Vicious Cycle of Poverty

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence.” When poverty is combined with hunger, it worsens the situation and adds insult to injury. Poverty is a lack of food, shelter, and clothing. It is often manifested through hunger, malnutrition, and limited access to education and basic necessities such as healthcare and infrastructure. Additionally, poverty encompasses social discrimination and exclusion from decision-making processes.

Organizations like the United Nations, the United Nations Development Program, and the World Bank claim to have lifted half of the world's population out of poverty, measuring the poverty rate as living on one dollar per day. However, these same organizations acknowledge the persistence of acute poverty and hunger among more than 11 percent of the global population who live in extreme poverty, facing malnutrition and struggling to obtain basic necessities like education, healthcare, safe drinking water, and sanitation.

Why are many countries failing to alleviate poverty and hunger, while others seem to manage these issues more effectively?

Poverty has been overshadowed in recent times. In primitive societies, people produced their own food, domesticated animals, and built adequate shelters. The complex issue of poverty and hunger, as well as the broader challenges of development and economic growth, can largely be attributed to a flawed global system. This system fosters inequality and dependency, hindering the social and cultural development of many countries. 

The greed of a few countries often contributes to the rise of poverty, underdevelopment, and stagnating growth in many others. This contentious system has placed billions of people in precarious situations. Today, more than 783 million people worldwide live below the poverty line, most of whom are in nations that have either resisted or failed to adapt their development strategies to align with the current global landscape. 

Many developing countries face severe poverty, hunger, and underdevelopment across various socio-economic and political dimensions. As a result, they continue to struggle with these challenges.

It is essential to analyze why many countries struggle to catch up with developed nations. These developed countries are enjoying unprecedented advantages in their progress, development, quality of life, and economic growth. In their early stages of development, many of these nations adopted a system that combined strong democracies, quality education, research and development (R&D), and economic frameworks like capitalism. Paradoxically, while these elements have contributed to their growth, they often prove to be detrimental to many other countries.

 

The reality is that the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, which is evident in both horizontal and vertical inequalities among nations. As Annalee Newitz aptly states, "Capitalism is fundamentally an economic system that promotes inequality." A significant number of developing countries face severe challenges in securing what is already difficult to attain within a capitalist framework. In fact, around 22,000 children die each day due to poverty, and approximately 805 million people do not have enough food to eat. Furthermore, about 1.1 billion people in developing countries lack access to clean water, while 2.6 billion do not have basic sanitation facilities.

 

Despite the touted benefits of liberalism and capitalism, we live in a highly polarized world where peripheral nations often mimic core countries, inadvertently perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty and hunger. Developed countries claim to have made strides in eradicating global poverty, yet most developing nations continue to struggle relentlessly for essential necessities of life. This struggle is often exacerbated by the very systems labeled as capitalism and liberalism. Meanwhile, developed countries experience continuous improvements in the well-being of their populations, enjoying all the advantages of life. In stark contrast, over a quarter of the global population faces significant developmental challenges or is plunged deeper into the vicious cycle of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition.

It is time to address the challenges that perpetuate the cycle of poverty and uplift the poor in developing countries. Western nations have not aimed to make developing countries fully self-sufficient, nor have they effectively guided these nations to break the cycle of dependency that many of them face. Therefore, it is crucial for developing countries struggling with poverty, hunger, and malnutrition to take difficult but necessary steps.

First, they should learn from the experiences of countries like China and those in East Asia, which have fought diligently to achieve sustainable development and growth. These countries have successfully lifted a significant portion of their population out of poverty in a relatively short period.

Secondly, nations grappling with hunger and poverty must not rely on external directives but should instead focus on enhancing their own capacities. They need to strengthen their resolve and work diligently to overcome these challenges with commitment and perseverance. As Samuel Johnson wisely stated, "Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance."

In today's transforming world, where vast opportunities are within reach, the most important factor is the willingness and commitment of governments to address the needs and aspirations of the majority. Otherwise, the threat of poverty and hunger under capitalism will continue to undermine human dignity and destroy the very fabric of society in developing countries.