Poverty: Cause for Social Exclusion and Domestic Violence - Research Paper Example

?Poverty: Cause for Social Exclusion and Domestic Violence and number  submitted Poverty: Cause for Social Exclusion and Domestic Violence Poverty is a state of deprivation that a large number of people around the world have been facing for a long time. It is a condition that a human being is not able to shrug off easily; being poor means that a person is not able to afford the basic amenities of life in order to live a substantial lifestyle. It has been estimated that developing countries and third world countries around the world are the worst that have been hit by families surviving in poverty stricken conditions, and the country and government is not able to do much because of its lack of resources and wealth. Most families that belong to a poverty stricken household are not able to rise out of the issue with ease. This is because poverty carries on from generation to generation and since poor people are not able to easily afford education, their children grow up with no knowledge of how to make their lives better and thus have to carry on the legacy that their parents have provided them with, which they further provide to their children, subsequently. (Shah, A) Poor people also face a vast amount of social problems, the biggest being rejection on behalf of society. Most of the people that belong to well off families and are able to afford their lifestyles, shun poor people and make their lives worse than what they were living. (Giddens, A) There are very few people that are philanthropic enough to help such people out and bring them out of their misery. On the other hand, there are other people that refuse to help such a miserable situation, and in turn create more problems for the poorer sections of society. “In the 1990s, the debate has shifted; as millions have become poorer, unemployment has remained stubbornly high, crime rates have risen, and all kinds of other problems like homelessness, single parenthood, drugs, truancy, substance abuse, suicide have multiplied, the focus has moved on to individual pathology. In the USA, the poor have become a target for remoralization through coercion.” (Jordan, Bill) Thesis Statement: Two such problems, that poverty stricken people have been facing for a long time; have been discussed within the scope of this paper. They are social exclusion and domestic violence. These are two issues that are rampant within the poorer sections of society due to various reasons which have been talked about further. Social exclusion is a concept according to which there are many sections of society that are not accepted by the majority of an area or place. They have been therefore, socially excluded and are not given as many privileges or rights as other people living within that same society. Most of the time, the poorer sections of society are the ones that are treated as outcasts because of their inability to have material wealth. They are blocked from enjoying certain opportunities and resources which are otherwise available to all other people residing within that same society. The biggest cause that has been recognised for social exclusion is unemployment, by the European Union, which is a result mostly of poverty. In most modern societies, in order to be able to earn a certain amount of income on a stable basis helps people to increase their feeling of self worth and also be able to provide for themselves and their families. However, poor people are not able to do so and thus form a part of both the socially excluded as well as unemployed aspects of a society. In many countries around the world, such a disparity can be noticed easily. In countries that are developing at a fast pace, like India and China, social exclusion is widespread and out of control, all because of poverty mapping the root cause of the problem. In such countries, the line that separates the rich from the poor is quite prominent within society and thus it is very easy for people to stay away from each other on the basis of their wealth and status in society. No person is interested in speaking with or indulging in any sort of emotional bondage or attachment with a poor person for the sole reason that they feel that their status in society will go down if they interact with people that form the lower strata of the rung. Thus, poor people get excluded automatically and form their own communities or groups. This further exceeds the kind of life that they already live and makes their situation even more obvious to other people, thus forming a proper demarcation. Therefore, socially excluding a certain section of people leads to a problem of not being able to receive equal amount of opportunities as compared to other people. This also involves the same in terms of getting jobs, gaining education, as well as receiving normal treatment from peers and other people. When such exclusion happens to poor people, it is worse because their circumstances are already bad as compared to other people and exclusion worsens it. They are devoid of every resource and opportunity only because they are not able to afford it. People look down upon them and make them feel like they do not have a sense of affiliation with the rest of the world at all. Coming to the next social problem that most people under the spell of poverty have been facing all around the world, we will move on to discuss the issue of domestic violence. First, we must understand the concept of violence; it is an illegal act or a crime that a man carries out in order to blame someone else and in the process help himself feel respite of the situation that he must be caught up in. Violence refers to beating up or causing harm or injury to someone else with or without reason. Domestic violence refers to violence being carried out in the household, usually by the male spouse on his wife or children. Such violence is not acceptable at all within society, however, it is rampant in poor households of the world and there has not been much that has been done about it. Most poor people are uneducated and illiterate and thus are not able to understand how to carry out a civil lifestyle and treat people around them. They lack the kind of sophistication that other people might possess in terms of dealing with people around them. They do not know how to present themselves in society because of the lack of resources and available opportunities due to their poverty stricken state and thus are shunned away by people. This causes frustration in a man; being socially rejected comes off to any human being as a very difficult thing to take because every man wants to be accepted and have people to understand his or her point of view. Thus, in order to vent out their frustration, most people take to beating other people, usually within their households. Women and children are the worst that have been hit by domestic violence as most men come back home and beat their wives and kids up. Most of these cases occur within poor households due to the lack of education and awareness regarding violence. Most women belonging to such poor households lose their self respect and confidence thus not being able to raise a voice or a hand against their husbands. Men engage in beating their wives and children up by taking out their anger and pushing it towards excuses. It is obvious that