Effect of Poverty

Poverty is the condition of not having the means to be able to afford the basic human needs, which would include health care, clean water, nutrition, shelter, and clothing.  This is called destitution or absolute poverty.  Relative poverty, on the other hand, is having less income or fewer resources than the others in a country or a society. 
Believe it or not, prior to the industrial revolution, poverty had been the norm.  Reduction of poverty has been a result of economic growth as there were increased levels of production, which included modern industrial technology, which made wealth more commonplace for those who had been too poor to afford it.  Additionally investments that have occurred with modernizing agriculture has been at the forefront of the antipoverty effort.  Today the economic development is being constrained by a lack of economic freedoms.  Economic liberalizations would include extending property rights to the poor, to land, and making financial services available.

It is true that around 18 million people a year or 50,000 people in a day will die due to poverty related causes.  Most of these people are women and children.  Those humans who suffer from poverty die from starvation and disease at a disproportionate number to others.  People who live in poverty have a lower life expectancy.  Hunger and malnutrition are the gravest threats to the public health in the world and malnutrition is the biggest contributor resulting in child mortality.  There are almost eleven million children who die before becoming five who live in poverty.  There is an estimated 1.02 billion people around the world who go to bed hungry at night.  Poverty increases homelessness.  There are more than 100 million children living in the streets around the world.  Additionally, drug abuse is associated with poverty.