Life is a journey

A Poor life

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”

“It was great, Dad.”

Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

A poor life

Many of them sleep on streets, subways, footpaths, doorways or park benches under the open sky. In extreme winter, they sometimes freeze to death in certain areas. In rural areas, they live in mud thatched small huts and in urban areas in ghettos (slums), devoid of all basic utilities—water, latrines, bathrooms, electricity, etc. Thus, such persons must be defined as poor, no matter whether society recognizes their poverty or not.

Most poor people are either engaged in low-paying jobs or are without jobs. Some are too ill or disabled to work and others are living alone (aged, widowed), who cannot earn enough to support themselves and their children, if any. The poor cannot get loans for self-employment.

They cannot seek employment where work is available. They also pay more for most of what they buy. Most of their incomes, if any, are spent on food. Moreover, the commodities they purchase from nearby grocery shop are often of low quality, adulterated and stale devoid of any nutritive value.

The situation becomes more grim when the earning member of a poor family loses his/her job even for a short period or dies. The poor have no assets to protect them from the collapse of their precarious financial situation. They thus have hand-to-mouth existence at such times.The nature of poverty has undergone considerable change over the years. Who the poor are today is quite different from those called poor in an earlier period. In the 19th century and even more than half of the 20th century, people living in villages (in India about 70 per cent of the population lives in villages) depended directly or indirectly mostly on agriculture (as landless labour or small farmers) for their livelihood, having a very small mud thatched hut, were regarded as poor.

According to UNDP report (1996), 39 per cent of the rural population was living below the poverty line or earning less than Rs 2,444 per person per year. This figure might have changed a bit due to the implementation of many rural development and Garibi Hatao (poverty eradi­cation) programmes but still most of the village India is suffering the consequences of poverty.

The change in technology has changed the face of poverty. There is a great exodus of population from villages to urban areas in search of jobs. The use of electricity, tractors, and many machines in agricultural pursuits, along with the improved hybrid seeds and method of cultivation, has forced many people to leave villages.This change in technology has made many people poor while a meagre (i.e., big farmers and zamindars) affluent. Technology often displaces workers by abolishing their jobs, while creating other, better paying ones for people more technically trained.This happens to both rural and urban workers. Thus, loss of job by technological change is but one factor—a very important factor—in accounting for the poor. The use of computers in banks, railways, colleges and schools and in many government and private sector organizations has not only thrown many persons out of job and but also lessened the opportunities for jobs. People who do not have technical education today have less and less opportunities in the job market.

Poverty

Several reasons lead to poverty in any country. Even though there are several solutions to avoid the poverty attack, the lack of proper unity among a country’s residents for following the answers leads to the issues. This is another primary reason why the poverty rate is rapidly rising with each passing dayThe spread of the epidemic diseases also leads to the rising rate of poverty in any country. This is because most poor people cannot maintain their health status and get appropriate medical aid in such situations. Poverty is the adverse situation that makes the people unable to go to the service assurers for their needs, and go even more towards the diseases and illness due to unclean and unhygienic food and water and living in unhealthy situations

