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As someone who is Honduran, it breaks me to see that my people are also facing extreme poverty. 1 out of 4 children who are under 5 years old suffer from chronic malnutrition. The climate in Honduras has not been very kind to my people as they faced droughts and erratic rainfall. The climate is the reason why there has been food insecurity and malnutrition across my country.

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Honduras is a low-middle-income country with more than 60 percent of the population living in poverty. In rural areas, one out of five Hondurans lives in extreme poverty. Climate change, inconsistent economic growth, growing levels of inequality and poverty, violence, displacement and limited

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I think I want to research about civil wars, which must be addressed to reach SDG #1. I will focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and solutions to provide education. I want to research this because the most extreme form of poverty is mostly in Africa, and they lack access to education.

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A change in policy can make a big difference to everyone, especially low-income countries. If the minimum wage was increased, it could really help those who are struggling with maintaining their lives. Policymakers could create a way for people to have access to quality education, which can help find jobs that pay more. The decision to end poverty is at the hands of policymakers.

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In 2015, 25% of the world's population lived on less than US$3.10 per day. Called the "global" poor, no matter where they live they have the same purchasing power based on the minimum nutritional requirements for good health. But, how is poverty defined in absolute and relative terms? And how does being poor and feeling poor compared with your peers affect your well-being, happiness, and mental health? How are factors such as unemployment, retirement, and single parenthood associated with persistent poverty and how can vulnerable people like children, women, and the elderly be protected from it?

What can policymakers do to reduce poverty?
Increasing the minimum wage is expected to help fight poverty as part of a wider poverty reduction package, but other tools such as earned income tax credits might be better suited. But, what role do means-tested, pro-work cash assistance programs, and negative income tax schemes play in delivering income to the working poor? How can higher education protect against persistent poverty? And can the integration of productive inclusion programs into existing social assistance systems lead to substantial and long-term poverty reduction?

The earned income tax credit boosts income and work effort among low-income parents, especially single mothers, and has contributed to the steep rise in employment among single mothers in the 1990s.

The earned income tax credit provides important benefits to low-income families with children. At substantial costs (over $70 billion to the US federal government), it increases the incomes of such families while encouraging parents to work more by subsidizing their incomes. But low-income adults without children and non-custodial parents receive very low payments under the program in most years. Many of these adults are less-educated men, whose labor force participation rates and relative wages have been declining for years. They might benefit significantly from a more generous earned income tax credit for childless adults.

An unequal distribution of resources within the family is a special concern for female poverty

Transition to a market economy is accompanied by a period of greater economic uncertainty. Women are likely to suffer substantial disadvantages from this uncertainty compared to men as they are, for example, more likely to lose their job. This not only implies a monetary loss for the entire family, but also degrades female bargaining power within the household, possibly further aggravating their well-being. When intrahousehold inequality-an unequal distribution of resources among family members-exists, female poverty might be significantly larger than what can be deduced using standard household-based poverty measures.

Standard poverty measures may drastically understate the problem; the collective household model can help

A key element of anti-poverty policy is the accurate identification of poor individuals. However, measuring poverty at the individual level is difficult since consumption data are typically collected at the household level. Per capita measures based on household-level data ignore both inequality within the household and economies of scale in consumption. The collective household model offers an alternative and promising framework to estimate poverty at the individual level while accounting for both inequality within the household and economies of scale in consumption.

Cash transfers can reduce child labor if structured well and if they account for the reasons children work

Cash transfers are a popular and successful means of tackling household vulnerability and promoting human capital investment. They can also reduce child labor, especially when it is a response to household vulnerability, but their efficacy is very variable. If not properly designed, cash transfers that promote children's education can increase their economic activities in order to pay the additional costs of schooling. The efficacy of cash transfers may also be reduced if the transfers enable investment in productive assets that boost the returns to child labor. The impact of cash transfers must thus be assessed as part of the whole incentive system faced by the household.

Enhancing the earned income tax credit would do more to reduce poverty, at less cost, than increasing the minimum wage

Minimum wage increases are not an effective mechanism for reducing poverty. And there is little causal evidence that they do so. Most workers who gain from minimum wage increases do not live in poor (or near-poor) families, while some who do live in poor families lose their job as a result of such increases. The earned income tax credit is an effective way to reduce poverty. It raises only the after-tax wage rates of workers in low- and moderate-income families, the tax credit increases with the number of dependent children, and evidence shows that it increases labor force participation and employment in these families.

The number of prime-age males outside the labor force is increasing worldwide, with worrying results

The global economy is full of progress paradoxes. Improvements in technology, reducing poverty, and increasing life expectancy coexist with persistent poverty in the poorest countries and increasing inequality and unhappiness in many wealthy ones. A key driver of the latter is the decline in the status and wages of low-skilled labor, with an increasing percentage of prime-aged men (and to a lesser extent women) simply dropping out of the labor force. The trend is starkest in the US, though frustration in this same cohort is also prevalent in Europe, and it is reflected in voting patterns in both contexts.

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In 2015, 25% of the world's population lived on less than US$3.10 per day. Called the "global" poor, no matter where they live they have the same purchasing power based on the minimum nutritional requirements for good health.

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Not only does this website show how to help no poverty initiatives, but it also shows why it's important to end poverty. Additionally, it tells us about the initiatives and the news regarding poverty. This website has taught me that poverty is more than just wealth. Poverty affects equality, social justice, human dignity, and basic rights.

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No Poverty is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015. The goal aims to eradicate poverty in all its forms and dimensions.

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This website shows more data about the economic states of the countries. This one also includes data on disasters and social services. It's also interactive as you can select countries and see how impoverished they are to health spending as a share of the total government. This data goes back from decades ago to the most recent.

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Home SDG Tracker Goal 1: No poverty

Sustainable Development Goal 1

Share below the international poverty line

The international poverty line is defined as living on $2.15 per day ( updated from the previous poverty line of $1.90 in 2015).

