Poverty
1
Objectives
At the end of the unit learners will be able to:
• Discuss the concept of poverty
• Describe poverty and related theories
• Discuss poverty distribution
• Identify the impact of poverty in Pakistani society
• Explore the relationship between poverty and health.
2
These are faces of global
poverty.
Each of these people lives
hand-to-mouth and day-to-day.
They are hard-pressed to
meet their daily needs for
water, food and shelter –
and they have little or no
voice in what happens to
them, their families and
their communities.
Poverty
• People can be said to be in poverty when they are deprived
of income and other resources needed to obtain the
conditions of life—clean water , nutrition, health care,
education, clothing and shelter, because of the inability to
afford them.
• This is also referred to as absolute poverty or destitution.
• Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources
or less income than others within a society or country, or
compared to worldwide averages.
Global facts of poverty
> 3 billion people 22,000 children die Nearly 11
live on less than $ each day due to million
2-5 per day. poverty children die
each year
> 1.3 billion live in 805 million people
before their 5th
extreme poverty worldwide do not
birthday.
have enough food to
eat
Poor Health & Poverty
• What comes first?
• Poor health = Poverty
• Poverty = Poor Health
“…there is a clear very robust
relationship between individual
income and individual health. That is,
poverty leads to lower health status.”
Canadian Population Health Initiative, 2007
Socio Economic Status & Health
• While increase in income associated with increases
in health status
• For children, spells with low SES in the early years
are most important in terms of impact on health.
http://sbcounty.gov/csd/Docs/Poverty/Poverty%20and%20Health%20-%20Dr%20%20Belliard.pdf
Theories of poverty
• Classical and neoclassical
• Classical traditions view individuals as largely
responsible for their own destiny, choosing in effect to
become poor (e.g. by forming lone-parent families).
• The concept of ‘sub-cultures of poverty’ implies that
deficiencies may continue over time, owing for example to
lack of appropriate role models, and that state aid should be
limited to changing individual attitudes.
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• Neoclassical theories : recognize reasons for poverty
beyond individuals’ control.
• (lack of resources, education; immigrant status; poor
health and advanced age; and barriers to employment)
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Conti…
• Culture of poverty:
• Oscar Lewis developed this theory.
• He states that being in Poverty tends to create a
way of living that becomes a culture of its own
• This culture is “learned, shared and socially
transmitted as a behavior of a social group.
• Tends to perpetuate itself from generation to
generation because of its effects on children
• A cycle of poverty: is produced from which each
generation finds difficult to escape
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Types and causes of poverty
• Individual
• Poverty is explained by individual
circumstances and/or characteristics of poor
people. Some examples are:
• amount of education, skill, experience,
intelligence.
• health, handicaps, age.
• work orientation, time horizon, culture of
poverty.
• discrimination, together with race, sex, etc.
Acute causes of poverty
• Warfare
• The material and human destruction caused by warfare is a
major development problem.
• Agricultural Cycles
• People who rely on fruits and vegetables that they produce
for household food consumption often go through cycles of
relative abundance and scarcity.
Acute causes of poverty
• Droughts and Flooding
• Besides the immediate destruction caused by natural
events such as hurricanes, environmental forces often
cause acute periods of crisis by destroying crops and
animals.
• Natural Disasters
• The Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) were set by the United Nations
and had a target date for achievement by
2015.
• These goals were established in the year
2000 as a global framework to address
various social and economic development
challenges, such as poverty, hunger,
gender equality, and access to education
and healthcare. While progress was made
on several of the MDGs, not all of them 15
were fully achieved by 2015.
• In 2015, the United Nations
replaced the MDGs with a new set
of goals known as the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs),
• which have a target date for
achievement by 2030. The SDGs build
upon the progress made under the
MDGs and address a broader range of
economic, social, and environmental
challenges to create a more 16
sustainable and equitable world.
Eight Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs)
1.Poverty
2.Education
3.Gender Equality
4.Child Mortality
5.Maternal Health
6.HIV/AIDS and Others
7.Environment
8.Global Partnership
Millennium Development Goals
Malnutrition is an outcome of poverty;
Eradicate extreme
poverty and hunger
good nutrition is an input to poverty
alleviation.
Achieve universal Good nutrition is essential if learning is to
primary education occur.
Promote gender equality Investment in girl’s nutrition helps advance
and empower women the status of women and increase
incentives for smaller family size.
Reduce child mortality 60% percent of under-five mortality is
associated with malnutrition (including the
effects of mild to moderate undernutrition).
NUTRITION: MAKING THE CASE Brief 1 of 12
Millennium Development Goals
Improved maternal • Vitamin A supplements reduce
health maternal mortality by up to 44%.
• Over 20% of maternal deaths are due
to iron deficiency anemia.
Combat HIV/AIDS, Good nutrition bolsters immune systems,
malaria, and other preventing HIV-related infection and
diseases slowing progression from HIV to AIDS.
Ensure environmental When basic survival needs are not met,
sustainability environmental conservation is low priority.
Develop global Experience from over 50 years of participatory
partnership for nutrition programming can suggest ways
development forward.
NUTRITION: MAKING THE CASE Brief 1 of 12
Causation, Risks and Effects
School
Achievement
Cognitive
ability
Productivity
Work
Capacity
Poverty
Nutrition
Health
Food
Insecurity
Nutrition’s Impact on Health
• Mortality
• 60% of under-five child deaths in developing countries are associated
with malnutrition, including effects of mild to moderate undernutrition.
• Morbidity
• Malnutrition (under and over) increases incidence, severity, and
duration of diseases.
• Obesity hastens the development of chronic disease and can add to the
burden of undernutrition.
NUTRITION AND HEALTH Brief 4 of 12
Poverty in Pakistan
Impact of poverty in Pakistani society
• Diseases are more widely spread because poor people cannot
afford hygienic foods and pure drinking water.
• Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which
is associated with many preventable mental and physical
disabilities.
• Poor families experience much more stress than middle-class
families.
• Besides financial uncertainty, these families are more likely to
23
develop illness, depression, eviction, job loss, criminal
victimization, and family death.
Conti…
• Homelessness, or extreme poverty, carries with it a
particularly strong set of risks for families, especially
children.
• Homeless children are less likely to receive proper
nutrition and immunization.
• Homeless women experience higher rates of low-birth-
weight babies, miscarriages, and infant mortality, probably
due to not having access to adequate prenatal care for their
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babies.
Solutions to poverty
Poverty will never end unless there are real solutions to end it;
solutions based on economic justice and political changes.
• The full equality between men and women in public as well as
private areas of life.
• A worldwide minimum wage of $20 per day.
• End of child labor under the age of 16 with the creation of a
subsidy for scholarship.
• The guarantee of shelter, healthcare, education, food and
drinking water as basic human rights that must be provided free
to all.
• A total redistribution of lands to landless farmers and the
imposition of a 50% cap on arable land devoted to
products for export per country, with the creation of a
worldwide subsidy for organic agriculture.
• An obligation of total transparency for any corporation
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Think about it…
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.
• http://hrlaws.blogspot.com/2009/02/5nazi-germany-doctors-medical.html
• http://www.und.nodak.edu/instruct/wstevens/PROPOSALCLASS/MARSDEN&
MELANDER2.htm
• http://books.google.com.pk/books?id=kQuq9F_PltkC&pg=PA6&lpg=PA
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OEhFAsio&sig=v4KhncXO-LqzOw1EuXTYwhJjMOE&hl=en&ei=R13oSof
MA5iY6wOJneT3BQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved
=0CBMQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=human%20rights%20and%20nazis%2
0war%20experiments&f=false
• http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-12748194.html
