The Impact of Poverty – When you hear the word poverty, maybe everyone knows it. However, when discussing the impact of poverty, sometimes some people don’t know about it. In this article, we will discuss more about poverty and the effects of poverty, so, see this article until it’s finished, Sinaumed’s.
Definition of Poverty
Poverty is a problem that has always been difficult to overcome. Poverty is a social problem that is always present in developing countries like Indonesia.
Poverty is considered as one of the social problems that is difficult to describe, if it is not addressed immediately and find the root causes of poverty.
Poverty in general is a condition of a person’s economic inability to be able to meet the average standard of living of the people in an area. The condition of inability to meet these needs is characterized by the low ability of a person’s income to be able to meet basic needs such as clothing, food and shelter.
Poverty is a problem in almost all countries, including Indonesia. The various causes of poverty make the poverty rate even higher. The causes of poverty in Indonesia are also quite diverse, although according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) Indonesia’s population in 2021 will decrease compared to 2020.
The percentage of poor people in Indonesia in September 2021 was 9.71%, a decrease of around 0.43% compared to March 2021 and a decrease of 0.48% compared to September 2020.
Definition of Poverty According to the explanation in the Journal of Applied Humanities Social 1(1), etymologically, “poverty” comes from the word “poor” which means having no possessions and all deprivation. BPS also interprets that poverty is a condition of individual inability to meet the minimum basic needs for a decent life.
Soerjono Soekanto argues that poverty is a condition when an individual or group of individuals are unable to maintain themselves with the standard of living of groups in society, and are unable to utilize their energy, mental and physical to achieve the standard of living of that group.
Indicators that are usually used to determine poverty are wage levels, income, consumption, under-five mortality, immunization, malnutrition in children, and so on. In addition, the benchmark for the level of poverty can also be seen from the level of health, education, and fair treatment before the law.
Factors Causing Poverty
The causes of poverty can be caused by two factors, namely internal or internal factors and external or external factors.
Internal factors
The internal factors that can cause poverty include:
1. Attitude
Attitude is a condition of the soul and mind that is prepared to respond to objects that are organized through experience and can directly influence behavior. The state of the soul is strongly influenced by traditions, customs, culture and social environment.
2. Experience and Observations
Experience can influence social observation of behavior. Usually, experience is gained from all past actions and can be learned. The results of social experience will form a view of something.
3. Personality
Personality is the configuration of individual characters and ways of behaving that determine the different attitudes of each person.
4. Self-concept
Another factor that causes poverty is self-concept. This internal factor has become a very widely known approach to describe the relationship between consumers’ self-concept and brand image.
Self-concept as the core of personality patterns will determine individual behavior in dealing with life’s problems. Because self-concept is a frame of reference that becomes the beginning of behavior.
5. Motive
Individual behavior arises because of the motive of the need to feel safe. An example of a motive is the need for prestige. If one’s motive for the need for prestige is large, it will form a style that tends to lead to a hedonic lifestyle.
6. Perception
Perception is the process by which a person selects, organizes and interprets information to form meaningful pictures about the world.
External Factors
Apart from internal factors, other causes of poverty are external factors or external factors, including:
1. Reference Group
Reference group is a group that gives direct and indirect influence on a person’s attitude and behavior. The influence given can cause a person’s behavior and lifestyle.
2. Family
Who would have thought that the family could actually be the cause of poverty. This is because the family plays a big and long role in shaping a person’s attitude and behavior. This is because the parenting style of parents will shape the child’s habits, which indirectly affect the child’s lifestyle.
3. Social Class
Social classes are relatively homogeneous and enduring groups around society. There are two elements in the social system, namely position and role.
Social position is a person’s place in the social environment as well as the prestige of his rights and obligations. Social position can be obtained by deliberate effort or by birth. If, a person carries out rights and obligations according to position, then he has carried out his role properly.
