Tag: Poor

EMPATHY, TOLERANCE AND COMPASSION TOWARDS WEAKER SECTION

Compassion is understanding or empathy for the suffering of others. Tolerance is respect, acceptance, and appreciation for those whose opinions, practices, race religion, nationality, etc. are different from one’s own. These qualities are very important for an individual living in a society.

India is a multicultural society with high numbers of vulnerable, Disadvantaged, and weaker sections. So efficient delivery of services and addressing their concerns are very important. India with its diverse cultures which traditionally evolved with the modern 21st century makes it unique in its existence. Tolerance and compassion have always played a major role throughout the transition of time for the unity of the nation in diversity. 

Weaker sections like SCs/STs and rural/urban poor are unaware of public policies, subsidies, and public utilities. Weaker sections are marginalized, deprived of justice, and illiterate. They have very low bargaining power and ability to assert their demands so helping them, being compassionate towards them, and supporting them can help them a lot.

The quality of being a compassionate persons is:

  • To understand the needs and the expectations of people.
  • Understanding the needs of marginalized and vulnerable sections of people living in a society.
  • To Undertake a faster approach and measures to address the issues of society.
  • To have an Unbiased approach to the distribution of government facilities.
  • To Make oneself accessible to all citizens and seeking for their feedback to improve better.
  • Respecting affirmative action toward the disadvantaged and implementing them with a positive attitude.

The quality of being a tolerant person is:

  • Freedom from Bigotry, respecting each other choices.
  • It helps in developing qualities like respect towards others, knowledge, openness, and communication between diverse sections of society.
  • Upholding natural rights which are Human rights, Democracy, Multiculturalism, Pluralism etc.
  • Protecting the constitutional principles of Fundamental Rights which forms the basic structure of the constitution.
  • Preventing tendency of intimidation, coercion, oppression, etc.

Poor and marginalized sections of the society that have faced negligence and left empty-handed for such a long duration of time have become afflicted that there is no one to listen to them and solve their issues. They have been dealt with harshness many times, and this behavior has inculcated in them a sense of inferiority and less importance they have stated attributing to themselves.

In a nation empowered and educated section perform better job and pay taxes to run a nation’s economy. This revenue are spent to alleviate poverty by enabling weaker section to become part of mainstream economy. This needs compassion to spend revenue on them and tolerance to provide them all chances for becoming self-sustaining. Hence, we must have tolerance and compassion toward them, as they are not exposed to newer technology, awareness of their own rights, nation’s outlook, programmes for themselves and nation’s expectation from them.

In egalitarian society, tolerance and compassion are two important qualities to be practiced by
every individual and Hence tolerance and compassion towards the weaker sections are
one of the basic qualities any individual should poses.

Equitable distribution of resources and welfare-oriented development should be among the primary goals of democratic government. To develop a country, not just the government but every individual in a society should have qualities like compassion, tolerance, and empathy towards the weaker section of the society.

ISSUES RELATING TO POVERTY AND HUNGER

India is a country which suffers a lot due to hunger and poverty. Hunger is very closely related to poverty as poverty is one of the main reasons for hunger. 

Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen said that lack of ability to pay for food is obviously caused by poverty.

POVERTY

Poverty is a condition caused due to lack of basic needs of life such as water, health care, food, unemployment etc. It is described as the low income level of people which leads them to poor standard of living. Poverty means that the income level from employment is so low that even the basic human needs are not fulfilled. The impact of poverty on children is substantial. Children who grow up in poverty typically suffer from severe and frequent health problems; infants born into poverty have an increased chance of low birth weight, which can lead to physical and mental disabilities. Poverty is a difficult cycle to break and often passes from one generation to the next. Typical consequences of poverty include alcohol and substance abuse, limited access to education, poor housing and living conditions, and increased levels of disease. 

Hunger and food insecurity are the most serious forms of extreme poverty. To eradicate these issues from society is the prime concern of international organizations.

HUNGER

Hunger is a global problem and a lot of countries are facing this problem. Hunger is a condition where both the adults as well as children do not have access to food and there is a constant decrease in food intake, nutrients, no proper diet is there and some days are even gone without food which eventually leads to their death.

