Poverty is a global issue that faces more than 3 billion people (Do Something), regardless of age, culture or race, who are in the state of lacking basic needs such as food, clothes and shelter. As it might be known, there are many problems that are covered under this issue and one of the most controversial which people need to be more concerned about is child poverty. It is because, oftentimes, when poverty is on debate or discussion, people tend to mainly address the poor adults throughout the course. So, it seems like the children are forgotten and thought as an unimportant subject in this issue. Though, indeed the reason for that could be the issue does also affect the poor in general as well as the society such as lead to increase rate of crime committed or decrease the number of future educated human resources. However, in fact, child poverty is no more or less important to argue about and so be considered as a serious problem. The cause is that at the present, the number of poor kids are still increasing not just in less economically developed countries but also in the more developed countries such as the US, particularly in Nevada and Idaho state (Ingraham). In additional, poverty has a significant impact on the children’s physical and mental development in which it is far from affecting them positively. Therefore, an in-depth exploration on how is this global issue and other factors (family/social-related) affect the kids will be brought up to draw concerns toward the issue. Plus, as important as the effect, the basic knowledge of poverty, its definitions, and the way people approach the issue will as well be argued to show how significant the influences that they brought are across the poor community. Another main thing to be addressed is the solutions in which those will show the audience that there are different ways to cope with poverty and so raise their awareness toward the problem. Overall, the research aims at proving that children are the primary victim of poverty and that this child-related problem should be taken seriously as well as those factors that involve in the increase of the poor proportion in the society.

First of all, the basic knowledge of poverty, its definition, is thought to be known by almost everyone, but still, it is another argument that complicates this controversial topic. It means that poverty does not only mean the lack of basic needs, but as people look at it in different aspects and dimensions, its meaning starts to vary and so build up many debates amongst them. In particular, there is a claim that said poverty is “a state of mind” in which people are just poor in spirit and hence makes themselves have lack of will to overcome the condition they are in at the time (Lewis). Also, that for not having money to afford things is called broke. The definition shows that not only the status of poverty and other related factors, the poor’s mind is also the another cause that makes themselves a victim to this issue and that they should be responsible and blamed for their plight. Furthermore, if that is applied, then what about poor children, what should they blame themselves for as how they are at the time is not their fault. So, doesn’t it meant that the adults are the one to be responsible for making children a victim of their own poverty? On another hand, it is said that “usually academics define poverty as those people with incomes below 60% of their country’s median.” (C.W.). This definition is also true because low income is a great risk to this issue. Also, it could incline the focus of poverty onto problems such as inequality distribution of income or discrimination at work in order to solve the issue. But at the same time, it means that child poverty will be neglected and is though as unimportant subject according to that definition. The main claim here is that the effect of poverty on the poor will be varied as the solutions vary based on how people approach it using different definition. Also, as it can be seen on the above interpretations, children tend to have disadvantages when it comes to solving the issue of poverty in general.

Secondly, the effects of poverty in general have left the children with a significant number of impacts that make them live with many disadvantages compare to kids at their age who are able to afford more than just basic needs. At a young age, they are lack of education and health care which are what people consider as the most importance and necessary for their sons and daughters. Also, to the kids, being poor means much more than just having no money, it means that they are much more likely to face a dark future with problems such as child labor, malnutrition, illiteracy etc. The evidence is that in Madagascan, children from age five to 17 have to work for their families in cultivating vanilla pots. It is said that they spend all day doing the job and “tomorrow will be the same for him [them] and thousands of other children.” (Lind). That is what poverty makes them do. The job is already tough for the adult but is a lot tougher for the children as their physical strength has not fully developed yet. Besides, having a childhood in poverty will result in the likelihood of dying earlier, regardless of the social status they acquired as an adult, than those have had an advantageous condition (Kuh D., Hardy R., Langenberg C., Richards D.). Therefore, not talking about other factors, just the social status of poverty itself has already demonstrated what negative effects they have to bear. But that will just stay in their subconscious as there’s no one tells or teaches them about those effects and that they will think of it as a “normal” life as they are what their parents are.