This poverty line is measured in international dollars, a hypothetical currency that adjusts for price differences between countries (purchasing power parity). It is measured in prices of 2017 to adjust for price changes over time (inflation).

Data for this indicator on the proportion of the population below the international poverty line is shown in the interactive visualization. Breakdowns by sex, age, employment status, and geographical location are not available for all countries, but our topic page on poverty includes some relevant measures in this context.

Target: By 2030, "eradicate extreme poverty for all people, everywhere ". This is defined by the UN based on the international poverty line.¹

Share below the national poverty line

National poverty lines differ by country depending on country circumstances, living standards, and cost of living.

Data for this indicator on the share of a country's population which lives below each country's specific national poverty line is shown in the interactive visualization.

Target: By 2030, "reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions. "

Share in multidimensional poverty according to national definitions

This indicator is measured via related measures of multidimensional poverty, all of which are constructed according to national definitions. Multidimensional poverty refers to being deprived in a range of standard indicators related to health, education, and living standards.

Target: By 2030, "reduce at least by half the proportion of men, women, and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions. "

Related data: Data on multidimensional poverty, measured as the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), can be found in this chart. This data has much better coverage across countries and time, and is measured in a consistent way, making it comparable between countries.

Population covered by social protection floors/systems

This indicator is measured as the share of the population effectively covered by a social protection system. Such systems include child and maternity benefits, support for persons without a job, persons with disabilities, victims of work injuries, and older persons.

In our topic page on government spending, you can find additional data, including some of the breakdowns mentioned in the definition of indicator 1.3.1.

Target: The SDG target is to "implement nationally appropriate social protection systems and measures for all, including floors, and by 2030 achieve substantial coverage of the poor and the vulnerable."

Access to basic services

The UN defines basic services as "public service provision systems that meet human basic needs" and defines this indicator in terms of access to 9 components: drinking water, sanitation, hygiene facilities, clean fuels and technology, mobility, waste collection, health care, education, and information services. These components also appear elsewhere in the SDG framework as indicators.

Since internationally-comparable data on this indicator is currently unavailable, we show here the share of the world population with access to four basic services: improved drinking water, sanitation, electricity, and clean cooking fuels. You can view the data for different countries or regions using the "Change country" button at the top of the chart.

More research: Further data and research can be found on the Our World in Data topic pages on clean water and sanitation, energy, and indoor air pollution.

Secure tenure rights to land

Data for this indicator is shown in the interactive visualizations, with the first chart showing data on indicator 1.4.2(a) for the share of adults with legal documentation of their rights to land, and the second chart showing data on indicator 1.4.2(b) for the share of individuals who perceive their rights to land as secure.

Deaths and affected persons from natural disasters

In the interactive visualizations, we show in the first chart a component of this indicator: the rate of deaths and missing persons from natural disasters, measured as the number of deaths and missing persons per 100,000 population per year. The other charts in the series include a range of metrics relevant to indicator 1.5.1.

Target: "By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters"

Direct economic loss from natural disasters

This indicator measures the ratio of direct economic loss from a disaster to gross domestic product, where direct economic loss is defined as the monetary value of totally or partially destroyed physical assets in the affected area. This includes losses in agriculture, all other productive assets, housing, critical infrastructure, and cultural heritage.

Target: "By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters"

Disaster risk reduction strategies

The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 is an international agreement that aims to strengthen disaster preparedness to reduce risk and losses from disasters. Although the indicator definition is framed in terms of the number of countries adopting national disaster risk reduction strategies in line with the Sendai Framework, the United Nations tracks this measure in terms of country levels of implementation.

The interactive visualization shows data for this indicator in terms of levels of country implementation, on a scale from 0 to 1, based on an average score from 10 scored sub-indicators that collectively reflect progress towards implementation of the Sendai Framework.

Target: "By 2030, build the resilience of the poor and those in vulnerable situations and reduce their exposure and vulnerability to climate-related extreme events and other economic, social and environmental shocks and disasters"

Local disaster risk reduction

In this context, "local governments" refers to sub-national administrative bodies responsible for developing disaster risk reduction strategies.

Data for this indicator is shown in the interactive visualization.

Development assistance for poverty reduction

Official development assistance refers to flows to countries and territories on the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) and to multilateral institutions which meet a set of criteria related to the source of the funding, the purpose of the transaction, and the concessional nature of the funding.

This indicator is measured differently for donor and recipient countries, and data is accordingly shown separately for donor and recipient countries in the interactive visualizations. For recipient countries, this is shown as official development assistance grants focused on poverty reduction from all donors as a share of the recipient country's gross national income. For donor countries, this is shown as bilateral official development assistance grants focused on poverty reduction as a share of a donor country's gross national income.

Government spending on essential services

Since internationally comparable data on all components of this indicator is not currently available, data on the percentage of government spending on health and education are shown in the two interactive visualizations.

There is no defined target for this indicator.

More research: Further data and research can be found at the Our World in Data topic pages on financing healthcare, financing education, and public spending.

Pro-poor public spending

This indicator measures spending by country governments to benefit the poor in terms of health, education, and direct transfers. Data is not currently available for most countries and is not reported here.

Cite this work

Our articles and data visualizations rely on work from many different people and organizations. When citing this article, please also cite the underlying data sources. This article can be cited as:

Our World in Data team (2023) - "End poverty in all its forms everywhere" Published online at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/sdgs/no-poverty' [Online Resource]

BibTeX citation

@article{owid-sdgs-no-poverty, author = {Our World in Data team}, title = {End poverty in all its forms everywhere}, journal = {Our World in Data}, year = {2023}, note = {https://ourworldindata.org/sdgs/no-poverty} }

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Sustainable Development Goals Tracker for SDG 1

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Factors that Makes Ending Poverty so Difficult

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Factors that Makes Ending Poverty so Difficult

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In the website, it says that factors like climate change, conflicts, and food scarcity can require more work to bring people out of poverty. Additionally, women have less paid work than men, meaning that gender is also a factor. While some countries like China and India have shown a lot of progress, countries within South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have shown little to no progress. This website concludes that there is an uneven progress in ending poverty.

