Poverty And Inequality

Key Question: To what extent has poverty and inequality have taken their
toll on the globe and what is the government role in it?

Providing good and healthy food, a better and safer place to live, quality
education and freedom of speech ,these are the basic human rights that a
state must provide to its citizens in order to develop a peaceful and
advancing nation. but what if they are not? Then comes the appalling effects
of poverty and inequality that leads to the downfall of the society. When
people have to strive hard even for the basic necessities of life and are
unable to get them then the role of poverty comes into play. People become
frustrated and tend to find other ways of getting them like indulging
themselves in crimes, robbery, thefts and this in turn effects the
advancement of a country. Also this happens that in many countries a part of
the population get their rights while many reprieved from them. This is
where inequality rises and its the failure of the government. Some facts
related to this are [1],
1) Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or
sign their names.
2) Almost half the world over 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a
day.
3) The graph below shows the world population that was living under poverty
lines in 2005
4) The divide among the consumptions is shown below which clearly proves
the inequality

Children, who are the rising stars, are also greatly affected by this poverty
thing which causes a major setback to the society. Nearly 121 million
children are unable to go to schools and 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in
2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400
million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health
services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or
roughly 29,000 children per day)[1].this is a great example of inequality and
poverty. Inequality in the sense that most of the children included in this
have no schools in their areas(rural areas) where as many urban area
children have been provided with quality schools.
Not just this reason there are other reasons too for example many of the
richer people, the elite class, have no concern about washing of this dearth
of poverty. Though some are doing a great deal of hard work against it but a
greater part is just sleepy. The government also keeps helping these upper
class people and neglects the lower class people. They are of no concern that
a poor lives or die. This is pure inequality and at the same time poverty. A
fact is that:
The poorest 40 percent of the worlds population accounts for 5
percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-
quarters of world income [1].
The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world
rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of
nearly a quarter of the worlds financial assets [1].

The rural class which includes almost all the farmers do not get good prices
for their crops and hence they have to sell their crops at a lower rate hence
becomes poorer despite having done such a hard work. African countries ant
the asian countries They are thus unable to feed their own family, unable to
send their children to schools. This adds to a greater rate of poverty. This is a
failure of the government. They are unable to formulate such a system that
could help solve this problem. A Srilankan newspaper wrote about this issue
in the magazine called The Sunday Leader[2].
Cultural factors, such as discrimination of various kinds, can negatively affect
productivity such as age discrimination, stereotyping, discrimination against
people with physical disability, gender discrimination, racial discrimination,
and caste discrimination. Max Weber and some schools of modernization
theory suggest that cultural values could affect economic success. However,
researchers have gathered evidence that suggest that values are not as
deeply ingrained and that changing economic opportunities explain most of
the movement into and out of poverty, as opposed to shifts in values.[3]
The top ten countries who are suffering from high rates of poverty include [4]
10.Sao Tome and Principe
Poverty rate: 66.2%
9.Sierra Leone
Poverty rate: 66.4%
8. Burundi
Poverty rate: 66.9%
7. Madagascar
Poverty rate: 68.7%
6. Eritrea
Poverty rate: 69.0%
5. Swaziland
Poverty rate: 69.2%
4. Congo (Democratic Republic)
Poverty rate: 71.3%
3. Zimbabwe
Poverty rate: 72%
2. Equatorial Guinea
Poverty rate: 76.8%
1. Haiti
Poverty rate: 77%

Another factor leading to poverty and inequality is the unemployment. In

many countries the unemployment rates are high and thus the bright
individuals are unable to get good jobs and have to settle on low pay jobs
which effects their way of living and also add up to the rate of poverty. The
inequality that happens in this field is that many use their source in order to
get a job no matter how eligible they are. This stops reduces the chances of
eligible individuals in getting a job and they become frustrated and even
commit suicides or settle on odd jobs. Even countries like U.S 50%
umemloyement rate as recorded for the year 2011[5].
In many parts of the world there is gender discrimination which deprives
many females from education and jobs. Hence for the daily food of their
family many females have to do small jobs and also become the victims of
human trafficking. 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. Deterioration of living conditions can
often compel children to abandon school to contribute to the family income,
putting them at risk of being exploited. For example, in Zimbabwe, a number
of girls are turning to sex in return for food to survive because of the
increasing poverty[7] . this is inequality on the part of girls. It is said that a
women has the ability to make the nation progress rapidly but what is
happening is they are not being given the chance to do so , though many
countries considers this discrimination wrong, hence are progressing. Equal
rights should be given to all. Hence again government fails here in this
regard.
Now talking about my country U.A.E. (United Arab Emirates) has 19.5%
population living below poverty lines and is ranked 105 in the whole world in
this regard[8]. The role of the government in eradicating poverty has been an
effective one. A project named Make Poverty History-Emirates was an open
coalition of UAE based organizations that worked together to eradicate global
poverty and assist in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
(MDG's) from 2005 until 2009. Make Poverty History-Emirates is committed
to:

