POVERTY

MARGINALIZATION

MALNUTRITION

HUNGER

DISCRIMINATION

SOCIAL INJUSTICE

When People in a specific place have insufficient income to meet their basic needs for food, health, education and housing, they are said to live in poverty.

However, measuring it is quite complicated, by virtue of setting a parameter to define the amount of money a person can live with decently everyday. Thus, according to the world bank, an individual is poor when living on less than $2.00 a day; but if the person has less tan $1.25 a day, his condition is considered of extreme poverty.
Geographically, poverty is accentuated in Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan countries were more than 60% of its inhabitants live in this condition.

In Asia, poverty has declined, however, India and China remain the countries with the largest number of poor people.

In the Caribbean region, more than 25% of the population in proportion is smaller than 20% are Latin America and from the Caucasus regions, Central and West Asia and North Africa. The problem of poverty is such that the United Nations and various international institutions are dedicated to reducing and trying to eradicate this situation.

In Mexico, the National Council for Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL) is in charge of measuring poverty. To obtain this indicator, it uses a series of social and economic variables such as education, access to health services, housing materials, overcrowding on the disposal of godos, such as refrigerator and the washing machine.

The results indicate that poverty has more impact in rural areas and in some areas within cities.

Despite the efforts of national governments and international agencies to reduce poverty in the world, there are certain portions of the population that also suffer from marginalization or social inequality, that is, they are excluded from their benefits, opportunities, resources and satisfactory results of the progress of towns; this omission exposes them to a condition of the privation, risk and social vulnerability. Among the most vulnerable groups to suffer marginalization are children, women and indigenous groups.
Marginalization is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon that has different forms of expression, including the lack of access to the knowledge that education, health services and the lack of adequate housing provide, as well as the unavailability of godos, the remoteness of the distribution centers for goods and services or the difficulty to get to them, among others. The remoteness of the distribution centers for goods and services or the difficulty to get to them.

MARGINALIZATION INDEX

In Mexico, the Marginalization Index (MI) is used as a tool to allocate the resources to fight poverty. With this indicator the marginalized geographical areas in states, municipalties and localitites are identified depending on the shortcomings the people face, and measures the percentage of the population that does not have the enjoyment of basic goods and services to develop its basic skills.

The marginalization index in Mexico takes four dimensions into consideration: lack of access to education, inaddequate housing, insufficient monetary income and living in small, scattered or isolated conditions that complicate the delivery of basic services.

MALNUTRITION AND HUNGER OF THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD AND MEXICO

Do hunger and malnutrition have any relation to poverty and marginalization? Why? Why are hunger and malnutrition considered social problems of the population?

When a person does not eat enough food to get his minimum energy, he is considered to be living in hunger conditions. Malnutrition affects physical and mental development, and rduce labor productivity.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): there are currently 925 million malnourished people in the world; that is, at least one in seven people in the world lacks sufficient food to be healthy and live a decent life. Most of the population living in hunger and malnutrition live in developing countries in Bangladesh, China, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In Mexico, the population living with hunger and malnutrition is mainly concentrated in rural municipalties, where subsistence farming or subsistence activities are practice; but also in areas with indigenous population. The federal entities with the highest number of people that suffer hunger and malnutrition are: Chiapas, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Veracruz, Yucatan, Hidalgo and Campeche. In contrast, in the north of the country, the outlook is different, severe hunger and malnutrition are only recorded in indigenous regions, specifically in the TArahumara region in the state of Chihuahua. According to data from the National Institute of Nutrition, people who suffer from hunger andmalnutrition, especially children of short stature and low weight show severe development problems, have various diseases such as anemia and are more susceptible to chronic disorders of the digestive adn respiratory system, and in extreme cases, death.

DISCRIMINATION AND SOCIAL INJUSTICE IN THE WORLD AND IN MEXICO

Throughout history, mankind has lived different events where its rights have been violated, they have been excluded or segregated or have been denied access to services such as education, the right to work, transportation, among others. When a person or a group of people face DISCRIMINATION and SOCIAL INJUSTICE, they suffer psychological damage, physical abuse and in extreme cases, loss of life.

ACTIVITY 1

Read the information presented in the following boxes carefully. At the top of each box, write down which of the social problems addressed in the topic refers to the information:

1.- poverty and marginalization

2.- hunger and malnutrition

3.- discrimination and social injustice.