Impact of Poverty in Different Countries of the World

“Poverty is relatively cheap to address and incredibly expensive to ignore.”

– Clint Borgen

 

It is very well said that Poverty is a cheap issue to address. Can you think about anyone who likes talking about poor people or their problems? Thus, we ignore such issues and we cannot even fathom the end results of it. We believe only the Government has to deal with issues like poverty.

 

When the Covid pandemic struck, all the countries experienced the lowest economic growth rate in almost a decade. For the rich it was not an issue but for rural people and poor people its consequences were major. Infact, they experienced more disproportion than anyone else.

 

We can count some of the issues they had to face on our fingertips. The biggest was unemployment. Then came consumption issues and after that decline in expenditure. In this blog we will learn about Poverty and how it has impacted the different countries.

 

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Level of Poverty in Different Countries

 

Let us begin by 2021, we faced lockdowns due to Covid pandemic because of which the global economy was badly hit. Mostly in villages and small cities the rate of unemployment also increased. We know that rural people are wage workers. 

 

Wage workers are informal workers that are hired on a daily wage payment basis. Due to the pandemic they were forced to move back because of irregularity of jobs. This crisis has increased to such a great extent that employment schemes were also not able to absorb or mitigate it.

 

The data given below underlines the level of poverty in some of the countries.

 

• India

 

If we consider the stats- The World Bank has mentioned that the number of people whose daily income is $2 or even less has increased to 134 million due to unemployment. It is like we are going back 45 years when India was in mass poverty.

 

• US

 

Whereas in the US, as per the latest data 13.4% of the people are living in poverty. This percentage accounts for almost 43 million people. Mississippi has the most people living below the poverty line i.e. 20.3%.

 

• Australia

 

In Australia a threshold limit is set below which people will be considered as living under poverty. In 2021 this threshold limit was $1091.5 on a weekly basis. On an average 3.2 million people are living under poverty in Australia.

 

• UAE

 

Many people have made a perception that UAE is one of the richest countries. But in reality 19.5% of the people are living under poverty. The threshold limit is 80 Dirham in UAE below which people will fall under poverty.

 

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Key Statistics On Poverty in Different Countries

 

1. India

 

We know that the Indian economy is developing faster than any other developing nation. Even though the pandemic hit us badly, we were able to revive ourselves from 2020 and in 2021 we became the only nation that had a two-digit growth rate of 11.5%. Irrespective of the growth rate, poverty has increased. 

 

More than 150 million people have fallen back in the “below poverty line” category. Niti Ayog’s MPI has revealed that in November 2021- Kerala was the state with the lowest poverty level as only 0.71% of people are poor. 

 

As a matter of fact a district named Kottayam in Kerala is the only one in India where not even a single person is below poverty line. Bihar and UP on the other hand have the highest poverty rate. They are the poorest states. More than 50% people in Bihar, 37% in Uttar Pradesh are considered poor.

 

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2. US

 

In the US many states have seen a major decline in poverty levels. For example Oregon. It is reported that this state has successfully diminished the percent of poverty from 16.7% in 2014 to 13% in 2019.

 

Like stated above Mississippi has the highest poverty level and New Hampshire has the lowest rate of just 7.6%. A state named Utah has shown great growth and has contributed a lot towards the growth of GDP.

 

The US is a developed nation and therefore it has been successful in controlling the rate of poverty since 2014.

 

3. Australia

 

Australia is also one of the richest countries in the globe. Yet reports suggest that out of every 8 adults 1lives in poverty. Roughly around 3 million people are in poverty. Many sources have revealed that people are not getting enough food. 

 

7,74000 children are included in the percentage of people living under poverty. 50% of the median income is considered as the threshold when measuring poverty levels. Out of every 6 children 1 lives in poverty.

 

Moreover the statistics have shown that the poverty level in Australia is very bad as compared to New Zealand, Germany.

 

4. UAE

 

When we put poverty and the UAE in a single sentence most people think it is a joke. Buildings, cars, and the lifestyle of people that we see in the media does not actually show the life of every person. A person that earns less than $22 is considered as living in poverty.

 

In reality the gap between rich and poor is the worst in this country as compared to the world. Migrants are not paid proper dues and attention. 

 

Only the Emiratis are focused on. The government is working on increasing the education levels in the UAE through literacy schemes and programs to diminish the poverty levels.

 

Impact of Poverty

 

“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life.” 

— Nelson Mandela

 

Poverty has adverse effects on people. Children, individuals and even families are condoned to this thing. Poverty has a lot of impact on health, education, marriage and even lifestyles. Given below are some of the impacts of poverty.

 

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Impact of Poverty

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1. Lack of Education

 

“Did you know that 25% of the children in India cannot get education?”  Not only in India but in countries like the US, Australia, UAE and others. It is due to lack of accessibility.

 

Moreover girls are more in percentages than boys. In lower class, poor families and villages people still believe that females should not be educated. They are considered inferior to men. 

 

If you are not educated then you cannot find the right job. Without a job you will not be able to earn money. Hence, living in poverty. 

 

2. High Infant Mortality

 

In India so many children die between the age of 0-5 years. Countries like Nigeria, Pakistan also have high infant mortality. The main reason is due to lack of accessibility of proper food and healthcare children catch diseases like pneumonia, malaria and die.

 

3. Malnutrition

 

Malnutrition is a very big problem in continents like Africa, Europe, Asia. In India people are so poor that almost 200 million people have no food accessibility. In this 60 million are children. What a shame for a country where the primary occupation of people is Agriculture!

 

4. Child Labor

 

According to Law, children below 14 years are prohibited or not allowed to work as it accounts to Child labor. But surprisingly there are more than 12 million children that work as child labor. In the age of getting education and development they are working to earn money for their families.

 

5. Child Marriage

 

Females are married at a very young age and they conceive at a very young age. Even though there are laws that prohibit child marriage, many villages, tribes marry their girls and boys at a very young age. 

 

Having children at a young age can lead to health issues for women as they are not mentally and physically fit to bear kids. Because of poverty and no money, girls are married.

 

6. HIV/AIDS

 

Lack of awareness about contraceptives and medicines the rate of people having HIV/AIDS are increasing. This virus is dangerous and causes death. People are not aware and almost 2.7 million of them are infected. Shock is that almost 2 lakh of those are children. 

 

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Even though countries have done tremendous economic growth, only few percent of people are actually getting benefits from it. Rich people are accumulating more wealth and the poor are still poor and some of them are becoming even poorer.