Poverty,
a Mental Disability
Poverty
is a multidimensional phenomenon, encompassing inability to satisfy the basic
needs, lack of control over resources, lack of education and poor health. It is
the greatest cause of suffering on earth that is intrinsically alienating and
distressing. Any person living in poor conditions is more stressed, constantly
worrying about means to meet his daily expenditures, bills to be paid and fees
of children etc. Most of the times it becomes very difficult for him to even
meet his daily expenditures. It is a well understood and recognized fact that
living in poverty for a significant length has negative implications on both
his physical as well as mental health.
Those who live in underprivileged societies, where there is
under-investment in the social and physical infrastructure, experience poor
health and hygienic conditions. Poverty is associated with many long-term
problems, such as poor health and increased mortality, school failure, crime
and substance misuse. The effects of income inequality also spills over into
society giving it the biggest reason for causing stress, frustration and family
disruption that increases the rate of crimes besides homicide and violence in
the society due to which the gap between the poor and rich in the world is widening
each day.
As poverty and social inequality are closely linked with each
other, they therefore have direct impact on the social, mental and physical
well-being of any individual living under such circumstances. There are several
obstacles and threats to health that inherent in poverty as it is the poor who
are exposed to dangerous unhygienic environmental conditions, stressful,
unrewarding and depersonalizing work that lacks the necessities and amenities of
life, which looks as if they are not part of the mainstream of society and are
totally isolated and cut off.
Poverty
is strongly associated with a discrepancy in children’s upbringing, cognitive
skills, educational achievements and disruptive behaviours too. Children
belonging to such families face persistent economic stress and are more likely
to have mental disabilities due to starvation and malnutrition.
No
doubt poverty is a disgraceful and unjust condition that has always haunted
mankind and many people see this problem as insoluble as they claim that
assisting the poor increases dependency that enhances a “culture of poverty” which persists from
generation to generation. Some people even go further to blame the poor for
their problems
as according to them many of the poor are shiftless, lazy, unintelligent, or
even parasitic.
The
trouble with many of poverty victims today is that they are not confident of themselves
and have accepted their life as it is. They blame their fate for their continuous
slogging conditions. Even on hearing the news of corruption by the rich wealthy
people reach their ears, they tend to lose confidence in their ability to cope
with such problematic conditions and are disheartened. When an individual loses confidence, his enthusiasm is
killed and life becomes a grind and aimless, hence they are incapable of
conquering poverty. Those who face it and fight for their upliftment definitely
succeed giving a positive vision not only to their entire family but also to
their relatives and friends.
We should
not overlook the heartless, grasping practices of those rich people or the
unfair, cruel conditions brought about by unscrupulous political and financial
schemers; for it is the right of a common man that they should be aware of such
deeds and unite together to fight for their rights. It’s
not a sin to be poor.
We blame them for not working, being lazy, having drug
addictions, making poor choices, and not trying hard enough. We often equate
financial worth with personal values and we place the poor in the lowest system
of our preconceived human caste systems. We treat them accordingly and are
continually blaming, humiliating and shaming them through our condescending
criticism, “instruction,” and judgment etc.
But
have we ever thought that who are we to judge the poor? God never intended that any man should be a pauper, a drudge, or a
slave. There is not a single indication in God’s wonderful mechanism that a man
was created to live a poor life. It is
God, Our Creator, who has differentiated each individual. We could have also been
born in a poor family too. We should all understand one concept that everyone
is a wonderful creation of God where we all are one family and to help each
other should always be our motto. There is
something larger and grander for him in his plans than perpetual slavery to the
bread earning problems.
Because being poor is not a life-long condition and one has
to work harder to recover from this mental illness which should be a collective
goal on top priority for all of us. If every
rich and the wealthy person opts to undertake the responsibility to help the
poor and needy, this world itself shall be a heaven on earth. We should also
keep it in mind that the rich owe to the poor. How? And Why? They owe it
because they are better off than others. It is the hard work of the poor that
yields positive results that work their way to the top. By helping them, they
seem to be giving back to society. This is a noble deed that should be done
with a good spirit on humanitarian grounds and not because of want of tax exemptions
at the end of their financial year.
