Poverty is when there is a lack of the basic necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, health facilities and education. It greatly affects the quality of life and is usually taken as a long term phenomenon. Also, it occurs at a family level.
It is measured by surveying how many people live below the 'poverty line'. The poverty line is the minimum level of income that would provide for a sufficiently good standard of living. The poverty line values differ from country to country but usually on an international level, it is taken as $1 per day.
Poverty brings with it many other problems, especially social problems such as:
Lack of education
Violence
Crime
High suicide rate
High morbidity and mortality rates
Poverty is actually a vicious cycle. Poor people cannot afford education. Thus, they have less technical skills. Therefore, they are not suitable for many jobs. This increases the number of unskilled labor and unemployment. If a person is unemployed, he will have even less income which would lead to even more poverty.
Poor families also have a large number of children. The health of the children is very bad because of a lot of people living in small places. This reduces hygiene and sanitation which increases the incidence of disease. Disease can often not be treated in the best way because of lack of funds for medical facilities. Food is scarce in poor households and that often leads to undernutrition or at least some deficiencies in poor households. The most vulnerable are children and child-bearing mothers.
It is measured by surveying how many people live below the 'poverty line'. The poverty line is the minimum level of income that would provide for a sufficiently good standard of living. The poverty line values differ from country to country but usually on an international level, it is taken as $1 per day.
Poverty brings with it many other problems, especially social problems such as:
Lack of education
Violence
Crime
High suicide rate
High morbidity and mortality rates
Poverty is actually a vicious cycle. Poor people cannot afford education. Thus, they have less technical skills. Therefore, they are not suitable for many jobs. This increases the number of unskilled labor and unemployment. If a person is unemployed, he will have even less income which would lead to even more poverty.
Poor families also have a large number of children. The health of the children is very bad because of a lot of people living in small places. This reduces hygiene and sanitation which increases the incidence of disease. Disease can often not be treated in the best way because of lack of funds for medical facilities. Food is scarce in poor households and that often leads to undernutrition or at least some deficiencies in poor households. The most vulnerable are children and child-bearing mothers.
