Rural Village Life
The vast majority of people in the developing world
live in remote rural areas, often many miles from the nearest road. The
problems that these communities face are numerous and often include being
unable to access basic necessities such as food, water, shelter, health
facilities and education. The lifestyle that these people lead would be
considered very basic or even primitive to most people in the West.
Most rural communities rely on agriculture as their main economic activity.
The income for a typical family can be as low as $1 a
day, which categorizes them as suffering "Extreme Poverty". From this, the
family will have to buy food, clothing, pay for the children to go to
school, pay for any health treatment, and numerous other expenses.
Often, the families are unable to pay for their
children to go to school, this means that they will grow up without a proper
education or any vocational qualifications. They will then be in the same
position as their parents and spend the rest of their lives toiling in the
fields earning little money. The cycle will then start again with the next
generation.
Although first impressions of village life are usually
idyllic, for most people it is a daily battle of survival.
Rural communities are often victims of socio economic
discrimination. Most of the communities are dominated by a single religion,
caste or tribe. Due to the significance of social hierarchy in many
countries, and the stigma still attached to poverty, these people often find
that they are discriminated against by those in authority or by other
sections of society. For example, their children may be refused entrance to
a local school, or they may be refused treatment at a local medical centre
because of their religion, caste or tribe.
To compound this, their lack of knowledge of their rights and their lack of
empowerment, means that they just accept the discrimination and do not
question the reasons why.
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details of each problem area.