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

The 17 SDGs are integrated-they recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Countries have committed to prioritize progress for those who're furthest behind. The SDGs are designed to end poverty, hunger, AIDS, and discrimination against women and girls.

The creativity, knowhow, technology and financial resources from all of society is necessary to achieve the SDGs in every context.

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The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

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This website showed me the comparison between countries in terms of the distribution of wealth. Regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa are poorer than the rest of the world. According to the data, most of the countries within regions have a national poverty line of less than $5 per day. This is incredibly low when compared to countries like Germany, Australia, and more.

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The Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2020

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The poverty line is used to a threshold for estimating poverty indicators that are consistent with a country's economic and social circumstances. In the United States, the poverty line is used to determine whether a person is eligible for a government assistance program. Although these programs are helpful, they mostly lead into a welfare trap. These traps can be difficult for those who can't get well-paying jobs.

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Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines (% of population) National poverty headcount ratio is the percentage of the population living below the national poverty line(s). National estimates are based on population-weighted subgroup estimates from household surveys. For economies for which the data are from EU-SILC, the reported year is the income reference year, which is the year before the survey year. World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform. Data are compiled from official government sources or are computed by World Bank staff using national (i.e. country–specific) poverty lines., World Bank (WB), note: Data are compiled from official government sources or are computed by World Bank staff using national (i.e. country–specific) poverty lines. Economic and Social Context % Annual Population-weighted average Methodology: Poverty headcount ratio among the population is measured based on national (i.e. country-specific) poverty lines. A country may have a unique national poverty line or separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas, or for different geographic areas to reflect differences in the cost of living or sometimes to reflect differences in diets and consumption baskets.
Poverty estimates at national poverty lines are computed from household survey data collected from nationally representative samples of households. These data must contain sufficiently detailed information to compute a comprehensive estimate of total household income or consumption (including consumption or income from own production), from which it is possible to construct a correctly weighted distribution of per capita consumption or income. National poverty lines are the benchmark for estimating poverty indicators that are consistent with the country’s specific economic and social circumstances. National poverty lines reflect local perceptions of the level and composition of consumption or income needed to be non-poor. The perceived boundary between poor and non-poor typically rises with the average income of a country and thus does not provide a uniform measure for comparing poverty rates across countries. While poverty rates at national poverty lines should not be used for comparing poverty rates across countries, they are appropriate for guiding and monitoring the results of country-specific national poverty reduction strategies. Almost all national poverty lines in developing economies are anchored to the cost of a food bundle - based on the prevailing national diet of the poor - that provides adequate nutrition for good health and normal activity, plus an allowance for nonfood spending. National poverty lines must be adjusted for inflation between survey years to remain constant in real terms and thus allow for meaningful comparisons of poverty over time. Because diets and consumption baskets change over time, countries periodically recalculate the poverty line based on new survey data. In such cases the new poverty lines should be deflated to obtain comparable poverty estimates from earlier years. This series only includes estimates that to the best of our knowledge are reasonably comparable over time for a country. For economies for which the data are from EU-SILC, the reported year is the income reference year, which is the year before the survey year. For all other economies, the year reported is the year in which the underlying household survey data were collected or, when the data collection period bridged two calendar years, the year in which data collection started.
Statistical concept(s): National poverty headcount ratio refers to the percentage of a population whose consumption or income per day falls short of the national poverty line. National poverty lines vary by country and over time. In low- and middle-income countries, national poverty lines tend to be absolute poverty lines, thus reflecting the estimated minimum amount of money needed to cover basic needs. In high-income countries, national poverty lines tend to be relative poverty lines, thus reflecting the typical amount of money needed for an individual to afford the typical standard of living and without any restraints to participating fully in the societies in which they live. National poverty lines tend to grow with economic growth, especially in high-income or upper-middle-income countries. The poverty rate as defined by national poverty lines reflects the share of the population that fails to meet the standard a country thinks is necessary to cover basic needs (typically in low- and middle-income countries) or afford a decent lifestyle (typically in high-income countries). SDG 1.2 aims to reduce by half the proportion of men, women and children of all ages living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions, by 2030. This series only includes estimates that to the best of our knowledge are reasonably comparable over time for a country. Due to differences in estimation methodologies and poverty lines, estimates should not be compared across countries. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC BY-4.0

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How can peace education in schools can help prevent future conflict in South Sudan?

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This articles introduce us to this woman from India called Amina. It explains about her struggles in the economic world of her country. She doesn't even know her age as she doesn't have a single documentation about her. People like Amina inspire economists to push for development.

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- Not far from the place I once called home stands one of India's glitziest shopping malls. By day, the massive building dwarfs every structure around it. At night, a dizzying display of lights cruelly exposes the surrounding shops and houses grown green, brown and weary from pollution and rain.

Inside this shining behemoth called Quest, Kolkatans with fat pocketbooks spend their rupees on luxury foreign brands such as Gucci and eat at Michelin-star restaurants.

Outside, life's cadences remain much the same for people like my friend Amina.

She lives in a slum in the shadow of Quest.

She is part of a faceless, often-cited statistic: About 60% of India's nearly 1.3 billion people live on less than $3.10 a day, the World Bank's median poverty line. And 21%, or more than 250 million people, survive on less than $2 a day.

Like other middle-class Indians, I grew up knowing little about poor people's lives. We moved in separate worlds, which, in my mind, only grew further apart as India lurched ahead as a global economic power. The rich got richer; the poor mostly stayed poor. And the gap widened.

Today, the richest 10% in India controls 80% of the nation's wealth, according to a 2017 report published by Oxfam, an international confederation of agencies fighting poverty. And the top 1% owns 58% of India's wealth. (By comparison, the richest 1% in the United States owns 37% of the wealth.)

