The Cycle Of Poverty

The cycle of poverty has been defined as a phenomenon where poor families develop imprisoned in poverty for generations. Because they have limited access to critical resources, such as education and financial amenities, subsequent generations are also disadvantaged.

Due to the many root causes of poverty and the problem with how poverty is measured and defined there are various cycles of poverty—based on economic, social, spiritual and geographical factors. Many cycles perpetuate new cycles and hence any attempt to portray the cycle of poverty will be far more simplistic than realistic.

Often, children born into poverty grow to live their adult lives in poverty as well. Lack of proper food, poor health care, lack of quality education, and limited employment prospects are all factors in the cycle of poverty. As these kids tend to be geographically assembled in areas of financial depression, this deficiency of services and opportunities frequently affects entire societies.

For many children, the cycle of poverty begins even before birth. Poor entry to prenatal care means higher maternal and infant mortality rates. In underprivileged areas, poor prenatal nutrition and untreated maternal medical issues lead to smaller and less well fed and well developed babies. The chances of physical and intellectual birth defects are also higher.

Unfortunately, babies who lacked proper food and medical care in the womb rarely fare better after they are born. Missing access to nutritious food, these children fall past behind in growth and brain development. Without vaccinations and regular medical care, these kids, already weakened by undernourishment, can fall victim to a host of infections. The children who survive are further deteriorated by these experiences.

The cycle of poverty is continued as developmentally delayed children enter schools that are sadly inadequate. Generally, impoverished communities have poorly sponsored educational systems. Without the resources to keep quality teachers in sufficient amounts, these schools are often incapable to provide even basic education. The textbooks and computer tools needed to prepare students for college may be simply unavailable.

Higher education may be unrealistic for children trapped in the cycle of poverty. Without the skills children in more comfortable areas develop, these children barely leave the area where they are from or grew up in. As time goes by, the cycle repeats itself until the community, as a whole, is illiterate. The lack of expert workers makes new industry within the area unattractive to businesses. No new jobs are made, and thus, no money is available for community development.

In theory, the cycle of poverty could be broken at any stage of its development. In practice, however, financial intervention programs have not had a good success. The outline of nutritional education and maternal health programs into economically disadvantaged areas, for example, has condensed maternal and infant mortality. These programs have also enhanced childhood health. Unfortunately, this advance in health has had a barely negligible impact on whether these children will stay disadvantaged as adults.

Many opponents of social welfare programs attribute the failure of interventions to the culture of poverty. Poverty was a highly developed subculture, complete with its own norms and ethics.

Dhwani Shah