POVERTY IN MEXICO

What is poverty?

Povery is multi dimenstional, meaning it cut across different areas of human life. The Human Right Approach underlines the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, describing poverty in terms of a range of interrelated and mutually reinforcing deprivations, and drawing attention to the stigma, discrimination, insecurity and social exclusion associated with poverty. Poverty is not only a matter of income, but also, more fundamentally, a matter of being able to live a life in dignity and enjoy basic human rights and freedoms.1

In discussing poverty in Mexico, some historians and economist have attributed the slow economic growth to different reasons tracing it to before Mexicos Independence such as the negative impact of Spanish rule, the concentration of landholding by few families, and the reactionary role of the Catholic Church. Others includes that the colonial government activities left poor transportation and inefficient economic organization   so  that by the independence of Mexico poverty was the order of the day. This laid the background for Mexico poverty as seen in 1821-1876 Mexico when she was poorer in per capita. Under the Porfiriato regime (1876–1910), economic growth was much faster.2

Poverty remains at high levels in Mexico. Although a clear negative trend was observed from 1989 and up to 1994, urban and rural poverty levels followed different paths: while urban poverty levels fell by 6.5 percentage points (from 27% in 1989 to 21.5% in 1994) rural poverty increased by 8.4 percentage points (from 41.4% in 1989 to 60.5% in 1994). Since the 1995 macroeconomic crisis, urban and rural poverty followed similar path. by the year 2000 about 18% of the population still falls below the food poverty line. Rural poverty (35.2%) is more than twice higher than the national level (14.4), while urban poverty is considerably lower (7.5%).3

This post shows that poverty in Mexico is not a new phenomenon and that governments have tried to tackle this. In recent times Mexico leaders are putting efforts to reduce and if possible eradicate poverty.

References

1. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Principles and Guidelines for Human Rights Approach to Poverty Reduction Strategies [online] Available at <http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/PovertyStrategiesen.pdf>  retrieved 23/05/2017

2.  John, H. Coatsworth (1978). “Obstacles to Economic Growth in Nineteenth-Century Mexico”. American Historical Review. 83 (1): 80–100. JSTOR 1865903.

3. Isidro Soloaga  and Mario Torres. Growth and poverty reduction. The case of Mexico. Retrieved 19/05/2017