Climate change is also one of the reasons for world hunger. The amount of rain determines the production of crops. Droughts also affects agricultural production and extreme rain also causes flooding that leads to destruction of crops . Use of outdated products, not using better quality seeds also leads to shortage of food and those who are capable and have money buys food even at higher prices, the ones who have to suffer are poor people. They do not have money to buy food and hence they remain hungry. Hunger has a lot of serious problems such as insufficient economic systems, climate changes, misinformation but the most serious problem of all is poverty. Many poor nations such as Kenya, Uganda etc. are in desperate need of food. The growing population is one of the major causes of rising hunger and poverty. In Indian scenario Hunger and malnutrition are closely related. The main outcome of poverty is hunger. India is a home to the largest undernourished population in the world, 14℅ of our population is undernourished, 20℅ of children under 5 are underweight, 34.7℅ of children are stunned, 51.4℅ of women in the in the reproductive age i.e. 15-49 are anemic.

DIFFERENT ISSUES RELATING TO HUNGER AND POVERTY

Overpopulation is a major issue of rising poverty. There are not enough resources to satisfy your need. Demand is more and resources are limited and this leads to no proper distribution of resources and a large amount of people are left with no food. India is a country with a large population, and hence everyone’s demand is not full and people remain hungry.

Poor health service– the health sector of India is not as efficient as compared to other developed Nations, which leads to less access to good health and sanitization and hence causes ill health and maintains poverty.

Malnutrition- It is a phenomena that occurs in a human body when it receives little or no nutrition as a result of it people easily get sick and it causes death. it is responsible for the death of people, especially young children.

Insufficient education and lack of training- due to Rising poverty children are not able to get basic education and again since they are not educated, they don’t get employed and this vicious cycle of poverty is continued. Lack of money is reason for them not attending proper School and they have to indulge in labour to provide for a minimal living also causes rise for child labour. Parents send their children to work at a very young age.

Inequality– different gender, ethnic, group and social classes face inequality due to poverty. Low rate of economic development, If a country is poor then its development is also very slow.

Rise in crime – Often due to poverty and hunger, people indulge in criminal activities. To fill their empty stomach many young children opt for wrong ways and indulge in theft and loot and its disturbance in the society.

Way Forward

To eradicate poverty and hunger from the society, there is a need for the government to implement schemes and methods. The government should spend more in health, nutrition, and education. The government should invest more in agriculture and provide the farmers with better quality seeds and advanced machineries and modern techniques for more agricultural production, Also it is necessary to decrease rural poverty. Subsidies address only short-term issues. There is a need to develop technologies, with the help of which farmers can practice all-weather agriculture. Government should focus on increasing employment opportunities creating jobs in modern sectors and promote labor-intensive industries. Reduction in corruption will lead to an overall development of the economy. A country with low poverty level will only develop in a better manner.

Sources: civilservicesindia.com

The problem of poverty in India

In India, poverty is presently estimated by fixing a poverty line based on a differentiated calorie-norm. This means that the level of poverty depends upon the capacity of a person to purchase food and a person who can buy specific amount of food to cross the poverty line margin for nutrients and calorie intake is above the poverty line. Whereas, the person who cannot buy enough food to meet the required nutrition value of calories and carbohydrates is below the poverty line. This level is not the correct parameter to check the level of poverty.

A task force of the Planning Commission in 1979 defined the poverty line as that per capita expenditure at which the average per capita per day calorie intake was 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. Average per capita expenditures incurred by that population group in each State which consumed these quantities of calories, as per the 1973-74 survey of NSSO, were used as the poverty lines.

The debate on the extent of poverty in India has been a matter of global interest in the recent years. The primary reason for the global interest in the debate is that the levels of poverty in India and China have come to exert significant influence over the trends in world poverty itself.

Within India too, there has been growing contestation around poverty estimates, particularly in the period of economic reforms. First, there are persistent disagreements among economists on whether the rate of poverty decline after economic reforms was slower than in the preceding period. Secondly, the shift to targeted, rather than universal, welfare schemes has witnessed the use of poverty estimates to decide on the number of households eligible to access these schemes. The report of the Expert Group on the estimation of poverty, chaired by Suresh Tendulkar, is the latest input to the “Great Indian Poverty Debate.”

It is to be noted here that many subsidies and programs are launched by the government but these additional increments do not reach the actual people that are in need of them. Instead it is sent back to the businessman and thus a lot of profit is earned on these subsidized goods. Thus, to lower the level of poverty in India, schemes have to be launched in order to directly benefit the people in need.

The Hindu states that, “A final issue with the report, of much long-term consequence, relates to the wisdom of abandoning the calorie norm. It is indeed true that the levels of calorie intakes are not well correlated with nutritional outcomes. However, abandoning the calorie norm altogether and taking solace from the fortuitous fact that calorie intakes appear adequate at the new poverty lines is an arbitrary proposition. It is unclear whether there is any basis, theoretical or empirical, for this relationship to hold true across time.”

