Reading Time: 7 minutes

I would like to share my thoughts about how poverty can impact education and what we need to do to escape extreme poverty in this post.

After the global pandemic, things have become more difficult for most of us, as we never expected such a massive change around us.

Let’s dive in and understand how important it is to know where we are and need to reach.

Listen to the podcast here!

 

Let me share a bit of the richest man on the planet.

Jeff Bezos- Richest Man In The World

Do you know? Since overtaking bill gates as the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos had nothing stopping him.

During the global economic crisis, Jeff Bezos’s assets’ value rose by over 37$ million, taking the compound total to as big as 185 billion dollars.

To put this into perspective, more than 96 countries on the planet have a GDP lesser than it, and the economically sufficient kingdom of the monarchy has half the wealth only.

 

Hunger And Undernourishment- The Silent Killer

While Jeff Bezos has enough money to feed himself and his households for centuries to come, some people at the other end won’t even find food for the day and shelter at night.

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet

According to a UN study, 25000 people, including more than 10,000 children, lose their life to undernourishment and hunger each DAY.

This is what life is; for some, it is a beautiful dream that they would want to live forever, while for some, it is a nightmare that they wish to end as soon as possible.

What Is Poverty?

Poverty, by its definition, refers to the low availability of financial resources that are needed to acquire necessary facilities and necessities for life.

According to the united nations, people earning under 1.25 dollars per day are considered to be suffering from absolute poverty.

The number finds that everyone in a typical family of five earns around 3000 Indian rupees each month. But is the stat any significant?

If we associate the rising inflation rate and the costs of necessities in our Country, leading an everyday life with just 15000 INRs for the entire month is next to impossible, if not it.

 

Poverty And Its Social Impact

However, we cannot just stop with the economic impact poverty has on people’s suffering; it has a far more significant and long-lasting social influence on its recipients.

Consider a father failing to bring his children the gift they waited for a year because it costs way too much but the same as someone else’s burger, which they didn’t want to have.

Imagine selling some chips and candies outside a school where kids of your age would drop by a car, dress up in formal uniform, and make it big for their future.

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet

Put some effort into placing yourself in the shoes of a mom who would have to close her house’s windows so that delicious odors of tasty meals don’t seep into her home that would make her hungry children crave for some food and have disrupted sleep.

Not Having Enough money Is ”Harsh.”

These are just some examples of the social troubles the poor face in our society.

These conditions are what they suffer in ordinary life, the insecurity of living with an inferiority complex your entire age.

Nevertheless, life gets even more hateful when dire conditions and clouds of lousy luck cover the slight glare of turning it all.

An influential newspaper published a report stating that 70% of pending criminal land cases involve poor farmers who have lost their ground to tyrant but rich people.

The troubles of life don’t limit themselves right after these: early child marriages, poor future security, zero financial stability, and numerous incidents of harassment at the hands of rulers and those in power are the social hardships that resemble the life of people suffering from poverty.

 

The Silver Lining Of The Cloud

But is poverty all bad? We should not rate poverty as bad for two reasons: poverty isn’t a way of living; it is just an economic condition you suffer.

Secondly, hundreds of people made it big, despite suffering from poverty in their initial struggle.

Let’s take the above example of the father. Although the father does not have the resource needed to bring the gift, the motivation to work hard and the spark to change his family is what no one else would experience except him.

Drive And Motivation: Way To Success

Let’s analyze the boy who sells the candies outside school. Although his current state might be commiserative for us, he might feel differently about it.

As it is said, you don’t know what you have until you have lost it. Though the boy cannot receive education at the moment, he might surely value it more than those having easy access to it.

The drive towards education and no available backup to fall at has made hundreds of heroes for people; who had it all, but the drive and motivation were missing.

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet

Poverty And Its Impact On Education

Poverty has had its influence on the education of its recipients. One of the main reasons can be derived by the extract of the UN’s statement for poverty:

“anyone earning under 1.25 dollars per day is considered to be suffering from absolute poverty” because it says anyone, including every family member.

Be it a five-year-old or a 15-year-old, everyone needs to earn an average of 1.25$ a day to contribute to the family.

Video Credit- Kate Keating

This has been a significant cause of child labor and kids skipping school to help their families’ financial needs.

According to a consensus carried out in 2011, 3.9% of the children aged 5-14 worked as either main or marginal workers at a workplace.

