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Eco. 362–Development Economics II (Discussion Quiz 1 on the World Bank and Programme Lending–29-3-2021)

Essentially, World Bank loans have helped to develop programs for the improvement of health, nutrition, family planning, and educational services. However, in terms of family planning, it has been discovered that poor people tend to have more children than the rich. Several reasons abound why this occurs but this is still an object of intellectual and socioeconomic debate. Some argue that having many children is a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. For example,  children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. 

Against this background, clearly discuss the reasons why the poor have more children than the and the attendant consequences (positive and negative) of such actions based on your own opinion.

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Comments 219

  1. Avatar EKPECHI AFOMA K says:

    EKPECHI AFOMA K
    2015/203448
    DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
    some of the reasons why the poor tend to have more kids thn the rich includes
    1) High child mortality rates: Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.

    2)Misconceptions about family planning: In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.[2]

    3) Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.[3] For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    4) Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.[4]

    5) Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.[5] It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.

    6) Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. [6] On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    7) Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives.[7] When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    8) Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.[8]

    9) Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

    10)Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    11)Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

  2. Avatar Okoronkwo Emmanuel Ositadinma (Reg no: 2017/242433) (Department: Economics) says:

    Reason why the poor have more children than the rich can be attributed to the following:

    1. No knowledge of family planning among the poor: As a result of this, many poor people continue given birth to children uncontrollably.

    2. Lack of formal education: it has been observed the poor that lacks formal education lacks some necessary knowledge of raising a standard family. Therefore the do anything the want, the way the feel.

    3. Some of the poor are peasant farmers: As a result of this, they tend to give birth to more children so that more hands can actually work on the farms.

    Consequences of the above actions of the poor:

    1: High population and high death rate: when one continue to breed children without having the necessary resources to train them it can lead to increase in death rate, reason being that an minor sickness can easily wipe off those children because their parents don’t have the money for hospital bills.

    2: increase in crime rate: majority of the poor children goes out to seek for illegal means to earn. So many of them join arm robbery group, cultism, and many other secret groups.

    3. Increase in corruption Hamper development: when Arm robbery groups increases, rapists increases, cultism increases. All these attributes avert development of a country.

  3. Avatar MGBADA OGOCHUKWU EMELDA says:

    NAME MGBADA OGOCHUKWU EMELDA
    REG NO: 2017/245040
    DEPARTMENT ECONOMICS
    Topic Reasons why the poor have more children than the rich, positive and negative impacts
    At Compassion, we believe that every child is a precious gift from God: ‘Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him,’ Psalm 127:3. Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons, it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable. Here we take a look at some of the factors that contribute to larger families.
    1. high child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    2. Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    3. Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.[3] For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    4. Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.
    5. Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.[5] It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning among other complications she’s likely to have more kids.
    6. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. [6] On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    7. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives.[7] When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    8. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    9. Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    10. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    11. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    For many of us, our siblings are our truest friends, closest confidantes and greatest support in times of need.
    However, a report published in 2015 showed that the average family size in Ireland has declined significantly in the last quarter century, meaning that in the future, many people will grow up without any siblings.

    Benefits of having more children
    1. We Laugh A Lot
    There’s always something silly going on in our house. From the 2 year-old loudly announcing her bowel movements to the teenager sharing funny videos, there are plenty of opportunities for laughter.
    Sometimes we just laugh at the craziness that ensues in our household. (It’s either that or we might go a little batty.)
    My kids are witty and love to crack a joke at any opportunity. We’ll often recount funny stories from their earlier years or from our own childhoods, which they love to hear.
    Most of all, I love to hear my kids laughing and having fun together (even the giggles from their room past bedtime).
    2. You’re Never Lonely
    Growing up an only child, I remember the loneliness of being the only kid in the house. When I was in preschool, I would make up imaginary siblings and tell my teachers about them, much to my mother’s confusion.
    Don’t get me wrong, I had a wonderful childhood and benefited from my parents’ undivided attention. It could just be lonely sometimes.
    In a big family, you rarely spend time alone unless you are making a point to do so. You don’t have to beg your parents to play a board game with you or jump in the pool with you. It’s easy to just grab a sibling and go have fun.
    When I’m feeling tired or low, one of my little ones will give me a hug or a snuggle. Feeling lonely can easily be remedied if it ever occurs.
    When our children are ever separated from each other, they talk about how much they miss each other. It’s clear they have a strong bond.
    3. You Worry Less
    Sure, as a parent there will always be worries. It’s not easy being responsible for lives that you cherish more than your own.
    But one of the advantages of having a big family is you worry less about the little stuff. By the second or third kid, you’ve reached your parenting stride. You feel more at ease and know that most things are going to work out just fine.
    You don’t question every decision or have to look up expert advice at every turn.
    The house is babyproofed and you’ve hopefully lowered your standards for housekeeping so you’re not constantly stressed.
    You’ve realized that children can be more independent than you’d expect and they’re actually pretty resilient little beings. It’s hard to describe the feeling, but it is a lot more relaxed style of parenting.
    4. We Learn From Each Other
    It’s great to see the older kids teaching the younger kids things. They both get so much out of it. One of my toddler’s favorite things is having an older sibling read her a book. Of course, they also love to teach her funny new phrases.
    They can help each other with their math homework. And what childhood would be complete without learning how to make an armpit fart from your sibling?
    As much as my kids learn from each other, I’m also amazed at how much I still learn from all of them. They each have unique interests that are always evolving.
    They love to delve into new subjects and share their knowledge with the family. It reminds me how much their little minds are growing all the time.
    5. Teaches Teamwork
    With six people in our household, we’ve had to learn to work together to get things done. Cleaning up in particular is a family affair. The job gets a lot easier when everyone pitches in.
    Siblings who share a room must cooperate to pick it up together.
    When we’re getting ready to go somewhere, everyone lends a hand to gather what we need and corral the littler ones to the car. Our movements require a group effort because mom and dad don’t have enough hands.
    Loading and unloading the car for vacations or trips to the grocery store requires all hands on deck because more people means more stuff to haul. It’s not as much of a burden when we all chip in.
    6. Teaches Sharing
    Growing up, I’d never shared a room with anyone until college. Many kids in big families share a room at some point during their childhood. There’s some evidence to suggest that sharing a room can be a positive experience and help kids develop skills like emotional intelligence and conflict management.
    When there are a few kids or more, there won’t be enough televisions, video game systems, etc. to go around. It becomes a fact of life that things have to be shared. I think this helps with interactions with friends, classmates, and probably others in the future.
    Our kids are used to hand-me-downs and sharing french fries with their brother. Sharing is engrained from an early age, and they make the best of it.
    7. Family Always Has Your Back
    While we haven’t had any iconic playground fights with one sibling sticking up for another, they do frequently stand up for each other in little ways. If someone is feeling hurt or left out, they’ll make an attempt to remedy the situation.
    If a sibling is scared or sick, they will try to soothe them, offering kind words and things that might help such as favorite stuffed animals.
    My oldest in particular is always looking out for his littler siblings, as much as they drive him crazy sometimes. He goes into protector mode over our toddler.
    I know they would go to bat for each other if ever a need arose, and I’m always telling them how important it is to always be there for each other.
    One of the reasons I wanted a big family is having to go through a parent having a long illness alone. If something like that ever happens, I will feel better knowing my kids can lean on each other.

    8. Love Is Multiplied
    When I was going to have my second child, I worried so much about how I would love them as much as my first. It felt like my heart belonged to my first child, so I wondered what would happen with a second one.
    Much to my relief, I quickly realized that your amount of love is not finite, and it multiplies with each subsequent child. I feel so much love for all my children, and I can feel the love they have for each other. Our house is brimming with it.
    Everyone doesn’t get along 100% of the time, but the important deep connection of love is always there. Of the advantages of having a big family, this might be the biggest.
    9. Watching Generations Grow
    One of my greatest joys in life is watching all of my kids’ personalities develop. As I watch them grow into mature humans, I can’t help but think about what things will look like one day when they might have children of their own.
    Each of my parents had several siblings, and their family gatherings were always the best. Cousins playing together are some of my fondest childhood memories.
    Now I’m creating this shared history with my big family, and one day we’ll hopefully have great family gatherings of our own with generations of love to share.
    Negative impacts
    Poorer health and wellbeing
    There are several ways in which living in poverty can lead to poorer health outcomes in children, as well as into adulthood.
    Being exposed to some or all of the key factors below, as well as the accumulation of exposure over time, can adversely impact on child development and health outcomes.
    • Limited money for everyday resources – including good quality housing.
    • Stress of living in poverty.
    • Unhealthy lifestyles.
    • Poorer education and employment opportunities.
    Children’s experience of poverty can also lead to bullying, or feelings of exclusion, as they may have fewer friends and less access to the social activities of their peers.
    You can find out more about this in our briefing, ‘Child Poverty and low income: health impact and health inequalities’.
    Health inequalities
    When considering health inequalities, children growing up in poverty or in the most deprived areas are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than children from better off families or from more affluent areas.
    This can be seen in
    • higher infant mortality rate
    • low birthweight
    • risk of being overweight or obese
    • not being breastfed
    • tooth decay
    • unintentional injury
    • poorer general health and mental wellbeing
    • teenage pregnancy.
    Poverty is also a risk factor for experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Having high numbers of ACEs has been found to be related to deprivation with a higher proportion of people in the most deprived areas reporting ACEs.
    You can find out more about this on our ACEs page.
    Educational outcomes
    Children from low income households and disadvantaged areas tend to have worse outcomes than their better-off peers in terms of cognitive development and school achievement. This can impact upon educational outcomes.
    Although many children living in disadvantaged circumstances do well in school, there is a clear gradient in educational attainment by deprivation, and a persistent gap between the most and least deprived areas.
    From as early as primary one and right through to leaving school, children from deprived areas tend to do worse in terms of early Curriculum for Excellence or doing well in reading, writing and numeracy.
    However, there are many factors that can positively impact on educational attainment for children experiencing poverty. These include
    • parental engagement with a child’s education
    • good quality preschool education
    • extra-curricular support during school time.

  4. Avatar Ogundare Abisola Helen says:

    OGUNDARE ABISOLA HELEN
    2017?249546
    ECONOMICS

    The poor tend to have more children than the rich because there exist a negative relationship between income and number of children, i.e the higher the income the lower the number of children vice versa. This is true because a couple with a paid job or business oriented ( i.e the rich) allocate little time to sex rather than an unemployed couple with no business orientation as well( the poor).
    It’s is also noticed that the industrialized nations with higher per capital income has lesser children per family than developing nations with low per capital income.

  5. Avatar Ahamefula miracle chisom says:

    Name: Ahamefula miracle chisom
    Reg no:2017/249478
    Dept:Economics
    These are some of the reasons poor people give birth to so many children:
    Wealth: For the poor, children are their wealth. That is why parents give their children names like; Tubokeyi— child is everything, Tubolayefa— there is nothing like a child, Tubodeinyefa— nothing can be compared to a child, Tubokeyi— child is the only important thing, etc. Rarely will you hear such names in a wealthy household. On average, lower to middle class Nigerians give birth to 5 children. The rich give birth to 2 on average.
    Death: Some countries of the world have very high child mortality rate and my country is at the top of the ladder. For this reason parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky enough to survive to adulthood. It’s a pity that even in the 21st century, many women living in under-developed countries still rely on luck for safe delivery and prevention of child death due to poor health care.
    Poverty: Poor people have no opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population like China did, which is something we need right now, despite having different government system. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities. Couples will openly tell you ‘Condom no sweet’ and family planning is nonsense—— na God dey give pikin, children na blessing from God. Hence over-population.
    Quantity over quality: It is not strange here in Nigeria to see or hear that half of a community belong to the same family, not only that, they all answer the same surname. This families don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size tremendously for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.
    Ignorance: Our grand mother, that old disease “ignorance” is probably the cause of it all. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance—- children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the ‘United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology and sophisticated weapons, size does not count much poverty.
    Children and families living and growing up in poverty and low-income households experience many disadvantages. These can have negative health and social consequences during childhood and into adulthood.

    Here you can find information on the impact of child poverty and the inequalities it creates.
    Poorer health and wellbeing
    There are several ways in which living in poverty can lead to poorer health outcomes in children, as well as into adulthood.
    Being exposed to some or all of the key factors below, as well as the accumulation of exposure over time, can adversely impact on child development and health outcomes.
    Limited money for everyday resources – including good quality housing.
    Stress of living in poverty.
    Unhealthy lifestyles.
    Poorer education and employment opportunities.
    Children’s experience of poverty can also lead to bullying, or feelings of exclusion, as they may have fewer friends and less access to the social activities of their peers.
    You can find out more about this in our briefing, ‘Child Poverty and low income: health impact and health inequalities’.
    Health inequalities
    When considering health inequalities, children growing up in poverty or in the most deprived areas are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than children from better off families or from more affluent areas.
    This can be seen in
    higher infant mortality rate
    low birthweight
    risk of being overweight or obese
    not being breastfed
    tooth decay
    unintentional injury
    poorer general health and mental wellbeing
    teenage pregnancy.
    Poverty is also a risk factor for experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Having high numbers of ACEs has been found to be related to deprivation with a higher proportion of people in the most deprived areas reporting ACEs.
    outcomes
    Children from low income households and disadvantaged areas tend to have worse outcomes than their better-off peers in terms of cognitive development and school achievement. This can impact upon educational outcomes.
    Although many children living in disadvantaged circumstances do well in school, there is a clear gradient in educational attainment by deprivation, and a persistent gap between the most and least deprived areas.
    From as early as primary one and right through to leaving school, children from deprived areas tend to do worse in terms of early Curriculum for Excellence or doing well in reading, writing and numeracy.
    However, there are many factors that can positively impact on educational attainment for children experiencing poverty. These include
    parental engagement with a child’s education
    good quality preschool education
    extra-curricular support during school time.
    You can find out more about this in our review of health and wellbeing interventions in a school setting.