The worst thing about poverty is the conviction
that the poor hold no position in life is indeed very fatal to the competence. No doubt it is tough to see the poor struggling to keep the wolf at bay
and they cannot be independent, nor can they organise their lives. They cannot even
come up with a courage to express their opinions in public or have an
individual view. They cannot even dream of being able to live in decent
locations or in healthy hygienic conditions. When worries embrace and one is entangled
with debts, it is difficult for any average human being to be a real individual
and it is almost impossible to preserve that dignity and self-respect which
enables a man to hold up his head and look the world squarely on the face. Some
rare and beautiful souls have lived in dire poverty, setting an example of
noble living to the world. If not accepted, then poverty often develops the
worst in any man and kills the feeling of love, affection, emotion, caring and
belongingness, leaving strong pinching marks of insufficiency all around. It is
then easily noticeable in prematurely old, depressed faces and in children who
have had no childhood and who have borne the mark of the poverty-curse ever
since their birth. We see it shadowing bright young faces, and often blighting
the highest ambition and dwarfing the most brilliant ability.
It is a
bitter truth that poverty is more often a curse than a blessing and those who
praise its virtues would be the last to accept its hard conditions. What is most
deplorable is preventable poverty which is due to vicious living, to slovenly,
slipshod, to idling and dawdling, or to laziness; that poverty which is due to
the lack of effort, to wrong thinking, or to any preventable cause. Such people
should be ashamed of poverty because this can be prevented for also gives a
negative reflection upon their ability that make others think low of them.
Any individual who persists in holding his mental attitude toward poverty, or
who is always thinking of their hard luck and failure to get on, can by no means
go into the opposite direction where the goal of success is awaiting. Such an
attitude shall never arrive at the harbour of delight.
Stingy,
narrow minds do not attract money. If they get money they usually get it by
parsimonious saving, rather than by obeying the law of opulence. It takes a
broad, liberal mind to attract money. The narrow, stingy mind shuts out the
flow of abundance. It is the hopeful, buoyant, cheerful attitude of mind that
wins because if optimism is a success-builder, then pessimism is an
achievement-killer. Optimism is the great producer. It is hope, life. It
contains everything which enters into the mental attitude which produces and
enjoys. Pessimism is the great destroyer. It is despair, death. No matter if
you have lost your property, your health, your reputation even, there is always
hope for the man who keeps a firm faith in himself and looks up.
To get rid
of the poverty, it is of utmost importance to keep the mind in a productive,
creative condition that always think positively, confidently, cheerfully and
creatively. If an individual wants to become prosperous, they must believe that
they are made for success and happiness; that there is a divinity in them which
will, if they follow it, bring them into the light of prosperity. Erase all the
shadows, all the doubts and fears, and the suggestions of poverty and failure
from your mind. When you have become master of your thought, when you have once
learned to dominate your mind, you will find that things will begin to come
your way. Discouragement, fear, doubt, lack of self-confidence, are the germs
which have killed the prosperity and happiness of tens of thousands of people.
If it were possible for all the poor to turn their backs on their dark and
discouraging environment and face the light and cheer, and if they should
resolve that they are done with poverty and a slipshod existence, this very
resolution would, in a short time, revolutionize civilization. Every child
should be taught to expect prosperity, to believe that the good things of the
world were intended for them. This conviction would be a powerful factor in the
adult life if the child were so trained.
Wealth is
created mentally first; it is thought out before it becomes a reality.
Firmly deny the power of adversity or poverty that keeps you down. Constantly
assert your superiority to your environment. Believe that you are to dominate
your surroundings, that you are the master and not the slave of circumstances.
Determination with all the vitality one can gather that you are going to have
your share without harming anybody else or keeping others back as it is intended
that you have a competence in abundance and it that you should resolve to reach
your divine destiny.
The very act of turning your back upon the black picture and resolving that you
will have nothing more to do with failure, with poverty; that you will make the
best possible out of what you do have; that you will put up the best possible
appearance; that you will clean up, brush up, talk up, look up, instead of down
— hold your head up and look the world in the faces instead of cringing,
whining, complaining — will create a new spirit within you which will lead you
to the light. Hope will take the place of despair, and you will feel the thrill
of a new power, of a new force coursing through your veins.
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