English social studies Jonas

India emerged as an independent nation after world war II, after a long struggle against the British colonial yoke. Even though India has shown growth in national life throughout the years, the country still has a lot of problems. One of the biggest ones being poverty.

Poverty and child labour.

Since India became an independent nation in 1947 poverty has been one of the main problems. Around 30% of India’s 1.35 billion population still lives below the poverty line, that’s 80 million people more than the whole population in the USA. 

Unfortunately, the poor nations often are the ones where child poverty is a big issue, and one of the biggest nations is India. In a country where it is hard to find a job that provides you with enough money for food and water you need to have someone to help, and unfortunately that responsibility often falls on your children. Children working to help provide some extra money for their family, so they can buy enough food to survive the day and a place where they can live.

Child labour is not completely illegal in India.

“In 1986, India introduced the child labour actthat allowed children in the ages below 14 to be involved in “non-hazardous” work such as working on a farm.” (https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/10/10/why-child-labor-isnt-illegal-in-india/)

https://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2014/10/10/why-child-labor-isnt-illegal-in-india/

After the United Kingdoms great past in being one of the greatest, strongest and most powerful countries in the world you would not think of them as a country that is struggling with poverty. It is tough, but it is the truth. “More than 14 million people in the UK live in poverty, including 4.5 million children in the United Kingdom are living below the breadline” (Patrick Butler. 2018:https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/16/new-study-finds-45-million-uk-children-living-in-poverty.) 

As said, 4.5 million children live in poverty in the United Kingdom, a huge number compared to Norway’s 105 thousand, and the numbers just keeps on growing. The number of children living in poverty in the UK is expected to reach 5.1 million by 2022.

(the picture above shows the reality of child poverty in the UK).

The combination of high rents and benefit cuts also pays a huge part in why a so huge percentage of children having to grow up below the breadline, and in the most deprived parts of Britain it is starting to become more and more “normal” to grow up in poverty.

Sources:

Patrick Butler. 2018:https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/sep/16/new-study-finds-45-million-uk-children-living-in-poverty. Accessed:26.10.2019. 

March 2019:https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures. Acessed:26.10.2019.

There is a lot more problems going on in Britain than just Brexit, some of these problems are homelessness and social care. 

As rents are getting more and more expensive in England, more and more people start living without a home. The number of rough sleepers in England have has more than doubled since 2010. Almost 130,000 children spent Christmas crammed in temporary accommodation. That’s the most time this decade, last seen in the 2007/08 financial crash. 

Another big problem in Britain right now is the amount of people who needs social care but does not get it. 1.2 million older citizens in Britain, as well as another one million disabled citizens, are now living without the amount of social care they need for food, dressing and washing.

There is a lot more problems in Britain going on that the media should start focusing on, instead of just focusing on Brexit.