  6. Avatar MBAH CHIEBONAM says:

    NAME: MBAH CHIEBONAM
    REG NO: 2017/249525
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN.
    There are obvious reasons why the poor families have more children than the rich in our societies today which includes the following :
    Firstly, Lack of Proper Education; Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    Secondly, Misconceptions about family planning; In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size.
    Thirdly, High child mortality rates; These factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty; Limited access to clean water, not enough nutritious food,inadequate housing, poor health care, little or no government support etc.According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries like Nigeria. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    Fourthly, Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives.When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    Also Social reputation; In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else
    Finally, Low source of income and Care for elders; Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

  7. Avatar Ezeke nnenna says:

    Ezeke Nnenna
    2017/249506
    Actually these kinds of peoples are poor not because they have no wealth they are poor because they don’t have good education and awareness and some other factors like;
    1. High Mortality Rate: The survival rate of children in rich families is better and so they may have fewer children whereas with poor, due to malnutrition, poverty, children die and hence these parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Illiteracy: Most poor people are not educated enough and are not able to take a wise decision looking at pros and cons of producing an extra child, Many people are not just poor financially they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance children not well cared for usually end up destitute and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk,
    luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does
    3. More hands: There is a general shortcoming since parents fail to view more children as ‘more mouths to feed’. Instead, they perceive ‘more hands that can earn, most of these families don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.

    4. Religion & culture: Religion and culture leave far greater impressions on the poor. Many people don’t believe in family planning, as a result they don’t even try it all. they believe that children are the inheritance from God and that every child is a blessing, therefore they did not see any reason to stop that. while some other people believe to have more children because of the uncertainty of who will take care of them even in their old aged. They believe by having plenty children, at least one among them will take care of the parent in their old aged.

  8. Avatar Uwode Joy Ogheneyonle says:

    NAME: Uwode Joy Ogheneyonle
    REG NO: 2017/241451
    DEPARTMENT: Economics
    EMAIL: yonlejoyuwode@gmail.com

    Reasons the poor bear more children than the rich:
    1.Care for elders
    The poor parents believed that having more children will help provide a very good health care in the future. In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in Nigeria, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    2. Need for extra labour
    The poor live in area that they can at least sustain themselves either through menial job or farming. More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    3.Cultural and superstitious belief
    In some communities, they believe that large family is a wealthy family. They see children as a future blessings and source of wealth. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of Nigeria, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    Furthermore, poor parents perceived that they are financially constrained in training and provision of good nutrition that will sustain the child life, so they believe that the child can die at any time, that is high child mortality. This made them to have more of it believing that some will at least survive.

    4. Family legacy
    The poor have the belief that if they don’t have more children, poverty will wipe away they family lineage. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy. This, is mostly common among the poor parents.

    5. Limited income
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    6. Lack of jobs and recreational activities
    The rich usually have a job that give them little or no time for family procreation. Even little time they have they will engage it in recreational activities such as weekend vacation, field trip, games and watching television and listening to news. In the case of the poor is opposite, they don’t have good standard of living. They have more time for themselves and family procreation.

    The positive effect of having a large number of children:
    Poor parents believe in diversity gift of children. Large families have the advantage of utilizing each family member’s strengths in daily life. Children come with their own personalities and skills. Some are quiet, some loud; some are kind and caring, some bold and independent; some may love music or sports; some kids are culinary gurus, while some may have inventive ideas. Pulling from everyone’s skills can make family life more enjoyable and fulfilling.

    Utilize this diversity in family problem solving, planning trips or trying to generate ideas. Each unique person will have something new and different to contribute. Not only will each person feel needed and wanted, but they will also each develop a strong sense of self. Each personality can be fun to get to know and love.

    The Negative effects:
    Poor large family will result to large poverty. Poor children are like free rancher, they move around without being controlled and as a result engage in so many social vices such as stealing, public vandalization, smoking etc. Larger families are more frequent with early marriage and rapid birth of the first child. In larger families, child rearing becomes more rule ridden, less individualized, with corporal punishment and less investment of resources. Smaller families tend to result in higher IQ, academic achievement, and occupational performance. Large families produce more delinquents and alcoholics. Perinatal morbidity and mortality rates are higher in large families as birth weights decrease. Mothers of large families are at higher risk of several physical diseases. At times such mother look more older than her age.

  9. Avatar Ali Chukwuemeka Japhet says:

    ALI CHUKWUEMEKA JAPHET

    2017/242427

    Poor families tend to have more children than the rich families irrespective of the financial burden attached. The reasons are addressed below.

    1. MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT FAMILY PLANNING.

    In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    2. LACK OF EDUCATION.

    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child.

    3. RELIGIOUS BELIEFS.

    In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives.

    DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING LARGE CHILDREN
    a.In larger families, child rearing becomes more rule ridden, less individualized, with corporal punishment and less investment of resources.

    b. Smaller families tend to result in higher IQ, academic achievement, and occupational performance.

    c. Large families produce more delinquents and alcoholics. Perinatal morbidity and mortality rates are higher in large families as birth weights decrease. Mothers of large families are at higher risk of several physical diseases. Common methodological errors are indicated and exemplary studies are described.

  10. Avatar Nwachukwu Maryjane says:

    NWACHUKWU MARYJANE
    2017/249533
    ECONOMICS
    300level

    It is quiet unfortunate that despite effort made by the world Bank organization to help develop health, family planing, good nutrition and education, many Africans still found themselves in the menace of high population growth as result of high birth rate.
    The following in my opinion are the reason why the poor have more children than the reach base on my observations:

    1. Illiteracy or lgnorance: Those who are uneducated tend to stick to the acient believe that large family size increase family labour which will inturn lead to increase in wealth.

    2. Limited access to contraceptives and ignorant of available family planning. Those who lack basic education are not aware of this birth control substances and some who are aware of it because of fear of future implementations or side effects refuse to embrace it.

    3. Search for a particular child gender: It is a Norm in a traditional African society that a man must have atleast a male child who will succeed him after his demise, as a result of this absence of a male child in most family means continuous reproduction untill a male child surfaces.

    4. Idleness/unemployment: couple who are not employed are likely to have more children as they continue to enjoy each other’s company without considering the implications.

    5. Family pressure: Some family with few siblings as result of death or delay in child bearing may sometimes disagree with family members who want to have fewer children. This can be attributed to the popular Igbo saying “Maduka” or “Igwe bu ike”, as result of this family pressure couple may decide to have more children just to please the family members.

    Consequences of this is that parents who have more children find it difficult to give maximum attention to each child as there attention are divinded between many children and this could lead to lost of parent child relationship.Ulike in weathy homes where there are fewer children.

  11. Avatar Metu Sandra C says:

    Name: Metu Sandra C
    Department: Economics
    Reg number: 2017/249526
    Email address: sandra.metu.249526@unn.edu.ng

    It has been observed that the poor have the tendency than their rich counterparts to make more babies because of so many reasons that may due to religious, socio-cultural or economic factors. –the poor believe the more children they have the greater the probability of at least one of them breaking out from the vicious cycle of poverty.
    The following are some of the reasons for the poor having large families.
    Early marriage is a major reason why the poor have large families. In many developing countries, a woman’s primary role is to be a wife and mother. So a large percentage of girls in developing countries get married before 18 and commence child bearing. This typically means an end to the girl’s education and all other of her life choices. This will certainly help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    High child mortality rate has been a major reason for the preference of many children by poor parents. Due to chronic poverty and inadequate access to good nutrition and health care the poor have numerous children with the hope that few children will survive until adulthood and break the family’s poverty. In Burkina Faso 8.5% of children will die before 5 years.

    The poor usually have many children to preserve their family history, legacy and name. Also preference for male children has also led to an increase in the number of children the poor have.

    Need for extra labour : More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor families live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there is an expectation to have big families to provide extra labour. Usually this poor families can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on their number. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Having large families is beneficial in the following ways.
    Large families supply labour that if positively employed can lead to economic growth and development in Nigeria. Also large families provide psychological reassurance to individuals that they’re not alone as siblings act as protectors to one another.
    However the negatives effects of the poor having large families is numerous. The following are a few.
    Girls born into poverty tend to get teenage pregnancy than girls born into richer families.

    ️ An increase in crime rates and unemployment. Since they’re unable to cater for the basic necessities of their children like food, education, clothing, shelter and housing these children turn to crime and drugs. And because they’re more likely not to have a decent education this makes them unemployable or stuck with menial jobs.

    Poor access to health care and health problems: because poor women hardly have access to adequate care before, during and after pregnancy this takes a toll on their bodies and their store of iron and other bodily minerals depleted and not replaced. Of course the health of their babies and children is not any better.

    Poor parents hardly have a penny to send their children to school. They grow up in poor neighborhoods that don’t even have good schools and other basic amenities.

    Poor housing and overcrowding in the home: is a common in poor families with, children grow up in rundown and dilapidated homes, they are more prone to physical and sexual assault.
    Many poor families cannot even afford to have a healthy diet little wonder they are more prone to illness than well nutured families.00

    Greater female illiteracy rate and high maternal death.

    The poor are at greater risk of domestic violence, divorce and other family problems. The stress of running a family and catering for children puts immense pressure on a family and this is worse for poor parents. Low self esteem and antisocial behaviour is a trait common among children born in poverty.

  12. Avatar Ijara Peter Elochukwu. says:

    Name: Ijara Peter Elochukwu
    Department: Economics
    Reg no: 2017/249513

    It has been noticed that the poor tend to have larger families than the rich.Poverty has a devastating effect for people living in it. Poor parents are likely to breed poor children who are likely to be poor as adults, to drop out of school and because teenage parents.
    They are many reasons why they prefer to have large families, they include but not limited to:

    ▪️ Early marriage: In many developing countries, a woman’s primary role is to be a wife and mother. This means, the woman gets to marry at a younger age and begins having children immediately. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant which typically means an end to the girl’s education and all other of her life choices. This will certainly help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    ▪️ High child mortality rate has been a major reason for the preference of many children by poor parents. Due to chronic poverty and inadequate access to good nutrition and health care the poor have numerous children with the hope that few children will survive until adulthood and break the family’s poverty. In Burkina Faso 8.5% of children will die before 5 years.

    ▪️ Preservation of Family legacy: It is the desire to preserve the lineage, history and family name. They give birth in enormous numbers for their offspring to take up and continue their family legacy.

    ▪️ Most poor families engage in agriculture and have preference for more kids in order to support the family’s livelihood. They children are often used for agricultural and menial labour like cutting bushes, harvesting crops, laying up barns, ploughing, gardening

    ▪️ Providing care and basic necessities for the elderly is a reason for preference over many children. In Nigeria with an almost non- existent welfare system the poor want large families so that someone will take care of them in old age.

    However large number of children can be beneficial in some ways.
    ▪️ The large families supply labour that if positively employed can lead to economic growth and development in Nigeria.
    ▪️ Large families provide psychological reassurance to individuals that they’re not alone.
    ▪️ Siblings act as protectors to one another.
    The negatives effects of the poor having large families include
    ▪️ Teenage pregnancy: girls born into poverty tend to get teenage pregnancy than girls born into richer families.
    ▪️ Greater crime rates and unemployment is a negative effect of poor people having numerous children. Since they’re unable to cater for the basic necessities of their children like food, education, clothing, shelter and housing these children turn to crime and drug abuse. And because they’re more likely not to have a decent education this renders them unemployable or if they do get employment are limited to menial jobs.
    ▪️ Poor access to health care and health problems: because poor women hardly have access to adequate care before, during and after pregnancy this takes a toll on their bodies and their store of iron and other bodily minerals more likely to be depleted. Of course the health of their babies and children is not any better.
    ▪️ Inadequate education and schooling: poor parents hardly have a penny to send their children to school and so therefore their children are rendered unemployable. They grow up in poor neighborhoods that don’t even have good schools and other basic amenities.
    ▪️ Housing and homelessness/ overcrowding in the home: this is a common feature in poor homes, children grow up in rundown and dilapidated homes, they are more prone to risk of assault, abuse and rape. The children don’t even have the luxury of space to develop properly since the house is overcrowded.
    ▪️ Poor diet. Many poor people cannot even afford to feed 3 times a day combine with the foods they eat lack the basic nutrients needed for a strong and healthy body little wonder they are more prone to illness than well fed families.
    ▪️ High maternal death is a recurrent feature of having large families as so many women die at childbirth since they have little or no access to health care during pregnancy. Teenage mothers are far at greater risk since their pelvis is not fully developed.
    ▪️ Greater female illiteracy rate: often times once these poor women get pregnant any chance at education is also terminated.
    ▪️ Having large number of children places financial stress on the poor parents as inadequate resources will have to be split among more children.
    ▪️ The poor are at greater risk of domestic violence, divorce and other family problems. The stress of running a family and catering for children can put immense pressure on a family and trigger violence and other family problems. Low self esteem and antisocial behaviour is a common characteristics among poor children.

