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Differences and Similarities of Poverty in Mexico and the UK

   This paper will attempt to discuss different types of “poverties” and different perceptions of it. Two different countries will be compared to form a better understanding of what poverty means in dissimilar worlds. The concept of absolute poverty is usually associated with material possessions, i.e having enough food, clothing and shelter. From this term those who are considered poor are those who do not have the basic provisions, these basics form a poverty line and those who fall below the line are usually considered as being poor. According to Drewnowski and Scott (cited in Haralambos 2000), they go beyond the levels of physical needs and look at other factors such as education, leisure and recreation. Yet the concept of absolute poverty can be criticised as it states that there are minimum basic needs for all societies, Townsend (1970) argues that it would be difficult to compare societies on needs such as food and shelter, without taking into factor things such as leisure activities and occupations. Townsend is a pioneer in the concept of relative poverty he talks about poverty being specific to a society and the time; he says that it transcends a lack of material resources. His work into poverty in the 1970s led poverty to be highlighted into the political forefront. He came up with two standards of poverty, the first of the states definition, in which they use official statistics, and the amount of income support that people get, those who fall below the levels of insufficient housing. He sees it as the government of the time determine who falls below the poverty line. He also states that of the relative income standard of poverty, this households for which fall below the average for households with the same number of occupants. According to Townsend, poverty can only be applied in the terms of relative deprivation, which the society in which the person lives determines what he or she will need for basic survival, the food which people eat and the type of job they have to have so that they can have basic standard of living. Townsend did a number of pieces of research into poverty in the UK and found that from 1979 there has been an increase in the levels of poverty, but in recent years the term social exclusion has been the term which has been used to talk about deprivation and is an expansion on Townsend’s theory of relative deprivation. Carol and Alan Walker define poverty as “a lack of the material resources, especially income, necessary to participate in British society” (Haralambos, 2000, pg 303). They see social exclusion as being partially or fully excluded from systems in society which enable the person to be part of that society. We have already talked about the poverty line, some countries do not use this, those who do usually produce statistics stating the amount of households that fall underneath it, these statistics tend not to be based on sociological or childhood based definitions of poverty, and as they are calculated in a number of ways it makes them harder to compare.

   Unlike some countries according to Bradshaw, Britain does not have a definition of poverty or a poverty level which is generally acceptable, according to John Moore the Secretary of state in 1989 said that the conditions in which people lived compared to before the war and the beginning of the century it was no longer about poverty but gaining equality. The Child Poverty Action Group have said that those who are born into poverty are more like to be unemployed, get into trouble with police and live in social hosing when they are older, therefore there is a cycle of deprivation. Statistics by UNICEF in 2000 show that the UK has the highest rate of poverty in the EU and had the highest increase in the mid 1980’s compared with other EU countries. According statistics by UNICEF the UK seems to have good standards in relation to its basic factors, compared with that of Mexico. Mexico is a developing country in the southern hemisphere, of its population 43.5 % of its population are under the age of 18, and compared with the UK’s basic indicators it is nowhere near in comparison of the standard of living for its children. Many of its children migrate into the larger urban areas to gain employment with or without their families, this results in some children as young as 5 living on the streets. And according to its 1996 statistics, 3.5 million children aged 12 to 17 were part of the formal and informal labour force. Poverty in the developing countries such as Mexico poverty means not having shelter or food, these basic needs are different to that of somebody in the UK where poverty may mean to a child that they may not get to go on a school trip or have the correct school uniform. Although Mexico has seen a increase in its economy, many still live in social exclusion and approximately 24 million live in poverty. (http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/mexico.html ). UNICEF work hand in hand with the Mexican government in trying to promote a better standard of living for its children. As the presidential elections were being held last year it was urged for voters to pick a candidate that would help promote a better well being for the children. Many children have to take on work as their parents have either died are so ill that they cannot work, this puts strain on the child’s health and increase the risk of falling ill themselves. Yet compared with the UK many children don’t work until they are 16, this gain shows the way in which we determine the relative means of poverty. But a publication by UNICEF in 2005 called The State of The Worlds Children demonstrates the need for something to be done. It talks about how what we think of childhood is totally different from what we aspire it to be, many children loose out on the experiences of childhood, but as childhood is a new concept, it is hard to say whether some children are losing out on it, if they have never had it to begin with, in terms of psychological development many children many children would not be developed at all, according to Piaget and Vygotsky all children go through stages in order to understand language the roles which they will later pursue in life, but these ideologies and theories are all western middle class based, they are from educators whose ideas are based on western ideas without reflection for those in the developing countries or those who live in societies where they are not needed, but they are placed on them and are seen as under developed. Many children each year are victims of abuse, exploitation and violence, robbing them of their childhood, preventing them attaining their full potential.

   According to statistics by UNICEF the rights of over a billion children are being violated as they do not have at least one of the basic needs for the their survival and development, but it is the developing countries who are at war where children come into conflict with the idea of childhood, many children are soldiers in the battles and since 1990 more than 3.6 million people have been killed in conflict 45% who are thought to have been children (appendix 1, pg 20). Many children who are caught up in combat, mainly young boys becoming child soldiers, but girls also get caught up in the conflicts some become soldiers and have to fight, and some are used for sex and trafficked between soldiers and abused. According to The State of The Worlds Children action needs to be taken to reduce child poverty so that they can gain better access to services for growth and development. Plans of action are promoting the family, extend access to educational services among others. Understanding how children deal and cope with poverty is one of the ways in which effectives measures can be set up to solve the problems, poverty affects a child more than an adult, it can affect physical, mental and emotional growth, and it affects a Childs rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which says that welfare of the child is paramount. It infringes a Childs right to survival, without proper food and shelter a child is 6 times more likely to die before the age of 5. And measuring deprivation in children is also different than that of an adult. the labour government has targeted the problem of child poverty and wants to get rid of it by 2015, what is different about this new approach by labour is that rather than being about handouts for those who are excluded it is more about enabling. The government is to “to provide people with opportunities to take their families out of poverty and to improve the rewards for people taking lower-paid job” (Roberts, 2001, pg 55). This idea is about making people feel needed, so that they can get themselves out poverty and not to cause any set backs in children’s developments, with an aim to break the cycle of deprivation.

   Although poverty is a problem that occurs throughout the world it is the way in which it defined depends on whether the problem is dealt with importance, because the developing world have the systems and the capital to treat it, it is less of a problem within the developed world, but this means that the gap between poverty in the third world is ever growing and those in the developed have the power to say how aid is spent and how they will tackle the problem for other countries but at a price. According to Bradshaw (2002) the outlook for poverty in the UK looks optimistic with the help of initiatives such as Surestart and Education Action Zones and the governments monitoring the future looks better for children in poverty.

   The assignment has looked at poverty and its definitions and how it can be defined it case of its geographical location, I have looked at poverty within the UK and Mexico, and the differences in the way that the problem is handled and depicted.

Bibliography
Bradshaw, J 1990, Child poverty and deprivation in the UK National Childrens Bureau London
Bradshaw, J (2002) ‘Child Poverty and Child Outcomes’ Children & Society. Volume 16, 131-140.
Roberts, M Childcare PolicyFoley, P; Roche, J and Tucker, S 2001. Children in society: contemporary theory and practice Palgrave Hampshire
Haralambos, M & Holborn, M. 2000.Sociology: themes and perspectives 5th ed HarperCollins Publishers. London

Websites
http://www.cpag.org.uk/
http://www.unicef.org/

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