In the dictionary or an encyclopaedia, poverty is an economic condition in which people lack sufficient income to obtain certain minimal levels of health services, food, housing, clothing and education generally recognized as necessary to ensure an adequate standard of living. What is considered adequate, however, depends on the average standard of living in a particular society. What I feel is that there is always an imbalance when there is a large society. Some people are rich while the others are poor and it isn’t half –and –half. Three quarters of it is poor while a tiny amount is rich. The rich people go on and on getting richer while the poor people going on getting poorer. I’ve always wondered why there are many poor people in the world and I found many reasons for this.

A strange thing I found was that when people don’t think like other people then they are highly disregarded. For example Copernicus was a great scientist yet in his time everyone didn’t want to listen to him. This was because he thought the world was round when all the other people in the world thought it was square. Later on his theories were proved right. Like that, today everybody talks about dot-commas

But few think of poverty. So that’s one reason why things like poverty take a backseat. Another thing was that when people don’t like other people don’t believe in themselves they usually end up with a bad life. Self-motivation is an important factor in life. If you are not informed or educated then you get a lot of false beliefs, such as the rich are always right and they are to remain rich all their lives while you are to stay poor all your life. If you were informed then you would know how the rich are exploiting you.

A big reason for poverty is greed. When people become rich, they want more and money. There must be a way to treat greed, because I think greed is like a disease. If man can spend a lot of time and money on making people reach the moon similar effort needs to be directed to reach prosperity for all. When I was doing research on poverty I came across "Spitz’s Model of Seven Families". After I read it I found that food is very much linked to poverty while I can’t understand this fully I would like to learn more about how food is produced and controlled. Sometimes wonder how it would be to be poor? Think about it, the poor don’t lead an easy life. The children of the family go to beg and when they return without money or food their fathers or mothers beat them. Then the women in the family prepare a meal that would hardly consist of any nutrition. Maybe some daal and rice. Sometimes the family would go without food and water for days and days .The men in the family earn a few rupees by working in a factory, a building site or in a brothel. The women also earn some money by working in somebody’s house as a cook or in a weaving company. If the money is just not coming in then the women may work in more than one house for many hours at a go. You can see from this that the women work a lot more than the men do for they both work as well as cook. Very often when I’m waiting at a traffic light and a boy my age walks up to the window and begs for money I turn away. This is because I feel bad for them and I feel guilty that I have more than they do. I find it difficult to talk to poor people. I would like to learn how to communicate with them so that I can also know how they feel in their own worlds. What can I do about poverty? I think I can firstly start looking at my own greed. If I learn how to be less greedy only then can I talk to others about greed? I need to learn a lot more about all the reasons for poverty and how it spreads. I have seen very rich people being scared to give and some poor people so ready to share. This is a paradox and shows me that issues like poverty are complex. I don’t want to grow up not having honestly tried to contribute my small bit to making this situation better. So for that I better start learning and inquiring now.