  13. Avatar Ijara Peter Elochukwu says:

    Name: Ijara Peter Elochukwu
    Department: Economics
    Reg no: 2017/249514

    It has been noticed that the poor tend to have larger families than the rich.Poverty has a devastating effect for people living in it. Poor parents are likely to breed poor children who are likely to be poor as adults, to drop out of school and because teenage parents.
    They are many reasons why they prefer to have large families, they include but not limited to:

    ▪️ Early marriage: In many developing countries, a woman’s primary role is to be a wife and mother. This means, the woman gets to marry at a younger age and begins having children immediately. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant which typically means an end to the girl’s education and all other of her life choices. This will certainly help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    ▪️ High child mortality rate has been a major reason for the preference of many children by poor parents. Due to chronic poverty and inadequate access to good nutrition and health care the poor have numerous children with the hope that few children will survive until adulthood and break the family’s poverty. In Burkina Faso 8.5% of children will die before 5 years.

    ▪️ Preservation of Family legacy: It is the desire to preserve the lineage, history and family name. They give birth in enormous numbers for their offspring to take up and continue their family legacy.

    ▪️ Most poor families engage in agriculture and have preference for more kids in order to support the family’s livelihood. They children are often used for agricultural and menial labour like cutting bushes, harvesting crops, laying up barns, ploughing, gardening

    ▪️ Providing care and basic necessities for the elderly is a reason for preference over many children. In Nigeria with an almost non- existent welfare system the poor want large families so that someone will take care of them in old age.

    However large number of children can be beneficial in some ways.
    ▪️ The large families supply labour that if positively employed can lead to economic growth and development in Nigeria.
    ▪️ Large families provide psychological reassurance to individuals that they’re not alone.
    ▪️ Siblings act as protectors to one another.
    The negatives effects of the poor having large families include
    ▪️ Teenage pregnancy: girls born into poverty tend to get teenage pregnancy than girls born into richer families.
    ▪️ Greater crime rates and unemployment is a negative effect of poor people having numerous children. Since they’re unable to cater for the basic necessities of their children like food, education, clothing, shelter and housing these children turn to crime and drug abuse. And because they’re more likely not to have a decent education this renders them unemployable or if they do get employment are limited to menial jobs.
    ▪️ Poor access to health care and health problems: because poor women hardly have access to adequate care before, during and after pregnancy this takes a toll on their bodies and their store of iron and other bodily minerals more likely to be depleted. Of course the health of their babies and children is not any better.
    ▪️ Inadequate education and schooling: poor parents hardly have a penny to send their children to school and so therefore their children are rendered unemployable. They grow up in poor neighborhoods that don’t even have good schools and other basic amenities.
    ▪️ Housing and homelessness/ overcrowding in the home: this is a common feature in poor homes, children grow up in rundown and dilapidated homes, they are more prone to risk of assault, abuse and rape. The children don’t even have the luxury of space to develop properly since the house is overcrowded.
    ▪️ Poor diet. Many poor people cannot even afford to feed 3 times a day combine with the foods they eat lack the basic nutrients needed for a strong and healthy body little wonder they are more prone to illness than well nutured families.
    ▪️ High maternal death is a recurrent feature of having large families as so many women die at childbirth since they have little or no access to health care during pregnancy. Teenage mothers are far at greater risk since their pelvis is not fully developed.
    ▪️ Greater female illiteracy rate: often times once these poor women get pregnant any chance at education is also terminated.
    ▪️ Having large number of children places financial stress on the poor parents as inadequate resources will have to be split among more children.
    ▪️ The poor are at greater risk of domestic violence, divorce and other family problems. The stress of running a family and catering for children can put immense pressure on a family and trigger violence and other family problems. Low self esteem and antisocial behaviour is a common characteristics among poor children.

  14. Avatar Ugwoke Cornelius Esomchi says:

    Ugwoke Cornelius Esomchi
    2017/249581

    Reason why poor people have more children than the rich people.
    EARLY MARRIAGE AND GENDER ROLE: In some community, the poor give out their daughters’ hand in marriage at early age say 16years because they believe that women education ends in the kitchen of her husband, therefore they don’t train their daughters’ in school. Once the girl gets married at that early age with their sole aim of producing offspring which they believe is the main role of women when they get married, this means that before she will get to her menopause, she must have giving birth to as many children as possible while the rich do not engage their daughters into early marriage because they want their daughter to attain quality education. Talking about gender role, the poor families, mostly especially those ones in the rural area, who are more particular about a male child would not stop giving birth until they get male child. Their reason .right be that they don’t want their lineage to end.
    NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: Another reason why the poor give birth to many children is to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them.
    CARE FOR ELDERS: The poor give birth to many children because they want them to take care of them at old age. They want to be Surrounded by so many people at old age who will always be around at all time. They believe that if they give birth to one child or two children, they won’t be able to take care of them like when they are many children. For instance, if they are many, when one or two is not around or busy, the other once will be available for them.
    Consequentially, the poor people might end up not training their children to the expected level of education because they don’t have enough money. The children on the other hand might end up as betters on the street or as street boys and girls and this can practically lead increased crime in the society. From the rich peoples side, they will have to look people they will employ in other to help them with some minor chores which would easily done if there were more hands.

  15. For the wealthy Children are mostly considered as inferior commodities. The rich prefer to have quality children than plenty of children. They give birth birth to children with the intention of investing in them to get to the point they are or even do better, they make sure that all the fundamental privileges a child should have are made available even before giving birth to a child which means they practive family planning all the time.

    For the poor, it’s a different story all together,it is the direct opposite especially in African countries like Nigeria.
    They prefer having more children because of the following reasons;

    1. They count children as wealth – This belief system has tmade a lot of families to continually produce children without considering family planning since they believe the more children you have the more you’re considered wealthy by society.

    2. Increase in labour force – Many poor families in Africa live in the rural areas and because of this, most of them run family businesses like subsistent farming. However, this makes them see children as an addage to their labour force, so they try to give birth as much as possible. They also do this in order to have people that will carey on the business aftrer they’re gone.

    3. Ignorance – Most poor families live in ignorance up till date and they don’t sew the need for proper family planning.

  16. Avatar Okoye Kingsley Chigozie says:

    Okoye Kingsley Chigozie
    Economics
    2017/249561
    Okoyekingsley93@gmail.com
    The poor has the tendency to make more babies because it is like an achievement of sought – the way the rich looks at their assets. The more the children, the probability of at least one of them breaking out from the vicious cycle of poverty is a major consideration. It is assumed that when this occurs, the chances of the success of a member of the family having a positive multiplier effect on others should be the case. Considerations are basically not opined on statistics or the prevailing economic reality. The rule of thumb and the populist generalisation amongst their ranks is what major decisions are based, and sadly so.

    Religion, belief systems (culture and traditions) and education to a larger extent helps determine and influence the number of children by the poor. The first two aforementioned; have a major upward influence in this regard (children) on the poor. Only education stands out, in that, it not only guarantees freedom from irrational decision making, but may also break up the shackles of poverty itself – when one is really focused, if I may add. There is no telling the resolve of the informed and determined mind, all things being equal.

    For wealthy people, the reverse is almost the case. But for some reasons, especially religious and cultural ones. The rich are also guilty of having more children. It doesn’t matter how highly educated they are, the intervening influences of culture and religion supersedes that of education. However, the propensity for the rich to breed more children can be summed up as negligible vis-a-vis the poor.

    The positive effect of the high number of children born by the poor if well managed and developed is increased human capital which would lead to increase in productivity of the economy.
    The negative effect for the high number of children born by the poor is lack of formal jobs due to the unemployability of the people from poor parents who did not have access to education. It would also lead to increase in crime rate in the country

  17. Chigbata Franklin Chigozie
    2017/242424
    Economics
    Franklin.chigbata.242424@unn.edu.ng

    There are various reasons, the poor have plenty children than the rich, but i will like to discuss on two points. • Lack Of or Limited Access to Education: In many developing countries the poor lack access to education as the government fail .
    Families in poverty usually don’t have access to education unlike the rich families that have financial access to attain any level of education. Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Nigeria some families are unable to afford the cost of education. When an individual is uneducated the person tends to have more children than the educated one. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children Some poor families in Nigeria believe that when they reproduce more children that in the future the children will care for them when they are of old age. when government don’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves. Another reason why the poor reproduce more than the rich is the need for extra labour. More than average per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas (villages), with most families depending on labour intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, families will reproduce more children and have big families to combat their need for extra labour. There are negative impacts of having larger families, child rearing becomes more rule ridden, less individualized, with corporal punishment and less investment of resources. Smaller families tend to result in higher IQ, academic achievement, and occupational performance. Large families produce more delinquents and alcoholics.
    Educational outcomes
    Children from low income households and disadvantaged areas tend to have worse outcomes than their better-off peers in terms of cognitive development and school achievement. This can impact upon educational outcomes.
    Although many children living in disadvantaged circumstances do well in school, there is a clear gradient in educational attainment by deprivation, and a persistent gap between the most and least deprived areas.
    From as early as primary one and right through to leaving school, children from deprived areas tend to do worse in terms of early Curriculum for Excellence or doing well in reading, writing and numeracy.
    However, there are many factors that can positively impact on educational attainment for children experiencing poverty. These include
    parental engagement with a child’s education
    good quality preschool education
    extra-curricular support during school time.

  18. Avatar Eze Udoka Chidiebube says:

    Name:Eze Udoka Chidiebube
    Reg no:2017/242428
    Dept: Economics

    High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly.
    Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.[3] For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception.
    Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.[5] It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids. .
    CONSEQUENCES
    When considering health inequalities, children growing up in poverty or in the most deprived areas are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than children from better off families or from more affluent areas.
    This can be seen in
    higher infant mortality rate
    low birthweight
    risk of being overweight or obese
    not being breastfed
    tooth decay
    unintentional injury
    poorer general health and mental wellbeing
    teenage pregnancy.
    Poverty is also a risk factor for experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Having high numbers of ACEs has been found to be related to deprivation with a higher proportion of people in the most deprived areas reporting ACEs.
    Educational outcomes
    Children from low income households and disadvantaged areas tend to have worse outcomes than their better-off peers in terms of cognitive development and school achievement. This can impact upon educational outcomes.
    Although many children living in disadvantaged circumstances do well in school, there is a clear gradient in educational attainment by deprivation, and a persistent gap between the most and least deprived areas.
    From as early as primary one and right through to leaving school, children from deprived areas tend to do worse in terms of early Curriculum for Excellence or doing well in reading, writing and numeracy.
    However, there are many factors that can positively impact on educational attainment for children experiencing poverty. These include
    parental engagement with a child’s education
    good quality preschool education
    extra-curricular support during school time.

  19. Obioma God’swill Nnaemeka
    Reg no:2017/251914
    Economics Department

    Why the poor tends to have more children???

    There are many perspective to look that this unending and challenging question ie we can look at it socioeconomically, traditional just to mention a few, for this analysis we’ll focus on the socioeconomic reasons. They include but not limited to ;

    Wealthy People prefer to have less number of children because generally in microeconomis children are considered inferior goods that is as income increases demand for children decreases as they can afford to employ house helps, gatekeepers, chefs etc unlike the poor in which the children serves the purposes.

    Secondly, The wealthy class prefer to have few children that they can give the best possible and quality life(education, nutrition, clothing etc). Unlike the poor that sees many children as the best way to diverse their chances of escaping the poverty bracket in the future.

    Thirdly, unlike the poor that have little saving for old age and therefore prefer to have more kids to help cater for their old age needs ,the wealthy class have enough to cater for their the old age needs and probably transfer for to their children in form of inheritance.

    Lastly, the wealthy class are always busy with work and travels a lot therefore have limited time to have very large families unlike the poor which is always made up of 1 working husband ,house wife(ready to nurse infants) and probably other children.

  20. Avatar Assi kaetti Marian says:

    Name: Assi kaetti Marian
    Reg number: 2017/241454
    Dept: Economics
    Email: Kaettimarian@gmail.com

    Reason why the poor families in Nigeria give birth to more children unlike the rich families.
    The Following are a few reasons.
    ▪️ The extremely High child mortality rate has been a major reason for giving birth to more children by poor parents. Because of abject poverty and inadequate access to good nutrition and health care, the poor families tend to have numerous children with the hope that few children will survive until adulthood and break the vicious cycle of poverty.
    ▪️ No or Limited access to education and illiteracy has been a major determinant of large families. Most of them are not aware of the negative consequences that follows in giving birth to many children in a short time span such as inability to carter for all of them. This leads to malnutrition and sometimes death.
    ▪️ Early marriages and gender roles plays a role in the more having more children. In Nigeria, it’s estimated that more than 44 percent of girls get married before age 18 and immediately they start birthing children.
    ▪️ Most Poor women cannot afford contraceptives or get informed about it. About 211 million women in poor countries (mostly in Nigeria) desire to delay or stop childbearing but don’t have access to contraceptives. Also the stigma about contraceptives still abound due to poor health education, religious and cultural biases and scepticism about government motives in controlling the population growth rate.
    ▪️ Caring for the Elderly is a reason for preference over many children. In Nigeria with an almost non- functional welfare system people grow large families so that they can be taken care of by some of their children.

