Understanding & Achieving UN Sustainable Development Goal # 1 : No Poverty
While reading this article, many of you may believe that poverty is the lack of finances or money. But you will gradually realize that poverty is much worse than that. Let's first clarify our concept regarding poverty.
Understanding Poverty:
As I said, poverty is worse than just lacking finances or money to do routine tasks. It is poverty, so people cannot access food, shelter, health, education, clothing and mental peace. It is a condition where sometimes people regret their own existence. It can affect an individual or a complete society and become a complex societal issue. There is no one clear cause of poverty. Poverty arises from multiple factors and its effects differ in each situation, varying significantly based on the specific circumstances.
Understanding United Nations's SDG -1: End Poverty in all its forms everywhere
The United Nations and other top-tier institutions of this world are working on Agenda 2030 which aims to eradicate poverty, hunger, adverse environmental impacts, environmental and climate degradation and other colossal challenges due to which all living beings especially humans are suffering today and may suffer a lot in future.
SDG #1 aims to end all the causes that are directly or indirectly related to Poverty. It means that there should be no financial or monetary hindrances in the way of getting food, shelter, healthcare, education or mental wellbeing. The goal also incorporates other interlinked problems such as eradicating unbalanced class structure, extraordinarily unfair division of wealth, discrimination and social exclusion.
Why ending Poverty is the need of the hour?
It is pretty sure that if poverty prevails in society then there will be no equal opportunities. Challenges like unpredictability, insecurity, instability and a continuous state of conflict will remain between the privileged and the deprived of the society.
1. Poverty deprives individuals of living their lives with honour and decorum. It takes all the opportunities from them to live a compelling life.
2. Poverty impacts the production, consumption and overall economy of a society. Imagine if individuals are struggling with poverty, how they can contribute to a thriving economy?
3. Poverty makes the society unstable and insecure. When the poor and the deprived found no opportunities and legitimate ways to get access to basic resources, they tended towards the illegal and criminal ways. It increases the crime rate and social unrest in the society.
4. Eradicating poverty is the first and major step towards making a sustainable world. Issues like the provision of quality education, justice to all, and no waste production and consumption can be solved once we can successfully encounter poverty.
How we can achieve the goal of No Poverty? What will be the roadmap?
Ending poverty for all by all means is a hard and challenging task but not an impossible one. Let's discuss the basic steps in the road map of this journey.
1. The government must take complete responsibility and take all the essential steps in fostering the economic growth of the country. The minimum wage must be set enough that even the lowest-paid worker can live peacefully. Labour laws must be strict and ensure no discrimination in job opportunities. The governmental bodies must work on bringing national and international investments to foster the economic growth of the country. There must be an attractive policy regarding the employment and retirement benefits of the employees.
2. Education is the key to success. Whether it is primary education, or a master's degree, each individual of the society must have access to education. There should be no discrimination in the provision of education. Special training and vocational learning programs must be arranged for all age and skill groups of society to train them with the latest and emerging technologies and updated knowledge. This way poor people will be empowered. They will be able to use their quality education to uplift their life standards and contribute to the betterment of society.
3. It is sad that in developing and under-developed countries, women are deprived of opportunities and are immensely affected by poverty. Women empowerment is the solution to this problem. Government and the society must collectively take prime steps in making quality education, job and business opportunities accessible to women. This will help them break the poverty circle and uplift other women around them.
4. People living in rural areas have agriculture and livestock farming as their main source of income. They must be educated and trained with the latest trends and advancements so that they can increase their production. This will also help to reduce the adverse environmental impacts and will promote sustainable agriculture.
5. Remember, poverty is a global issue. It can not be eradicated by a developing or under-developed country just on its own. Developed countries must help in this process and take steps to provide financial, technological, and capacity-building support. Through this global collaboration, significant progress can be made in ending poverty for all.
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