It is the effect that makes people powerless and risks their freedom. This is because a poverty-stricken person might enter the vicious circle of s*****y. But, this is an inescapable issue, and thus the person who is stuck in it has to live with it. Poverty is an adverse human situation that brings grief, pain, and despair in individuals’ lives. It is the lack of money and necessities for living luxuriously and adequately with access to all the essential elements. This is an adverse situation that might also make a child unable to enter the school and study during childhood, and this is also the reason behind worse social issues like child labour and slavery.Poverty means the shortage of money for arranging even the perfect two times meal and have a healthy nutritious diet. Such people do not have enough money to afford the essentials for living a perfect and healthy human life. Thus, there are several ways available that one can use for defining povertyPoverty is the most common social issue in the underdeveloped or developing nations, like India and Africa. These nations have a higher poverty rate than the developed countries across the World. This is because a significant segment of people in these countries do not have access to better-earning opportunities and income and cannot meet the basic needs of life. A more substantial segment of these nations’ population is illiterate, stays hungry, and lives without a home and properPoverty is also the primary reason that hinders the country’s economic, social, and political growth. Poor people do not have enough money to satisfy all their needs and lives the entire life without access to many facilities, including even a two-day meal and clean drinking water. Poor people are thus forced to enter into wrong paths and do crimes for earning their living. There are several reasons for poverty in a nation, and for India, it was mainly the British rule, s*****y conditions, and rising epidemic illness rates. Children from low-income families do not even get access to education and facility to have proper schooling and medical aids. Many of them are noteven aware of the modern advancements that the comparatively more prosperous people have access to.Poverty is a worse situation that represents poor quality of life, rising illiteracy and malnutrition, lack of basic and essential elements of living, lower development of the human resource, and others. This is a more significant challenge, significantly hindering the growth of the developing nations, like India. Poverty is the phenomenon in which a segment of society does not have access to meeting the basic needs of life and have a healthier life. The experts also observe that poverty level is still declining since India’s last five years (reaching 26.1% in 1999-2000 to 35.97% in 1993-1994)Poverty in India has also declined at the state level rapidly. In Madhya Pradesh, the poverty rate fell from 43.42% to 37.43%. Not only this, but in other states like UP, and Orissa too, the poverty rate has gone downwards. However, even though there is a downfall in the country’s poverty rate, to eradicate it from the routes, we must make use of some effective programs with combined efforts of Government. It is necessary for the Government of the country to formulate effective strategies for developing a socially poor sectorthe society using the critical components like population control measures, and primary education made compulsory, employment generation, and others.Several issues arise due to a higher poverty rate. Illiteracy increases with poverty as people cannot access proper education and get learning resources due to lack of money. Poverty also leads to rising malnutrition as poor people are unable to afford a proper two-time meal and get a nutritious diet to stay healthy. In turn, this leads to increasing illness and diseases that also remains uncured because of lack of medical aid. Due to poverty, families have lower income that is unable to meet their needs, and thus the children are also forced into child labour to meet the demands.

Unemployment is a significant cause of poverty as it leads to a shortage of money and affects the daily lives of the people. It also forces people to work against their will in harmful conditions. Poverty leads to social stress due to inequality in income between the rich and the poor. This also creates a worse issue for people as they have to stay out of their homes on roadways, sidewalks, open spaces, and without any shelter. Poverty is a worse issue that affects people from all the demographics and age group in adverse ways, causing severe losses and stress for them. This is a concerning factor, and only the Government of a nation can come up with practical ways to reduce the poverty rate.Poverty is an adverse condition in which the people are left without shelter in a depriving state for basic necessities like food, water, clothes, etc. India has a higher poverty rate. A more significant segment of the entire population cannot afford even the two-time meals properly, have to sleep on the roadsides, wear dirty clothes, drink unclean water, and live in unhealthy and unhygienic conditions. Poor people lack access to proper and healthy nutrition, medical aid, educational assistance, and other essential services to better their lives and the lives of their children.

In urban India, poverty is rapidly rising due to the rise in urban population as people from many rural areas are shifting towards the urban ones. As people move in search of employment and a better lifestyle, but lack of employment opportunities forces them into a financially unstable situation where sometimes they are even forced to work under harmful and unpleasing conditions. In India, more than eight crore people’s income is still lower than the poverty line, and 4.5 crore urban people stand at the verge of the poverty level. A more significant number of urban people stays in the slums, and most of them are illiterates.Poverty leads to severe impacts ion the entire society and adversely affects the lives of the people. Poverty leads to illiteracy, lack of proper diet and nutrition, child labour, poor lifestyle and lousy sanitization, and other adverse effects. People are often unable even to get a proper two-time meal and clean drinking water, and due to lack of a healthy diet, the children are mostly malnutrition. Children are unable to study and get appropriate education, and thus the cycle of poverty continues in the families for generations. This eventually hinders the overall development of the nation.For controlling poverty, there are specific measures that we can take to solve the issue for ensuring a better lifestyle for all the people staying on the planet. There are specific effective measures like farmers must receive proper and necessary access to facilities for better agriculture. The illiterate people must get adequate access to education and training to understand several aspects of a better life. People must be given training for family planning and s*x education for population control. Every child must go to school, and there must also be new employment opportunities for all type of people.Poverty is not an individual-level problem, but it is a broader issue for the entire nation and the planet. This is a significant threat to human resource development and must be taken care of on a priority basis. People must consider essential and effective measures to control the poverty rate. We must combined work to eradicate all the loopholes in the government systems and encourage the organizations which work to handle the poverty crisis.

The article contains an essay on poverty to satisfy various students’ educational and academic requirements from different classes. This is a concerning factor. The students must understand the issue sufficiently to eradicate the problem and ensure a better and developed lifestyle for all the people Worldwide.

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