Poverty; phenomenon affecting people’s life

If we take a look of our country, we will come to know that Afghanistan is one of the most poverty-stricken country whose people have been struggling for years and have been living below the poverty line. In addition, four and a half decades of war and economic crisis are the main causes of poverty and unemployment in the country.
In the current situation, the scope of poverty has become so widespread that a number of sociologists consider this phenomenon as a culture. The basic question that arises is; what is poverty and who is called poor? Can poverty be measured in society? What are the causes and factors of poverty? And what are the solutions?
People living here are in different levels of poverty. On the other hand, the required standards and facilities of living have been changing frequently with the advancement of modern technology; the concept of poverty also differs in the evolution of human societies. Therefore, what that is important in defining poverty is the commonalities of the theories presented by social scientists in relation to this social reality, because one dimension cannot be considered in the definition of poverty, as it has ties with various sociological topics such as: cultural poverty, poverty of capital and economy, poverty of social skills and others are debatable. Some social experts on poverty say: “Poverty is a situation in which a person does not have the minimum standard of living and cannot provide the minimum necessities of life and poor person is one who cannot meet their basic needs with struggling.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries with its people starving with the shortages of basic needs such as: food, clothing, and access to health centers, transportation and other facilities of today’s life. If we look at the contemporary history of Afghanistan, we can witness the painful consequences of poverty throughout the history.
Our people have sometimes sold their children to save them from starvation. In the past and even recently, media have reported several incidents where parents were compelled to sell their children for a very low price only to survive.
During 1965 and 1972, Famine and drought were the factors behind the poverty in the country that caused an unprecedented misery in the history of Afghanistan. However, many experts attribute famine and drought as the main reason for poverty in these years, but if we root out the problem of poverty and its causes, only natural causes have not played a role in exacerbating poverty and unemployment in Afghanistan, but there are various other factors that have exacerbated poverty.
Measuring poverty and unemployment in Afghanistan is a difficult task; because we lack the accurate statistics and required professional skills and expertise. But while comparing the living standards and needs of the people of Afghanistan with the rich facilities and modern technology of the rest of the world, we can distinguish between the poor and rich and can clearly say that Afghans are living below the poverty line.
In the last four decades, after 1978, war is mostly thought of as a major cause of poverty and the destruction of infrastructure and economic sectors. As the economy of Afghanistan is mostly dependent on agriculture and livestock, most of our workforce was engaged in this sector before war and insecurity.
Another factor causing poverty in society is illiteracy. As statistics showed in 2001, about 70% of the people of Afghanistan were illiterate. Although the accuracy of these statistics is not known, but still the fight against illiteracy can be a step towards the fight against poverty, and people can remove poverty from society with full awareness of all aspects of life.
Having more children is also one of the causes of poverty in Afghan society, because usually families have an average of six children, which according to the conditions in Afghanistan, as half of the population is unemployed, it gets tough to provide them with food, clothing, and education that has left most of the families in poverty.
Other factors such as lack of structure, lack of a proper economic strategy, indifference and dozens of other factors can be mentioned that affect the aggravation of poverty in society and make it more widespread than before. To overcome and eliminate poverty, constructive and useful measures are highly required to be taken in the future to find a responsive solution in overcoming the poverty in the country.
The Kabul Times