Another way to look at it: In India, the wealth of 16 people is equal to the wealth of 600 million people.

Those startling numbers about my homeland make me think of it as almost schizophrenic.

One India boasts billionaires and brainiacs, nuclear bombs, tech and democracy. The other is inhabited by people like Amina. In that India, almost 75% still lives in villages and leads a hardscrabble life of labor; only 11% owns a refrigerator; 35% cannot read and write.

I am meeting Amina on this day because I rarely see policymakers or journalists talk to people like her about India's progress. Kolkata's Quest Mall is one representation of India's economic success, and I want to ask Amina what she makes of it.

My changing homeland

I have known Amina since 1998, when she began working at my parents' flat. She walked every morning -- sometimes in rubber flip-flops, sometimes barefoot -- from her room about a mile and a half away. She arrived around 10 to wash the pans from the night before and the dishes from breakfast. She scrubbed hard, and we often joked that we could taste the grit of Ajax in our fish curry.

She dusted the furniture, finely covered with a layer of Kolkata dust even though the day was still young, and hand washed clothes too delicate for our rustic washing machine.

Amina was probably then already well into her 60s, though she used to say: "I think I am 50." She didn't have a single piece of documentation, but her family insisted she was born before India gained independence in 1947.

She stood not much taller than my wheelchair-bound mother, paralyzed from a massive stroke. But no one was fooled by Amina's small stature; she was steely from years of domestic labor.

My mother adored her and even after my parents died in 2001 and I sold the flat, I sought out Amina on every trip home to Kolkata.

On one visit, I learned her husband, Sheikh Fazrul, had died, and as she grew more feeble, she had a hard time keeping jobs. I always tried to slip her a few rupees, but she never took the money without insisting on "earning" it. She offered a massage or pedicure in exchange.

I visit India often, partly because I am different from many of my Indian-American peers who arrived in the United States as young immigrants and did not look back. My parents moved back and forth from India throughout my youth, and my personal connections to my homeland run deep.

But there is another reason as well. Increasingly I've grown intrigued by India's metamorphosis from a poor "Third World" former colony to a global power.

I am aware, too, that a Westerner's view of India is often clichéd -- it's a land of corruption, bus crashes, pollution, arranged marriages and colorful festivals. It may still be all of that, but there are so many new dimensions to Indian society.

Half of its population -- that's 600 million people -- are under the age of 25. A nation long known for poverty and hunger is experiencing a rise in obesity in urban areas. And the information technology sector, a primary driver of Indian growth, is also responsible for pushing centuries-old traditional trades to extinction.

The changes force me to reacquaint myself constantly with the land of my birth.

Beyond the beautiful

On this afternoon, I am eager to see how Amina has fared since our last meeting. I navigate a dark, maze-like alleyway that leads to Amina's one-room abode.

The air is smoky from coal-burning stoves, the sulfuric smell colliding with the perfume of onions, garlic and garam masala in the woks of women cooking lunch.

There's no indoor plumbing, and I see teenage girls fetching water in red plastic buckets from an outside tubewell. There's a common toilet, but men and women bathe out in the open.

I think of Katherine Boo's best-seller, "Beyond the Beautiful Forevers," an exquisitely detailed chronicle of life inside a Mumbai slum. What I took away from that book was a realization that poor people in slums such as Amina's are not necessarily jostling to become India's next billionaire. They just want to fare better than their neighbors, move up a notch, however small, in the money ladder -- not unlike any of us who strive for a better house, a shinier car, a good education for our kids.

But Amina never moved up and that is perhaps her great sadness; that she was widowed by a man who she believes had neither the verve nor the physical strength to improve his lot in life.

I spot Amina's granddaughter, Manisha, and she takes me to her. Amina's room is cave-like, with no windows. A wooden cot sits up on bricks to keep it dry when the monsoons intrude. A television set, circa 1990, perches precariously on a shelf. Scratched aluminum pots adorn a wall facing the bed as though they were priceless works of art.

For this, Amina pays $2 a month, about what she used to earn at my parents' house. Rent controls in the slum are the only reason her son-in-law, who lives nearby, can afford to keep her here. She shares the space with her grandchildren and, sometimes, a daughter who lives in Kashmir.

People like Amina inspire economists such as Devinder Sharma to push India to take an alternate path to development. He is a bit of a firebrand, on a crusade to highlight the plight of India's poor. He argues that India's tax structure and other government incentives benefit its wealthiest industrialists -- such as billionaire Sanjiv Goenka, the builder of Quest Mall.

In business circles, Sharma is called anti-development. Indian entrepreneurs have their own ideas on why there is enormous inequality. They point to government corruption and inefficiency: India still ranks high on Transparency International's corruption perception index, at 79 out of 176 countries, with 1 (Denmark) being the least corrupt. (The United States ranks 18.)

Other factors feed the wealth gap, adds Raj Desai, an expert on economic development at Georgetown University. It matters whether you are a man or a woman, whether you belong to the untouchable caste. It matters where you live -- in a remote village or in an urban center. Someone like Amina, Desai says, is better off than the rural poor.

I take off my shoes and walk into Amina's room. She is on the floor and cannot stand up by herself to give me her usual warm hug. She gained weight after arthritis took hold of her body and limited her mobility. She's in her 80s now and has managed to live beyond the average age of death in India: 68.

I sit down on the cement floor to meet her eyes. I had told her ahead of time that I would be taking her on an outing.

"It's so good to see you," she says. "Where are we going today?"

"To another world," I say.

'Where have we come? It's so clean'

Amina hobbles to another room to get dressed and returns wearing a new orange and white printed cotton sari, the kind I know will run for at least the first dozen washings. She is barefoot, the cracks on her feet blackened by dirt.

We walk to the road and get into the car I have borrowed. She tells me she has ridden in a car or a taxi a few times in her life, mostly when her employers arranged for the ride.

