Poverty and its Effects
Poverty may be defined as a scenario whereby an individual is incapable of affording some of the necessities in life – such as food, clothes, and even good shelter. It is worth noting that the effects of poverty cannot be underestimated as it is one of the integral factors that has led to an increase in the level of inequality among the society members. For instance, the poor are incapable of affording adequate medical attention for themselves and their families. According to Ng, Farinda, kan, Lim, and Ting, the United Nations define poverty as a violation of human dignity, which leads to a case whereby the people have no opportunities or choices (Ng, Farinda, Kan, Lim, and Ting 2471). Therefore, poor people are incapable of catering for the costs of basic goods and services that are needed to safeguard the welfare of the societal members. However, it would be paramount to note that the adverse effects of poverty can be overcome through various strategies key among them being; eradicating corruption, promoting access to education for all the societal members, and encouraging entrepreneurship.
The Impact of Corruption
Corruption may be defined as a case whereby leaders engage in fraudulent or dishonest activities – for instance, misuse of public funds – at the expense of the societal members. Ng and his colleagues argue that corruption leads to wastage of public resources, thus, hindering the development of an economy (Ng et al., 2472). In such cases, the launch of developmental programs that would be used as effective strategies of creating employment opportunities for the citizens is stopped due to lack of adequate finances. Nevertheless, the implementation of stringent regulations that would be aimed at eradicating corruption would be a favorite technique of ensuring that public funds are used to benefit the community members (Ng et al., 2476). For instance, the prosecution of the corrupt officials would lead to a case whereby the amount of money used for the societal developmental process is significantly high, which more job opportunities would be created. As a result, the amount of disposable income among the people would rise, thus, enabling them to cater for the costs of their day to day needs.
The Importance of Education
The lack of education has also been noted as a major cause of poverty since it limits the societal members potential to get better employment opportunities due to lack of adequate skills and expertise. Hence, increasing access to education would be an effective way of eradicating poverty (Qian-Qian, Man, and Xiao-Lin 69). The rationale behind this conviction would be faced on the fact that the people would be in a position to gain more insight into the skills they would need to discharge their duties in various professions. Therefore, they would be capable of filling the available vacant positions in the various organizations within the society.
Encouraging Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship is deemed as one of the best ways of spurring growth in an economy as it encourages the community members to use the available resources to establish more businesses. Therefore, encouraging people to explore more innovative means of setting up enterprises as a technique of creating more employment opportunities (Kareem 2). In such a scenario, a significant number of societal members would be engaged in income generating activities, thus, enabling them to cater for the costs of their daily necessities.
Conclusion
Poverty leads to a range of adverse effects such as lack of access to adequate medical attention, malnourishment, and limited access to education. Nevertheless, there exist some effective strategies of alleviating poverty key among them eradicating corruption, encouraging entrepreneurship, and promoting access to education among the societal members.
Works Cited
Kareem, R.O. “Impact of Entrepreneurship On Poverty Alleviation.” Journal of Business Administration and Education, vol. 7, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-6.
Ng, Alex H.H., Farinda, Abdul G., Kan, Fock K., Lim, Ai L., " Ting, Teo M. “Poverty: Its Causes And Solutions.” International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 7, no. 8, 2013, pp. 2471-2479.
Qian-Qian, Liu., Man, Yu., " Xiao-Lin, Wang. “Poverty Reduction Within The Framework Of SDGs And Post-2015 Development Agenda.” Advances in Climate Research, vol. 6, no. 1, 2015, pp. 67-73.
