Zimbabwe, a number of girls are turning to prostitution for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.
What are the causes of Poverty?
Unequal Income
The causes of poverty include poor peoples lack of resources, an extremely unequal income distribution in the world and within specific countries. The principal underlying cause of poverty and hunger is the ordinary operation of the economic and political systems in the world. Essentially control over resources and income is based on military, political and economic power that typically ends up in the hands of a minority who live well, while those at the bottom barely survive, if they do.
In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifthconsumedjust 1.5%.
The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all consumption.
The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 heavily indebted poor countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the worlds 7 richest people combined.
The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world rose 8.2 per cent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the worlds financial assets.
The worlds wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $3.6 trillion dollars (76%).
The worlds billionaires Just 497 people (Approx. 0.000008 % of worlds population) were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of the world GDP).
In other words, about 0.13% of the worlds population controlled 25% of the worlds financial assets in 2004.
In 1960, the 20% of the worlds people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% in 1997, 74 times as much.
Corruption
We often hear leaders from rich countries telling poor countries that aid and loans will only be given when they show they are stamping out corruption.
While that definitely needs to happen, the rich countries themselves are often active in the largest forms of corruption in those poor countries, and many economic policies they prescribe have exacerbated the problem.
Population
Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density (the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometre or square mile) or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources.
Conclusion
Lack of education leads to lack of access to birth control and this ultimately leads to population increase; in 2040 the worlds population is expected to reach 9 billion. Lack of education also leads to unequal distribution of wealth and opportunities and thus polarizes the society.
Unconditional guaranteed basic or minimum income can bring a significant change in the poverty. From experiments of implementing basic income, results showed a dramatic decrease in poverty as well as increased attendance of schools and business growth. In Namibia, where such program pays one $13 a month, people were able to pay tuition fees, raising the proportion of children going to school by 92% while child malnutrition rates fell from 42% to 10% and economic activity grew by 10%.
Last but the most important factor that can help in reducing poverty is the aid provided by the international organizations like World Bank, UNHCR, UN, IMF and other international organizations. Most of the aids are provided by these international organizations to the corrupt political parties in the government. These funds are sent by individuals of these corrupt political parties to overseas banks which insist on bank secrecy, resulting in money laundering.
The aid that comesfor the poor people doesnt even reach them, but on the other side, for every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment. Ultimately the debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money.
Debt in the poorest places on earth has become a modern form of slavery. Unless it is cancelled and the chains are broken, there is no chance of improvement in the conditions of poor people in the world. These organizations will have to find some effective methods so that the aid reaches to the poor, otherwise they are just helping in increasing the gap between rich and poor.
Source:
World Hunger Notes Homepage
Data | The World Bank
Global Issues : social, political, economic and environmental issues that affect us all
Poverty - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A New Approach to Aid: How a Basic Income Program Saved a Namibian Village - SPIEGEL ONLINE
..:: Fight Poverty ::..
Know Your World: Facts About Hunger and Poverty | The Hunger Project
Younger girls forced into prostitution in economic crisis: conference | SAMAA TV
Source
