Poverty And Exclusion In Times Of Crisis

Poverty and exclusion in times of crisis

The objective of this work is to present a small theoretical framework where the terms of poverty and social exclusion can be understood, and what is its importance within society. In addition, I will present some of the strategies that are promoted to end this situation that affects, although it has decreased, it still affects a large number of Spaniards. As the affected population is very diverse and covers all ages and all kinds of family situations I will focus on the childhood stage. I have chosen this stage due to my degree, children’s teaching, in my case, although I already knew these two terms I had not deepened in them and after seeing them briefly in a subject of the master’s degree they caught my attention and I wanted to meet a little more about them close to themsince as a teacher I consider that it is also important to know reality outside the classroom and see what situations are given or can occur in our society.

Due to factors such as the economic crisis that has affected our country, new problems and risk situations have appeared throughout the population, all this affects us in any field either work, school, family … etc. This situation has caused more and more terms to be repeated: poverty and social exclusion.

To be able to understand how poverty and social exclusion affects childhood, we must know what the meanings of these terms are. While it is true that there are many authors and many different definitions to describe them.

Many times unconsciously we relate poverty to social exclusion but the truth is that, although both terms sometimes go hand in hand do not have to be related since a person who is at risk of social exclusion does not have to be poor andvice versa.

As for the data, it is very shocking to know that, although in Spain we cannot direct, having only four countries in front such as: Latinia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania. 

There is no fixed profile of a person who may affect or affect poverty, any person at some point in his life can be seen in this situation. Poverty profiles in Spain vary according to age, sex, type of home or nationality they have.

If we focus only on the profile of childhood, the poverty indicators go up to Spain in the European Union. Which implies that the greatest number of people affected by poverty in these ages rise significantly.

On the other hand, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE) a 26.2% of the population under 16 in 2018 were at risk of poverty, a figure that increases until 28.3% if we talk about the population between 16 and 29 years old, although these figures are descending as we move forward in age and descend to 15.6% If we talk about people over 65 years old. These data are quite alarming since they are quite high figures if we talk about both children and adolescents, and we can realize how the risk of poverty goes down when people are older.

All this can be summarized in a phrase, according to the AROPE indicator (Risk PoverTy and Exclusion), which was used to measure poverty and social exclusion, “almost 1 in 3 children under 16 in 2018 werein a situation of poverty and /or social exclusion "

As for the measurement of poverty, it can be measured in two ways: if we refer to the economic income that a person we will talk about monetary dimension as their own name indicates, instead we do refer to the goods that a person has of a person we talk aboutMaterial dimension. Cases may occur that a person is poorly speaking, but it is not in the material dimension, and vice versa.

If we focus on the monetary dimension we find absolute poverty and relative poverty.

According to Pérez Yruela, Aguiar and Serrano (cited in Pérez Yruela, Rodríguez Cabrero and Trujillo Carmona 2004) the relative poverty is given by the inequalities that are in a society taking into account the resources that the person has and considering as poor the people whoThey receive less than others. On the other hand, absolute poverty is very different since it is when a person does not have the necessary resources to be able to meet a series of basic needs. Therefore, if we talk about absolute poverty, we talk that the person is in a situation in which it does not reach standards that are considered minimal to enjoy a quality life in terms of housing, education, health andOther other factors.

However, the concept of social exclusion refers to a very different situation that "greatly exceeds the concept of poverty" 

The term social exclusion was born with a different conception than we have now since it was more linked to the workplace, at that time a poor person was the one who had no job. From there, various policies and/or strategies are already developing to try to help these people, over time this term will evolve.