M. Saba Al -Asfour
Often, hurtful phrases are hesitant in the public space, and on social media, such as: “If you are poor, then why are you having children?” This phrase appears on the surface of responsibility, but in essence it holds a short view, puts poverty in the position of crime, and limits the right to reproduce in the affluent layers only.
As if whoever does not have enough income, he does not have the right to dream of being a father or mother, or to taste the joy of forming a family!
This vision lacks justice, because it transmits the burden of economic crises from institutions to individuals, specifically to the poor of them, and holds them accountable for their personal choices, instead of holding the global economic system accountable that produced this disparity.
According to the reports of the World Bank, about 8.5% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty, with less than $ 2.15 per day. And if we raise this standard to 6.85 dollars per day, which is the poverty line used for medium income countries, approximately 44% of the world’s population is classified within the circle of poverty, and these shocking numbers do not mean that half of humanity has chosen poverty, but rather that there is a defect in distributing resources and opportunities.
Instead of blame the poor for their choices, the first is to seek to amend economic and social policies, and control the systems that lead to the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few category, while millions are left in the constituencies of destitution and deprivation.
Abandonment is not what the people are impoverished. Rather, poverty is the result of the absence of justice in the distribution of income, services and opportunities, and poverty has always been in stages of human history is the rule, not the exception, yet societies maintained their interdependence, and the concept of solidarity, and children were born in simple homes, but surrounded by love, conviction and contentment.
The defect is neither in poverty nor in childbearing, but rather in linking the value of a person with what he possesses, not with what he is of creation and hypocrisy.
And to extract the above, childbearing is not a class luxury granted to those who have money, but rather an inherent human right that must be chosen and respected, away from the logic of social superiority or economic classification.
