CHILD POVERTY

Child Poverty

Child Poverty

Over the past 30 years, society has become more and more unequal; the gap between the rich and poor has been increasing greatly (Piachaud, 1998:234). Poverty occurs when a small reduction in resources is accompanied by a disproportionate increase in deprivation. It changes over the time due to changing living standards, e.g. technology like a television is now seen as a need and if a household lacks one then it is a sign of poverty [Townsend, 1997 (in Piachaud,1998)]. It is socially constructed. It is linked to unemployment, unmarried women and consequently this brings crime problems. This paper provides an analysis of Child Poverty by developing a conflict theory perspective.

The perception of conflict theory supposes that society is full of struggling communal groups with diverse aspirations, dissimilar access to life chances and grow unlike social rewards. Relations in society are largely based on oppression, exploitation, subordination and domination. (Connell 2008) One third of deaths, some eighteen million people a year or fifty thousand per day are due to poverty related causes: in total two hundred and seventy million people, most of them women and children, have died as a result of poverty since 1990 (World Health Organization, 1999). Wilkinson (2007) indicates that those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. Studies have shown that every year nearly eleven million children living in poverty die before their fifth birthday. Furthermore, those living in poverty often suffer from hunger (World Health Report, 1999).

Poverty is when income is insufficient to obtain the minimum necessaries for the maintenance of merely physical efficiency. It was first described by Seebohm Rowntree, who wanted to demolish the view that poverty was due to “fecklessness and not to low wages” (Mack and Lansley, 2007, Piachaud, 2008). A study in poverty would be relevant because this issue is considered to be a global problem and a huge amount of people argue that poor people are responsible for their own poverty (Giddens, 2005). The purpose of this present study is therefore to ascertain the importance of poverty as a global problem nowadays.

This essay will be discussing whether individuals are responsible or not for experiencing poverty in the United Kingdom. This essay will look at some important aspects in British society which are said to be the cause of this issue.

As commented before, poverty is also linked to education; individuals are responsible for experiencing poverty in the United Kingdom, depending on how they spend their time, income (e.g. smoking and drinking, which affect health). Money spent on tobacco, alcohol, gambling or drugs. “People smoke because they are poor, not they are poor because they smoke” (Piachaud, 1998).

A person's health is influenced by the conditions in which she or he lives. Social and economic conditions — such as poverty, social exclusion, unemployment, and poor housing — strongly influence health(World Health Organization, 2006).

Therefore, the state must take responsibility for promoting goods because poor health services, poor schools, poor physical environment, unsafe social environment are inextricably linked to ...