Poverty and economic growth
By Shiza Noor

Imagine you live in a community where you are deprived at every stage of sustenance where the dimensions of deprivation are far more acute from what is normally assumed. A community where the people are sustaining on low and irregular incomes, where they don’t have access to clean and safe drinking water, where the dimensions to their deprivation do not end here, they have poor housing, limited access to health and education, social exclusion, discrimination and last but not the least the most important factor the basic sustenance essentials such as food shelter and clothing.  

Poverty has many aspects which incorporate those who are absolutely poor, living under conditions of severe malnutrition and semi starvation levels, condemned to endure endless misery, or those who live on less than dollar a day, on purchasing power parity.

Today, around one billion people in the world are faced by extreme poverty. According to the recent revision of the World Bank’s international poverty line, from $1.08 to $1.25 a day, classified an additional 430 million people as living in extreme poverty with nearly 850 million people going hungry every night. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of the global income whereas the richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of the world income.

In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuel wood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In the sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking.

Poverty goes beyond lack of income. It encompasses economic, social, and governance dimensions. Economically, the poor are not only deprived of income and resources, but of opportunities. This fragile position is worsening by insecurity.

It encompasses factor such as low paying jobs available to workers which in turn is because of lack of education facilities available, widening and worsening gap between rich and poor with no means to climb up the ladder, ever increasing population growth which consume up majority proportion of a country’s   revenue moreover gender biasness where only male are considered the whole sole bread earners of the family though females do work but they not paid on the same levels as men.

Developing countries are the main victims of poverty where every effort is devoted to provide its citizens with basic sustenance needs. Despite the fact steps are being taken to overcome such problem but all these efforts are hindered by other imperfection such weak institutional step up, feeble judiciary, high scale corruption and majority  Embryonic countries like Africa, Asia and Latin America are subjected to severe poverty problems where rural poverty remains exasperatingly high. In South Asia it accounts for 40 percent in 2002 and Sub-Saharan Africa (51 percent), and the absolute number of poor in these regions has increased since 1993.Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.

China’s poverty reduction has been exceptional. Poverty fell from 53 percent in 1981 to 8 percent in 2001, pulling about 500 million people out of poverty whereas rural poverty fell from 76 percent in 1980 to 12 percent in 2001, accounting for three-quarters of the total. In 1991 India instituted sweeping macroeconomic and trade reforms that spurred impressive growth in manufacturing and especially in services. Poverty data for 2004 is estimated at 28 percent approx comparable to the 1993 figures of approx 40 percent show a continuing decline in poverty rates.

Examine the reality of world precedence in spending where cosmetics in the United States accounted for $8 billion, Ice cream in Europe 11 dollar, perfumes in Europe and the United States 12, pet foods in Europe and the United States dollar, business entertainment in Japan $35 billion, cigarettes in Europe $50 dollar, alcoholic drinks in Europe $105 billion, narcotics drugs in the world $400 billion, whereas military spending in the world $780 billion. And now compared to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries where basic education for all requires $6 billion, water and sanitation for all $9 billion, reproductive health for all women $12 billion and basic health and nutrition only requires $13 dollar.

Strong economic growth requires a sound macroeconomic framework with policies that promote low inflation, realistic and stable exchange rates, reasonable fiscal deficits, effective integration into the global economy, and private sector activity. It also requires investments in the human, physical and financial assets of poor people adequate schooling and skill development, secured nutrition, preventive health care, rural infrastructure and credit. This in turn contributes to faster growth as the productive potential and skills of the poor are more fully utilized and prejudices against them, and against poor women in particular, are reduced.

Conclusion

In the end I would like to quote James Speth, the executive director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), “Poverty is no longer inevitable. The world has the material and natural reserves and know how and the people to make poverty free world a reality in less than a generation. This is not a woolly idealism but a practical an achievable goal.”