The car meanders down the road that Amina traversed by foot every day. Finally, we arrive at Quest, where the juxtaposition of old and new is jarring.

Outside the mall, I watch Tapan Datta crack an egg at his roadside food stall, as he has for the past 15 years. He recently raised the price of his omelet to 10 rupees, or 14 cents. Inside the mall, a veggie quesadilla at the American chain Chili's costs 25 times more.

Quest hasn't really hurt his business that much, Datta laughs, because his customers can't afford anything in there. It's beyond the realm of most Kolkatans, including Amina.

When we try to step out at the main entrance, a security guard rushes toward us.

"No entrance for her," he says in Hindi. "No one can go in without shoes."

I see the sign on the glistening glass doors: "Rights to admission reserved."

I tell him Amina requires a wheelchair, an embellished truth that allows us to foray into the mall without Amina's feet touching the sparkling Italian marble tiles. Amina's eyes grow big. Her head swivels from side to side, as though she were watching a tennis match.

"Where have we come? It's so clean," she asks. She has seen Kolkata's newest mall from the outside but never dared go near it.

It's midafternoon on a weekday, and there isn't the normal crowd at the mall. I see mostly women and teenage girls bopping in and out of stores like Vero Moda and Michael Kors.

I wheel Amina into the Gucci store. The salesclerks look at us in wonder: Why is a middle-class woman catering to a poor one?

"How can I help you?" asks a woman behind the counter.

I tell her to ask Amina. For a moment, the woman (she did not want to give me her name) does not know how to react but then asks politely: "May I show you a bag?"

Amina points to a silvery, buttery leather concoction.

We ask the price. "It's 1.25 lakhs," the clerk tells us. That's 125,000 rupees or $1,865.

I wait for Amina's reaction, but there is none. She cannot even fathom the amount. It's as abstract as "gazillion."

In America, few people can afford to drop almost $2,000 on a handbag. But poor people there can at least walk into a mall and grasp what it would take to pay that amount. They could even possibly save enough to buy it one day.

It would have taken Amina at least 25 years to earn that amount.

In a way, I am relieved she cannot comprehend the price. I worry she might have felt humiliated otherwise, and that is far from my intention.

'I have come from hell to heaven'

How to solve this massive inequality is the million-dollar question being argued all over India. Does national growth need more time to deliver its magic, or is India's economic formula flawed?

The country's growth in the last 15 years or so has largely been jobless growth, which some analysts say exacerbates the problem.

French economist Thomas Piketty, who authored the seminal work " Capital in the 21st Century," caused a stir by suggesting higher taxes for the rich. One Indian media outlet labeled him "Modern Marx."

Among the biggest problems, of course, is a lack of decent education and public health. I'm not sure anyone has all the answers at this point, but I'd like to see enough progress so that people such as Amina, who worked hard all her life, don't have to die in poverty.

Desai, the Georgetown economist, talks about establishing a pension system in the vein of Social Security to provide an immediate lift for millions. To that end, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has launched a government pension plan, though it is not without criticism.

It's too late anyway for Amina. As part of India's unregulated domestic work force, she never had any protection. Only now are some Indian states passing laws to shield such workers from exploitation.

I take Amina to the mall's food court on the top level, and she orders a heaping plate of chow mein. She's never seen chopsticks before; nor has she used a fork. I tell her it's OK to eat with her hands. She doesn't care for green peppers, fishes them out of the noodles and pushes them aside.

Again, I feel the burn of many eyes upon us.

"What do you think of this place?" I ask her.

"I have come from hell to heaven."

After a few minutes of silence, she says, "I suppose now you will have to take me back."

In the car, Amina places her hand on mine.

She tells me her parents died when she was a child, and an aunt brought her from her native Allahabad to Kolkata. She started working at an early age and toiled her whole life until her body gave in. Now she lives day to day at the mercy of her daughters and sons-in-law.

"Aami garibmanush aachi, didi."

I am a poor person, she says in broken Bengali.

"And I will always be a poor person," she says. "There is no way out for people like me."

Her words make me terribly sad.

Beyond the data and the academic discussions of what it means to be poor in India, I know this: There is no version of the American dream in Amina's world. She would not let herself dare to hope.

We make our way back through congested lanes teeming with street life. Here you can buy almost anything you need, from syrupy fried sweets called jilebis to the blood pressure pills you'll need if you eat too many. I look at a stall selling leather handbags.

They hang from hooks on a wooden pole, their black leather dulled by sun and dust.

These are cheaper than Gucci, only $3 each. I ask Amina if she would like one.

"I can afford these," I say.

"What will I do with a bag?" she asks.

After a lifetime, she has nothing.

I drop her off at the entrance to the slum.

"Are there poor people in America?" she asks before getting out of the car.

I tell her there are people everywhere who are in need.

"Do they go shopping at malls?" she asks.

"Sometimes," I respond. "See you next time, Aminaji."

"Maybe," she says. "If I am still here."

Postscript

I took Amina to Quest Mallat the end of 2015 and last saw her 10 months ago. I inquired about her shortly before the publication of this story and learned that her slum has been bulldozed to make way for a high-rise residential building. Flats in that part of Kolkata can sell for $150,000 or more. I also learned that the landowners relocated Amina and her family to another slum. I am still trying to find her.

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This is what it means to be poor in India today

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Not far from the place I once called home stands one of India's glitziest shopping malls. By day, the massive building dwarfs every structure around it. At night, a dizzying display of lights cruelly exposes the surrounding shops and houses grown green, brown and weary from pollution and rain.

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"Global poverty reduction is virtually at a standstill. Around 9 per cent of people worldwide lived in extreme poverty in 2022. Working poverty affected 244 million workers in 2024. While the milestone of half of the world’s population having social protection has now been reached, low-income countries have shown almost no improvement since 2015. Inequality within and between countries continues to hinder poverty reduction, and the poorest are often left behind in periods of recovery. Inclusive and sustained economic growth, particularly in low-income countries and fragile settings, remains critical to reversing current trends." I believe that this quote shows that low-income countries have yet to improve. The quote shows that millions of workers were affected by working poverty. This goes to show that working isn't always a way to escape poverty. This can show about systematic issues like low wages, high cost of living, stagnant wages, periods of unemployment, and more.

