Why Are so Many Children Living in Poverty?

There are many factors that lead to children living in poverty, including economics, politics and geography. One cause of child poverty is a lack of assets in areas such as schools, hospitals, food and clean water. Exclusion and invisibility lead to poverty as well, and marginalized groups are often the poorest. Children from low-income families are at a higher risk of being forced to enter the workforce as child laborers, and girls may be forced into early marriages by their relatives. Power imbalances in communities and families can lead to poverty as well, especially in places where the rights of children might be ignored.[1]

A lack of education also causes poverty and vice versa, creating a vicious cycle that is very difficult to escape. Dayita is just one example of this.[2] She was a mother of four living in Asia.

When Dayita’s husband, who drank too much alcohol, became sick and bedridden, Dayita was forced to become the sole breadwinner for the family. She was illiterate, so the only job she could find was manual labor: collecting and selling firewood from nearby forests. It was physically exhausting, paid very little and kept her from her children, but it was all she could do.

Dayita’s poverty and illiteracy set the trajectory for her children’s lives as well. The fight to find food consumed the family’s energy. Attending school was a far-flung dream, and Dayita could not teach her children things she did not know herself. Instead, her kids spent their time roaming the village and being cared for by the oldest child, a 7-year-old.

The cycle was set to continue for another generation, and there was nothing Dayita could do to stop it. Living hand to mouth truly kills dreams and hope.[3]


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