Strategies to Alleviate Poverty and the Implications of Population Growth

FINAL EXAM
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Strategies to Alleviate Poverty Especially Among Women, Religious and Ethnic Minorities, Children and Young People In Chittagong.
Introduction
Poverty levels drag the economic development of a country and alleviating poverty levels is of paramount importance to any government. If the citizens are relatively wealthier, GDP will improve, they would be able to afford the education cost of their children and help the country become globally competitive in labor. Lower poverty levels also mean higher standards of living for low-income earners and help reduce crime. Poverty pushes some people to resort to crime and therefore fighting poverty indirectly reduces crime significantly. Lower poverty rates also guarantee the attainment of the country’s strategic goal since most of the goals such as lower infant mortality, higher numbers of medically insured people in the population, better food security, etc. are almost unattainable if poverty levels increase or persist. Thus, fighting poverty is a priority to the government, and it will go a long way into actualizing or supporting other developmental plans of the government. Since poverty tends to majorly affect the minority religious and ethnic groups because of historical and structural issues, an effective poverty-fighting program ought to consider these groups. Chittagong has also feminized poverty and women have been sidelined in development which is partly the reason economic growth has been slow because nearly half of the nation’s human capital is underutilized. Poverty alleviation program must also be accommodative of the youth as they are the future of the government and they ought to be supported to establish long-term poverty eradication measures. This article will focus primarily on the best strategies the government can adopt to alleviate poverty generally and specifically to the major interest groups; women, youth and minority religious and ethnic communities.
Raise minimum wage
It is necessary that everyone in the country earns a sustainable income. Most corporations and businesses tend to underpay their employees to maximize their profits, but this exploitative practice promotes poverty. This is because minimum wages are earned by the low-income earners and if it is hardly enough to cover their expenses, it cannot be saved and or invested in other ventures to generate income for them CITATION MIk14 \l 1033 (Konczal, 2014). The country ought to legislate a law that sets minimum wages for all companies across all industries to ensure it is sustainable for the employees. The minimum wage law must be structured such that it the wage is annually adjusted for inflation to allow the low-income earners can sustainably save more for reinvestment and have a chance to escape poverty.
The main advantage of this strategy is that it helps improve the standards of living for the e employees and an edge over the economic strife. Employees will be able to cover their bills for decent basic life, and it will also go a long way in boosting morale and productivity of the employees. The minimum wage will also help in reducing income inequality since the disparity between high-income earners and low-income earners is reduced if the government establishes the minimum remuneration standard. On the other hand, raising minim wages can prompt the employers to devise ways to navigate the financial implication it has on their business operations. It can lead to capital outflow as employers seek other countries where the cost of doing business is lower. It could also prompt the employers to lay off more workers to reduce their payroll expenditure thus unintentionally increasing unemployment.
Strategic investment in education to build a globally competent human capital pool
The best tool to fight poverty is education. Education adds human value and the higher the value, the higher the income the individual earns. Thus, by channeling more investment in education through multifaceted programs to diversify and improve the quality of the labor market pool, the country would generally be better positioned to fight poverty CITATION Ala14 \l 1033 (Semuels, 2014). Strategic investment in education entails subsidizing tuition for low-income children and offering scholarships to well-performing children from poor backgrounds. The government can also strategically invest in providing the necessary tools for children to learn such that even children in low-income neighborhoods have relatively similar resources and competent teachers to learn. This is a long-term investment which may not have immediate results but will significantly help reduce poverty in the future by reducing intergenerational mobility of income and reducing income inequality. If the labor pool is saturated with high-value human capital, some people can move to serve the global demands of labor, and in the process help, the country bolsters its international trade relations. They can even work for international companies as teleworkers.
The main advantage of this strategy of fighting poverty is that it fights not only poverty but also income inequality, helps build better quality labor pool for the country, spurs innovation and entrepreneurship, etc. Thus, investing in education can help the country fight other problems such as income inequality and help increase the GDP, attract foreign investment among other economic advantages. On the other hand, investment in education has a major drawback that its benefits are not realized immediately. The government will continually invest for several years before the fruits of investing in education become apparent.
Support entrepreneurship, especially the youth
Entrepreneurs can help eradicate poverty in several ways. First, entrepreneurs create businesses which need employees. Other than employing themselves, they employ other people who earn their living through the entrepreneurial venture. Supporting entrepreneurship can help reduce unemployment and hence reduce poverty and income inequality. Secondly, entrepreneurs increase the national output of the c...