Millenium World: Idea of a 21st Century Poverty Free Society
Posted: Friday, May 27, 2011
by Azhar Nadeem
Azhar Nadeem
Towards a Millennium World: A Poverty Free Society
Poverty is multidimensional and complex issue and is defined according to situation. A single definition cannot capture all aspects of poverty. Poverty is perceived differently by different people, some limiting the term to mean a lack of material well-being and others arguing that lack of things like freedom, spiritual well-being, civil rights and nutrition must also contribute to the definition of poverty.
Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.
World Bank
Fundamentally, poverty is a denial of choices and opportunities, a violation of human dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not having enough to feed and clothe a family, not having a school or clinic to go to; not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.
United Nations
Poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services. It includes a lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services; increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing; unsafe environments and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in all countries: as mass poverty in many developing countries, pockets of poverty amid wealth in developed countries, loss of livelihoods as a result of economic recession, sudden poverty as a result of disaster or conflict, the poverty of low-wage workers, and the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions and safety nets.
World Summit on Social Development
People are living in poverty if their income and resources (material, cultural and social) are so inadequate as to preclude them from having a standard of living which is regarded as acceptable by Irish society generally. As a result of inadequate income and resources people may be excluded and marginalized from participating in activities which are considered the norm for other people in society.
Government of Ireland
People may differ over the definition of poverty but there is complete agreement that poverty is one of the biggest challenges faced by humanity today. Poverty is a challenge for humanity. Today we are not living in a beautiful world rather are living in a world of famine and drought, exploitation and oppression, violence and crime, unjust wars and diseases. Our world is known for the economic exploitation by few individuals and countries, our world is known by the widening income gap between rich and poor. Our world is a world which is ruled by terror, where humans have no value, where 24000 children die daily, where humans fight over a piece of bread, where maintaining price has a bigger value than maintaining humanity, where food worth millions of dollars is dumped into ocean despite the fact that this earth has 925 million hungry people over it.
Our world has almost 1.4 billion people whose faces are painted with poverty. These are mostly women and children. They represent 1.4 billion stories, in fact 1.4 billion definitions of poverty. They represent extremely poor in the poverty club. They are persistently hungry, cannot afford health care, education and lack safe drinking water and sanitation facilities. They are totally in Jaws of poverty that kills. Second category of poor is classified as Moderate poor. Being in Moderate poverty means living on $1 to $2 a day, refers to conditions in which basic needs are met, but just barely. Third Category in this regard is classified as relative poverty. Being in relative poverty, defined by a household income level below a given proportion of the national average, means lacking things that the middle class now takes for granted.
This is a very gloomy picture of world face and requires little action to turn their fate around. Situation was not so bleak a few centuries ago, vast divides in wealth and poverty around the world did not exist. Just about everybody was poor except few landlords and rulers. Industrial Revolution brought with itself rise in agricultural productivity a helped a boom in world economies. However this also brought with itself an increasing divide between rich and poor. Situation became worse late in 20th century when almost 27% of world population were extremely poor in 1981. During 20th century people started raising their voices against poverty. Among them were voices of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther king.
Worsening situation of poverty caught the attention of world leaders which resulted into adoption of Millennium development goals. The Millennium Summit was a meeting among many world held in September 2000 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Its purpose was to discuss the role of the United Nations at the turn of the 21st century. At this meeting, world leaders ratified the United Nations Millennium Declaration. This meeting was the largest gathering of world leaders in history as of the year 2000. It was followed by the World Summit five years later, which took place in September 2005. Main theme of the summit was to take poverty as a challenge and to prepare a comprehensive strategy against challenges of poverty. Millennium summit concluded with the adoption of a global action plan known as Millennium Development Goals to fight poverty in light of specific eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date and the announcement of major new commitments for women's and children's health and other initiatives against poverty, hunger and disease. There are many challenges of poverty and being the mother of all evils poverty is on top of the list and is pledged to be reduced to half by 2015. Keeping in mind the gravity of situation we can say that this is just beginning of a road to prosperity. It is 1ststep towards creation of a Millennium World where there is no room for poverty and related evils.
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