    POSITIVE EFFECTS OF THE POOR HAVING LARGE FAMILIES
    There are some positive effects of poor people having numerous children. The following are a few reasons
    1) Increase labour supply upon employment. This leads to economic growth and development.
    2) Large families provide psychological reassurance to individuals that they’re not alone.
    NEGATIVE EFFECTS
    The negative effects of having the poor having large families cannot be over emphasized.
    ▪️ Early Teenage pregnancy: girls born into poverty tend to get teenage pregnancy than there counterparts born into rich homes
    ▪️ Increased crime rates and unemployment is a negative effect of poor people having numerous children. Since they’re unable to cater for the basic necessities of their children like food, education, clothing, shelter and housing these children turn to crime and drug abuse. ▪️ Poor access to health care and health problems: because poor women hardly have access to adequate care before, during and after pregnancy this takes a toll on their bodies and their store of iron and other bodily minerals more likely to be depleted. Of course the health of their babies and children is not any better.
    ▪️ Inadequate education and schooling: poor parents hardly have enough money to send their children to school and so therefore their children are rendered unemployable. They grow up in poor neighborhoods lacking basic amenities and education.

  21. Why the poor tends to have more children???

    There are many perspective to look that this unending and challenging question ie we can look at it socioeconomically, traditional just to mention a few, for this analysis we’ll focus on the socioeconomic reasons. They include but not limited to ;

    Wealthy People prefer to have less number of children because generally in microeconomis children are considered inferior goods that is as income increases demand for children decreases as they can afford to employ house helps, gatekeepers, chefs etc unlike the poor in which the children serves the purposes.

    Secondly, The wealthy class prefer to have few children that they can give the best possible and quality life(education, nutrition, clothing etc). Unlike the poor that sees many children as the best way to diverse their chances of escaping the poverty bracket in the future.

    Thirdly, unlike the poor that have little saving for old age and therefore prefer to have more kids to help cater for their old age needs ,the wealthy class have enough to cater for their the old age needs and probably transfer for to their children in form of inheritance.

    Lastly, the wealthy class are always busy with work and travels a lot therefore have limited time to have very large families unlike the poor which is always made up of 1 working husband ,house wife(ready to nurse infants) and probably other children.

  22. ASIKA JOY OGECHUKWU
    2017/242025
    Economics dept
    joy.asika.242025@unn.edu.ng
    Many poor people marry early both on the side of the woman and the man because they have little or no education or sensitization on such issues which makes them give birth without trying to apply family planning or the use of contraceptive. Some poor persons have many children because of their cultural and religious teachings and values which they have been indoctrinated with and this makes them skeptical about family planning and it’s side effectlike bleeding some believe they would find it difficult to conceive again. In some cultures and religious settings, they are against family planning stating that people should give birth as God has given them and not try to disobey God as stated in the scriptures (Gen 1 vs 22).
    Although they try to adhere to such beliefs but it’s affecting them adversely because their resources are insufficient to manage and cater for their large families such as providing them with the essential needsquality education, clothing and shelther which makes the children also grow up to have limited source of income making the poverty cycle to continue to rotate

  23. Avatar EZE ONYEDIKACHI VICTOR says:

    EZE ONYEDIKACHI VICTOR
    REG NUMBER: 2017/ 241442
    Dept: Economics
    Email: dikachyezev@gmail.com

    Reasons why Poor families have More Children than the rich families?

    The main reasons why the poor have more children than the rich can be attributed to the following reasons below:
    1. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.

    2. Family legacy and values: People born in large families feel that they are obligated to maintain that same family culture by also having a large family just like the one they were born into. And for many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for children to continue their family legacy.

    3.Lack of education
    Most Girls in Nigeria who marry and begin their families in adolescence are very unlikely to finish school and may not under the importance of educational values for their children. They also tend to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. The case is different from women from rich homes, who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They marry later on and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment required.

    CONSEQUENCES (POSITVE AND NEGATIVE) OF LARGE FAMILY SIZE ON A NATION’S ECONOMY
    1) There is increase in population: This increases the population of the country in the long run.
    2) Education: Children from poor home gets enrolled in schools with inadequate facilities where they get less quality education. Most of them are less likely to finish up schooling up to the college level. This lack of education restricts most children from attaining high in life. This continues the vicious cycle of continual poverty along the family line
    3) Increase in helping hands in the home and increased Labour force in the country at large.

  24. Avatar Francis Chibuezem David says:

    Francis Chibuezem David
    2017/241445
    francischibuezem247@gmail.com

    Some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich are;
    1. Religion
    Some religions encourage child bearing and discourage the use of contraceptives. With this idealogy, most of these poor couples whose source of direction is their religion engage in continuous sex without contraceptives and leading to high child birth.
    2. Extra labour
    Poor families believe that since they do not have money to employ house helps or labourers in the place of work, they should give birth to as many children as possible who will help them in house chores and even in their business places. This thought is a very wrong one because they see their immediate problems and think that they have a solution to it by having more children because they don’t pay these children salaries as they will pay a house help. But the question is do they actually not pay these children salaries? Though they might not directly pay salaries, but they feed them, they clothe them, take them to school and a whole lot more but they don’t see these disadvantages, rather they are blinded by their need.
    3. High mortality rate
    In places where the mortality rate (death rate) is very high, most times children are mostly affected by the pandemic or effect of such and with such mindset, this could lead to couples becoming parents to many children just Incase one dies, they will not be left without more children.
    4. Limited access to education
    When a community or society, has very little access to education, they will be more ignorant and will have no value or concern for family planning given that they have no idea what it is or even the use
    Large number of children in family might be profitable to some extent in a family and society in the sense that they have more labour and later on in life, if they all do well, that will be an extra benefit to the family, but this is a very little benefit compared to the negative effects which include more expenditure which when it’s not handled will lead to having hoodlums who later terroriser the society because they lack proper training or upbringing and they have no skill which can secure them a Job
    In my own view, the negative effects of poorer families having larger families are far greater than the positive effect

  25. Avatar Nwosu Angel Chiamaka says:

    Name: Nwosu Angel Chiamaka
    Reg number: 2017/249536
    Dept: Economics

    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND THEIR CONSEQUENCES

    There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reason why parents in developing countries or world have large families.
    Children are born with a purpose and it’s of the family responsibility if they chose to exhether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable.

    The following are factors:
    1. High child mortality rates
    Child mortality rates in the developing countries in Africa especially in Nigeria is so high, parents may intentionally have large families because of the fear of reality in that sometimes children don’t survive. Over the past years, Nigeria, in the past few years has experienced some worsening of child mortality . The infant mortality rate evaluated at average of 130 per 1000 in the last five year 2016-2020) as measured by UNICEF.

    2. Early Female marriages.
    In most cultures in Nigeria, a woman’s role is seen as a wife and mother in the home. This mostly mean that she gets married younger and start bearing children. In developing countries, mostly In Nigeria, an estimated 44% of girls in Nigeria are married before their 18th birthday and the country, also, records the 11th highest rate of child marriage (UNICEF 2013). Young married girls are often under pressures most especially from their husband’s people to become pregnant as soon as possible. This most times lead to the end to a girl’s education, limiting her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    3. Caring for elders
    In Nigeria, there isn’t any provisions for pension or social security benefit, even old people who have pensions find it difficult to get access to them. Most parents tend to rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are taken care of when they’re olders. Children are of moral obligations to take care of their parents when they get old.

    With the above reasons, it’s become clear why poor families have many children among them.

    Their Negative Consequences:
    1) Lack of access to quality education: Poor families with many children are not able to train all their children in quality schools. Most of which becomes school drop outs adding to the level of children who are out of school and lacking access to education in the country at large. This leads to increasing illiteracy in the country
    2) Increase in crime rate: These children out of school engage in various activities like street hawking, begging etc leaving the child or children vulnerable to danger and evil vices in the society. This leads to high crime rate in the economy like; robbery, rapes and kidnapping etc.

  26. NAME: OKEKE JUDE CHIMOBI

    REG NO: 2017/249556

    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS

    1) Lack of education – There is no family planning. The resources available to provide for the family, and the health effects of bearing so many children on the woman – such things are rarely considered.

    2) Birth control – Low income families often don’t have sufficient exposure to contraceptives, or do not give merit to birth control methods. This is changing now though, as people are gradually getting more aware.

    3)The desire to have a son – People still wish for a male child, who’d uplift them out of poverty and look after them in old age. Couples keep conceiving in hopes of a boy.

    4) More hands – There is a general shortcoming since parents fail to view more children as ‘more mouths to feed’. Instead, they perceive ‘more hands that can earn’.

    5) Religion & culture – Religion and culture leave far greater impressions on the poor. Thus the poor might never consider abortions, or follow scientific birth control if their place of worship forbids it. Likewise, if the society accords a low status to women, they could be viewed as nothing more than baby-making machines.

    6) Healthcare – Lack of sanitation and unavailability of general healthcare were the reason why a lot of poor children often didn’t make it beyond the age of five. Crime in poorer neighborhoods is frequent too. Death takes a human toll on families, but also encourages having more children in the hopes of their making it to adulthood despite the odds.

    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES OF HAVE MANY CHILDREN

    1) OVER POPULATION
    We are just being deliberately blind to reality. It has been shown clearly in the Asian countries there is no country classified as developed that has not moderated its population. If one person is telling another to reproduce recklessly, to me, it is a crime to the state.

    2) BRAIN DRAIN
    There are many qualified persons, but too few jobs. People cannot get jobs, either in the public or private sector. Those who are not highly skilled for jobs that are available are forced to look for another source of income or go abroad. There is no way the public and private sectors can absorb the huge numbers of trained graduates.

    3) RISKY BIRTHS
    Apart from the issue of having too many children, one of the more pressing concerns is the health risk to the mother. That risk is a combination of maternal death and infant death. Fertility affects health mainly because certain types of births are exceptionally risky.

  27. Avatar Ogbodo Peace Chinenyenwa says:

    Ogbodo peace chinenyenwa
    2017/249543
    nenyepeace2010@gmail.com
    Peacenenye.blogspot.com
    Reasons why the poor have more children than the rich
    NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: The poor give birth to many children in other to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them and also they believe that when the number of children increase, the production of goods and services have also increased.
    RELIGION: In some religion, they see contraception as a sin that is, they are against it and because contraception is against their believe they will deviate from it thereby making them not to protect themselves. When they don’t engage in contraception which would have prevented them from having many babies therefore this will lead them into having more babies more than they panned for.
    CHILD MORTALITY RATE: In this situation the poor parents are afraid of loosing all their children to misfortunes. In some places they would say that “one who has only one child have no child”. Therefore, for the fear of being childless the would prefer to bear more children to avoid unwanted stories.
    CULTURE: some cultures are strict when it comes to child bearing. For instance, in some culture that gives title to elders, some elders may be denied that opportunity because they don’t have many children. This implies that anyone who wants to be given a chieftaincy title, would marry wives and in turn he would have many children.
    Therefore, the family that has many members will be at advantage because work will be more easy and fast for them.

  28. Avatar Udeh Amarachi M. says:

    Udeh Amarachi M.
    2017/249576
    Maryamarachi2010@gmail.com
    Maryudeh.blogspot.com
    Reason why poor people have more children than the rich people.
    EARLY MARRIAGE AND GENDER ROLE: In some community, the poor give out their daughters’ hand in marriage at early age say 16years because they believe that women education ends in the kitchen of her husband, therefore they don’t train their daughters’ in school. Once the girl gets married at that early age with their sole aim of producing offspring which they believe is the main role of women when they get married, this means that before she will get to her menopause, she must have giving birth to as many children as possible while the rich do not engage their daughters into early marriage because they want their daughter to attain quality education. Talking about gender role, the poor families, mostly especially those ones in the rural area, who are more particular about a male child would not stop giving birth until they get male child. Their reason .right be that they don’t want their lineage to end.
    NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: Another reason why the poor give birth to many children is to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them.
    CARE FOR ELDERS: The poor give birth to many children because they want them to take care of them at old age. They want to be Surrounded by so many people at old age who will always be around at all time. They believe that if they give birth to one child or two children, they won’t be able to take care of them like when they are many children. For instance, if they are many, when one or two is not around or busy, the other once will be available for them.
    Consequentially, the poor people might end up not training their children to the expected level of education because they don’t have enough money. The children on the other hand might end up as betters on the street or as street boys and girls and this can practically lead increased crime in the society. From the rich peoples side, they will have to look people they will employ in other to help them with some minor chores which would easily done if there were more hands.

  29. Avatar Asogwa Arinze Godwin says:

    Name: Asogwa Arinze Godwin
    Reg no: 2016/235173
    Department: Economics
    WHY POOR PEOPLE TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH.
    1. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    2. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    3. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    4. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    5. Patriarchal values. Having fewer children or no children is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.

