This is an essay on “Poverty & its Causes” for CSS, PMS, and All Judiciary examinations. Poverty is the state of not having enough material possessions or income for a person’s basic needs. Poverty may include social, economic, and political elements. Absolute poverty measures compare income against the amount needed to meet basic personal needs, such as food, clothing, and shelter. Here I will also discuss Poverty, its causes, its impacts as well as its solution. So here is a complete essay on the topic of Poverty and its causes for CSS, PMS, and All other Judiciary Examinations.
Essay on “Poverty”
The word poverty is derived from the French word ‘Pauvre’, meaning poor. Material possession of having little or no more means to support oneself is called poverty. According to Ian Robertson, “poverty is the inability to maintain minimal standards of food, clothing, shelter and health care”.
Lewis said: “Poverty not only as economic deprivation, or the absence of something but also as a way of life, the personal of sub-cultural values and attitudes passed down from generation to generation”.
According to World Bank, “a person earning less than one US dollar,(60 rupees Pakistani) a day is called poor”.
Poverty is a condition in which a person or community is deprived of, and or lacks the essentials for a minimum standard of well-being and life. Since poverty is understood in many senses, these essentials may be material resources such as food, safe drinking water, and shelter, or they may be social resources such as access to information, education, health care, social status, political power, or the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.
Poverty in Pakistan has historically been higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In terms of the number of poor, about 35 million out of the total of 47 million people estimated to fall below the poverty line, live in rural areas. Poverty rose more sharply in the rural areas in the 2000s, and as a result, the difference in the incidence of poverty between the urban and the rural areas increased from about 5 percentage points in FY2004 to 2011.
Poverty in Pakistan has historically been higher in rural areas than in urban areas. In terms of the number of poor, about 35 million out of the total of 47 million people estimated to fall below the poverty line, live in rural areas. Poverty rose more sharply in the rural areas in the 2000s, and as a result, the difference in the incidence of poverty between the urban and the rural areas increased from about 5 percentage points in FY2004 to 2011.
Poverty is a social problem of Pakistan with the fact that most of the people have limited economic resources and their standard of living is low. The people have been deprived of modern facilities in education, health, communication, and good food. Such people are worried due to lack of income resources and they are unable to fulfill their needs to live a life parallel to their neighbored: In this age of competition they feel deprived of their rights and inferiority complex prevails upon them. They feel shy in sitting with well-off families. They are not given marital relations with well-off people because they are disliked due to poverty.
These people are mostly illiterate and their friendship is with people of the same type. That is why their standard of life does not rise without education and economic resources. Poverty itself is a social problem because poor people are unable to follow the new trends and they fail to adopt new modes in social life.
Poverty is called to be a social problem because these people lag behind the advancing people and do not understand the way of progress. They are mostly frustrated when their needs in life are not fulfilled. In frustration, they become aggressive and may commit such acts which are criminal in nature. Due to hatred by others, they take reaction and get into criminal activities. They destroy the vehicles and property of rich people due to economic disparity. Sometimes a child of a rich man is abducted. Sometimes his car is lifted and sometimes a dacoity is put in his house. This leads to more heinous crimes like the murder of the rich man. In this way, poverty being a social problem creates other social problems of serious nature.
Causes of Poverty
There is a number of causes of poverty, which are given below:
Lack of Getting Benefit with Natural Resources
We are unable to get economic resources from the natural environment gifted by God to us. It is the land, hills, mountains, rivers, and falls from which we can get wealth by our technical skills. We can control and divert the waters flowing from mountains into dams from which power can be generated and the canals for irrigation.
Avoid Low-Quality Work
The people of our nation avoid hard work and labor. They feel shy in working down in the street and on the road. They think themselves to be respectable by not working in labor but wearing a dress clean and tidy. This concept of respect and prestige puts them into dingy houses, dirty places to live, and low-standard food to eat with missing facilities of sanitation in their residential areas.
Lack of Hard Work leads to drug addiction
Such people who avoid hard work lead a life of poor men and mostly indulge in drug addiction. They get into heroin and other things of abuse. The prohibited acts get into their habits and they involve in delinquent activities, which leads to criminal actions in life.
Anti-Social Habits
Jobless and workless people also fall into such habits, which are anti-social like, gambling, drinking, cheating, theft, and robbery. Such people feel satisfied in associates of these types. They remain satisfied and get things stolen from the house for the fulfillment of their needs. Smoking and telling a lie are bad habits that develop in the general behavior of such workless adults. They are idle and useless persons hated by good citizens.
Lack of Religious Education
They avoid getting into religious education and hate the moral and cultural values of Islam. They disobey their parents and elders of the family. They walk late at night out of home in the company of associates of such habits. Ultimately they become criminals in adult life.
Wastage of Economic Resources
Another cause of poverty is wasting economic resources. If the savings are not protected, the family faces problems in the future. Ill health and other necessities of food and dress require money from saving. If saving is poor, then these problems create heavy tension and disturbance on the members of the family.
Unemployment
Unemployment is the most important cause of poverty. Those young men, who are unable to get jobs can do works of low standards available to them. They can work on farms. They can work in factories and in business centers at low wages. They feel shy to do so and consider these jobs to the below standards. In such cases, unemployment is self-created by them, because our culture is simple and non-technical.
