Is there a culture of poverty? Use suitable examples to justify examples to justify your response. What in your opinion are the impacts on living in poverty for children and families? What cultural factors perpetuate poverty? What cultural characteristics make it possible to get out of poverty? Are there any factors other than cultural factors that enable an individual to come out of poverty?.
Response.
Yes, there is a culture of poverty. Poverty which is intergenerational is characterized by struggling for survival, traits including little room for privacy, alcoholism leading to domestic and sexual violence, stress on the present without giving future a thought, relying on the fate for things and conditions to get better. Poverty which is sustained generates a set of certain beliefs, norms, etc and these factors will themselves perpetuate over time without getting affected by the change in structural conditions around them (Lewis 1959). There is also a noticed trend that poor people don't regard food as a very essential commodity to spend on rather it is just a means to survive. The study on Udaipur showed that people tend to spend most of their money on the festivals [ CITATION Ban07 l 16393 ] which obviously has religious connections which can also imply people's devotion to their Gods. They actually choose to spend over the festival celebrations rather than making sure that they eat better and healthy food. .
The poor people spend very little money on the education of their children because most of them go to government school which has very less or low fees. [ CITATION Ban07 l 16393 ] The poor also work multiple occupations to earn. They might earn some amount of money from farming, some from selling raw or cooked food, also being vendors at times, working as maids etc. This also results in their lack of specialization in any one field hence limiting their chances of higher earnings.