  30. Avatar Anachuna Cynthia Chisom says:

    NAME: Anachuna Cynthia Chisom
    REG: 2017/249481
    EMAIL:chisomcynthia4247@gmail.com.
    Some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich include, Child mortality rate. Due to lack of enough nutritious food, clean water etc. The life of the children are threatened. So they try to have as much children as possible, knowing fully well that some of their children will not survive. Forced early marriage is also one of the reasons why the poor have more children. Another reason is lack of Education. One who is not educated and doesn’t know the value or importance of Education will give birth to as much children as possible, without considering the cost of education for each child. Religious beliefs, in so many faiths children are seen as great blessings. So, people who are part of these faiths would embrace the idea of having more children. Social reputation, in a community where children are viewed as blessings, that is the more children you have, the more blessed you are. You will find out that members of that community will want to have as much children as possible. There are some other reasons such as family legacy, limited finances, care for elders etc.
    This act of giving birth to numerous children by the poor have its consequences (both negative and positive)
    Generally in the economy as a whole, it leads to increase in labor force, thereby leading to increase in productivity in the economy.
    Increase in unemployment rate, in a country like Nigeria where there is very low job opportunity, increase in labor force will lead to increase in The level of unemployment.
    Illiteracy, since the poor give birth to children they cannot properly cater for eg by giving them standard education. This will lead to increase in the level of illiteracy in the country.
    Increase in crime rate. Due to high unemployment rate, people will start to engage in so many illegal activities such as yahoo, armed robbery etc In Order to survive.

  31. Avatar Ngene Michael C. says:

    Name: Ngene Michael C
    Reg no: 2017/246022
    Dept: Economics
    Email: michaelchinecherem1997@gmail.com
    The reason why poor people tend to give birth to more children than the Rich especially in developing countries is because of the following reasons:
    1. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    2. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    3. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    4. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    5. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    6. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

  32. Avatar Okam oluchukwu christopher says:

    Name: Okam Oluchukwu christopher
    Dept: Economics
    Reg No: 2017/249553

    Why The Poor Have More Children Than The Rich
    Some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich are explained below.

    1. High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    2. Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    3. Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care
    4. Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    5.Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child.On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    6. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives.When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    7. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else
    8.Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    9. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    10. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

  33. The world bank lending programs has been a benefit to African country. Talking about their program on family planning, it helps economic development in a country, because is a man give birth to two much children there’s every possibility that he will not be able to take good care of them in the sense of giving them quality education good life like high standard of living. so there is too much low standard of living in an overpopulated community. Yes because every child want to receive equal treatment and for example in a family of three children we can’t compare the standard of living in that family to the standard of living in a family with eight children or even more. So large family causes bad effects on economic growth.
    Let’s talk about child training in a small family the parents pay more attention on their children and give them quality child training than in a large family.
    What’s of the good effects of large family they believe that large family have is going to acquire wealth because the children help in the farm work they helped do some minor jobs like Hawking the others just to bring money home.

    they believe that they will have much people that will take care of them when they are old I mean the parents.

    Also believe that no how no how one of them will be prominent people in the society and inferential person in his area of influence

    • My name is Eke promise chinaza
      2017/241531
      Education/ Economic

      • Avatar Okam Oluchukwu christopher says:

        Why The Poor Have More Children Than The Rich
        Here are Some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich are explained below.

        1. High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
        2. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
        3. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
        4. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
        5. Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
        6. Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
        7. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
        8. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
        9. Joblessness and boredom
        10.illiteracy and misinformation

        With this reasons listed above are the major reasons why the poor give birth to more children than the rich

  34. Avatar Idoko Ukamaka Blessing says:

    Name: Idoko Ukamaka Blessing
    Dept: Economics
    Reg No: 2017/249510
    email: idokoukamaka0701@gmail.com

    Why The Poor Have More Children Than The Rich
    Some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich are explained below.
    1. High child mortality rates: Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 percent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write . Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children. There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and
    have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for eachadditional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months. Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a
    secondary education.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three
    girls is married before age 18 . Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health ocare for their parents if they are unable to
    provide for themselves.
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services
    aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply. A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

    Consequences Of Large Family Size
    There are many consequences associated with having large family size and some of these are;
    1. Increasing social vices: When parents have large number of children without the means of caring for them or sustaining them, such children are prone to many social vices such as stealing, robbery, kidnapping, prostitution etc. This proves the increase or rising social vices in our country today.
    2. Increasing Child Labour: many children are forced into labor in order to assist the family since the parents cannot provide the adequately for the family. Thus children are seen in all corners of the country Hawking one item or the other in order to support the family.
    3. Child Mortality: the little money that could have been used to care for few children are divided to provide for numerous children (mainly for feeding), which is not even enough. Meeting medical needs when the time arrives becomes impossible, and lack of access to medical facility leads to child Mortality.
    4. Pressure on available Social amenities: Due to increasing population, the provided social amenities are always not enough. The struggle or pressure on these amenities leads to breakdown of such good/ commodity.
    5. Gives Bad Image/name to the country in question: As a result of increasing social vices, the country or region image is tarnished both locally and Internationally. For example, the increasing yahoo, kidnapping, robbery etc in Nigeria has to a great extent tarnished her image nationally and Internationally.

  35. Avatar EBERE CHIBUNIEM EZEBO says:

    EBERE EZEBO CHIBUNIEM
    2017/249503
    ECO362
    WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    1. NEED FOR EXTRA LABOR
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labor-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labor. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra laborers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    2. RELIGION
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply, thereby leading to uncontrolled birth or excess number of children than they might actually really want.

    3. CARE FOR THE ELDERLY
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves. in other words, the poor use this as a means of assurance of support and care when they get old that they will be taken care of by their children

    4. LIMITED ACESS TO CONTRACEPTIVES
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live. This leads to extremely high number of children in a family than they can even be cared or catered for.
    Negatively speaking, excess production of kids without the right amount of resources to take care of them might in most cases result into numerous unwanted situations, sometimes robbery, unemployment and so on. Even if population growth is a necessity to a developing country, breeding children without the proper value could endanger a nation.
    Positively, there would be available laborer, , more consumers, population increase , GDP growth etc
    It should also be noted that if there should be more children, then, there should be more income and resources to take care of them and not otherwise.

  36. Avatar Ugwoke Paul C. says:

    Name: Ugwoke, Paul Chukwuebuka
    Reg no. 2017/241059
    Dept. Education /Economicss

    In developing countries of the world, the majority of the population are poor people with large families. In Africa and developing countries at large, there are some believe or factors that necessitate the existence of large families.
    Those factors include

    The believe that one’s children are the ones to take care of them in their old age : in developing countries where Government does little or nothing to help the old people, it leave the citizens with the option that it only by having a large family will be the only way to remedy his predicament, believing that if Mr. A doesn’t take care of him or her, Mr N will do it. This lead to the poor having large family not minding the situations of things in one’s country.

    Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    Early marriage : Children from large poor families tend to marry very early, as they see it as only way of survival. There is little or no education in a family, the girls are always available to marriage. Poor families has this believe that when they have numerous children, that one or two person will eventually marry a rich man. In other words, the poor families see a better future in having so many children.

    Need for extra labour: More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.

  37. Avatar Uwaezuoke Stephen Chinonso (2017/242432) says:

    Uwaezuoke stephen chinonso
    2017/242432
    Economic department

    Discuss the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich and the attendant consequences (positive and negative) of such actions based on your opinion.

    High child mortality rates: Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    Early marriage and gender roles: In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    Care for elders: In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    Need for extra labour: More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    Children and families living and growing up in poverty and low-income households experience many disadvantages. These can have negative health and social consequences during childhood and into adulthood.
    Poorer health and wellbeing: There are several ways in which living in poverty can lead to poorer health outcomes in children, as well as into adulthood.

    Being exposed to some or all of the key factors below, as well as the accumulation of exposure over time, can adversely impact on child development and health outcomes.
    Limited money for everyday resources – including good quality housing.
    Stress of living in poverty.
    Unhealthy lifestyles.
    Poorer education and employment opportunities.
    Children’s experience of poverty can also lead to bullying, or feelings of exclusion, as they may have fewer friends and less access to the social activities of their peers.

    Health inequalities: When considering health inequalities, children growing up in poverty or in the most deprived areas are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than children from better off families or from more affluent areas.
    This can be seen in:
    higher infant mortality rate
    low birthweight
    risk of being overweight or obese
    not being breastfed
    tooth decay
    unintentional injury
    poorer general health and mental wellbeing
    teenage pregnancy.
    Poverty is also a risk factor for experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Having high numbers of ACEs has been found to be related to deprivation with a higher proportion of people in the most deprived areas reporting ACEs.

    POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES
    Poor peoples having many kids increases the probability of one of the kids become successful and liberating the entire family from the vicious cycle of poverty. Cases like this has occurred in our society where kids born into poor homes, struggled and became very successful in their respective careers.

    A large, united and peaceful family establishes a strong sense of security amongst members of the family

  38. Avatar Ugorji Ijeoma Judith says:

    Name: Ugorji Ijeoma Judith
    Reg no: 2017/243088
    Department: ECONOMICS
    Email: peppyhijay@gmail.com
    Blog: peppyxperience.blogspot.com

    Why does the poor have more children than the rich.
    Despite a lot of innovation in medicine and the world Bank’s global strategic efforts in ensuring moderate population and better living standard for the world in areas of education, health, peacekeeping, family planning, better environment to mention a few, the population has continued to increase especially in Africa, Asia and developing countries of the world where a great percentage of their citizen live below poverty level. Considering the pre-industrial and transition demographic stages characterised by high fertility rate, high mortality rate, high population of children and high growth rate in which most poor developing countries of Africa, Asia, Latin America belong to. It is evident that the poor have more population with children constituting a large portion of it. There are many factors ranging from cultural, religious, social and even economic factors that contribute to the poor having more children than the rich.
    Looking at the cultural factors, we have;
    Early marriages. In some countries, a woman’s role is perceived as a wife and mother. Therefore, once a girl child attains the age of puberty she is married off to a man to whom she plays the role of a wife and motherif his children.
    Girl child education. Some cultures does not support the education of the girl child. They see it as a waste of time and resources because one day, she would be married off to a man and may never contribute financial or otherwise to her immediate family.
    From the religious perspective, a large family size can be as a result of;
    Polygamous practices. Some religion like the Islamic religion supports one man and numerous wife marriages. This leads to having many children.
    Use of contraceptives. Some religion abhors the use of contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious traditions mean family planning services are not available to many communities.
    Other factors include:
    High child mortality rate is a social factor that affects many developing nations. Many parents would prefer to have more children intentionally due to high child mortality rate because of the believe that children do not survive.
    High level of illiteracy and ignorance. This also affects the size of family. Most poor people a less educated and hence ignorant od certain information as regards family planning. Women with more formal education are more likely to use contraceptives, marry at an older age and have fewer children.
    Most developing nations are agrarians and labour intensive. More than 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas. Families in this area are majorly agriculturist. There can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour in the farms and other menial jobs.

  39. Chigbata Franklin Chigozie
    2017/242424
    Franklin.chigbata.242424@unn.edu.ng

    Assignment

    It’s quite unbelievable on the birth rate of most African and Asian countries. With Nigeria as a case study the perpetual and consistent increase in number of births per day is at about 250,000 with little or no adequate provisions made available to cater for the humans in addition to the numerous persons living in abject poverty and penury. These are some of the very many reasons why the poor tend to have more children than their well-to-do counterparts:
    Firstly, Over the years, there has been a notion that the more children one has, the larger the care he/she would receive at old age. Though this is fallacious, people have come to think it’s true hence when they see anyone who has lesser number of children, the begin to abuse and stigmatize them.
    Secondly, ‘unemployment’ has eaten deep into the narrows of a country like Nigeria, the adage ‘An idle man is the devil’s workshop’ applies. Since the poor have nothing doing, they therefore resort to making babies. Due to their unemployed state, their major source of relaxation and leisure is constant uncontrolled lovemaking which results in the making of more children whom they can barely fend for.
    Since many poor people live in abject poverty, they’re not able to find themselves in schools and skill acquisition centers hence they’re not abreast with the happenings around their locality all they know is increase the population without minding if the available resources are enough to cater for the teeming population.
    Due to the dilapidated structures in Nigeria, increased death rate is inevitable hence an individual will be compelled to make as many kids as possible pending how many will survive to adulthood.
    The need for a particular gender can actually make a family have more children than they want to have. Most times especially in Igbo land where male children are important in order to carry on the family’s name, this can actually cause parents to give birth to many children in a situation where they are in need of a male child. A times the first 6-7 children are girls, the tendency of wanting to give birth because of the need for a male child is high.
    Consequences of Having More Children.
    Positive Consequences..
    1. More hands are made available to ease family work load.
    2. When a family is large and united there’s a sense of security that exist between them, that is they defend each other so people won’t like to look for their trouble.
    3. When all the children are educated and responsible the possibility of liberating the family from poverty is high.
    Negative consequences
    1. High level of unemployment: In a situation where an economy is having issues with employment having more children will only increase the level of unemployment in the economy.