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Goal 1 | Department of Economic and Social Affairs

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I picked no poverty because I believe that everyone has the right to have access to basic necessities like food, water, education, healthcare, sanitation, and shelter.

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In sub-Saharan Africa, a huge chunk of the population live in poverty. What makes fixing the problem even bigger is that there are not enough jobs created for such a population, leaving numbers of people unemployed. As one of the least developed continents, Africa is expected to double its population, which can strain its resources even more. Healthcare is lacking as millions of children are infected by preventable diseases.

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Facts & Statistics About Poverty In Africa | Children International | Help African Kids in Need

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Get the facts and statistics about the broad challenges of poverty and hunger in Africa.

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Despite having one of the largest economies in the world, Brazil has economic inequalities at such high levels. Although millions of people are being taken out of poverty, it's been very slow-moving. There are huge inequalities among the people in the country. It's so severe that it can cause people to fall back into poverty.

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Economic inequality in Brazil has reached extreme levels, despite being one of largest economies in the world. The last decades have seen incredible progress across Brazil. The country has been able to reduce inequality, taking millions of people out of poverty and thereby raising the base of the social pyramid.

But despite this evolution, the pace has been very slow and the Latin American giant is still listed as one of the most unequal countries on the planet.

Let's look at the numbers:

75 yrsAt the current rate inequality is decreasing in Brazil, it will take the country 75 years to reach United Kingdom's current level of income equality and almost 60 years to meet Spanish standards. Compared to its neighbors, Brazil is 35 years behind Uruguay and 30 behind Argentina.

19 yrsIn Brazil, someone earning the minimum monthly wage would have to work 19 years to make the same money a Brazilian from the richest 0.1% of the population makes in one month.

28 MBrazil has lifted 28 million people out of poverty in the last 15 years, reducing poverty to less than 10 percent of the population. But the rich continue to benefit the most: between 2001 and 2015, the richest 10 percent accounted for 61 percent of economic growth.
Brazil's six richest men have the same wealth as poorest 50 percent of the population; around 100 million people. Photo: Apu Gomes/Oxfam
2047At the current pace of progress, Brazilian women will close the wage gap in 2047. Black Brazilians will earn the same as whites in 2089. Brazil is decades away from wage equality.

6 vs 50%Brazil's six richest men have the same wealth as poorest 50 percent of the population; around 100 million people. The country's richest 5 percent have the same income as the remaining 95 percent.

36 yrsIf Brazil's six richest men pooled their wealth and spent 1 million Brazilian reals a day (around $319,000), it would take them 36 years to spend all their money. Mean while,16 million Brazilians live below the poverty line.

Building a more equal and fair country

Despite lifting millions of people out of poverty over the last decades, Brazil still faces a huge gap between the country's richest and the rest of the population. Worse still, inequality threatens to reverse the progress the country has made in ending poverty. Current World Bank projections show up to 3.6 million people are expected to fall back into poverty this year in Brazil.

That is why it is urgent to address some of the structural causes of inequality in Brazil, such as an unfair tax system or insufficient investments in social policies.

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Brazil: extreme inequality in numbers | Oxfam International

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Economic inequality in Brazil has reached extreme levels, despite being one of largest economies in the world. The last decades have seen incredible progress across Brazil. The country has been able to reduce inequality, taking millions of people out of poverty and thereby raising the base of the social pyramid.

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This website shows a chart that shows a significant change in numbers of people in poverty. From 1990-2018, over 700 million people were taken out of poverty. This doesn't mean that poverty ended in China. There are still millions that continue to struggle with low incomes and low standards of living.

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China's transformation from an agrarian society into the world's second-largest economy has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty. As part of broader plans to transform China into a " moderately prosperous" society, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set an unprecedented goal to eradicate poverty in China by the end of 2020. While Chinese President Xi Jinping officially declared a " major victory " over poverty in December 2020, hundreds of millions of people in China continue to struggle with low incomes and poor standards of living.

Measuring China's Progress on Poverty

Alleviating poverty has long been an enduring challenge for the global community. People living in extreme poverty suffer from severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation, health, shelter, and education. While poverty is a multidimensional issue, it is generally measured by income level. The current international extreme poverty line, established by the World Bank, is set at $1.90 per day (2011 PPP).

Using the $1.90 per day extreme poverty line, the global poverty rate has declined significantly since 1990, when it stood at 36.2 percent of the global population (1.9 billion people), to about 8.7 percent (roughly 668.7 million people) in 2018. China was responsible for just over 60 percent of this decrease. Decades of rapid economic growth in China helped to lift 748.5 million people out of extreme poverty, dropping the country's poverty rate from 66.3 percent to just 0.3 percent.

Among the world's 15 most populous developing countries, China has seen the greatest drop in poverty rates. However, China's massive contribution to global poverty alleviation is largely a function of its size. Vietnam succeeded in reducing its extreme poverty rate from 61.3 percent to 1.9 percent from 1990 to 2018, putting it roughly on par with China. Yet, because Vietnam's population is a small fraction of China's, the Southeast Asian country's successes have only accounted for about 3.2 percent of global poverty declines since 1990.

Evaluating extreme poverty only tells part of the story. In addition to the international extreme poverty line of $1.90 per day, the World Bank recommends using $3.20 and $5.50 per day as benchmarks to assess poverty in lower-middle and upper-middle income countries, respectively. Comparing progress across these three international poverty lines provides a more detailed picture of poverty alleviation. The animation below shows how poverty rates have changed in China from 1990 to 2018.

