Does poverty have gender, caste or other ethnic dimensions?

 

A final generalization about poverty in the developing world is that it falls especially heavily on minority ethnic groups and indigenous populations. some 40% of the world’s nation-states have more than five sizable ethnic populations, one or more of which faces serious economic, political, and social discrimination. In recent years, domestic conflicts and even civil wars have arisen out of ethnic groups’ perceptions that they are losing out in the competition for limited resources and job opportunities. The poverty problem is even more serious for indigenous peoples, whose numbers exceed 300 million in over 5,000 different groups in more than 70 countries.

 

Although detailed data on the relative poverty of minority ethnic and indigenous peoples are difficult to obtain (for political reasons, few countries wish to highlight these problems), researchers have compiled data on the poverty of indigenous people in Latin America. The results clearly demonstrate that a majority of indigenous groups live in extreme poverty and that being indigenous dramatically increases the chances that an individual will be malnourished, illiterate, in poor health, and unemployed. For example, the research has shown that in Mexico, over 80% of the indigenous population is poor, compared to 18% of the nonindigenous population. Similar situations exist in countries such as Bolivia, Guatemala, and Peru (not to mention Native American people in the United States and Canada). Moreover, a 2006 World Bank study confirmed that all too little progress had been made. Whether we speak of Tamils in Sri Lanka, Karens in Myanmar, Untouchables in India, or Tibetans in China, the poverty plight of minorities is as serious as that of indigenous peoples.