Although the percentage feels relatively minor, it involves 10.1 million children who have their future at stake.

Education brings a generational change, and not receiving adequate education can lead to terrible circumstances for generations to come.

Because of the massive negatives of poverty,

Ways to overcome it shall be discussed on a governmental basis to help a vast country’s vast proportion.

 

Five Ways To Cut Down The Poverty

Create Job Opportunities

The most effective way to deal with poverty is by creating more job opportunities.

When the number of available jobs rises, more people will gain employment and attain access to necessities of life,

Such as health and food, which would gradually decrease poverty and improve living standards.

According to Oxfam’s report, 1 percent of India’s population holds 73% of the wealth, while 670 million citizens saw their wealth rise by just 1 percent.

Creating job opportunities wouldn’t only benefit the community but also result in economic growth, increased taxes, and reduced crimes.

The best way to create job opportunities in a state is by upgrading the small industries and promoting local businesses.

 

Raising The Minimum Wage

The minimum wage in India is 176 Indian rupees ($3) for eight hours of work per day, while states like Italy and the United States pay a minimum of $8+ per hour.

Similarly, India’s poverty rate is more than five times of India at 68.8 percent, while in the United States, only 12.3 percent of the population lives below the line of poverty.

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet

The stats clearly show the impact of wages on poverty. Recently, the Government of California and Washington raised workers’ wages, which reduced the poverty rate.

The Indian Government needs to pay attention, raise workers’ minimum wages and help them live a quality life.

Expand Medical Facilities, Improve Food Security, and Access To Clean Water

When a person doesn’t have enough to eat, cannot afford necessary health facilities, and doesn’t have access to clean water, they lack the strength and energy needed to work, leading to illnesses causing absenteeism from the workplace to increase the poverty rate.

Recent studies have claimed that expanding medical facilities results in poverty reduction.

In the United States, expanding medical facilities reduced poverty among 690,000 Americans.

Presently, more than 163 million people in India do not have access to clean water, the highest number worldwide.

Similarly, the healthcare system in India isn’t as advanced as it should be.

The healthcare system lacks the basic needs that result in the premature death of people who can’t afford high-quality healthcare services.

Currently, India allocates only 1.28 percent of the Country’s GDP for the Health Care System, which isn’t enough to cover the population of 1.35 Billion.

Increasing the Health Budget, Improving Food Security, and Access to Clean Water will positively change and reduce poverty.

Invest In Education

Investing in education would surely help the affected people to cross the poverty line and uplift the standard of their lives.

According to UNESCO, 171 million adults cannot complete their studies after primary schooling due to lack of resources; if these students are provided with quality education,

It will cut the global poverty rate by more than half. Knowledge would help develop skills in these adults, by which they can secure employment and compete with others.

To improve the education system, Governments need to focus primarily on rural areas where Quality education has remained a big issue for the last 50 years.

India has recently introduced Education Policy 2020; Let’s hope it brings considerable changes in the sector and strengthens education’s weak structure.

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet

End Wars And Promote Peace

Wars have always resulted in losses, whether losing lives or homes for the poor.

Countries spend a massive amount of their budget on the Country’s defense.

There is the high importance of security to protect a state, but why don’t we promote peace and spend those billions of dollars on the people who can’t afford food and those who don’t have access to clean water.

Let’s Promote peace for those 68 percent of people living below the poverty line.

The Conclusion

Poverty has remained a big problem for the entire world. Nearly 4 Billion People in the world, which is almost half of the world’s population,

Lives with a household income of $2.50 a day, while 1 Billion people live under extreme poverty with a household income of $1.90 per day.

The top priority to win the battle against poverty should be quality education.

If we can deliver quality education to every child in the Country: the poverty rate will undoubtedly decrease, and a bright future for them shall be waiting.

George H.W Bush Quoted:

“Education is the key to opportunity. It is a ticket out of Poverty”.

Let’s step forward for our Country, “India,” and Make our Education better to eliminate poverty from every part of the Country.

Thank you, everyone, for your excellent response to my previous blogs and for staying connected.

I would be appreciative if you could share your thoughts about this post.

You can send your ideas to hello@rajtheblogger.com.

Please do share this post with others.

Please read my previous blogs here.

 

Click here to tweet this post. Click To Tweet