Blame on Fate/Wrong Perceptive of Tawakal
Some people believe that it is fate, which is responsible for our poverty. No doubt it is true but the basic factor according to Shariat of Islam is work and hard work. According to a Hadith of Holy Prophet (peace be upon) “one should adopt any profession for earning his livelihood. Here adoption of the profession has not been said as the only principle. He must be an expert and highly qualified and trained in his profession that his work is free from mistake.
Wrong Religious Beliefs
Some people have wrong religious beliefs in future events of life. They say that Allah will forgive all sinners by virtue of His mercy. This is wrongly interpreted because Allah presented a principle of judgment between right and wrong on the Day of Judgment. Every good and bad event will be measured on the scale and man will be rewarded or punished accordingly.
Illiteracy
Illiteracy is also a major reason for poverty where people who have better economic resources are victimized by this cause. As people of the rural areas of Pakistan sell their land and spend their whole life and money in judicial proceedings with their neighbors or counterparts without knowing and calculating the losses and benefits.
Impact of Poverty
There are various impacts of poverty which are given below:
Caused Crime
When resources are not enough to meet the basic needs of life, people sometimes do not abide by the law and commit crimes. Due to poverty, economic crimes are committed in society such as robbery, dacoit, kidnapping, etc.
Beggary
Poverty creates beggars in society. Most of the beggars in society are begging due to poverty not due to cultural constraints. This includes deaf, dumb, disabled, old aged, children, widows, etc.
Social evils
Poverty cerates social evils in society. Due to this, people are unable to follow the norms and values of society. As result, they become the victim of social evils.
Drug addiction
Generally, the poor are the victims of addiction like heroin, alcohol, marijuana, etc. these kinds of people are usually found on the footpath of the roads in an unconscious state. They even sometimes are unable to tell their name and whereabouts.
Violation of values and norms
Poor generally are unable to follow the norms and values of society, hence they violate for the sake of money, food, and shelter.
Low quality of life
Poor enjoy a low quality of life in every walk of life. They are unable to get a better education, avail themselves of better health facilities, live in a better place and house, and eat better, delicious, and hygienic food. Hence their quality of life is very poor.
Ill Health
Poverty negatively strikes on the health of the poor. It is observed that the poor do not enjoy better health. They are the victim of epidemics like malaria, cholera, gastro, and other severe diseases.
Due to the above-mentioned consequences and impacts of poverty; poor people do not enjoy better social status in society. They are considered at the lower bottom of society.
Solution of Poverty
In the end, I would provide some of the solutions to end this evil of poverty which are given below:
Elimination of unemployment
People should be given jobs. It should be the effort of the government that no one should remain unemployed. At least, everyone should earn and meet their own expenses of life.
Persuasion for labor and hard work
Unemployment should be converted into employment and hardworking. For this purpose, people who do not want to do menial work should be persuaded and given incentives to do all kinds of jobs.
Technical education to the beggar
Those who are poor and beggars may be given technical education. In this way, their potential will be utilized in a better way. For this purpose, special technical training institutes for the beggars may be started in every big city of the country.
Promotes a culture of saving
Our society is lacking in saving and people use to spend more than their income. This kind of attitude is one of the major factors of undergrowth and poverty. People should be given incentives and motivated to save more for the coming generation. This kind of culture may be promoted.
Technical and semi-technical education
People should be given technical and semi-technical education. This kind of education may be extended up to the rural areas because the incidence of poverty is more in rural areas than the urban areas. Finical assistance may also be given to such kinds of people.
Promotion of education
The importance and benefits of education and literacy may be conveyed to the people because education enables individuals to get better jobs in society. A special effort may be started for the rural areas because literacy is more in rural areas.
Women empowerment
Women are fifty percent of the population. A very little chunk of the women of our society are well educated and doing the job. They should be given technical and vocational skills so that they could start some work at their home. In this way, they will remain in the house and productively utilize their free time.
Improved agriculture
68% of the total population lives in rural areas. Most of them are attached to agriculture. If agriculture is enhanced and made more profitable business, positive impacts on the poverty reduction can be observed. Therefore, agriculture may be improved by introducing new technology, seeds, pesticides, and other agricultural inputs. Problems related to agriculture may also be addressed on a priority basis.
Better infrastructure
The status of infrastructure may also be improved. New roads, bridges, water supply schemes, and health facilities should be constructed up to the remote areas of the country. Farm to the market roads may also be constructed on an emergency basis because Pakistan is an agricultural country. It is needed for the time that farms should be well connected to the market.
Extension of microcredit
Already a number of microcredit organizations and banks like Punjab Rural Support Program, National Rural Support Program, Khushhali bank, and first microcredit bank are giving small credit to the poor people to start a business of the enterprise. This kind of ser1ices should be extended up to the remote rural areas of Pakistan.
Reduce population growth rate
The most important step is to reduce population growth. There should be harmony between economic growth and population growth. Without stopping it, every step taken to reduce poverty will be futile. So this should be given due importance.
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