Presentation on Poverty, Unemployment and Education

For the Fulfill the Requirement of an Assignment of Sociology of Education

MPhil/PhD Program, Development StudiesSchool of Education, Kathmandu University

Rajendra P Sharma

April 30 , 2013

Understanding Poverty

Poverty has various manifestations:� lack of income and productive resources sufficient to :

� ensure sustainable livelihood; hunger & malnutrition

� directly connected to employment� directly connected to employment

� It is subjective, relative and contextual,

Hence, can be described in several ways:

� BROADLY = Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said poor or to be in poverty,

� if they lack the resources to have living conditions and amenities which are customary in the society.

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Poverty can be seen in two ways

� Absolute poverty � is the lack of resources that leads to hunger and physical deprivation

� Relative poverty refers to a deficiency in material and economic resources � refers to a deficiency in material and economic resources compared with some other population

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� Poverty and Unemployment: A cyclical effect� Unemployment leads to financial crisis and reduces the purchasing capacity, this results poverty followed by increasing burden of debt (World Bank, 2005).

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� A situation, in which the workers are capable of working and willing to work, but do not get employment.

� Unemployment and poverty are the two major challenges that are facing the world economy at present

Unemployment

are facing the world economy at present

� And off course in Nepal too

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Types of unemployment

� Seasonal unemployment

� Frictional unemployment � Moving from one job to another

� Structural unemployment� Structural unemployment� when the qualification is not enough to meet job responsibilities

� Cyclical unemployment� demand deficient unemployment, when the economy is in need of low workforce

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� Structural changes/high population/low industrialization/ low employment

opportunities

� Rapid changes in technology

� Ability to seek employment/seasonal work

Contributors for poverty & unemployment

� Exclusion -disability/Age/gender/geography/minorities

� Foreign competition/inflation

� Change in the climatic conditions

� Government socio-economic policies

� Information and education

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Philosophical views

Functionalist Perspective talks structural unemployment� Sometimes, desirable economic changes may affect the level of poverty, as their cumulative impact is to increase an unemployment and poverty that we call structural unemployment� such as inflation and technological innovation� such as inflation and technological innovation

The Conflict Perspective� Views society as involving constant struggle between social classes over scarce resources

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Philosophical views cont

Social Darwinist m theories argue that � essentially, the poor are poor because they are lazy, waste their time and money, and simply do not have the self-control to succeed. (by choice but not by chance)

� Structuralists argue that � Structuralists argue that � The poor are most affected by the business cycles of boom and bust creating cycles of employment and unemployment.

� The poor own very little, means the poor are left without resources when employment comes to an end or become unemployed any time.

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Nepal, where we are?

9GDP - per capita:$1,300 (2012) WB: comparison : 207

Unemployment rate:46% (2008)WB Comparison:192 (Source: CBS 2011)9

NOT TO BE POOR - calorie consumption 2,200 /person /day and access to

essential non-food items with income NPR 14,430 a year is must

� earning less than Rs 14,430 per year falls below the poverty line

Interesting figures

� poverty level in the Urban hills (9 percent) is lower than that in

Measuring Poverty in Nepal

� poverty level in the Urban hills (9 percent) is lower than that in

Kathmandu (11 percent)

� highest poor population live in the mountains (42 percent) ,

� and rural hills in the Mid and Far-West regions (37 percent).

poverty rate has declined to 25.2 percent

� households led by agricultural wage workers are the poorest while those

headed by professional wage workers are the least poor.

� households headed by females have a slightly lower poverty rate.

(Nepal Living Standards Survey III and Population Census Survey, CBS, 2011) 10

Some government efforts

� Government has been giving the first priority to the reduction of

poverty since eighth five year plan -1992

� The 10th plan was considered as poverty reduction strategy

� MDGs were accepted as one of the signatory UN member state

� Programmes for Education for all

� Open economic policy/privatization

� Creation of poverty alleviation fund

� Poverty is taking as cross cutting issues in the development plan

5/11/201311

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Here comes the role of Education

Relation to Education

� lower a qualifications, the higher risks of being out of, but wanting, work or being in work but low paid.

� with no qualifications are twice as likely to be lacking paid work

Supporting the idea of Amartya Sen

� Better basic education improve the quality of life directly� It also increase a person’s ability to earn an income and be free’ of income-poverty

� The more inclusive reach of basic education, the more likely the potentially poor would have a better chance of overcoming penury

Hence, this connection is crucial point to focus

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Poverty Cycle: Options for Escape

Financial stress

Education

(knowledge, skill,

Job, money, capability to buy material and services to enjoy life

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Unemployment

Financial stress

Lower educational and occupational

level

Lower the social status

Job less, mental stress, dependency to other limited social capital

No ability to fulfill family and social obligations

skill,

confidence

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Breaking cycle of poverty and employment

Source: Adopted from Pearson Education (2012).

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Central Bureau of Statistic (CBS), (2011). Population census survey. Kathmandu: Author.

Martin, B. (2000). Analytic philosophy’s narrative turn: Quine, Rorty, Davidson. In: Dasembrock, R.W. (ed.).

Literary theory after Davidson. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

NPC, (2007). First three year interim plan. Kathmandu: Author.

Pearson Education (2012). A presentation on poverty and unemployment. New Work: Pearson Education, Inc.

Sen, A.

References

Sen, A.

Townsend, P. (Dec., 1985). A Sociological Approach to the Measurement of Poverty--A Rejoinder to

Professor Amartya Sen. Oxford Economic Papers, New Series, 37(4). Retrieved from

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2663048 .Accessed on 25April 2013.

Beckley, H. (2002). Capability as Opportunity: How Amartya Sen Revises Equal Opportunity. The Journal of

Religious Ethics, 30(1). Retrieved from www.jstor.org/stable/40017928 .Accessed on: 13/04/2013

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Thank you very muchThank you very much

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