living a lifestyle that is not acceptable within society causes a man to rethink his decisions about life. Furthermore, being poor puts a man into depression because he is constantly taunted by the kind of life that he desires to have and the far reach that such a life is for such a poor man. Husbands have to feed their children and their wives and are not able to provide for them, which causes them to indulge in crimes and illegal activities. And when things go wrong in these aspects, they come home and take to beating their wives or children up. In most poor households, the men also take to substance abuse or the misuse of alcohol and drugs which brings their irrational, animal instincts out. This further leads them to come home every night and beat their wives up for the pettiest of reasons. In most third world and developing countries around the world, the problem of domestic violence is widespread. Many people have tried to escape the impact of such domestic violence however this can have adverse effects on their lives, including devastating economic impacts. Most women are afraid to leave their husbands even though they might beat them up every night, for the sole reason that they do not have the education or means to provide for both themselves as well as their children. They fear their husbands beating them up even more and engaging in sexual abuse if they even think of bringing up the topic of leaving them or separating from them. This thus calls for criminal and civil legal remedies to be present in order to safely leave a relationship. However, poverty stricken people neither have access to such remedies nor do they even possess the required awareness to be able to take such action. (Felice, L. DE) It might take a woman a very long time to be able to decide things for her if she has lived under the shelter of her husband all her life. Most women are not able to carry out any actions or take any decisions regarding family matters because they are used to being overshadowed by their male counterparts. “Legislation, policy, services and advocacy often focus on physically separating the battered woman and her children from the abusive partner, but do not guarantee a home, food of health care or an opportunity for long-term financial stability. And anti-poverty schemes focus on increasing economic resources and access to program without addressing the impact of violence on family’s basic human needs and do little to prevent a partner to harm the wife’s job.” (Paul, Aditi) Being in a perpetual state of poverty prevent women from having the hope of being able to live a life safely. They do not have means to any source of income or food and thus stick to their husbands for being able to receive these amenities easily. They do not have the education or thought process to be able to make a plan of action for them if in case they do decide to leave their husbands and this further leads them into a state of bedlam. (Shobe, M., & Dienman, J) “Some require extensive use of the civil legal system to obtain orders for custody, child support or protection. Woman must be able to financially support herself and her children after she leaves her abusive partner. In many locations there are programs that provide housing and temporary cash assistance, child care and free legal representation. However, most of these programs have limited funding, offer short-term resources. As a result some low-income battered women simply are without the income, government support, or access to services necessary to fully implement safety plan.” (Paul, Aditi) The aspect of domestic violence is not at all ethical because no human being has the right to beat someone else up with or without reason. When it comes to social exclusion, the very idea of the issue is also not acceptable or ethical because it is the right of every human being to have the liberty and freedom to interact with anyone belonging to the same society and be able to avail of resources and opportunities. No one should be discriminated against on the basis of their wealth or status in society. Only when poor people will be given the chance to succeed will they be able to show whether or not they have the potential and talent to exploit the opportunity to the fullest. Taking these aspects and applying them to a professional stage of life, it is not acceptable to carry out acts relating to social exclusion or domestic violence. It is not alright for a person to beat someone up within the office structure or to even exclude someone of availing the opportunities as other people. I would like to undertake a project that deals with the number of households that have been facing the problem of domestic violence, in the poorer sections of society. I would like to measure the kind of lives that poor women are forced to live because of the violence that they face from their husbands and be able to find a way to help them get away from such a miserable lifestyle. I would like to find out the number of women that are aware of legal aid services and medical facilities in case of being beaten up on a regular basis and thus try to help those that are not aware of such processes. We would thus require at least 15 women and understand their stance. Around five people would be involved in the research study and we would like to map down three poor sections of the society, and go and speak to every household within those societies and understand the plight of the women. Thus, the primary method of data collection would be the best method to find out statistics regarding the number of women facing domestic violence and the number of women that are aware of legal aid services. We would also like to find out the number of women that do not want to break away from their partners because of the aid that they are receiving from them financially, and the kind of exploitation that they undergo. This entire task will prove to be extremely difficult because not many women would want to talk about their lives with respect to this topic. Thus, we would at least like to spread awareness regarding child custody, women care facilities etc to these estranged and underprivileged women. In conclusion, poverty is a social evil and root cause of a number of problems caused to man, two of which have been spoken about in the paper. A research study or project to be conducted in order to further understand these issues has also been talked about which has provided information regarding the causes and problems caused by poverty and how it separates the entire world into the haves and the have-nots. References Paul, A. (2010, January 27). Poverty And Domestic Violence By Aditi Paul. Retrieved July 17, 2011 Jordan, B. (1996). A theory of poverty and social exclusion . Blackwell: Wiley. Shobe, M., & Dienman, J. (2007). Intimate Partner Violence in the United States: An Ecological Approach to Prevention and Treatmen. Social Policy and Society, 7(2) Giddens, A. (2009). Introduction to Sociology. New York: W.W. Norton. Shah, A. (2011). Causes of Poverty. Global Issues. Felice, L. DE. (2010, December 9). Poor Economy Leads to Higher Rate of Domestic Violence.Inside Eau Claire. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from http://www.insideec.com/?p=2470 Poverty. Serving the Dear Neighbour. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from http://www.stepstoneks.org/ Read More