Mada za sehemu hiiPovertyMada 3
- Introduction to Poverty and Indicators of Poverty in Tanzania
- Causes and Effects of Poverty in Tanzania
- Strategies for Poverty Alleviation in Tanzania
Poverty refers to a situation where a person cannot attain the minimum level of well-being, like consumption, income, education and other basic needs.
- Poverty is characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
- Poverty is also characterized by 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. Poverty also includes homelessness and inadequate housing, social discrimination and exclusion.
- It is also characterized by lack of participation in decision-making and civil, social and cultural life.
The International Poverty Line gives us a convenient way of understanding the state of poverty.
However, it is a very blunt instrument for measuring a complex phenomenon. This is because:
- It does not take into account the cost of living differentials within countries. $1 will buy different amounts of goods in urban and rural areas. For instance, food may cost more in urban areas.
- It does show who lives in permanent poverty and who lives in temporary poverty.
- It does not consider the distribution of income within the household. Distribution of income is sometimes affected by gender.
- It only values goods, which are delivered in the market. In many poor countries, people grow and rear food and animals respectively for their own consumption.
The situation and level of poverty varies among community members and can be grouped into three categories depending on the degree of dependency and possession of valuable assets.
- The first group consists of those who have no money or possessions and have lost hope. They do not have enough food and in most cases depend on charity for survival. They are unable to sustain themselves. Most of these people are either too old or young and handicapped to work. Within this group also is a small fraction of the less poor who consist of few families - mainly single parents, widows and women married to irresponsible alcoholic husbands.
- The second group consists of people who can meet their basic needs but do not have sufficient income to have any surplus income. This group comprises of many workers who are being paid low or insufficient salaries, which enables them to meet only their basic needs.
- The third group consists of the rich. At a village level, a rich person has all the material necessities of life such as adequate food to feed their children properly and live in good houses made of bricks and roofed with corrugated iron sheets. They are able to assist others or hire their labor. They have a reliable source of income from either livestock or agriculture. They produce in surplus and possess valuable assets such as radios, television, bicycles, and motorcycles, and have money to purchase basic essentials like clothes.
- Absolute poverty. Refers to a set standard, which is consistent over time and between countries.
- Relative poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. Relative poverty measures income inequality rather than material deprivation or hardships.
- High rates of morbidity and mortality
- Prevalence of malnutrition
- Illiteracy
- High infant and maternal mortality rates
- Low life expectancy
- Poor quality housing
- Inadequate clothing
- Low per capital income
- Expenditure
- Poor infrastructure.
Others include: high fertility rates, lack of access to basic services such as safe water, food insecurity and poor technology.
- Lack of clean and safe water in a community is one of the major indicators of poverty.
- Inadequate health services are another sign of poverty in the country. Most illness are associated with poverty. In Tanzania, poor health services have been responsible for the prevalence of infectious diseases such as diarrhea, malaria, and tuberculosis.
- A high mortality rate is another sign of poverty. According to the Health Statistical Abstract (1977), the average life expectancy at birth in Tanzania is 50 years compared to life expectancy of 77 years in developed countries.
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