We can say that poverty is a condition in which all the basic needs of individual, society or community is not fulfilled. Poverty is considered as a serious social issue. It is a worldwide and global issue. It can lead to many other problems like poor education, health issues, unemployment and many other problems. Thus we can say that poverty is a root cause of other problems. If it will not be control it can be so horrible. Such people are worried because of lack of income and they are unable to fulfill their needs to live a parallel to their neighbored. Within the age of competition they feel deprived of their rights and inferiority complex prevails upon them. They feel shy in sitting with the rich families. They are not given martial relation with rich people because they are disliked due to poverty. In frustration they become aggressive and may commit criminal acts. Due to dislike by others they take reaction and get into criminal activities. This leads person to more heinous crime like murder. In this way poverty is being a social problem creates other social problems of serious nature. According to World Bank, “a person earning less than one US dollar a day is called poor.
In other words, poverty isn’t having enough material possessions or income for a persons need. Poverty may include social, economic, and political elements. Poverty is the lack of the means of necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.
POVERTY AS SOCIALLY
Poverty is one of the major social problems which Pakistan is facing today. Pakistan is usually agricultural by traditions and the social life of the people is simple related to their culture and resources. The problems with Pakistani people are that some of the resources, which are very expensive, have been discovered from earth. Gold, silver, iron, metals have not been fully discovered and utilized. Gas and oil reserves have not been fully discovered by the experts.
Our medical and engineering skills have been saturated in Pakistani society due to lack of economic wealth and they are in search of jobs in foreign countries. This has given an idea that our society isn’t able to absorb technical skill due to lack of technological resources with us. Our culture is traditional and requires manual labor more than technical labor. These all things have led to make a decision that Pakistani society and the people are poor and are not able to cover their foreign exchange, foreign expenditure and needs of the nation within the country.
MAIN CAUSES BEHIND POVERTY
Poverty has been caused by multiple reasons and these are mentioned below1.
1. Unemployment.
2. Illiteracy.
3. Illegal hiring.
4. Lack of getting benefit with natural resources.
5. Wastage of economic resources.
6. Social injustice.
7. Lack of hard work.
8. Conflict.
9. Avoid low quality work.
10. Inflation.
Unemployment is the most important cause of poverty. Many peoples are live in poverty because they are unable to find a job that pays living wage. Unemployment is not only considered as unavailability of job it also consider that a person can not avail the job which pays as per their requirement or standard. There are many people who are willing to do work but they can’t get the job or they are doing job at very low wages which can not fulfill their basic needs of life. Illiteracy means inability to read and write. Illiteracy is also known as the main sources of increasing poverty because due to illiteracy people don’t know how to earn well and how to spend well. It created hundreds of problems. Illiterate people are unable to get jobs at good wages. Illiterate people do not have knowledge about the basic of living life.
Illegal hiring is considered as unfair it is discrimination between sex, color, race or status. Illegal hiring also include all those hiring which are not selected on merit basis and also those hiring which are not registered. It is mostly practice in our society. It reduces the efficiency of the person who is legally able for hiring. It reduces the economy and lead poverty. We are unable to get economic resources from the natural environment which are gifted by God to us like land, hills, mountain, rivers and falls from which we can get wealthy by our technical skills. We can also control and divert the waters flowing from mountains into dams from which power can be generated and the canals for irrigation. Another cause of poverty is wasting the economic resources. If the savings aren’t protected, the family faces problems in future. Medicines and other necessities of food and dress require money from saving. If saving is not good, then these problems create heavy tension and disturbance on the members of family. Whether it is gender discrimination, racism or other form of social injustice that increase poverty. People who are victims of social injustice struggle with getting a good education or job and access the resources that can lift them out of poverty. Inequalities in income distribution and access to productive resources, basic social services and opportunities and more are a cause of poverty.
People who avoid hard work lead a life of a poor man and they depend on other people for fulfilling their needs. They are not willing to work hard to live a better life. And mostly are include in criminal activities.Conflict contributes to poverty within a number of ways including causing: damage to infrastructure, institutions and production; the destruction of assets, the breakup of communities and social networks, forced displacement and increase unemployment and inflation.
Many peoples are there who avoid low quality 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 to live in low standard of living. Inflation refers to the rise in prices of goods and services of daily life. It is also major cause of poverty. Due to inflation many people can’t afford the expenses of their daily life like food, shelter, medicines and other basic needs.
SUMMING UP
Poverty is a massive concern which should immediately be resolved by state holders. Living in poverty is like living in hell. It creates nothing but more chances towards death. Government should introduce serious policies for reducing it and should work on implementation process at the same time.
CONCLUTION:
Poverty means inability of fulfilling the basic needs of life. It is big problem in our society. It is cause by inflation, illiteracy, unemployment, etc. it also effects on society and create many social problems like street crimes, drug addiction, competition etc. If poverty will not be control it can destroy the economy of a country. Poverty can be reduce by reducing inflation, by providing good education, reducing population growth etc.