Secondly, family-related factors are causes that lead children to poverty in which those occur within their family and are contributed by their parents or family’s tradition. There is a large number of poor juveniles and adults who are not aware of or knowledgeable about the result of their actions, such as giving birth, in which that could greatly affect the younger generation and so raises the proportion of child poverty. Evidently, it is claimed that poverty grows as the rate of non-marital birth increases (Hymowitz). This implies that it will be more likely for those kids with indigent single-parent to be living in and growing up with poverty. Also, not a small number of them is proved to be doing worse than kids with married-parents on just about every measured the social scientists have studied, i.e., school achievement, emotional well-being, etc. (Hymowitz). It shows that the adult’s decision and act can possibly make a child a victim of poverty as they have not yet been prepared or are unable to be a responsible and reliable parent. Furthermore, “unemployment of parents is strongly associated with child poverty” and also has greater risk of facing poverty than single-parents do (Fiedler and Kuester). Because of being jobless which could be caused by discrimination or inequality, the adults might have to front poverty. But for the children, they might be pulled into the same issue not by being anything but by their parents instead. Specifically, the highest birth rate in the US is on the family with just $10,000 per year – the lowest income on the indicator (Statista). So, in this case, isn’t it meant that, rather than adults, children are the primary victim of poverty? These plights of unemployment and low-income employment are rather happened more often in the industrial and commercial areas. For the agricultural regions, there tend to have a bigger proportion of the poor as well as kids who are in labor disregard of how young or old they are. For instance, there is 60 % of child laborers worldwide aged five to 17 are in agricultural works such as farming, fishing… (ILO) From this, it is believed that this problem should be responsible by the adults. The reason is that those families that do or have tradition of farm work, their children are either voluntary or being forced to follow their parents as well. Therefore, it is unfair for them as they are not being educated to have a different life, but are being left or even guided to have the same tomorrow as their older generation’s. These family-related factors show how parent’s job and married status, family tradition, and parenting directly affect the children and hence greatly contribute to the growth rate of child poverty.

Following that is social-related factors which will demonstrate how the society treated the poor and so left a momentous impact onto the poor kids. First of all, social exclusion would be the biggest contributed factor to both the adult and child poverty as their mind and emotional well-being are being affected significantly. No one wants to be destitute; poor people need help as well as someone who can guide them finding a place to stand in the society. Of course, they also have to put in their effort to do so. But that effort would be nothing and useless if people do not help or even reject and exclude them from being part of the community, and yet it does happen nowadays. For instance, the Wall of Shame in Peru which separates the rich and the poor is said to be an illustration of social exclusion. It has been criticized as a disgrace and disrespect of the well-off people toward the shanty dwellers living on the other side (Robinson). The wall mentality affects the poor, especially the children as they are still in the stage of physical and mental development. This incident could alter their perspective toward the society or even build up their hatred for the rich and so negatively affect their behavior which has not fully developed yet. Indeed, without physical walls, there are still plenty of invisible ones that people put up in their awareness to separate them from the poor. But it is thought to be better than the physical wall as the poor could see it every day and so it might hurt them every time they cross it. Besides this, again, taking the case of Madagascan farmers who have been working hard to harvest the spice that they didn’t know is the second most expensive spice in the world (Lind). Also, that the spice is now being after by those greedy retailers and importers who pay the poor farmers such a low amount of money disregarding their physical effort and the true value of what they collected. These kinds of matter, knowing that it does not happen once or twice, show the inequality which is another factor that depicts a community with scanty compassion and sympathy. Indeed, life isn’t all about equality and good things, but the act of taking advantage over someone’s weakness for one’s own benefit is obviously unfair and should be seen as a serious problem. The incident demonstrates why the poor cannot get out of the condition they are in and so do the kids keep trapping in the cycle of poverty as people are taking things away from them instead of helping. In addition, discrimination as a social issue partly contributes to the increasing in number of indigent people as they are being treated differently compare to others with higher social status. Similar to the Wall of Shame, discrimination and inequality are the invisible wall of social exclusion that separates the society from the poor community. On the whole, these factors, inequality and social exclusion, do not only cause unwanted consequences for the poor in general, but also indirectly put them in the position of coping with poverty and hence not being able to find themselves receiving any empathy or belong to the community. Especially for the children, these social issues plus being uneducated could give them a high chance of having a deviant behavior as their mental development is partly but, yet greatly being influenced and shaped by their surroundings and the society’s behavior as well.

Next is the impact of child poverty on the society in which this will prove that children are not the only one being affected by the issue. For example, similar to the Wall of Shame, there is another one in Lima with the same purpose, separating the rich from the poor. Besides the idea of social exclusion, the reason behind that is about security and privacy. One of the rich people said “The people here pay, above all, for their security […] They don’t want their land to be invaded” (Joly). That’s why they agreed on building up the wall in order to, as they said, protect their assets and themselves from crime committed by the less well-off people. Indeed, a child is born into poverty and has lack of education are not the society’s fault. But still, they have to face the increase in crime committed, illiteracy and other problems in which they are being asked to help to solve those and at the same time, feeling insecure living in such community. On another hand, in an objective view, the poor does contribute a whole lot to the society by playing a significant role in the agricultural industry using their physical effort. Also, thanks to many of them who inspire other people, regardless of social status and age, in the community through their stories, actions and thoughts. Therefore, it can be said that what the society get from poverty is a mix of both negative and positive impact, and so people should not look at them as a risk of problems.