When the $5.50 per day poverty line is applied to China, an upper-middle income country, 17 percent of the country's population (237.2 million people) still lived in poverty in 2018. This is noticeably higher than some other major middle-income countries. Turkey's poverty rate of 8.5 percent, for example, was half that of China's. Iran (15 percent) also fared slightly better than China. Still, China was ahead of both Brazil (19.8 percent) and Mexico (22.7 percent).

Charting Progress on Poverty Alleviation

Although China's poverty alleviation progress has been impressive, it has not been without problems. Poverty has long been more severe in rural regions. In 2018, the extreme poverty rate in rural China was roughly five times higher than in urban areas.

China's own national poverty line is reflective of this rural-urban divide. Official figures only provide data on poverty in rural areas, rather than the entire national population. China's current poverty line was established in 2011 and was set at $339.7 (RMB 2,300) per year at constant 2010 prices, which equates to $0.93 (RMB 6.3) per day. However, when adjusted to account for rural-urban price differences, China's rural poverty line equals about $2.30 a day at 2011 PPP.

China's rural poverty line is notably higher than the international extreme poverty line of $1.90, and in recent years has tended to show significantly higher rates of rural poverty. In 2015, for example, China's poverty line indicated 5.7 percent of the rural population was in poverty, while the international line indicated a rural poverty rate of just 1.3 percent.

China's Push to End Poverty

Poverty alleviation has long been a top priority and central source of legitimacy for the CCP. Under Xi Jinping, the Party has pursued an unprecedented goal of completely ending extreme poverty by the end of 2020. China is set to reach its goals, but questions remain about the sustainability of government measures.

China's success at alleviating poverty is largely the result of decades of rapid economic growth. Over the last two decades alone, China's Gross National Income (GNI) per capita grew more than ten-fold from just $940 in 2000 to $10,410 in 2019. This is twice the rate of increase achieved by Russia, the second-fastest growing BRICS economy.

However, economic growth has been highly uneven, with higher-paying manufacturing jobs clustering in urban areas. The Chinese government began taking steps to address this divide by focusing on rural poverty alleviation. In 1986, the government set up a State Council office to identify impoverished counties, established a national poverty line, and created special funds for poverty reduction.

In 1994, the government introduced the Seven-Year Priority Poverty Alleviation Program, which set a goal of lifting 80 million people out of poverty within seven years. Central authorities also created cooperation mechanisms to allow more urbanized coastal areas to support poorer western regions. Subsequent "Outlines for Poverty Alleviation and Development of China's Rural Areas" (in 2001 and 2011) eliminated primary school fees for rural students, among other measures.

China also broadened coverage of the dibao program, a means-tested, unconditional cash transfer program that serves as the primary safety net for China's poorest individuals. First piloted in Shanghai in 1993, dibao was expanded to cover all urban areas in 1999 and all rural areas in 2007.

Since rising to power in 2012, President Xi Jinping has made eradicating poverty a top policy goal. Under Xi, China has pursued a strategy of " targeted poverty relief" - a concept first put forward by Xi in 2013 during a trip to Hunan Province. In late 2015, the Chinese government officially committed to eradicating poverty by 2020 - in time to mark the centennial of the CCP's establishment in 2021. The government defined poverty as income levels at or below the rural poverty line of $339.7 (RMB 2,300) or less per year in constant 2010 values.

Chinese leaders also pledged to eliminate the "two worries" (inadequate food and inadequate clothing) and provide "three guarantees" (access to healthcare, education, and housing). In all, the government's commitments amount to lifting more than 70 million people out of poverty within just five years. These goals are unprecedented in their scope, as previous Chinese administrations generally committed only to alleviating poverty, not to completely eradicating it.

To meet these goals, the government scaled up efforts to track poverty. By 2014, authorities had identified 89.6 million poor people, 29.5 million poor families, and 128,000 impoverished villages. The annual government budget devoted to poverty alleviation also more than doubled from $7.5 billion ( RMB 46.8 billion) in 2015 to $18.3 billion ( RMB 126.1 billion) in 2019.

In December 2020, at a meeting of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, Xi announced that "China has accomplished its poverty alleviation target... as scheduled and achieved a significant victory that impresses the world." Xi added that all counties had been removed from the government's list of impoverished counties and, under China's own poverty standards, nearly 100 million people had been lifted out of poverty over the preceding eight years.

Yet questions have been raised about various government measures. One recurring criticism is that there are major gaps in dibao coverage. Dibao is financed by the central government, but local officials determine which households can receive payments. This has led to cases of corruption as well as widespread shortages in coverage. As of mid-2020, the program covered only 3.1 percent of China's total population, and monthly dibao payments averaged only $92.6 (RMB 651.8) for urban recipients and just $67.2 (RMB 473) for rural recipients.

There is also concern that cash transfer programs like dibao disincentivize employment, which threatens the long-term sustainability of poverty alleviation. Some local governments have experimented with measures to transition welfare recipients to employment, but there is limited evidence that they are effective. Without more sustainable solutions, China risks allowing its most vulnerable citizens to slip back into extreme poverty.

Vulnerability Below the Surface

Despite years of prioritizing rural poverty alleviation, millions of rural residents continue to struggle with lower standards of living. Even in cities, migrant workers face unsafe working conditions and are excluded from accessing some critical social safety net protections.

One of the most pressing socio-economic challenges facing China is the development gap between rural regions in the west and more urban areas in the east. On average, residents of eastern provinces and municipalities have much higher disposable incomes than those of western regions, allowing them to access a much wider range of consumer goods. In the coastal megacity Shanghai, for example, annual per capita disposable income stood at about $10,052 (RMB 69,442) in 2019. Roughly 2,000 kilometers west of Shanghai, residents of Gansu province lived on per capita disposable incomes of just $2,771 (RMB 19,139).