  40. Avatar Chigbata Franklin Chigozie says:

    It’s quite unbelievable on the birth rate of most African and Asian countries. With Nigeria as a case study the perpetual and consistent increase in number of births per day is at about 250,000 with little or no adequate provisions made available to cater for the humans in addition to the numerous persons living in abject poverty and penury. These are some of the very many reasons why the poor tend to have more children than their well-to-do counterparts:
    Firstly, Over the years, there has been a notion that the more children one has, the larger the care he/she would receive at old age. Though this is fallacious, people have come to think it’s true hence when they see anyone who has lesser number of children, the begin to abuse and stigmatize them.
    Secondly, ‘unemployment’ has eaten deep into the narrows of a country like Nigeria, the adage ‘An idle man is the devil’s workshop’ applies. Since the poor have nothing doing, they therefore resort to making babies. Due to their unemployed state, their major source of relaxation and leisure is constant uncontrolled lovemaking which results in the making of more children whom they can barely fend for.
    Since many poor people live in abject poverty, they’re not able to find themselves in schools and skill acquisition centers hence they’re not abreast with the happenings around their locality all they know is increase the population without minding if the available resources are enough to cater for the teeming population.
    Due to the dilapidated structures in Nigeria, increased death rate is inevitable hence an individual will be compelled to make as many kids as possible pending how many will survive to adulthood.
    The need for a particular gender can actually make a family have more children than they want to have. Most times especially in Igbo land where male children are important in order to carry on the family’s name, this can actually cause parents to give birth to many children in a situation where they are in need of a male child. A times the first 6-7 children are girls, the tendency of wanting to give birth because of the need for a male child is high.
    Consequences of Having More Children.
    Positive Consequences..
    1. More hands are made available to ease family work load.
    2. When a family is large and united there’s a sense of security that exist between them, that is they defend each other so people won’t like to look for their trouble.
    3. When all the children are educated and responsible the possibility of liberating the family from poverty is high.
    Negative consequences
    1. High level of unemployment: In a situation where an economy is having issues with employment having more children will only increase the level of unemployment in the economy.

  41. Avatar Elendu Esther Ogechi 2017/243875 says:

    Reasons why the poor has more children than the rich

    The poor has the tendency to make more babies because it is like an achievement of sought – the way the rich looks at their assets. The more the children, the probability of at least one of them breaking out from the vicious cycle of poverty is a major consideration. It is assumed that when this occurs, the chances of the success of a member of the family having a positive multiplier effect on others should be the case. Considerations are basically not opined on statistics or the prevailing economic reality. The rule of thumb and the populist generalisation amongst their ranks is what major decisions are based, and sadly so.

    Religion, belief systems (culture and traditions) and education to a larger extent helps determine and influence the number of children by the poor. The first two aforementioned; have a major upward influence in this regard (children) on the poor. Only education stands out, in that, it not only guarantees freedom from irrational decision making, but may also break up the shackles of poverty itself – when one is really focused, if I may add. There is no telling the resolve of the informed and determined mind, all things being equal.

    For wealthy people, the reverse is almost the case. But for some reasons, especially religious and cultural ones. The rich are also guilty of having more children. It doesn’t matter how highly educated they are, the intervening influences of culture and religion supersedes that of education. However, the propensity for the rich to breed more children can be summed up as negligible vis-a-vis the poor.

  42. Avatar Nnadi Olivia ijeoma says:

    Nnadi Olivia ijeoma
    2016/232856
    Education economics
    ijeoma.nnadi.232856@unn.edu.ng

    The poor families or parents using Africa as a case study have more children compared to the rich parents because of
    1) Fear for the future
    It is believed that the more children you have the better your chance of living a well fulfilled life as you don’t know which one of the children God will use to bless you at old age. The poor parents uses this assumption as a valid point to born more. And also the poor believes the more children you have, the better your chances of not being childless in your old age incase a child dies while growing up.
    2) Religious beliefs
    The poor believes it’s God that gives children and it is also Him that will take care of them, man shouldn’t worry, he should just give birth to as many as possible, the number of children God gives you doesn’t matter cause He will take care of them. The poor family uses this belief as a reason to continue having more children not caring about how the children will survive based on health care, education, feeding, etc.
    3) Early marriage and gender roles
    A woman in Africa is expected to be a wife and mother, her place is believed to be in the kitchen. There’s no need sending the girl child to school. So at a young age, she is giving out in marriage and begin to have children early. Poor family also uses the bride price paid to take care of family issues hence the need to marry the girl child off as quickly as possible so as to take care of probably the male children.
    4) Inadequate information on contraceptive and family planning methods
    Right from our fore father, it is a taboo to stop the act of bearing children through pills or any methods. With this mindset and inadequate information on contraceptive methods, the poor family continues to give birth to more children.

    The negative effect is felt by the children. it’s the children borne that suffers the most from hardship not the parents since the parents already left the children for the society and God to care for. There’s no positive impact for giving birth to many children without having adequate resources to cater for them. The way forward out of this is to share adequate information about family planning and contraceptive methods and with proper education this narrative of the poor will change and more importantly, giving support to girl child education.

  43. Discussion On the World Bank Program Lending.
    Uncovering the World Bank’s loan programs in the developing world in The World Bank and the Gods of Lending, author Steve Berkman finds nothing but mismanagement and hypocrisy: decades of assistance without any significant improvement in the lives of the poor; billions loaned for improving governance, health care and education with little to show for it; and donor funds given to dysfunctional government institutions or officials with a history of looting national treasuries. With sixteen years as a Bank staff member and consultant, Berkman presents compelling evidence of deceptive reporting and lack of due diligence as billions of dollars are wasted every year on corrupt and ill-conceived programs. Using internal reports and memos, project documents and the Bank’s Annual Reports as reference, Berkman demonstrates management’s obsession with lending despite the high fiduciary risks involved. Taking the reader inside several project fraud investigations, he exposes the ease with which funds can be stolen from the Bank’s portfolio, and the degree to which these thefts are ignored. Painting a picture of an institution that is run by a bloated bureaucracy, The World Bank and the Gods of Lending proposes changes that will rouse the Bank from its bureaucratic complacency and restore its central mission of alleviating poverty.

  44. Avatar Agbo Jennifer Amarachi says:

    Agbo Jennifer Amarachi
    2017/249476
    Economics
    jenniferamarachi.agbo@gmail.com

    One can say that a Child is a joy. Indeed it is true. But then is it really necessary to expand ones family when income is scarce? Why is it that the impoverished most especially tend to have a greater number of children more than the well-to-do? Well, there social, cultural, religious and Economic factors responsible for that.

    In Africa most especially, the poor tend to reproduce a higher number of offspring and this why African countries have a high population. From research and studies, one can generally say that the existence of a High Child mortality rates is one of the causes.
    It means that In African, Children’s lives are constantly threatened, there is not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, minimal government support. With these realities, parents thus tend to have more kids, understanding that some of the children might not survive. Other relevant reasons are misconception about family plannings; lack of access to good health services; forced early marriages, limited finance thus families in poverty, especially those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children may enter labour force to earn more income for the family’s survival; and also for children to provide security, support protection to the parents at their old age.

    Nonetheless, it is a know fact that those with high number of children tend to suffer from a poor standard of living, most of their children become school drop outs and with menial jobs, the family’s limited resources will not be enough and the struggle for that leads to conflicts and this is not healthy for a family’s prosperity.

    In general, for an underdeveloped country like Nigeria, a very high population exerts pressure on the limited resources of the country and this will lead to unemployment, conflicts, poor standard of living and so on and this outcome will definitely not lead to Economic development.

    However, ways to ameliorated this is tracing the cause of high population which stems from the family first. It means that the government and other bodies who can, should help in coaching families, introduce family planning, educate men and women and also strengthen the health Care system. We we we we

  45. Avatar Agbo Jennifer Amarachi says:

    Agbo Jennifer Amarachi
    2017/249476
    Economics
    jenniferamarachi.agbo@gmail.com

    One can say that a Child is a joy. Indeed it is true. But then is it really necessary to expand ones family when income is scarce? Why is it that the impoverished most especially tend to have a greater number of children more than the well-to-do? Well, there social, cultural, religious and Economic factors responsible for that.

    In Africa most especially, the poor tend to reproduce a higher number of offspring and this why African countries have a high population. From research and studies, one can generally say that the existence of a High Child mortality rates is one of the causes.
    It means that In African, Children’s lives are constantly threatened, there is not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, minimal government support. With these realities, parents thus tend to have more kids, understanding that some of the children might not survive. Other relevant reasons are misconception about family plannings; lack of access to good health services; forced early marriages, limited finance thus families in poverty, especially those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children may enter labour force to earn more income for the family’s survival; and also for children to provide security, support protection to the parents at their old age.

    Nonetheless, it is a know fact that those with high number of children tend to suffer from a poor standard of living, most of their children become school drop outs and with menial jobs, the family’s limited resources will not be enough and the struggle for that leads to conflicts and this is not healthy for a family’s prosperity.

    In general, for an underdeveloped country like Nigeria, a very high population exerts pressure on the limited resources of the country and this will lead to unemployment, conflicts, poor standard of living and so on and this outcome will definitely not lead to Economic development.

    However, ways to ameliorated this is tracing the cause of high population which stems from the family first. It means that the government and other bodies who can, should help in coaching families, introduce family planning, educate men and women and also strengthen the health Care system.

  46. Name: Agbo Jennifer Amarachi
    Reg No: 2017/249476
    Dept: Economics
    Email: jenniferamarachi.agbo@gmail.com

    One can say that a Child is a joy. Indeed it is true. But then is it really necessary to expand ones family when income is scarce? Why is it that the impoverished most especially tend to have a greater number of children more than the well-to-do? Well, there social, cultural, religious and Economic factors responsible for that.

    In Africa most especially, the poor tend to reproduce a higher number of offspring and this why African countries have a high population. From research and studies, one can generally say that the existence of a High Child mortality rates is one of the causes.

    It means that In African, Children’s lives are constantly threatened, there is not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, minimal government support. With these realities, parents thus tend to have more kids, understanding that some of the children might not survive. Other relevant reasons are misconception about family plannings; lack of access to good health services; forced early marriages, limited finance thus families in poverty, especially those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children may enter labour force to earn more income for the family’s survival; and also for children to provide security, support protection to the parents at their old age.

    Nonetheless, it is a know fact that those with high number of children tend to suffer from a poor standard of living, most of their children become school drop outs and with menial jobs, the family’s limited resources will not be enough and the struggle for that leads to conflicts and this is not healthy for a family’s prosperity.

    In general, for an underdeveloped country like Nigeria, a very high population exerts pressure on the limited resources of the country and this will lead to unemployment, conflicts, poor standard of living and so on and this outcome will definitely not lead to Economic development.

    However, ways to ameliorated this is tracing the cause of high population which stems from the family first. It means that the government and other bodies who can, should help in coaching families, introduce family planning, educate men and women and also strengthen the health Care system.

  47. Avatar Agbo Jennifer Amarachi says:

    Name: Agbo Jennifer Amarachi
    Reg No: 2017/249476
    Dept: Economics
    Email: jenniferamarachi.agbo@gmail.com

    One can say that a Child is a joy. Indeed it is true. But then is it really necessary to expand ones family when income is scarce? Why is it that the impoverished most especially tend to have a greater number of children more than the well-to-do? Well, there social, cultural, religious and Economic factors responsible for that.

    In Africa most especially, the poor tend to reproduce a higher number of offspring and this why African countries have a high population. From research and studies, one can generally say that the existence of a High Child mortality rates is one of the causes.
    It means that In African, Children’s lives are constantly threatened, there is not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, minimal government support. With these realities, parents thus tend to have more kids, understanding that some of the children might not survive.

    Other relevant reasons are misconception about family plannings; lack of access to good health services; forced early marriages, limited finance thus families in poverty, especially those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children may enter labour force to earn more income for the family’s survival; and also for children to provide security, support protection to the parents at their old age.

    Nonetheless, it is a know fact that those with high number of children tend to suffer from a poor standard of living, most of their children become school drop outs and with menial jobs, the family’s limited resources will not be enough and the struggle for that leads to conflicts and this is not healthy for a family’s prosperity.

    In general, for an underdeveloped country like Nigeria, a very high population exerts pressure on the limited resources of the country and this will lead to unemployment, conflicts, poor standard of living and so on and this outcome will definitely not lead to Economic development.

    However, ways to ameliorated this is tracing the cause of high population which stems from the family first. It means that the government and other bodies who can, should help in coaching families, introduce family planning, educate men and women and also strengthen the health Care system.

  48. Avatar Agbo Jennifer Amarachi says:

    Name: Agbo Jennifer Amarachi
    Reg No: 2017/249476
    Dept: Economics
    Email: jenniferamarachi.agbo@gmail.com

    One can say that a Child is a joy. Indeed it is true. But then is it really necessary to expand ones family when income is scarce? Why is it that the impoverished most especially tend to have a greater number of children more than the well-to-do? Well, there social, cultural, religious and Economic factors responsible for that.