4. Culture
Culture includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, customs and habits acquired from individuals as members of society.
Culture consists of everything that is learned from normative behavior patterns such as the characteristics of thinking, feeling and acting.
Problem Factors in the State
Factors causing poverty based on problems in developing countries are as follows:
1. High Population Growth Rate
A high birth rate in an area can result in a country’s population growth rate being greater. Thus, it can cause the available jobs to be limited to be able to recruit people who need jobs to get a salary so they can buy their basic needs.
In addition, if the rate of population growth is high but not proportional to the rate of economic growth. This will result in an increase in the poverty rate.
2. Unemployment Society Increases
A high population growth rate can cause jobs in a country to be limited. Therefore, the unemployment rate in the area will increase. The more people are unemployed, the poverty rate will increase.
3. Low Education
Individuals who have low education tend not to have sufficient skills, insight or knowledge to get a job. Thus, people with low education cannot compete with people who have higher education in the world of work and business.
This is what makes people with low education less competitive and causes unemployment and poverty to increase.
4. A Natural Disaster Occurs
Natural disasters can be a factor causing unavoidable poverty. Natural disasters such as floods, landslides and tsunamis can cause damage to infrastructure and psychological damage to the people affected by the disaster.
In addition, natural disasters can be a cause of poverty, because the people affected by the disaster will lose their possessions.
5. Unequal Income Distribution
Unequal distribution of income can cause inequality in the pattern of resource ownership. Generally, people who have limited and low resources are generally below the poverty line.
The Impact of Poverty in Indonesia
The condition of poverty can actually have several impacts or consequences. Poverty as a social problem can have an impact on the individual and the wider community. The following are some of the impacts of poverty in Indonesia, including:
1. Increasing unemployment
Poor people will find it difficult to get access to proper education. Thus, the poor will find it difficult to compete for jobs with rich or affluent people. This is what can trigger an increase in the unemployment rate.
2. The number of cases of dropping out of school
In developing countries like Indonesia, the cost of education that must be paid by an individual is quite high, so that this will close the poor’s access to education. In fact, one of the causes of poverty is the low level of education, so that closed access to education can exacerbate the existing conditions of poverty in an area or country.
3. There are various health problems in the community
With poverty, various health problems will arise. There is an increase in need, but it is not affordable, then disease comes. For example dizziness, high blood pressure, stroke etc.
4. Increasing Criminal Acts
Poverty can be one of the causes of crime. This is because the poor will tend to want to fulfill their basic needs by using any means, including by means of crime. Some forms of crime that can be committed by an individual are fraud, theft, robbery and murder.
5. Mortality Rate Increases
Poor people who are unable to meet their basic needs will find it difficult to get access to adequate health for themselves and their families. This difficult access to health can cause the death rate of a population to increase, especially the death rate of the poor.
6. Conflicts that Occur in Society will Emerge
Poor people generally will get different treatment from rich people. Examples include gaining access to certain facilities. The gap that occurs in the community will trigger conflict in social life because of the jealousy that arises.
Types of Poverty
1. Absolute Poverty
Absolute poverty is poverty which is a condition where the income of an individual or group of people is below the poverty line. Therefore, the individual or group of people will find it difficult to be sufficient and meet their standard needs such as clothing, food and shelter needed to improve their quality of life.
The poverty line referred to in the sense of absolute poverty is the average expenditure or average consumption of an individual to meet basic needs related to the fulfillment of the individual’s welfare standards.
This type of absolute poverty can be said to be the type of poverty that is most widely used as a concept to determine or define the criteria for an individual or group of people who are poor or not.
2. Relative Poverty
Relative poverty is a form of poverty that can occur, due to the influence of development policies that do not reach all levels of society, which can lead to income inequality. In addition, it can cause an imbalance in welfare standards in the country. Regions that have not received the reach of development programs are known as disadvantaged areas.
