{"id":118046,"date":"2021-09-11T15:33:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-11T22:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=118046"},"modified":"2021-09-11T15:33:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-11T22:33:52","slug":"could-poverty-be-eliminated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/09\/11\/could-poverty-be-eliminated\/","title":{"rendered":"COULD POVERTY BE ELIMINATED?"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

After\nreporting Mr. Susil Siriwardane passed away, the debate on the elimination of\npoverty re-emerged and it might be for a short period because the condition of\npoverty in the country has not been eliminated so far. Mr. Susil Siriwardane\nattempted to reduce poverty through his project JANASAVIYA and Mr.R. Premadasa assisted\nthe project and allocated budget funds, however, poverty in Sri Lanka seems to\nbe vicious nature among many people. It is a significant characteristic of the\neconomy of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poverty\nhas been a specific feature of Sri Lanka since economic activities were beginning\nby humans in the country. Marco Polo, in his report on Sri Lanka, gave short\ndetails of poverty in Sri Lanka. According to historical information, no king\nin the past attempted to eliminate poverty, and although published literature\nmentioned the term poor people, what type of plans were implemented to eliminate\npoverty are not mentioned. In history, poverty has been treated as a\ncharacteristic of past life or a consequence of sin committed in a previous\nlife. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poverty\nis a feature or characteristic of any country in the world and economists have defined\npeople who are gaining income below the poverty line included in the category\nof poor. The drawing of the poverty line is based on the income levels of\npeople, and it considers many factors and the ways people are gaining economic\nadvantages. All governments in the world have taken policy actions in a variety\nof ways supporting the poor, and no country has eliminated poverty except the\nvolume of people under the poverty line. Therefore, the elimination of poverty\nis a complicated task and it can see in some countries many poor, homeless\npeople while rich people are living in a luxury status.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poverty\nelimination is a vital part of the curriculum of economics in universities, and\nsome universities have identified the characteristics of poor countries\nconsidering a variety of factors. The University of Sussex made much research\non the elevating of poverty and Sri Lanka was also included in such research.\nWhat is the most effective policy action to eliminate poverty, it is difficult\nto define? For example, a person gaining less than $1000 for a month is below\nthe poverty line, but such a person could not be poor in Sri Lanka, it\nconcerned the matter of purchasing power of a currency.     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nassessing the economy of Sri Lanka, the volume of people in the category of\npoverty has been subjected to variation and the COVID-19 pandemic also\ncontributed to change the volume of poverty because the lockdown strategy to\ncontrol the pandemic was disadvantaged to poor people who were restricted by\nlimiting engagement of economic activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nefforts in the elimination of poverty in developed countries composed of\nvarious programs and providing subsidies for various expenses such as\nelectricity gas, rent, and many others, and skills development programs to\nincrease earning levels and encouragement in investments in projects that\ncreate jobs are major efforts of poverty elimination. The elimination of\npoverty is an impossible task. Whatever measures are used, many people include\nin poverty because the general price level, exchange rate, and the value of\neconomic activities are changed for many reasons. When Mr.J.R. Jayawardane\nelected the prime minister in Sri Lanka in 1977, he started a payment system\nsimilar to dole in developed countries after about a few months, the program\nwas abandoned by the government and what was the reason was unknown. Most\nprobably, it was a lack of funds to afford. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Various\nfactors contribute to poverty in Sri Lanka. Lack of skills training in the\neducation system has been a major reason, and in early the 1960s, education\npolicy had changed to attract skills development in the school curriculum,\ndespite this effort, Marxist political parties protested against policy changes\nand gave a terrible impression on the purpose of education. This attitude has\nstill not been changed in Sri Lanka. Many people go overseas for education\nrather than investing in technical and vocational education. It does not kill\ndevelopment but for theoretical knowledge development in business and finance.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nhigher population in the country is another major factor for poverty. I read. A\nbook in 1976 in which showed that the population in Sri Lanka was higher\n(George, S (1976) How the Other Half Dies, The Real Reason for World Hunger,\nPenguin Books p.57 and Sri Lanka had a population plan to maintain a lower rate\nof population growth, however, the plan has not been properly monitored and\nreligions and racism encouraged to increase the birth rate of the country. I\nnoticed a TV Chanel encouraged to increase kids and offering presents to those\nwho have many kids in the family. While the death rate was reduced to very\nlower for a thousand, the rate of birth for a thousand went above. Now medical\nofficers advise postponing pregnancy for young married women, it might increase\nthe death rate of pregnant women and the spread of the Delta variant. Sri Lanka\nshould have a 15 million population is the best option for the country, if it\nwants to reduce the poverty. The current population in Sri Lanka is seven\nmillion higher than it should be.              <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndon\u2019t want to suggest that Sri Lanka needs to implement Malthus’ theory, but\nthe imbalance of female and male population 48:52 also contributes to an\nincrease in population and makes a positive impact on poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\npopulation classification race needs changing and many Muslim populations are\nsubjected to poverty as the religion motivates them to have more kids in a\nfamily.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS After reporting Mr. Susil Siriwardane passed away, the debate on the elimination of poverty re-emerged and it might be for a short period because the condition of poverty in the country has not been eliminated so far. Mr. Susil Siriwardane attempted to reduce poverty through his project JANASAVIYA and Mr.R. Premadasa assisted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}