Life in poverty

Extreme poverty in Nepal effects everything and everybody in their day to day lives. Poverty is not just a lack of money, but rather the absence of choice and possibilities.

Research carried out by the ISER discovered that there is a direct relationship between deprivation in childhood and a long term damaging legacy in well-being.

Extreme poverty affects in many different ways. Nepalese people are nutritionally very poor - eating meat for example is usually only an annual event. Indeed most children go to bed hungry and women go without food in order to feed their children. 50% of Nepalese children are malnourished and stunted as a result of starvation and a lack of nutrition.

The lack of clean water together with inadequate sanitation and shelter also promotes health problems such as diarrhea, malaria, and tuberculosis. Villages are usually a long way from health clinics and there is a shortage of drugs, trained doctors, and health specialists.

The cycle of poverty also has long term effects on lives; limited education and malnutrition means that there is insufficient physical and mental development, and studies have also shown that those in poverty do not do as well in school, have more difficult marriages and friendships, and are more likely to perpetuate poverty.