The rural-urban development gap has major impacts on quality of life, affecting everything from dietary habits to disease mortality. In 2018, urban residents consumed 13.5 percent more meat than their rural counterparts. Conversely, rural residents ate 35 percent more grains, which are cheaper than meat. Research has also shown that rural residents face higher mortality rates from diseases like cancer. One study found that the incidence of cancer (per 100,000 persons) is higher in urban areas, but cancer mortality rates (per 100,000 persons) were higher in rural areas. In 2015, cancer mortality was about 36 percent higher among rural residents.

There are major inequities within China's cities as well. In 2019, there were 290.8 million rural migrant workers in China, accounting for about 37.5 percent of the country's total workforce. Roughly 46 percent of them were employed in manufacturing and construction jobs, which are labor-intensive and carry higher risks of injury.

Many migrant workers are considered to be in "vulnerable employment," which is characterized by "inadequate earnings, low productivity and difficult conditions of work." About 43.8 percent of China's working population was considered to be in vulnerable employment in 2018. While this is much lower than India (76.7 percent), it is higher than the other BRICS economies Brazil (27.6 percent), South Africa (9.7 percent), and Russia (5.3 percent).

Many migrant workers also lack access to social welfare protections as a result of the hukou system, or household registration system. Designed to control the internal migration of Chinese citizens, the hukou system can limit rural migrant workers without urban hukous from accessing public services such as dibao. In 2017, for example, just 22 percent of migrant workers had a basic pension or medical insurance, and only 17 percent were covered by unemployment insurance. The children of migrant workers face challenges as well, as they are often forced to attend separate schools that provide a lower-quality education.

Recent crises like the Covid-19 pandemic have hit these vulnerable populations hard. Researchers at Stanford University and China's Renmin University found that China's economy likely lost $100 billion in rural migrant worker wages during just one month of Covid-19 lockdowns. With little or no savings (due to low wages) and limited safety net protections, these wage losses were particularly harmful for migrant workers.

Adding to this, their hardships were systematically underestimated. During the peak of China's Covid-19 outbreak in February 2020, the country's official unemployment rate reached a record high of 6.2 percent (roughly 29 million people). However, this figure excludes rural unemployment and undercounts jobless migrant workers, meaning China's actual unemployment rate likely reached 10 percent (about 80 million people).

"We will adopt a policy to see rural migrant workers have equal access to employment services in the cities where they work."
2020 Government Work Report

The Chinese government has faced growing pressures to address these gaps and inequalities. In May 2020, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered his annual Government Work Report, in which he stated the government "will adopt a policy to see rural migrant workers have equal access to employment services in the cities where they work." He also announced that low-income earners would be allowed to postpone payments for social insurance premiums.

While these steps may help to dampen the economic blow to China's vulnerable populations in the short-run, significant obstacles remain. Rapid and sustained economic growth has long been the primary force fueling poverty alleviation in China. As China's economic growth slows, the pace of poverty alleviation progress is likely to slow along with it. Transforming China into a " fully developed, rich, and powerful" society by 2049 - the centennial of the country's founding - will thus remain a major challenge in the years ahead.

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Is China Succeeding at Eradicating Poverty? | ChinaPower Project

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China's transformation from an agrarian society into the world's second-largest economy has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty. As part of broader plans to transform China into a " moderately prosperous" society, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) set an unprecedented goal to eradicate poverty in China by the end of 2020.

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Poverty Continues Despite Economic Growth in Papua New Guinea

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Poverty Continues Despite Economic Growth in Papua New Guinea

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According to the article, the investment in the economic growth in Papua New Guinea doesn't go towards taking people out of poverty. Something tells me that this investment goes to something more selfish than helping out the people who actually need it. It's stated that economic growth does not mean that poverty is ending. The article includes percentages that the population have access to like water, electricity, and education.

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"The international poverty line is a monetary threshold under which an individual is considered to be living in poverty. It is calculated by taking the poverty threshold from each country—given the value of the goods needed to sustain one adult—and converting it into dollars." This quote tells you what the international poverty line is. From 2005 to 2023, the international poverty line had increased from $1.25 a day to $2.15 a day. The international poverty line can be misleading if you are using it to determine how well off a population is. Other indicators, such as education and health, are hard to quantify, covering parts of the economic impact on a population.

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International Poverty Line: Definition, Criticism, Uses

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The intentional poverty line is a metric used globally to determine if an individual is considered to be living in poverty.

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The National Employment Law Project helps people find well-paying jobs. This could help people earn money to take care of their family and themselves. Nobody deserves a job that barely pays the bills, everyone deserves a job that is able to cover all expenses. That way nobody will be stuck in a welfare trap.

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A Good-Jobs Economy - National Employment Law Project

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NELP is fighting for a good-jobs economy where every job is a good job that pays a living wage and everyone who wants a job can get one.

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Health and wealth are strongly intertwined and influence each other through a cyclical relationship where more wealth leads to better health, and health enables individuals to accumulate wealth. When children suffer from ill-health, their education can be disrupted. Public health programs can lower both incidence of illness and the risk of falling into the health-poverty trap. By increasing access to healthcare, we can reduce poverty.

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If people have access to quality education, their nation's economy would show significant growth. Moreover, education would empower people to be engaged in civic life, which will effectively deal with other issues. A child's cognitive, social, emotional, and communication skills can greatly improve by having access to quality education. Education is a right that everyone should have.

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How does education affect poverty? It can help end it.

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A high-quality primary education is a globally-recognized solution to the cycle of poverty. Here are 7 reasons why.

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Children die because of poor sanitation, hygiene, and water. By having access to safe drinking water, deaths can be greatly reduced. More clean water means less disease being spread and health improves. Healthcare can be less overwhelm as they can deal with patients with greater health problems.

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Clean Water and Sanitation - The Keys To Breaking Free From Poverty | World Vision Australia

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World Vision are dedicated to working with children, families, and communities to overcome poverty and injustice

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How can children and youth in conflicted-affected area in Sub-Saharan Africa gain access to safe, quality education during and after civil wars.