Tatenda Chihota, Sociology essays
You should state a cause and then give a weakness of the point arguing that there are other main determinants of poverty. For example, early marriages can be considered as a cause of poverty in Zimbabwe because young women jump into marriages before they are grounded enough. Those who are married as children become vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases and are less likely to receive an education or health care during pregnancy, according to Unicef.
In Zimbabwe, if a girl child is impregnated or if a boy child impregnates a girl they are usually disowned by parents, which is a drive to poverty. Furthermore, teen pregnancies lead to school dropout, which is likely to affect the family in future.
However, bright students would criticise this idea of early marriages by arguing that not all early marriages lead to poverty, in fact some are seen as a mechanism for driving women out of poverty that has been already caused by other factors such as gender inequality.
Model answer
Poverty is a condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
It depends not only on income but also on access to services (UN, 1995). There are various causes of poverty that have been pictured by sociological perspectives, these causes include laziness, unemployment, disability, and gender inequalities just to mention a few.
However, poverty can not be sorely explained by a single factor thus, sociological perspectives have criticised the attempts to explain poverty from a single lane. Thus, more shall be discussed as the essay progresses.
To begin with, laziness is one of the factors causing poverty in Zimbabwe. According to Functionalists specifically Herbert Spencer (1971), individuals should be blamed for their poverty because they indirectly and willingly choose it. To Spencer, it is unnecessary to help those engage in dissolute living and those who are too lazy to work should not be allowed to eat.
In Zimbabwe, the concept of Cleverness (Kungwavha ) has taken shape and those who are not in a position of this cleverness are described as lazy.
Spencer adopted the concept of survival of the fittest, where he said for society to evolve and to become more successful, the most able and the hardest working would have to be allowed to keep the rewards of their efforts. Therefore, Spencer concluded poverty is intertwined with laziness.
However only a handful sociologists accept this individualist explanation of poverty, Spencer ignored that some individuals are hard workers but they are in poverty because their work is unrewarded hence, perhaps economic sanctions can be considered as the main driver of poverty in Zimbabwe which is associated with inflation.
According to Afrocentric view, sanction is a cancer eating Zimbabwean economy thereby inducing untold suffering in the country. This is because Zimbabwe is considered as a risky country thereby limiting the entry of foreign currency which is why workers are not fairly rewarded.
From this perspective, it can be argued that poverty in Zimbabwe is not sorely caused by laziness by mainly by economic sanctions perpetuating inflation.
Chief to note is the fact that poverty in Zimbabwe is being caused by improper budgeting which is referred to as secondary poverty.
According to Seebohm Rowntree, secondary poverty is a description of poverty referring to those living below the poverty line whose income is sufficient for them to live above the line, but is spent on things other than the necessities of life. In Zimbabwe for example, some are in poverty not because their income is below the poverty datum line but because of improper budgeting and gambling.
Therefore, it can be argued that poverty in Zimbabwe is being caused by secondary poverty through its improper budgeting and unnecessary spending.
However, not all sociologists have accepted this individual explanation of poverty, critics have argued that poverty is a characteristic of community due to drought and not a characteristic of individuals. As a result of the 2015-2016 drought that affected most of southern Africa, the rural poor have become more vulnerable to the loss of both their food security and their livelihoods.
A 2016 study by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) shows that approximately 4,1 million Zimbabweans, nearly a quarter of the population, face food and nutrition insecurity due to the drought. Drought and reduced rainfall also negatively affected the quality and availability of water hence affecting agricultural production.
Drawing from above, it can be emphasised that poverty is not only a characteristic of individuals but it can be a community problem due to natural disasters such drought.
Apparently, poverty is caused and reinforced by welfare handouts given to individuals leading to the culture of dependency. Marsland (1989) has argued that the welfare handouts create incentives for staying unemployed and some completely stop working waiting for handouts. For example, the programmes that cushion the poor discourage competition and self-improvement throughout education.
Due to this culture, individuals will be attracted to an easy life. This concept is also broadened to include remittances in which recipients tend to choose more leisure as opposed to work and some will stop working waiting for remittances to come (Kapur,2005).
Thus, the handouts given to groups and individuals can be considered as a factor leading to poverty in Zimbabwe. However, in a critical stance, Marsland can be criticised on the ground that he over-focused on the role of handouts in causing poverty and tends to ignore that welfare handout is a mechanism to alleviate poverty that has been caused by other factors such as disability.
Thus, in many communities, disabled members are looked down upon and not allowed to inherit assets. The disabled are left out in economic activities including employment where they are discriminated against.
They are considered a stigma and excluded from public events and exposure. This mentality can adversely affect the well-being of families.
The incidence of poverty is generally higher in households with a disabled head or adult. Thus, disability is among the main factors driving poverty in Zimbabwe as opposed to welfare handouts.
Conclusively, the above discussion has brought it to light that poverty in Zimbabwe is caused by a plethora of factors such as drought, laziness and disability among others.
However, not all sociologist accept the submissions raised by other scholars, thus different perspectives have been employed to provide a better picture in the context of poverty.
Tatenda Chihota is a Zimbabwean Sociology scholar.