The Destructive Impact of Poverty on Children, Women, and Elderly

This essay examines the detrimental effects of absolute poverty on various vulnerable groups, including children, refugees, women, and the elderly. It defines absolute poverty and highlights its root causes, such as corruption and economic disparity. The essay discusses how poverty impacts chil...Read More

Running head: POVERTY
Poverty and its effects
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Poverty is regarded as a serious problem which is destroying the global development and
leaving a serious impact on the vulnerable groups in the society of this world. Poverty means the
lack of survival through the basic means. The poverty largely prevails in the developing nations
especially in Africa and South Asia. The meaning of absolute poverty refers to the conditions
which constitute lack of resources such as clothing, shelter and so forth which are regarded as the
basic amenities for the source of survival (Macionis & Plummer, 2015). The root of absolute
poverty can be due to corruption, the increasing of the gap between rich and poor as well as the
political unrest. The aim of the essay is to discuss the impact of the poverty on refugees, children
women and elderly people living in the society.
Absolute poverty leaves poor impact on the children group, who are considered to be
the important vulnerable part of the society. The research on psychology demonstrates that
having an impact of absolute poverty over the children is carrying a wider range of poor effects
within their school, home and neighborhoods.
Poverty on the children are associated with the poor conditions such as inadequate
nutrition, food insecurity, lack of child care, neighborhoods who are not safe and the schools
which are under resourced, which leaves a deep impact on the nation (James & Prout, 2015). The
poorer children and the teens also suffer from greater risks for many negative outcomes such as
poor academic successes, dropouts from school, neglect and abuse and these are the problems
which the children and their families face when they are trying to enter the mental care. Poverty
also leaves adverse effects on the results of the academy especially in the early childhood.
Poverty affects the academic gap, which influences the low- income African and Hispanic
children while they are being compared with the white people (James & Prout, 2015).
Out of malnutrition and starvation, the children face poor physical health in comparison
to the children who are not poor children such as low weight at birth, the stunting of growth. The
effect of poverty influences the health and nutrition of the children which are cognitive ability,
achievements in schools as already mentioned before (Ball, 2012).These kinds of deep and
persistent poverty are affecting this important vulnerable group, the children who are the future
of nations. In this context, steps must be taken immediately by the countries in order to provide
them a safety future ahead (Giddens et al., 2016).

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The absolute poverty also leaves a huge impact on the refugees, face poverty and there
are disadvantages in respect to this which are being similar to the marginalized groups in the
society. This incorporates problems of low income having access to the services and as well paid
employment and the attitudes which are challenging in nature especially to those living in the
low income (Ball, 2012). Other than this, the refugees or the asylum seekers also suffer from
extra challenges, which further incorporate the following general problems such as the refugees
get a much lower levels of social benefits than the population as a whole and they are being
depended on the provisions for costs of energy and housing from the particular country where
they are staying as a refugee. Restricting on the employment for the refugees are seen as a
contributing factor to the risk of the poverty. The changes which have been done in the system of
asylum, means in the year 2002, the refugees are not being permitted to enter paid employment
while their claim is processed, which in turn increases the vulnerability of poverty in the life of
refugees (Ball, 2012).
The means of exploitation and disrespecting the importance that women carry in the
world are the main effects of poverty on them. Other than the children, women are the important
ones who are being badly affected out of the poverty specially in the continent of Africa and
other developing nations. The reason behind this is that most of the families prefer to give
education to their male children and as a result, the illiteracy among the women is increasing
(Cunningham & Cunningham, 2014). The effects of poverty on the women are where the girl
child are being forced to enter early marriages. The effect of poverty where the people are tended
to be violent and they carry out their own violent behavior on the women and the communities.
The women who are living in the poverty and generally facing violent behavior or they
become the victims of the domestic violence because they are being felt that they are powerless
and they are being treated inferior to their own partners (Kendall, 2012). The poverty has made
the women to depend on their working of husbands and these results of being prisoners of their
own husbands. According to the estimation calculated by the World Health Organization, it has
been found that 37% of the African women experience sexual and physical violence. Poverty
also left a deep impact on the health status of women due to the decrease of income which is
finally not helping them to have better mental as well as health treatment. However, both women
and men suffers from the effects of poverty, a huge number of women are being badly affected

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because out of the effects of poverty due to the increase of feminization in the shares of poverty.
Due to the low income, the women are being forced into certain illegal jobs to income more
money they also start taking drugs in order to ease their frustration of their merciless lives
(Kendall, 2012).
The effect of poverty on the elderly people is also extreme. It can be stated that the
elderly rural people suffer from higher rates of the poverty than the elderly urban and the areas at
rural tend to have a greater percentages of old people in their total population than the
counterparts in the urban areas (Biddle, 2014). These higher numbers are out of the economic
pressures are as well affecting the health of these elder people and even in the developing
countries like Africa and India, the elderly people after the age of 60’s still continue their work in
the field, without caring about the factors and impacts of their age.
The elderly people are also judged on the basis of color. The Asian Americans, who are
having different skin color, basically, who are not white are devoid of social security as
compared to the white (Biddle, 2014). However, in the country like United Kingdom as well,
where after BREXIT, the economic situation has deteriorated; there would more adverse effects
on the health of the people. The elder people living in poverty do not get material or financial
support from friends and families (Chatzitheochari & Arber, 2012). The poor health of the elder
people have pushed them down through the imposition of the extra costs of living means and
also underestimating the ability of the respondents in order to live independently. As with the
increase of expenditure, the older people or the older pensioners, however they live a very
restricted life from the financial point of view, in order to decrease their cost of living. The
poverty is also leading to the sharp rise in the deaths in winter. The elderly people, who are
living in the slums, suffer much health problems and this lead to the increase of deaths during the
winter season (Biddle, 2014).
Therefore, it can be concluded that absolute poverty affects negatively the vulnerable
groups of the nations. The poverty is on the rise and this is affecting the future of the nation. The
government needs to stay conscious about the growth of poverty and must come forward to help
these groups out of absolute poverty.

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References
Ball, S. J. (2012). Politics and policy making in education: Explorations in sociology. Routledge.
Biddle, B. (2014). Social class, poverty and education. Routledge.
Chatzitheochari, S., & Arber, S. (2012). Class, gender and time poverty: a time‐use analysis of
British workers’ free time resources. The British journal of sociology, 63(3), 451-471.
Cunningham, J., & Cunningham, S. (2014). Sociology and social work. Learning Matters.
Giddens, A., Duneier, M., Appelbaum, R. P., & Carr, D. S. (2016). Introduction to sociology.
WW Norton.
James, A., & Prout, A. (Eds.). (2015). Constructing and reconstructing childhood: Contemporary
issues in the sociological study of childhood. Routledge.
Kendall, D. (2012). Sociology in our times. Cengage Learning.
Macionis & Plummer. (2012). Sociology: A global introduction (5th ed.). Pearson Education,
Essex, UK