Raising awareness on key global issues like Extreme Poverty, Hunger,

Disease and Education.

Mobilizing the public on key global dates in support of these issues.

Assisting in the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals

Promoting volunteerism amongst the public of the United Arab

Emirates

At a global level the coalition seconds the demands of The Global Call to
Action Against Poverty, its parent campaign.

UAE has the second-largest economy in the Arab world (after Saudi Arabia),
with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $377 billion (AED1.38 trillion) in
2012.A third of the GDP is from oil revenues. The economy was expected to
grow 44.5% in 2013, compared to 2.33.5% over the previous five years.
Since independence in 1971, UAE's economy has grown by nearly 231 times
to AED1.45 trillion in 2013. The non-oil trade has grown to AED1.2 trillion, a
growth of around 28 times from 1981 to 2012.[10]

Talking about inequality, U.A.E. Government has worked pretty hard in

reducing the gender inequality. The gender gap in the UAE has narrowed in
the past year, a worldwide study shows. The Global Gender Gap 2014
compiled by the World Economic Forum gave the UAE a score of 0.64 where
0 is total inequality and 1 is total equality compared with 0.63 last year.
The report found the UAE ranked high in education and literacy levels for
women, and with their average wages [9]. It also provide jobs to the coming
immigrants from India, Pakistan, Nepal and many other countries.
In my opinion poverty and inequality can never vanish from our society
rather they can be reduced to a particular extent. In this era where the world
is developing by leaps and bounds there is a portion of the world that is not
even getting proper food for eating. We the children whose demands are sky
high are not being able to understand the pain and sufferings of those
people. Yes it is the duty of the government to work for the good of those
people but is the duty just limited to them? No certainly not. Some of us
have to rise for the rights of the people .As I belong to Pakistan, the
government is failing to provide their citizens the basic necessities, there is
inequality at different levels but there are some who are standing against it,
against the rising poverty and inequality. Example is of the EDHI Foundation,
CHIPPPA Foundation and KHIDMAT E KHALQ Foundation. These are providing
poor people with food, health facility and homes. Still as of 2015 40% of the
population of Pakistan live below poverty lines [11]. Due to this reason the
crimes have increased many fold. It is also worth mentioning that the
government has started different initiative to reduce crimes and overcome
poverty and inequality but it has been a slow process.

In the concluding lines I would say that the governments of the respective
countries should utilize on their resources tp provide its people the
necessities of life and take the nation on the way to glory. The best example
is of the Chinese government where the poverty rate is just 4%.

REFERENNCES:

[1]http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats#fact3
[2]http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2015/05/17/by-waruni-karunarathne/
[3]Kerbo, Harold. 2006. Social Stratification and Inequality: Class Conflict in
Historical, Comparative, and Global Perspective, 6th edition. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
[4] The 10 Poorest Countries in the World - 24/7 Wall St.
http://247wallst.com/special-report/2012/09/14/the-10-poorest-countries-in-
the-world/#ixzz3aP2wJxxS
[5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_unemployment_rate
[6]"Child sex boom fueled by poverty". Globalpost.com. Retrieved 24 October
[7] Thomson, Mike (12 June 2009). "Zimbabwean girls trade sex for food".
BBC News. Retrieved 24 October 2010.
[8]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_Arab_Emirates#Overvie
w
[9] http://www.thenational.ae/uae/uae-improves-gender-equality-score-in-
global-study
[10] "UAE's economy growth momentum set to -pick up". Khaleej Times. 27
December 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2014.
[11]http://www.geotauaisay.com/poverty-in-pakistan-40-people-living-below-
poverty-line.html