3. Cultural Poverty
Cultural poverty is a form of poverty that can occur as a result of the attitudes and habits of an individual or society. Which generally comes from culture and customs which are generally relatively unwilling to improve their standard of living in modern ways.
The habits mentioned can be in the form of being lazy, less creative, wasteful and relatively dependent on other parties.
4. Structural Poverty
In contrast to cultural poverty, structural poverty is a form of poverty caused by low public access to resources which generally occurs in a social and cultural and socio-political order that does not support poverty liberation in a country. Generally, structural poverty sometimes has discriminatory elements.
Ways to Overcome Poverty
Poverty is a social problem that will be difficult to unravel if it is not handled early. Poverty can spread to areas that previously had low levels of poverty, because in a few years if poverty is not resolved immediately there will be an increase through other causes of poverty.
For example, in Indonesia poverty occurs due to the low level of education that can be obtained by the community. Because it was not immediately resolved, poverty that occurred due to low levels of education also increased due to other factors such as the spread of epidemics, natural disasters and others.
Therefore, it is important for the government to immediately overcome this social problem of poverty. There are several ways that the government can do to overcome poverty, namely:
1. Updating Population Data
The government can update population data, especially to complete data on poor and vulnerable populations who are then categorized as deserving of social assistance from the government.
Thus, government budget funds that have been allocated for social assistance can be distributed to the right citizens and really need these social assistance funds. In addition, after updating the data, the government can increase the social assistance budget and expand the number of beneficiaries to residents who have fallen into poverty due to influencing factors, for example, the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Integrate Social Assistance Distribution in various places
There are various forms of social assistance, differing in the type and amount that the government has measured. However, these differences actually created social tensions in several regions.
This social tension then got worse, because there was a social assistance database, especially the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS) which was used by the local government and did not include people who were not previously recorded. However, the unrecorded economic condition of the people has worsened due to several factors.
To be able to overcome this problem, the government can update data as in the first solution and integrate the distribution of social assistance, through cooperation between state banks so that social assistance funds can directly enter and be received by beneficiaries.
Integration of the distribution of social assistance funds can simplify the distribution process, and there will be no overlapping beneficiaries.
3. Reducing the Expenditure Burden of the Poor and Nearly Poor
One way to deal with poverty is to reduce the burden of spending on society, especially the poor and near-poor.
Especially reducing costs controlled by the government or administered prices. There are four costs that are controlled by the government and can be reduced to ease the burden on the poor and near-poor, such as water tariffs for households, electricity tariffs, LPG prices and fuel prices.
4. Providing incentives in the fields of agriculture, livestock and fisheries
The government can tackle poverty by increasing incentives for farmers, ranchers and fishermen through product purchase schemes carried out by the government. In addition, the government can also improve logistics channels for agricultural, livestock and fishery products, so that residents who work in these fields can increase their production and face the lack of market absorption.
By providing incentives in these three areas, the government will help to secure the availability of national food stocks, especially during times when food stocks are running low and hard to find.
By securing stock availability, increases in basic prices can be suppressed, so that people who are almost poor can still meet their basic needs. So, the level of poverty can be reduced.
5. Manage the APBN Carefully
The government needs to manage its state budget carefully, in order to be able to increase the budget for social assistance that will be given to the poor and near-poor.
By managing the state budget more carefully, the government can allocate special funds for the poor and near-poor in order to meet their basic needs.
Poverty is one of the problems that usually occurs in a country. The causes of problems do not always come from mistakes in the state, but sometimes they are caused by factors from within ourselves. Therefore, it should be for us to know more about ourselves in order to avoid poverty.
Sinaumed’s can get more information about the impact of poverty by reading books available at sinaumedia.com . As #FriendsWithoutLimits we always try to give the best. To support Sinaumed’s in adding insight, sinaumedia always provides quality and original books so that Sinaumed’s has #MoreWithReading information .
Author: Yufi Cantika Sukma Divine
Also read:
Â