According to the Declaration of Human Rights, human beings have the intrinsic right to have a standard of living that is sufficient for the health and wellbeing of themselves and their family members, including food, medical care, housing, clothing, and necessary social services. Humans also have the right to be secure against events such as unemployment, widowhood, disability, old age, and sickness. However, it has always been very challenging to attain these basic privileges for all global people. Even wealthy nations still have considerably high rates of poverty and income inequality. It is, therefore, important for policymakers to consider potential strategies for dealing with this global societal problem. The issue of poverty and income inequality is a major global societal problem that can be solved through the intensification of the agricultural and manufacturing sectors.
Background of the Problem
According to Green and Hulme (2005), poverty and income inequality are widely regarded to be caused by a lack of immediate assets whose absence prevents households from being non-poor. This perspective of the problem explains why individuals or individual families in some places have higher income potential than their neighbours do. As demonstrated by Bhattacharyya (2016), drivers of historical global poverty and income inequality include institutions of the slave trade, geographical locations, diseases, technology, and culture. Although the issue of poverty and income inequality has always existed throughout history, it is only in recent times that governments have made it the focal point of development policies to meet global targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) (Green & Hulme, 2005). The emphasis has made governments establish institutional mechanisms to monitor changes in national poverty levels.
Poverty as a Societal Problem
The issue of poverty and income inequality is a social problem because it is manifested in the social sphere. It affects society as a whole. As explained by Mood and Jonsson (2016), living in poverty increases a person’s risk of being socially excluded and losing social identity and status, which may, in turn, lead to losing friends. Therefore, the issue of poverty and income inequality has social consequences that make it a societal problem. Furthermore, living in poverty increases the likelihood of experiencing social challenges such as family problems, lack of proper education, housing issues and homelessness, being victimized for criminal activities, and lacking adequate medical care.
However, some scholars hold the perspective that poverty is an individual issue and not a societal problem. For instance, Hulme and Shepherd (2003) point out that poverty can be a particular issue where it decreases people’s level of coping and welfare and causes depression, frustration, and anxiety, which are often followed by drug use, alcoholism, and other addictive behaviour. An individual has a chance to get out of poverty through getting a good education or training, getting a well-paying job, or building one’s skillset. Since the state of poverty is, to a large extent, under and individual’s control, it can be classified as an individual issue.