The Tendulkar Committee has pitched for a policy position that is stranded between the harsh realities of poverty in India and the fiscal conservativeness of a neo-liberal framework. The real challenge lies in preserving the positives from the report, and strongly persisting with the demand for a universal social security system.


Written by: Ananya Kaushal

“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.

Ill Effects of Poverty

Poverty affects the life of a poor family. A poor person is not able to take proper food & nutrition &his capacity to work reduces. Reduced capacity to work further reduces his income, making him poorer. Children from poor family never get proper schooling & proper nutrition. They have to work to support their family & this destroys their childhood. Some of them may also involve in crimes like theft, murder, robbery, etc. A poor person remains uneducated & is forced to live under unhygienic conditions in slums. There are no proper sanitation & drinking water facility in slums & he falls ill often & his health deteriorates. A poor person generally dies an early death. So, all social evils are related to poverty.

Government Schemes to Remove Poverty

The government of India also took several measures to eradicate poverty from India. Some of them are – creating employment opportunities, controlling population, etc. In India, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in India. The government constructed certain dams & canals in our country to provide easy availability of water for irrigation. Government has also taken steps for the cheap availability of seeds & farming equipment to promote agriculture. Government is also promoting farming of cash crops like cotton, instead of food crops. In cities, the government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs. Government has also opened ‘Ration shops’. Other measures include providing free & compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age, scholarship to deserving students from a poor background, providing subsidized houses to poor people, etc.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example- we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice.

—nelsen mandela

Poverty

Poverty is when someone cannot afford the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, shelter and education. It can lead to other problems like poor literacy, unemployment, malnutrition. Poor people are not able to get education due to lack of money and remains unemployed. Unemployed people cannot afford enough and nutritious food for their families and their health declines. A weak person lacks the energy required for the job. A jobless person remains poor only. We can say that Poverty is the root cause of other problems.

United Nations have devised 2 measures to measure Poverty – Absolute poverty and 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 U.S.A. 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.

The government of India also took several measures to eradicate poverty from India. Some of them are – creating employment opportunities, controlling population, etc. In India, about 60% of the population is still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Government has taken certain measures to promote agriculture in India. The government constructed certain dams & canals in our country to provide easy availability of water for irrigation. Government has also taken steps for the cheap availability of seeds & farming equipments to promote agriculture. Government is also promoting farming of cash crops like cotton, instead of food crops. In cities, the government is promoting industrialization to create more jobs. Government has also opened  ‘Ration shops’. Other measures include providing free & compulsory education for children up to 14 years of age, scholarship to deserving students from a poor background, providing subsidized houses to poor people, etc.

Poverty is a social evil, we can also contribute to control it. For example- we can simply donate old clothes to poor people, we can also sponsor the education of a poor child or we can utilize our free time by teaching poor students. Remember before wasting food, somebody is still sleeping hungry.

Girls’ education been neglected in slums

Women and girls in slums mostly don’t get the privilege of education in India. Their families or communities don’t support them in this cause. When the family does not have enough finance to provide education to all of their children, there the preference is given to boys. This way most of the women are not educated and they are not able to provide it to their daughters as well. So, in this vicious cycle education of most of the girls gets neglected. The situation is so deteriorating that many girls even lack basic literacy and numeric skills.

“I want to study and become a teacher. But I don’t know how to read these books, says Lakshmi, a 9 years old girl in slums while sitting with a pile of books of her brothers.

Lakshmi lives in a family of six members – father, mother, and her three brothers. Being the youngest as well as a girl she gets the disadvantage over education. Where all her brothers go to school, she isn’t allowed.

While finance being one of the major issues, there are others too.

“In our community, girls get married at a very young age by 12-14, so what is the point of their education. Eventually, they will have to serve their in-laws. Even if we get pushy about continuing a girl’s education after marriage, she will be stopped,” says Shakuntala, Lakshmi’s mother.

“See our Lakshmi, she is already 9. We have started searching for a suitable groom for her.”

Her father cited other concerns. “ There is a fear of abuse, distance from school to home, known- availability of transports, and lack of toilets. Due to this reason, I don’t send my daughter to school even if I want to. Safety is a big concern for me. Who’s going to take the responsibility if anything happens to her.”

Slum girls brought up with this mindset make them believe they are not worth enough compared to their brothers.

“We want our sister to gain an education. But our parents say she will get married and go to a different family whereas we have to go to school too, later on, get jobs and be a breadwinner for the family,” says Kundan, Lakshmi’s elder brother.

These situations make women vulnerable and dependant on men in life. Men start to think about them as mere objects leading to crimes like domestic violence, killings.

Without education, women have less knowledge and less power to negotiate.

