Youth & poverty

It is now widely accepted that poverty entails multiple dimensions of deprivation and therefore refers to more than lack of income. The UN Millennium Development Goals adopted a broader view and therefore cover numerous dimensions of poverty (hunger, health and income).

Amartya Sen was one of the first economists who argued that poverty is best understood as various forms of “unfreedom” that prevent people from realizing and enlarging their capabilities.

This conception of poverty takes into consideration both civil and political liberties and economic and social rights as primary goals of development and the principal means of progress. Sen's concept of poverty also acknowledges that personal experiences of poverty can change according to the circumstances.

Such a dynamic view of poverty is often more applicable to young people due to the many obstacles most of them face in seeking to achieve the adult status.

(Sources: Curtain, 2004; Sen, 2000.)

The transition from youth to adulthood is one of the “key stages” that can determine a person's chance of escaping poverty, and as such, warrants special attention.

Misconception : Young people are poor because they do not work.

There are many contexts in which poverty occurs. Some people are poor but are supported by social safety nets – either formal in the terms of government support or informal support within the family – which may or may not be “generous” enough to allow them to survive without working.

Some people live in poverty that results in malnourishment and sickness which leaves them unable to work.

But for the most part, there are people living in extreme poverty who lack social safety nets and must therefore try to survive by any means possible – through ingenuity, courage, self-discipline and most of all through work. No opportunity to earn some money or payment in kind for oneself or one’s family can be missed.

Young people living in extremely poor families also have to work in some

way or other, usually at the bare subsistence level.

At the global level, as many as 125 million young people live in households where the income comes to less than US$1 a day per household member despite the fact that they work.

So almost 23 per cent of young people are extremely poor (US$1 a day level) despite the fact that they work.

Even more dramatic is the estimate that as much as 56 per cent of young people who work remain poor at the US$2 a day level.

Regardless of their economic activity status (employed, unemployed or inactive), young people who are not able to make the most of their productive potential are susceptible to feelings of despondency, to marginalization and impoverishment, to idleness and potential attraction to illicit activities, to feeling frustrated with their situation and to directing their anger and frustration at the society that created it.

Measure of youth poverty (source UN) :

160 million young people are under-nourished209 million survive on less than 1 US$ / day515 million survive on less than 2 US$ / day (of which 206 million in South East Asia)

1. Young people are frequently overlooked in national poverty reduction strategies and investing in youth is not often seen as essential to promoting sustainable development. Unless more is known about the specific situation of young people in poverty and about the nature and extent of their vulnerabilities it is likely that they will not be given the attention they deserve in national poverty reduction strategies.

2. Young people often face a different type of poverty compared to adults. Existing forms of data collection concentrate on finding out about population groups trapped in chronic poverty while young people are more likely to be experiencing a more dynamic form of poverty.

One researcher found that “The transition from childhood to adulthood involves confronting and overcoming a number of uncertainties. Moreover, young people potentially face a large number of changes at the same time, thus compounding their difficulties. These obstacles are encountered in relation to work, living arrangements and personal relationships. Identifying the uncertain outcomes young people or subgroups of young people are facing is the first step in devising ways to improve levels of social protection.” (Curtain 2004)

Therefore, recognizing that youth in poverty face unique obstacles implies that poverty reduction strategies for youth might necessitate different approaches than those for adults.