Essay on “Global Poverty” Complete Essay for Class 9, Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Global Poverty

Outlines : The U.N. Secretary-General, Boutros Boutros Ghali, has called for new thinking on development as “the greatest intellectual challenge of the coming years.” The world’s developmental achievements far outstrip its knowledge of the process, he said, ‘We lack adequate understanding of the complex, multidimensional process that has led to the rapid development of Japan, the Asian Tigers, and most recently, China. These achievements are largely the result of initiatives taken without the benefit of a clear, conscious and complete framework. So too, the world’s developmental failures reflect inadequacies in our basic conception of what development is, and how it can be fostered. The disastrous consequences of the reform process in Eastern Europe, as well as the persistence of high levels of poverty in many developing countries, point to the urgent need for a more adequate perspective of the development process.

There has already been significant shift in perspective over the past half decade, from viewing development narrowly, in terms of economic growth, to viewing it in wider social terms with emphasis on the welfare of people. This shift in emphasis from economic growth to human resource development is a welcome step, but one that does not go far enough in identifying the underlying political, social, cultural and psychological .forces that drive the process. Nations have come to recognise the importance of a wide array of factors in development, .yet no clear perspective has  emerged which enables them to establish appropriate priorities action.

A framework is needed that will enable us, in diverse contexts to identify the appropriate policies and strategies to generate awareness of the available opportunities and resources, and fully release the energies and initiative of individuals and institutions.

The opportunities and potentials for rapid development far exceed actual achievements in every country. This is especially obvious in less developed countries and at lower level of society, where there is a large visible gap between social opportunities (educational, technological, entrepreneurial, etc.) and individual pursuit of them. But the same is also true in more economically advanced nations. The world today possesses an enormous reservoir of unutilized human skills and capacities, proven technology, practically valuable information, untapped markets, underdeveloped legal, administrative and organisational resources.

A huge surge in development can be achieved in every socially available resource, and potential is fully utilized by the people—if ‘every capable youth, male and female, continues education up to the level of his/her highest aptitude; if every family employs all the health care knowledge and best practices known by society; if every government self-employment programme and training programme is fully utilised; if all known technology for improving agriculture is widely publicised and put to practice. The highest priority must be to evolve strategies for utilising these vast social resources more effectively.

We now know that it is possible to produce all the food needed to support many times the entire world population, with only a small fraction of the soil and water currently utilised IC food production. Similarly, our industrial production systems al capable of producing in such large volumes that one or a few countries could produce the entire world’s requirement of many essential products. Medical technology makes it possible to eradicate many types of diseases that are still prevalent. Yet famine, poverty  and high mortality rates continue to exist. Many ‘societies are still unable to utilise the available resources sufficiently to meet even minimum needs. No society has demonstrated the capacity to utilise these resources fully for maximum benefit.

The magnitude of this potential can be illustrated by the enormous gap between average yields on major food crops achieved by India, and the yields obtained by the world’s most productive producers, which typically raise three or four times more food per hectare. Proven technology already exists that is capable of raising low yields well above the world averages. The real limiting factors are inadequate dissemination of information about best practices and success, stories, inadequate skills in employing these methods, inadequate organizational arrangements for marketing and processing, as well as outmoded policies and attitudes about food self sufficiency, and the role of agriculture in the national economy. The prosperity 2000 study documents the potential to double India’s annual growth rates in agriculture by tapping underutilised social resources information, organisation, technology and skills.

The ultimate resource pessimistic views, regarding poverty and unemployment, rest on the belief that a scarcity of material and financial resources place ultimate limits on the growth and prosperity of nations. This view is contradicted by historical evidence. In earlier centuries, development was based primarily on better utilisation of scarce material resources. But during the postwar period, utilisation of technological resources, which are not inherently limited, has become the principal driving force, for growth. In future, the major determinants of growth will be the ideas, , discoveries, inventions, systems and institutions which are varied expression of human resourcefulness.