Poverty In The World
Poverty In The World
Poverty basically means general scarcity, the deprivation of basic human needs which includes food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, water, and education. Poverty is an economic inequality that has plagued the world in any society in which people live for centuries. Extreme poverty remains a global challenge and can be observed in all parts of the world including developed countries.
Poverty is a major concern for many international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. The World Bank in 2008 estimated 1.2 billion people living in absolute poverty. 400 million of these people are said to live in absolute poverty are in India and 173 million people in China. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest incidence rate of absolute poverty in 2008.
Poverty can also be understood as an unequal social status that is experienced as social exclusion and dependency that may hinder the development of meaningful connections with other people in the society. The World Bank’s ‘Voices of the Poor’ conducted a research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries. This research was conducted to identify a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include:
• Abuse by leaders in power
• Weak community organizations
• Lack of security
• Dis-empowering institutions
• Gender relationships
• Physical limitations
• Problems in social relationships
• Precarious livelihoods
• Excluded locations
• Limited capabilities.
Unfortunately, there is no greater need for compassion than when it comes to the fight to eradicate extreme poverty since compassion is vital to making the world a better place. Compassion offers hope to those who are ravaged by circumstances beyond their control. People die each year from poverty which destroys families and creating orphans at a horrific rate.
In our days, there should be no reason for extreme poverty since there several tools to stop it but poverty has persisted because of lack of human compassion. Poverty has been allowed to carry on in several communities of the world despite the efforts of the United Nations.
Compassion is a beautiful tool and gift that can save millions of lives around the world especially that of innocent children. It is the willingness to face challenges with conviction and courage to improve the quality of life of many with compassion. Compassion has the ability to replace the feelings of intolerance and hate with love and understanding.