All these things indicate that there is a bleak future for girl children in slums. Thus, to address this emerging issue, girls should be linked to formal/informal schooling in slums and ensured that at least they will attain the primary level of education that enables them to read and write.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does education impact the poor?

Education is the best investment one can ever make in life. For a developing nation like India, every child should receive a quality education. It can not only change the health and livelihood of people, but also contribute to long term economic growth and social stability.

However, despite great progress in last few years, lakhs of children are still denied education. The lack of education is a big reason that transmits poverty from generation to generation. The society still doesn’t realize that right to education is a vital human right granted to every citizen.

Although it is true that not every individual without an education is living in extreme poverty, but most of the poor lack education. The ones living below poverty line keep their children out of school, which means their children will also have a greater chance to live in poverty.

Education is considered as a great equalizer which can open door to jobs, skills and resources that a family needs to thrive and survive. Access to good quality education and supporting child well being has been recognized as a solution to poverty. Not just this, it helps the communities to solve other issues that keeps them vulnerable. Not just this, it helps these communities to solve other issues as well that can keep them vulnerable.

Education is directly related to may solutions in terms of poverty, like:

  • Reduce income inequality
  • Economic growth
  • Reduce infant and maternal deaths
  • Reduce vulnerability to HIV & AIDS
  • Reduce stunting
  • Reduce violence at home and society

According to UNESCO, if all children in low-income nation just get basic reading skills, an estimated 171 million people could come out of poverty. And if all adults receive secondary education, the global poverty could be cut by more than half.

Children are the future of any nation.The children who receive quality education are empowered to grow into mature and skilled adults who are capable of picking employment. Education is the key under which several issues related to health, unemployment, population control and human rights can be solved.

Educated individuals are more likely to escape all troubles of life like ecconomic and social despair. On a larger scale, the rewards of individuals getting education also flow into the society, motivating other, thus can have an impact on the entire country. An educated country always flourishes and always progress far better as they can achieve better healthcare and economic independence. It will make people more independent.

There are many solutions to improve the situation between poverty and education.  Teachers should be provided incentives for teaching in low-income zones. Better resources and funding should be provided in school for poor.

All this sums up enabling communities to come out from the state of poverty.

 

 

 

Burden of healthcare on poor

When it comes to health care, every individual dreads it. Health care costs are taking a large chunk out of the savings of an individual. These costs make the lives of poor people more vulnerable. Though India is becoming a destination for foreigners to avail affordable health care, many Indians find health care services unaffordable. The treatment costs are rising at a much faster rate than inflation for both rural and urban areas. Also inefficiency of government hospitals and pharmacies have led people to turn towards private players resulting in increased health care costs.

The private expenditure on health care is around 4% in India, which makes it one of the highest ranking countries when it comes to private expenditure on health care. However, major costs of healthcare are born by individuals rather than insurance companies or employees. 

A research paper in BMJ, a medical weekly, reported that 55 million Indians-more than the population of South Korea- were pushed into poverty because of out of the pocket health expenses between 1994 to 2014. Out of those 55 million, 69% (38 million) were impoverished due to expenses on medicine alone. This study also reported that 80% Indians incurred out of the pocket expenses in 2011-12 which was 60% in 1993-94. The contribution of medicines was more than 67% of these out of the pocket expenses in 2011-12.

Government has rolled out various schemes to ensure that poor people don’t have to bear the costs of medicine. However, as per study by India’s largest national survey on social consumption conducted between July 2017 and June 2018, reported that 90% of India’s poor population do not have any health insurance. Despite of many health insurance schemes like Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY, National Health Insurance Scheme), which was precursor of PMJAY, the central government health schemes for government employees, the Employee State Insurance Scheme for formal sector employees, the poor did not have any kind of health insurance.

The health insurance coverage in India is poor because the private health insurance industry has not yet developed in India and the number of people who are willing to pay for health insurance are very low. Also the insurance premiums are high which makes health insurance unaffordable by many poor people. In rural India, people have limited access to healthcare services like doctors and hospitals, thus they do not prefer to buy health insurance.

This condition led the government to roll out an effective scheme and the result was Ayushman Bharat- National Health Protection Scheme(AB-NHPS) in 2018. The scheme is targeted at following categories:

  • Poor
  • Deprived rural families
  • Identified Occupational category of urban workers’ families

Benefits of this scheme

  • This scheme defined benefit cover of Rs 5 lakhs per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
  • There is no cap on family size and age under this scheme.
  • This scheme will be cashless and paperless in public and enlisted private hospitals.

With Covid-19, poor are facing a lot of issues and all they need is support majorly in financal ways.