Introduction
The phenomenon of poverty is one of the most pervasive and persistent, as well as consistently ubiquitous. People are affected by poverty even in the states that are deemed as the safest financially, which is why it is important to look at the phenomenon of poverty as a composite product of socioeconomic, sociocultural, and sociopolitical factors. Poverty strikes vulnerable groups especially strongly, causing them to suffer from the lack of essential resources. As a rule, special populations including racial and ethnic minorities are stricken by poverty particularly fiercely (Rao, van Ruijven, Riahi, & Bosetti, 2017). Due to the combined effect of the absence of social support, cultural ostracism, and low availability of crucial resources, special populations endure especially powerful damage from poverty and the outcomes that it entails. By improving the current programs and allowing them to focus on community-specific needs to tackle specific issues, one will be able to alleviate the effects of poverty on special and marginalized populations.
Types of Populations Affected
When considering the groups that suffer from poverty particularly strongly, one should mention racial and ethnic minorities. Due to the presence of discrimination against the members of the specified communities, poverty often affects people belonging to racial and ethnic minorities (Zazzetta et al., 2017). Therefore, the specified category needs to be recognized as the one requiring social protection.
Women and girls belong to another frequently marginalized group that suffers from the absence of financial resources significantly as well. The specified category is affected by poverty especially strongly since women and girls face a very specific kind of poverty that the other categories do not. Namely, the phenomenon of period poverty as one of the main effects of the lack of financial resources and corresponding hygiene products needs to be mentioned as the issue that affects women and girls in particular.
In addition, poverty has a direct effect on people from racial and ethnic minority groups. Due to the presence of prejudices and low financial resources, the specified groups have very few education options and the resulting job opportunities. As a result, their income drops to a drastic level, which creates a loop of poverty in the specified setting. The effects that poverty has on the specified populations is dire. People experience social ostracism, major health issues, impediments to their professional growth, and other major issues that range from inconveniences to severe threats to their lives. Therefore, the problem of poverty and its impact on the lives of special populations need to be explored in greater detail. Thus, social programs for providing assistance to the specified demographic can be created.
Causes of Poverty
To examine the effects that poverty has on people, its causes need to be considered closer. Unequal wealth distribution along with limited access to education and financial resources currently represent the major factors leading to poverty. The resulting lack of employment opportunities create the environment escaping which becomes nearly impossible (Kalokhe et al., 2017). The lack of educational opportunities, in turn, leads to few to none employment options for people belonging to special groups, hence an even sharper rise in poverty, which closes the vicious cycle.
Outcomes of Poverty
Considering the populations mentioned above, poverty has a tremendously negative outcome on their well-being and quality of their lives. Namely, studies mention that, in vulnerable groups, poverty and the associated financial struggles, as well as social issues that it entails, are likely to cause severe mental health issues (Ahmed, Haq, & Bartiaux, 2019). In addition, the loss of a significant amount of access to a range of healthcare services ,means that vulnerable communities suffer from a variety of diseases to a much greater extent than those with a more substantial financial support.
Research also indicates that women and girls living in poverty are much more likely to become the victims of domestic violence and abuse, as well as sexual assaults, than their wealthier counterparts (Chant, 2016). In addition, in relation to girls and women, the access to female hygiene products becomes restricted for poverty-stricken citizens. The phenomenon of period poverty as an umbrella term for the scenarios in which women and girls are incapable of purchasing female hygiene products has become ubiquitous in poor communities (Chant, 2016). As a result, young women and girls face restriction in access to public places, including schools (Day, 2018). The resulting drop in quality of education for girl and young women creates the basis for further aggravation of the problem.
In addition, poverty affects people with special needs massively, which includes people with mental and physical health impairments. For instance, the education for people with special needs undergoes significant changes since the increase in poverty implies fewer resources and a lower range of options for studying effectively. The family lives of vulnerable groups suffering from poverty is also affected to a large degree. With the rise in the number of impediments to the effective management of primary needs, family members tend to experience pent-up anger, which may eventually result in family violence (van Hek, Kraaykamp, & Pelzer, 2018). Women and children should be seen as particularly prone to begin the victims of domestic abuse in poverty-stricken areas (Kalokhe et al., 2017). Therefore, safeguarding the specified demographic should be established as one of the main goals in addressing the effects of poverty on special populations.
Solutions
Needless to say, a range of programs have been devised in order to address the problem of poverty. However, since the nature of the issue at hand is cyclic and rooted in economic inequalities, as well as the inconsistencies in wealth distribution, controlling the phenomenon of poverty is quite difficult. Since its external factors are closely intertwined with the power structure that is currently at play.
In conjunction to the issue of poverty and its effects on ethnic and racial minorities, the fact that the specified issue represents a major impediment to education and job opportunities should be handled on the statewide level. Namely, fewer opportunities for people with low income to be employed should be offered. In turn, the creation of job opportunities will be possible once private entrepreneurship starts developing in the specified settings. Another important solution to the problem of poverty in vulnerable groups, the enhancement in the quality of the dialogue between the vulnerable members and the rest of the society needs to be considered. By making the communication between vulnerable people with special needs and the rest of the target society more pronounced, one will be able to ensure that approaches toward meeting these needs are created. Moreover, the current approach toward allocating the needed resources will be shaped to address the concerns associated with the restrictions faced by people with special needs. As a result, vulnerable populations will be affected by the negative effects of poverty to a lesser degree.
The management of educational opportunities is another solution that can be utilized to advance the current framework for managing vulnerable population’s needs. By including innovative technology into the process of knowledge sharing and building education , one will be able to handle the issue of the lack of proper education in people with special needs. The special population will receive extra opportunities for addressing the challenges that poverty poses to their education and the extent of their knowledgeability about the area of their selected expertise. Therefore, with the increase in educational opportunities for people form poor backgrounds is expected once the proposed strategies are launched. As a result, the problem of poor education and the subsequent loss of employment opportunities will finally be addressed.
Conclusion
Since special populations, which are represented by a vast range of minorities in the case in point, have a mostly restricted access to essential resources, poverty has especially drastic effects on the quality of their lives and their overall well-being. Poverty has a crippling effect on the lives of people with special needs, people representing racial and ethnic minorities, women and children, aging citizens, and many more categories of vulnerable groups. Therefore, it is crucial to counteract the effects of poverty on the specified denizens. For this purpose, organizations striving to support people that have been affected by poverty will have to be restructured with the greater focus on offering additional access to crucial resources. These include health management tools and materials, education, employment opportunities, options for gaining new skills and competencies, and other types of support based on the specific vulnerability of a particular community. Thus, the effects of poverty on vulnerable groups and populations with special needs will be reduced.
References
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Chant, S. (2016). Women, girls and world poverty: Empowerment, equality or essentialism? International Development Planning Review, 38(1), pp. 1-24.
Day, H. (2018). Normalizing menstruation, empowering girls. The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 2(6), 379.
Kalokhe, A., del Rio, C., Dunkle, K., Stephenson, R., Metheny, N., Paranjape, A., & Sahay, S. (2017). Domestic violence against women in India: A systematic review of a decade of quantitative studies. Global Public Health, 12(4), 498-513.
Rao, N. D., van Ruijven, B. J., Riahi, K., & Bosetti, V. (2017). Improving poverty and inequality modelling in climate research. Nature Climate Change, 7(12), 857-862.
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