More about poverty effects

The effects of poverty are serious.

Children who grow up in poverty suffer more
-persistent
-frequent
-severe health problems

than do children who grow up under better
financial circumstances.

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Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight
which is associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities.

Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly,
they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.


Children raised in poverty tend to :
miss school more often because of illness.

These children also have a much higher rate of accidents than do other children, and they are twice as likely to have impaired vision and hearing, iron deficiency anemia, and higher than normal levels of lead in the blood, which can impair brain function.

Levels of stress in the family have also been shown to correlate with economic circumstances.
Studies during economic recessions indicate that job loss a
nd subsequent poverty are associated with violence in families,
including child and elder abuse.

Poor families
experience much more stress than middle-class families.
Besides financial uncertainty, these families are more likely to
be exposed to series of negative events and “bad luck,” including
illness, depression, eviction, job loss, criminal victimization, and
family death. Parents who experience hard economic times
may become excessively punitive and erratic, issuing demands
backed by insults, threats, and corporal punishment.

Homelessness, or extreme poverty,
carries with it a particularly strong set of risks for families,
especially children. Compared to children living in poverty
but having homes, homeless children are less likely to receive
proper nutrition and immunization. Hence, they experience
more health problems. Homeless women experience higher
rates of low-birth-weight babies, miscarriages, and infant
mortality, probably due to not having access to adequate
prenatal care for their babies. Homeless families experience
even greater life stress than other families, including increased
disruption in work, school, family relationships, and friendships.

Sociologists have been particularly concerned about the
effects of poverty on the “black underclass,” the increasing
numbers of jobless, welfare-dependent African Americans
trapped in inner-city ghettos. Many of the industries (textiles, auto, steel)
that previously offered employment to the black working class have shut down,
while newer industries have relocated to the suburbs. Because most urban
jobs either require advanced education or pay minimum wage, unemployment
rates for inner-city blacks are high.


feminization of poverty
may be related to numerous changes in contemporary America.
Increases in unwanted births, separations, and divorces have
forced growing numbers of women to head poor households.
Meanwhile, increases in divorced fathers avoiding child support
coupled with reductions in welfare support have forced many of
these women-headed households to join the ranks of the underclass.
Further, because wives generally live longer than their husbands,
growing numbers of elderly women must live in poverty.

Effects of Poverty

What is poverty ?
How does it feels to experience it & what does it mean to be poor?

Below are the effects of poverty.

The points will tell how poverty feels like
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Basic effects of poverty:
Food and Housing
Health
Education

The 3 points above are the basic effects of poverty. More will be explained and show below

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EFFECTS:

-population is struggling to survive.

-lack of basic needs such as food, water, shelter, clothing, health, education, etc

-unstable political, social and economic environment.

-unable to archive human development :

-increase in inequality & income differences


A few places around the world do see:
increasing rates of growth in a positive sense.

But globally,
there is also a negative change in income distribution.

The reality unfortunately is that the gap between the rich and poor is
quite wide in most places.

For example:

• About 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s assets in 2004.
• The wealthiest 20% of the world’s population consumes 76.6% of the world’s goods while 80% of humanity gets the remainder.

This leads to:

• Health is related to income differences within rich societies, not between them
• Health and social problems are worse in more unequal countries
• Health and social problems are not related to average income in rich countries
• Child well-being is better in more equal rich countries
• Child well-being is unrelated to average incomes in rich countries
• Levels of trust are higher in more equal rich countries
• The prevalence of mental illness is higher in more unequal rich countries
• Drug use is more common in more unequal countries
• Life expectancy is longer in more equal rich countries
• Infant mortality rates are higher in more unequal countries
• More adults are obese in more unequal rich countries
• Educational scores are higher in more equal rich countries
• Teenage birth rates are higher in more unequal rich countries
• Homicide rates are higher in more unequal rich countries
• Children experience more conflict in more unequal societies
• Rates of imprisonment are higher in more unequal societies
• Social mobility is higher in more equal rich countries
• More equal societies are more innovative
• More equal countries rank better on recycling

source = http://www.globalissues.org/article/4/poverty-around-the-world


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HEALTH

Hunger, disease, and less education describe a person in poverty.

One third of deaths - some 18 million people a year or 50,000 per day - are due to poverty-related causes and most of them are women and children


Those living in poverty suffer :
-disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease.
-lower life expectancy.

According to the World Health Organization,
hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's
public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality,
present in half of all cases.


According to the Global Hunger Index,

South Asia has the highest child malnutrition rate of the world's regions.
Nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished,one of the highest rates
in the world and nearly double the rate of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Every year,
more than half a million women die in pregnancy or childbirth.

Almost
90% of maternal deaths occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa,
compared to less than 1% in the developed world.[79]

Women who have born children into poverty
may not be able to nourish the children efficiently and provide adequate care in infancy.

The children may also suffer from disease
that has been passed down to the child through birth.
Asthma and rickets are common problems children
acquire when born into poverty.

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VIOLENCE

According to a UN report on modern slavery,
the most common form of human trafficking is for prostitution,
which is largely fueled by poverty.

In Zimbabwe,
a number of girls are turning to prostitution
for food to survive because of the increasing poverty.

In one survey, 67% of children from disadvantaged inner cities
said they had witnessed a serious assault, and 33% reported
witnessing a homicide.

51% of fifth graders from New Orleans (median income for a household: $27,133) have been found to be victims of violence, compared to 32% in Washington, DC (mean income for a household: $40,127).

source - wikipedia