    In Africa most especially, the poor tend to reproduce a higher number of offspring and this why African countries have a high population. From research and studies, one can generally say that the existence of a High Child mortality rates is one of the causes.
    It means that In African, Children’s lives are constantly threatened, there is not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, minimal government support. With these realities, parents thus tend to have more kids, understanding that some of the children might not survive. Other relevant reasons are misconception about family plannings; lack of access to good health services; forced early marriages, limited finance thus families in poverty, especially those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children may enter labour force to earn more income for the family’s survival; and also for children to provide security, support protection to the parents at their old age.

    Nonetheless, it is a know fact that those with high number of children tend to suffer from a poor standard of living, most of their children become school drop outs and with menial jobs, the family’s limited resources will not be enough and the struggle for that leads to conflicts and this is not healthy for a family’s prosperity.

    In general, for an underdeveloped country like Nigeria, a very high population exerts pressure on the limited resources of the country and this will lead to unemployment, conflicts, poor standard of living and so on and this outcome will definitely not lead to Economic development.

    However, ways to ameliorated this is tracing the cause of high population which stems from the family first. It means that the government and other bodies who can, should help in coaching families, introduce family planning, educate men and women and also strengthen the health Care system.

  49. Avatar URAMA SAMSON CHIBUEZE 2017/249591 says:

    Below are some reasons to why the Poor have more children than the rich.
    1: Early marriages- since the poor cannot feed their daughters well, they prefer to give them for marriage early and the earlier they get married the more child bearing years they have
    2: Preference for a boy child- people often keep producing children until a boy is born and sometimes even when they have one, they will like to have another
    3: lack of women empowerment- women in poorer sections of the society are mostly uneducated and young while they married off and are not taught and spoken to much about contraception and stuff like that
    4: lack of awareness- many poor people don’t know much about birth control measures and even when they are aware, many don’t want to spend on them
    5: illiteracy- most poor people are not educated enough and are not able to take a wise decision looking at pros and cons of producing an extra child.

  50. Avatar URAMA SAMSON CHIBUEZE 2017/249591 says:

    Some reasons why poor people give birth to so many children in my country:

    Wealth: in the olden days many thought that having many children was the only source of wealth. when it comes to cultivation period, as they are many who are involved in farm work they tend to produce More and have many farm products (they believed the adage igwe but Ike). Which means that when they are many , they tend to have many farm outputs. so during the olden days your riches is determined by number of children you have.

    Death: Some countries of the world have very high child mortality rate and my country is at the top of it. For this reason parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky to survive to adulthood.

    Poverty: Poor people lack opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population, which is something we need right now. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities. Couples will openly tell you ‘Condom no sweet’ and family planning is nonsense (Na God dey give pikin, children na blessing from God). Hence over-population thrive.

    Quantity over quality: It is not new here in Nigeria to see or hear that half of a community belong to the same family, not only that, they all answer the same surname. This families don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.

  51. Edochie Praise Ifeoma.
    2017/249492.
    The poor have more children than the rich for many reasons which includes dreams.

    1. Dreams-I was once privileged to learn from a well educated man who was a civil servant, have about four wives and more than 11 children that it was just his dream to have as man children as possible and even though he wasn’t earning enough to give them all formal education, he made sure that were all learning informally.

    2. Lack of Family Planning- Most poor families do not go on family planning, sometimes I wonder how people can be so poor and so cruel.

    3. Illiteracy- most poor families are illiterates and religious and both doesn’t go well this because even if someone should try and suggest birth control to them they would end up frowning at the idea because they strongly believe that children are gifts from God and blessings to their marriage thus, should be given birth to, as many as God sends to them there should be no hindrance between their blessings from God. And in the end they will not be able to raise these children and thus, they starts to suffer at their very young ages in life. But had it been the couples are well educated they would have a better understanding of family planning and all these troubles would be avoided.

    4. Early Marriage- This is known as one of the major causes of high childbirth in marriages because the woman starts reproduction from maybe her late teens and doesn’t stop reproducing till her 40s and you can imagine how many children she would have given birth to especially if she reproduces after two years.

    There are the negative effects.
    1. Over population -Using the malthusian theory of population which is of the view that a nation should avoid overpopulation with less growing economy. Overpopulation with little effect on labour and economic growth puts a states in the poverty line.

    2. Poverty: with the high rate of unemployment and inefficient labour supply the economy ceases to grow and develop because there are more consumers than the productions. Hunger takes it turn feeding off the children because of poor or no provisions from their poverty stricken parents.

    3. Mortality rate: There is high Mortality because as there is lack of evrry basic need for hralthy living this occurs especially between the children then the women due to crrtain diseases which are not treated as there’s always lack of provisions for the very basic needs for them to be treated because of poverty.

    There are positive aspects of having more children just as the negative although the negative aspects are more than the positive aspects. There’s population growth and if well placed there will be labour surplus and surplus value in an economy which will contribute greatly and efficiently in distributions and allocations in the economy.

    Conclusively, I will say that ignorance plays a great role in the discuss because people tend to do everything ignorantly and with so much pride maybe because they can’t see their own ignorance which is normal with us humans only to realize how erong see are when its too late already.

  52. 2017/249492.
    The poor have more children than the rich for many reasons which includes dreams.

    1. Dreams-I was once privileged to learn from a well educated man who was a civil servant, have about four wives and more than 11 children that it was just his dream to have as man children as possible and even though he wasn’t earning enough to give them all formal education, he made sure that were all learning informally.

    2. Lack of Family Planning- Most poor families do not go on family planning, sometimes I wonder how people can be so poor and so cruel.

    3. Illiteracy- most poor families are illiterates and religious and both doesn’t go well this because even if someone should try and suggest birth control to them they would end up frowning at the idea because they strongly believe that children are gifts from God and blessings to their marriage thus, should be given birth to, as many as God sends to them there should be no hindrance between their blessings from God. And in the end they will not be able to raise these children and thus, they starts to suffer at their very young ages in life. But had it been the couples are well educated they would have a better understanding of family planning and all these troubles would be avoided.

    4. Early Marriage- This is known as one of the major causes of high childbirth in marriages because the woman starts reproduction from maybe her late teens and doesn’t stop reproducing till her 40s and you can imagine how many children she would have given birth to especially if she reproduces after two years.

    There are the negative effects.
    1. Over population -Using the malthusian theory of population which is of the view that a nation should avoid overpopulation with less growing economy. Overpopulation with little effect on labour and economic growth puts a states in the poverty line.

    2. Poverty: with the high rate of unemployment and inefficient labour supply the economy ceases to grow and develop because there are more consumers than the productions. Hunger takes it turn feeding off the children because of poor or no provisions from their poverty stricken parents.

    3. Mortality rate: There is high Mortality because as there is lack of evrry basic need for hralthy living this occurs especially between the children then the women due to crrtain diseases which are not treated as there’s always lack of provisions foot the very basic needs for them to be treated because of poverty.

    On the positive aspect, there’s population growth and if well placed every individual will contribute effectively in the economy creating surplus labour and efficiency in the distribution will be achieved.
    This is my humble opinion Sir.

  53. Avatar Anyabuike Victor Ifeanyi says:

    NAME: ANYABUIKE VICTOR IFEANYI
    REG NO:243144
    DEPT: EDUCATION ECONOMICS

    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH.
    1.High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.

    Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    2. Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    3. Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.

    4. Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.

    5. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    6. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    7. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.

    8. Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

    9. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    10. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    CONSEQUENCES:
    1. OVER POPULATION
    2. HIGH RATE OF CRIME IN THE SOCIETY
    3. FAMILY PROBLEMS
    4. LOWER STANDARD OF LIVING

  54. Avatar ODOH CHUKWUNONSO MICHAEL 2017/249541 says:

    Through Out the Nation it can be seen that the poor have more children than the rich ones. Lots of Reasons are available to view from the Aspect.. I Personally laid down some reason to see why the concedes more than the rich.
    1. Misconceptions about family planning
    In many communities like Nigeria for instance, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources including breakdowns in public health, education, cultural biases and even skepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion using certain family planning methods.
    2. Lack of access to health services
    It is not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning sometimes, it is lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages making it difficult to travel to get needed support in especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier towards receiving professional medical care.
    3. Forced early marriage
    Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and has not been given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her child bearing years start much earlier, meaning- among other complications she is likely to have more children.
    4. Lack of education
    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are likely to have more children making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children, they often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the finance it will require.
    5. Limited finances
    Families in poverty particularly those who make their living through agriculture may have more children as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they are very young. In more dire situations children may enter the labour force, often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    6. Family legacy
    For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It is not common for parents to be parental to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

  55. Avatar Ikebude Precious Chidiebere 2017/249516 says:

    Various Of Reasons are prone to why the Poor have more children than the rich.. a little bit of them is being mentioned below…
    1. Generational Survival: Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care, poor security system and minimal government support.
    2. Lack of Family Planning: Most persons have differnt beliefs about using contraceptives and some even have stigmas against these contraceptives. This result to confusion over using certain family planning methods. sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care. Some poor families who don’t even want to give birth to mich kids or who wants to make use of contraceptives maynot be able because of limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available service.
    3. Forced Early Marriage: Most times, the popr forced thier daughters into marriage due to reeasons of not being able to cater for them and the family. So they force thier children into early marriage so that the in law can take care of the daughter and the family. When they are forced into an early marriage, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    4. Beliefs: In many belief, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. These poor families tend to go with the belief and go ahead in producing more kids because the “more the kids the more the blessings” that is thier belief. Some believe the larger the family, the more poweeful the family.
    5. Family Legacy: For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    6. Care and Protection for Elders: As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty

  56. Name:ugwuda chidera Blessing
    Reg no:2017/243804
    Dept: Eco Edu
    Course tittle:Eco 362

    Discuss world bank and program of lending
    World bank is an international organization dedicated to providing and financing advice and research to developing nations to aid their economic advancement.The Bank attempt to fight poverty by offering development assistance to middle and low income countries .It played a major role in financing investment in infrastructural project S in developing countries.The world is the world largest multilateral creditor institution and such many of the world poorest countries owe it large money .Indeed for a dozens of the most heavily part of the external debt in some cases constituting more than 50 percent is owed to the world bank and the multilateral regional development banks .The world bank developed this concept program of lending in the form of development assistance to the developing countries as a means of narrowing the gap between the rich and poor countries..
    The following are the program of lending.
    INVESTMENT OF LENDING
    The World Bank’s investment lending (IL) has been joined in recent years by new lending instruments, whilst IL itself faces an overhaul, as the Bank’s operational policies come under review and pilots for the use of ‘country systems’ mature. The Bank is presently using four lending instruments: IL, development policy lending (DPL), Program-for-Results, and the World Bank Guarantee Program.
    IL, or ‘project lending’, represents the traditional mode of Bank lending for individual projects and are the primary lending instrument of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA), the Bank’s middle- and low-income arms, respectively.
    IL incorporates loans, credits and grants for “activities aimed at creating the physical and social infrastructure necessary to reduce poverty and create sustainable development”, including “capital-intensive investments, rehabilitation and maintenance, service delivery, credit and grant delivery [including micro-credit], community-based development, and institution building”. Funds are disbursed to cover project expenditures, including pre-identified equipment, civil works, and technical and consulting services. IL may be accompanied by conditions for specific project components.
    IL has a long term focus of 5 – 10 years and, during the last 20 years, has accounted for 78 to 80 per cent of the Bank’s portfolio. At present, IL represents more than 90 per cent of the Bank’s active lending portfolio, whilst accounting for roughly two-thirds of IBRD and IDA annual commitments. Since 2000, investment loans have ranged from $500,000 to $3.75 billion, averaging $83 million. In the past, IL operations have been governed by more than 30 operational policies. However, reforms are presently underway which aim at consolidating the policies, procedures and guidelines into one policy statement and an accompanying procedure statement.
    DEVELOPMENT POLICY LENDING
    DPL replaced adjustment lending in 2004. DPL is available in the form of rapid financial assistance to provide funding for programmes of policy and institutional actions. IDA-eligible countries get DPL in the form of grants.
    The release of DPL funds is dependent on “satisfactory assessment of performance against a set of indicators in the form of institutional or policy reform measures that reflect progress in implementing a country-owned reform programme.” This conditionality is a traditional feature of Bank lending, but has been criticised for lack of sensitivity to countries’ individual contexts and a focus on liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation.
    In fiscal year (FY) 2009, in response to the financial crisis, 40 per cent of Bank commitments took the form of DPL, rising from 27 per cent in 2008. IBRD DPL commitments peaked in 2010 at $20.6 billion, falling to $9.5 billion in FY 2011. IDA DPL commitments hit $2.8 billion in FY 2009, falling to $2.1 billion in FY 2011. Since 2000, development policy loans ranged from $500,000 to $2 billion, averaging $189 million.
    PROGRAM-FOR-RESULTS
    Program-for-Results (PforR) is a new lending instrument, which was approved by the Bank’s board in January 2012 (see Update 79). PforR ties the disbursement of funds to the achievement of tangible development results and provides direct support for government programmes in order to help countries “strengthen institutions, build capacity, and enhance partnerships with stakeholders to achieve lasting impact”. According to the Bank, PforR can provide support for a wide range of government projects, such as increased immunisation coverage for children or provision of sanitation services. Disbursements fund expenditure programmes rather than individual transactions.
    The Bank will pilot the PforR instrument for two years, during which time eligibility for new operations will be limited to 5 per cent of annual IBRD and IDA lending (about $1.5 billion), and category A operations (those with the highest environmental and social risks) will be excluded. As of September, two PforR projects of $60 million and $300 million had been approved.
    WORLD BANK GUARANTEE PROGRAM
    The Guarantee Program offers partial guarantees of private debt, which are designed to “attract long-term commercial financing in sectors such as power, water, transport, telecom, oil and gas, and mining”. Guarantees are available to all IDA- and IBRD-eligible countries and take three forms: partial risk guarantees “cover private lenders against the risk of a public entity failing to perform its obligations with respect to a private project”; partial credit guarantees “cover private lenders against all risks during a specific period of the financing term of debt for a public investment”; and policy based guarantees “help to improve governments’ access to capital markets in support of social, institutional, and structural policies and reforms”. The guarantee instrument has evolved to include new aims such as “improving investors’ interest in privatisations”.

