Introduction to Academic Writing

Assignment: Literature Review

Name: Trisha Dhanani ERP:
18111

Research Question
Planned societies and cities, in all regards and dimensions, will lead to a reduction in the existing
child poverty, worldwide, and will prevent poverty from spreading in the future generations.

Literature Review
Children of the world deserve a brighter future, full of opportunities they can grab and make happy
lives of their own but that has been made nearly impossible for almost half of the world’s children
that are under the age of 181, because of the issue of poverty that they face.
Authorities around the world, sit at big tables and discuss matters of dire importance, but they fail to
actively address the problem of child poverty the world currently suffers from. Poverty is not only
the result of economic issues faced by a nation, but also the social factors that engulf its population 2.
Therefore, not unless all aspects of a nation are viewed holistically, child poverty cannot be tackled
effectively.
The first and foremost step that should be taken by nations and governments is to get everyone on the
same page, so that no one feels excluded or that every party’s sentiments are clearly known from the
start. It becomes a great issue once a project is initiated and during its execution parties start backing
out because of their free-riding involvement throughout the course of the project because their
motivations were not the same as the others, and they were just in for the fun of it. Tackling child
poverty and putting an end to it is a serious matter, one that will lead up to shaping the future for our
upcoming generations.3
Let’s take India for example. Poor families surviving on income from forest-related activities tend to
become victims to “greener initiatives” because their sole source of income is now being eradicated
as part of a campaign to prevent further damage to the world’s ecosystem as a result of global
warming. This increase in poverty is a result of a disconnect in the structures of societies in nations,
where authorities don’t consider the repercussions of their actions in different dimensions of the
society. A better way to go about this is to have the concerned green-initiatives authorities, partner
up with relevant firms that can relocate the affected families to work that can provide them with a
steady source of income.4
Working on child poverty doesn’t only limit the improvements to bringing everyone on the same
page in one nation, but it also encompasses bringing nations around the world on the same page. This
needs to be a global uniting of nations to rid the world of this madness that has engulfed us as a
result of irresponsible communities that do not practice human rights and favorable public policies

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https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/news-centre/news/2018/half-of-world_s-poor-are-children.html
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that support and help in the growth of the children of this world. Someone has to put a stop to the
unfair trade policies that nations agree upon just for the sake of “profits”, without seeing the billion
children they’re pushing below the poverty line globally.5
However, there are contradicting views to this solution as well. Some people believe that such a
solution is impractical and may not result in effective poverty alleviation, which would only worsen
matters after investing so much time and effort into this activity.6 Rightfully so, poverty alleviation
efforts should be “localized”, so as to mold the action plans as per the conditions, traditions and
resources of a nation or society, so that the problem is tackled at a personalized level. By doing so,
the solutions put into action for addressing child poverty will be tailor-made, which will make them
much more relevant, specific and effective to the cause – the focus will be on the right places and
hence there will be an efficient allocation of resources devoted to child poverty alleviation.
These arguments lead us to the point of the efforts that should be put to task, in order to begin
addressing the issue of child poverty. There are many pitfalls in the systems that govern nations,
which directly result in undeserving children being cast away into poverty. It the right of every child
to have access to basic education, through which he/she can make something out of his/her life,
however, many nations deprive their young generation of this privilege. There need to be programs
sponsored by the government and run by efficient and specialized authorities that focus on youth
empowerment and skill development for the numerous children out there that didn’t have access to
basic education, so they can work towards a better future for themselves. 7 This is a long-term
proactive approach to tackling the future of child poverty, because if you train these individuals
today, they can become the guiding light for many others in their company to make something of
themselves and support their households towards a better living standard. Inspirational stories of
poor youngsters, who got access to such programs, can be made available to these children, as real-
life examples that can turn their worlds around as well.8
Many under-developed and developing nations are victims of poor infrastructure planning in their
cities, which result in additional living costs for these poor children. These costs can include
transport expenses, poor sanitation maintenance expenses, medical expenses, etc. Relevant
authorities should work towards better city planning for these below the poverty line children and
make sure they have access to proper basic facilities for free, as they rightfully deserve. But it’s not
only restricted to children – these services should be provided to couples as well, so they can better
plan their families, because a major reason for so many children falling below the poverty line is a
lack of family planning resources available to poor couples in these underdeveloped and developing
nations. This is also an area that needs attention of the relevant authorities, because this is one of the
root causes for such widespread child poverty across the world.9
Apart from these foundational actions that need to be taken, there are other initiatives that
companies, non-governmental organizations, clubs or institutions can take up and start working on,
in order to improve the lives of the families and children that are currently under the shadow of
poverty, and have no roads leading them out of this dark abyss. These initiatives can include outlets
for social and leisure activities that children can engage in, which can help in their development and

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growth. Many educative efforts can also be introduced to help these children in seeing the
opportunities they can grasp and work towards, because every individual needs an incentive to get
back up, and what better incentive for a poor child than to show him/her the brighter side of life
awaiting him/her, through a bit of effort?10
These children have just as much right on the food, medical, sanitation, sports, and leisure resources
and activities as do the privileged children residing in the same locality. The increasing prices and
worsening economies in underdeveloped and developing nations around the world has plunged these
children into a darkness where they do not have access to these basic services. And so, to address this
issue, MLAs and MPs should work towards providing free access to these resources to the poorer
children in their nations, along with better housing facilities, which may be efficiently subsidized,
because it is, after all, the nation’s responsibility to help the weak become strong.11
There needs to be better and effective communication 12 within a nation and between nations, in order
to completely eradicate child poverty from the world. It is a shame to the world authorities if they are
leading around 1 billion children into a grim future when the other 1 billion children rejoice in an
abundance of resources at their disposal. This will only be possible when the corruption and money-
mindedness of governments and corporations13 is eliminated and directed towards a socially
responsible initiative of pulling the world’s 1 billion children out of this poverty plague and
providing them with platforms where they can grow and develop into self-reliant smart individuals14.
Governments need to become efficient and they must address the poverty indicators in their policy
changes in order to bring child poverty into their list of prioritized issues in their respective nations.
This global issue is one that cannot be handled on one’s own and needs unity and support from
everyone in order to become a reality for the children of the future. 15 Every nation has its own
poverty indicators, which brings us back to the concept of “localized solutions” as a response to the
matter of child poverty alleviation. And since rural poverty is far greater than urban poverty all over
the world, it is necessary for governments to focus their efforts into developing their rural areas
efficiently, without worsening the poverty issue even further.16

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Bibliography

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Burdett, R. (2012). Finding Solutions for Urban Imbalances. Journal of International Affairs, 139-
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Cushing, D. F. (2014). The Sawa World Model: Addressing Extreme Poverty through Local
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Gupta, A. (2011). National Poverty and Global Poverty in the Age of Neoliberalism. Cahiers
d'Études Africaines, 415-426.
Hill, R. P., & Rapp, J. M. (2009). Globalization and Poverty: Oxymoron or New Possibilities?
Journal of Business Ethics, 39-47.
Knight, B. (2017). The narrative on poverty has failed. In B. Knight, Rethinking Poverty. Bristol
University Press, Policy Press.
Moore, A. (2009). Ending child poverty. Fortnight, 11-12.
Vira, B., Adams, B., Agarwal, C., Badiger, S., Hope, R. A., Krishnaswamy, J., & Kumar, C. (2012).
Negotiating Trade-offs: Choices about Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation.
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