Following that, the complication of this matter is about how people approach poverty differently and so cause ideas to counter one another. This is another crucial component that often interferes the process of reducing poverty of both adult and children. People’s points of view vary across different situations and it is hard to say one’s idea is the best as there are always oppositions and possibility of bias. For example, Douglas Kruger is known as a professional speaker who discusses about a wide range of topic and knows how to persuade the audiences using strategic and structure in his own speech. He claimed that the poor have a narrow thinking and a self-limiting belief that keeping them poor. He said that they want to be rich but at the same time hate the rich, and talk to the children how hard they work, not how they earn or lose money (Kruger). However, it seems like his reasoning is shortsighted and untrue as he didn’t take their perspectives into account such as what if they want to be rich but with the personalities unlike the rich which they hate, or teach their children how to be hard-working not how to earn money as they are not in the position to think like a businessman keeping track of the money they earn or lose. This shows that an opinion of oneself might be understood in different ways and contexts. Also, that no conclusion will be reached for the issue to be solved if people keep raising and debating for their perspective as no one’s idea would fit all the others’ points of view. Furthermore, as it can be seen, people tend to have their focus on the poor adult rather than children when dealing with poverty, just like how Kruger aimed at the narrow thinking of the parents and adult in general. It is like as if they think that because adult in poverty has a much bigger ratio than that of the children as well as is the root of child poverty, so they have to focus more on it. If that is the case, then why don’t they move their concentration to the roots that cause poverty such as lack of education, unemployment, unwed birth and social exclusion, so that they could have a higher chance of ending poverty. Especially countries in Africa with nearly 30 million children (UNESCO Dakar) and South Asia with more than 33 million children (UNICEF South Asia) who are out of school. It is believed that people should not consider just the issue itself but also its smaller constituents. No one could guarantee that reducing proportion of adult poverty would following by the reducing in number of poor children or is the result of one person’s perspective. Hence, the point is that this same issue of both different generation should be approached and taken as seriously as one another, and that solving poverty requires more than just one-sided opinions.

Finally, this issue of poverty is strongly believed to have a number of solutions, even though they might not completely solve the troubles. As children are believed to be the main victim, it is thought that the governments should consider on promoting education and health care to the poor by offering them scholarship for later education as well as lowering the insurance cost especially for them. By that, they will be encouraged to go to school, have easier access to the health system and so have a sense of belonging to the community. That could result in, not significantly but still, lower rates of child poverty, illiteracy, crime committed, etc. In another respect, Kruger, from the above example, pointed out that the governments should restrict on giving social grant to the poor as it seems like they are promoting poverty (Kruger). Hence, it is thought that they should help those indigent people find a job and so working on reducing unemployment rate as it is one of the family-related factors that lead to child poverty. Besides, to reduce this issue from both children’s and adults’ aspect, it is said that there should be a reduction in the inequality of power distribution within a society. Also, that government needs to let the poor and the less influencing people have “the ability to shape public policy to meet their needs.” (Raphael). It is believed that people should not underestimate the poor, being stereotyped that all of them are a negative aspect of the society, and especially use their power or social status to take advantage of or even harm them. Hence, these solutions will not be done and achieved only by the effort of government but also must be by the contribution of all people regardless of their social status, age, gender or race. Only then, the goal of reducing poverty as well as child-related problems could be reached.

Overall, poverty is a complicated issue since people just don’t seem to find their reconciliation within the same society. Because there are always some parts of them who just don’t act or behave in ways that they are being respect, compassionate and inoffensive to one another. Hence, its effects, as it is argued, spread across the society and in some ways, affect all individuals including the poor as well as the others from different background. However, all those effects mentioned above, from poverty itself, family-related and social-related factors, as well as how people approach the issue have proved that children are the primary victim to this global issue. Those impacts heavily affect the children’s physical, mental and emotional development. Also, poor adults are not being seen as the main victim because it could be said that they are better off with those impacts than the children do, since they are considered as full-grown adults whose mentality and endurance are strong enough to abide their plight. Therefore, if people do care about the future generation and the prosperity of their society as a whole which will be built by the children today, then they should give in a hand with the government to reduce and so eliminate the existence of child poverty that is still increasing at the present.
