Implication of Law to Alleviate Poverty: A Reference of Nepal

Abstract

Although the high growth rate of population, lack of basic facilities, political and administrative weakness, insufficient mobilization of natural resources, low productivity, subsistence economy, exclusion, social discrimination, gender discrimination, lack of scientific education, demonstrative consumptions, unskilled human resources, exploitation, loophole of laws and regulation are the basic causes of poverty, policy level intervention is expected to the extent that both the natural and human resources can be effectively mobilized and utilized to establish just and equal society. However, inequality is not a synonym of poverty, inequality in distributive justice may cause human poverty; so is not only the result of social marginalization but the result of the overall social and structural weakness. Philosophically, it was the issue began from very early civilization of human beings and has supported to raise the voice of slave and women even in Greek and Roman period as existing laws and regulation of that time has excluded them to make any contractual and other rights. Later, when they were granted as a rights holder, their status had been changed with the betterment of their life by social, political and economic participation. Same issue has converted into the distributive and corrective justice later on. So, policy and legal issue may support to reduce the status of poverty. Yet, poverty cannot be completely eliminated from the society as relative poverty is deeply rooted to the social and psychological dimensions even at any time immemorial future at any form.

Keywords: Poverty, facts of poverty, distributive justice, policy, approaches, poverty and law, poverty and human rights