Effects of Poverty on the Society
Poverty! Can anyone who has really been poor know what poverty is? I really doubt it. How can anyone who enjoys three “square” meals a day explain the phenomenon? Perhaps one will be able to grasp the real meaning of poverty when one struggles real hard to have a miserable meal in twenty-four hours. Poverty and hunger are cousins; simply because the former is tied to the latter.
According to my lexicon, poverty is the state of being poor, while the environment is the condition that affects mainly, the behavior and development of something. For instance, if you are putting on a suit, or a complete traditional attire of any kind, you will naturally look rotund in your dress, you may neither understand what poverty entails, nor can you have a true feeling of poverty. If you have some good shirts and pairs of trousers; never mind if they are all casual wears. The fact is if you can from one dress, change into another and these are all you can boast of, thank your star because you are not really poor!
A person begins to have a true feeling of what poverty means when, apart from the tattered clothes on his body, he does not have any other, not even a motley shirt to keep away the cold at night. “Look at these little children looking like cartoons with their parents looking hopeless. They have nothing to eat for the mean time, no good shelter over their heads, talk more of giving the children a sound education. Oh! What a hopeless life to live in”. That is the voice of a man journeying through a settlement of the poor.
Furthermore, let us face it straight, the developing countries are majorly identified with poverty on a large scale. Though there are poor people in America too, the difference cannot still be compared with some states, most especially in Africa. You will hitch up with me that anyone who has never slept outside in the open cannot appreciate the harsh realities of homelessness; yet that is what abject poverty is all about. He who can lay claim to a house, however humble, or can afford to rent a flat or a room in a town or city without the landlord troubles cannot honestly claim to be poor.
One of the major effects of poverty is sickness and mortality. A poor person is more prone to a poor health. In the society today, things are not done free. No matter what, after every treatment in hospital money is required; now tell me where you want paupers to get such money; when they cannot afford a meal a day! This often leads to the breeding of immoral people who will do anything to achieve their aim in life either getting into armed robbery or prostitution. I believe the governments all over the world still have a lot to do in getting rid of poverty completely in our societies.