    Country systems

    The implementation of Bank projects has been managed by special units running parallel to the government’s core activities. However, the Bank is moving towards a ‘country systems’ approach, whereby Bank projects use a country’s “national, subnational, or sectoral implementing institutions and applicable laws, regulations, rules and procedures”.
    Following approval by the Board in 2005, the Bank is presently undertaking a pilot programme which “explore[s] using a country’s own environmental and social safeguard systems”, across Bank lending. The pilot first applied to individual projects, but in 2008 the board approved a proposal to scale up the initiative to apply nationally and sub-nationally and launched another pilot to trial the use of country procurement systems. A 2011 update to the pilot published by the Bank, Use of country systems for environmental safeguards, recognised that the country systems pilots to date had achieved “limited success” in realising their goals of impact, ownership, donor harmonisation, simplification and cost-reduction.
    ns, the private sector, and academics has informed the design of PforR.
    The World Bank provides low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries. These support a wide array of investments in such areas as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. Some of our projects are cofinanced with governments, other multilateral institutions, commercial banks, export credit agencies, and private sector investors.

  57. Avatar OKOYECHUKWU CHIOMA AUGUSTINA. says:

    NAME: OKOYECHUKWU CHIOMA AUGUSTINA
    REG NO: 2017/244837
    DEPT: EDUCATION/ECONOMICS

    SOME REASONS WHY THE POOR BEAR MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    There are various reasons why the poor have more children than the rich.
    1. One of these reasons is ignorance. I consider this as the major reason because other ones are related to it in one way or the other. Majority of the poor people today are products of poor homes; as a result of this they do not have access to information concerning family planning due to the fact that they were not educated because of their financial status. This also make them poor in knowledge.
    2. Secondly, the poor parents views children as the only investment they have since they are not able to have other investments.Hence, children are their weaith. That is why they normally give their children names like ‘Nwakaego’ (child is better than money), Nwabuife(child is light) etc. They however, have numerous children with the hope that those children will grow to become rich through some sort of luck and take care of them when they grow old. For the poor, children are earning member of the family. Thousands of children work in hotels, auto garages selling some odd things on foot path, in agricultural fields, packing industries etc, generating some income to the family. So for them children are assets.
    3. Furthermore, Poverty itself serves as a reason because use of contraceptives involves money and the poor cannot afford them. Hence, more children.
    4. Another reason is the fear of the Unknown. Having the fear that they might lose one or more of their children in the nearest future makes the poor parents to give birth to numerous children so as to have a better chance of not losing all their children to death. With this, they believe that at least one or two of the children will survive to adulthood.
    5. Again, the need for extra labour serves as another reason.More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    6. Lastly, the poor do not have any recreational activities because cannot afford Vacation or any other form of leisure activities.The only source of relaxation and pleasure is sex. So more children will eventually be produced.

    There are some consequences of the poor having more children than the rich.The positive consequences of having a large number of children by the poor is that they will have a greater number of people to take care of them in the future when they grow old whereas the negative consequence is that when not properly trained those same children can bring about the untimely death of their parents because they might turn out to be the perpetuators of crimes in the society which include their home.

  58. Avatar Udeh Amarachi M. says:

    Udeh Amarachi M.
    2017/249576
    Maryamarachi2010@gmail.com
    Maryudeh.blogspot.com
    REASON THE POOR TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    EARLY MARRIAGE AND GENDER ROLE: In some community, the poor give out their daughters’ hand in marriage at early age say 16years because they believe that women education ends in the kitchen of her husband, therefore they don’t train their daughters’ in school. Once the girl gets married at that early age with their sole aim of producing offspring which they believe is the main role of women when they get married, this means that before she will get to her menopause, she must have giving birth to as many children as possible while the rich do not engage their daughters into early marriage because they want their daughter to attain quality education. Talking about gender role, the poor familes, mostly especially those ones in the rural area, who are more particular about a male child would not stop giving birth until they get male child. Their reason .right be that they don’t want their lineage to end.
    NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: Another reason why the poor give birth to many children is to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them.
    CARE FOR ELDERS: The poor give birth to many children because they want them to take care of them at old age. They want to be Surrounded by so many people at old age who will always be around at all time. They believe that if they give birth to one child or two children, they won’t be able to take care of them like when they are many children. For instance, if they are many, when one or two is not around or busy, the other once will be available for them.
    Consequently, when the poor have more children their relative income might not carry the need of the family let alone training the children in school and this can lead to increased hardship.

  59. Avatar Agba chidiebere Maryann (2017/249474) says:

    The facet and outlook of economic order in the area childbearing which tends to be on the increase amongst poor classes of the society is undeniably obvious. This is attached to various reasons which is dependent on some variables such as:
    Lack of education : the poor are not disposed to quality education which would give them insight into the need for family planning and child birth control and it’s effect to both economic and sociocultural impact of a community.

    Traditional inclinations: Child birth is believed to prove fertility and prowess. It is perceived from custom as strength and widespread of name. E.g in most communities, lands are given to each family based on the number of a given children (probably male child) in such family. Therefore each family tends to bear more children.

    Income: The poor believes that the more children they posses the more streams of income they generate. As those children will make it easier in land cultivation, hunting, sales and other errands.

    Government order: owning to the fact that there is no law which specifies or restricts citizens of a state to the number of children they should conceive is another area of freedom which permits these ones to have as many child as possible.

    There could be more reasons high child birth rate is amongst the poor. There could be advantages of this trend but the disadvantages poses more need for concern as the population continues to grow and there is need to harass major aspects of the economy for balance. It’s increase could. Lead to :
    High rate of unemployment
    High crime rate
    Increase of homeless citizens
    Insufficient social amenities etc.
    While on the other hand, which sides the advantages of this trend, we have
    Increased labor force
    Military enrolments
    Widespread representation of nationality etc.

  60. Avatar MMADU JOY UKAMAKA says:

    Name: MMADU JOY UKAMAKA
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS
    REG NO:2017/249528
    EMAIL: joymmadu5@gmail.com

    REASONS WHY THE IMPOVERISHED HAVE MORE KIDS THAN THE RICH
    1. High child mortality rates. In many developing countries like Nigeria where the lives of the new born babies are being threatened due to some factors and important life enhacing facilities that are not in place like not having enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality andparents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may decide to have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children might not survive.
    2. Misconceptions about family planning. In some communities, there is still cases where stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can can emernate from different sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, these above listed factors contributes in cultivating the fear and confusion over using
    certain family planning methods.
    3. Limited access to education: Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write .Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women who are opportuned to have some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    4. Early marriage and gender roles
    In many developing countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married youngerand begins having children earlier enough. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18 . Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choice expectations and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, like Nigeria where the
    government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely
    on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have more
    kids to ensure they are properly taken care of when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents at their old age when they are unable to provide for themselves.
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families
    depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be
    a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

  61. Avatar Uta-Daniel Nneoma Blossom says:

    Uta-Daniel Nneoma Blossom
    2017/249592
    Economics department
    daniel.uta.249592@unn.edu.ng

    Why the poor bear more children than the Rich
    1. low level of education: someone who is not properly educated would not know the importance of family planning
    2. Sexual/gender preference: the continuous search for a specific gender would lead to a lot of children
    3. Religion: religions that allow marrying of more than one wife encourages a lot of children
    4. Ignorance: an ignorant family would not mind the negative sides of having plenty children
    5. Exposure ,: in this case when someone isn’t in touch with the outside world, they do not understand the disadvantages.

  62. Avatar EZEH JUDE OBIOMA says:

    THE REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families.
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a woman has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married at an early age and starts having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    CONCLUSION
    It is obvious that majority of developing countries including Nigeria, one easily conclude that for all the reasons an impoverished family may end up with many children, there are definite challenges that follow. With their resources spread thin, large families are less likely to afford education for their children, meaning those kids will likely grow up to have lower earning potential and be more likely to repeat the cycle of poverty.

  63. Avatar Okoro Daniel Chidera 2017/241444 says:

    THE REASON WHY THE POOR HABE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICB AND ITS CONSEQUENCES.
    In my opinion, I believe that a major reason why this case is rampant is because of ignorance. The poor may have had no prior information to the ideals of family planning and the likes. Another basic reason might be social status or tradition. It is no news that some cultures believe that the more children you have the more respect you command. So they may see having multiple children as a means to show the are “Men”.
    The major consequence of this thesis is that they end up giving birth to children without sufficient means to cater for these children. And as such they are denied basic rights like that of the right to school and basic health care. Some may even be sent to the farms to till the earth leaving no room for them to utilize modern amenities and even show their talents. In a worse case scenario where they dont even have farms, these children have no choice but to beg on the streets or sell goods on the streets at the risk of their lives and if that does not work, they ;in order to be able to make ends meet, would go into criminal acts which would in turn increase insecurity in the economy.

  64. Avatar OBODIKE LOVETH OGADIMMA says:

    Name: OBODIKE LOVETH OGADIMMA
    Reg no: 2017/ 249537
    Department: ECONOMICS
    WHY POOR PEOPLE TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    child birth is like a sport most people engage in and the poor in the society seem to enjoy it more than others. It is the only thing they can do – to have sex and procreate. It should come as no surprise that Nigerian population will be the third largest in a few years, falling behind only China and India. These are some of the reasons poor people give birth to so many children in my country:
    Wealth: For the poor, children are their wealth. That is why parents give their children names like; Tubokeyi— child is everything, Tubolayefa— there is nothing like a child, Tubodeinyefa— nothing can be compared to a child, Tubokeyi— child is the only important thing, etc. Rarely will you hear such names in a wealthy household. On average, lower to middle class Nigerians give birth to 5 children. The rich give birth to 2 on average. The following are the reasons why the poor has more kids than the rich;
    (1) Death: Some countries of the world have very high child mortality rate and my country is at the top of the ladder. For this reason, parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky enough to survive to adulthood. It’s a pity that even in the 21st century, many women living in under-developed countries still rely on luck for safe delivery and prevention of child death due to poor health care.
    (2) Poverty: Poor people have no opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population like China did, which is something we need right now, despite having different government system. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities. Couples will openly tell you Condom no sweet’ and family planning is nonsense na God dey give pikin, children na blessing from God. Hence over-population.

    (3) Quantity over quality: It is not strange here in Nigeria to see or hear that half of a community belong to the same family, not only that, they all answer the same surname. This family don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size tremendously for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.
    (4) Ignorance: Our grandmother, that old disease ignorance is probably the cause of it all. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance- children not well cared for usually end up destitute and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology and sophisticated weapons, size does not count much.
    (5) High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your childrens lives are constantly threatened. Theres not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heart-breaking truth that some of their children simply wont survive.
    (6) Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    (7) Lack of access to health services. Its not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planningsometimes its the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    (8) Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer childrenor no childrenis an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around womens reproductive rights is one thats top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids theyll end up having.
    (9) Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasnt given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaningamong other complicationsshes likely to have more kids.
    ( 10) Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. [6] On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own childrens education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    (11) Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in peoples lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    (12) Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the familythe more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, its not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.

    Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. Its not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

    Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the familys livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when theyre very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour forceoften illegallyto earn more income for the familys survival.

    Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their familys legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    Being poor as a child, even for only a short time, can have consequences reaching far into adulthood. The instability that accompanies poverty puts stress on parents, spilling over to children. This can manifest itself in long-lasting ways. In the face of these obstacles, what circumstances help poor children succeed (or at least dont hold them back) and what stacks the deck against them?
    NEGATIVE IMPACT ON THE POOR HAVING MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    POVERTY HARMS THE BRAIN AND OTHER BODY SYSTEM
    How developmental science understand child poverty has changed a great deal in recent years. Poverty for children, is not simply a matter of getting by with less of the essentials of life .particularly at its extremes, poverty can negatively affect how the body and mind develop, and can actually alter the fundamental architecture of the brain. Children who experience poverty has an increased likelihood, extending into adulthood, for numerous chronic illnesses and for a shortened life expectancy.
    POVERTY CREATES AND WIDENS ACHIEVEMENT GAPS
    Children growing up in poverty, when compared with their economically more secured peers, fall behind early. Starting in infancy, gaps are evident in key aspect of learning, knowledge and social-emotional development. When left unaddressed, these early gaps become progressively wider. Early optional development tends to open doors to further optimal development, while impoverished development tends to close those doors. So, poor children lag behind their peers at entry to kindergarten, in reading ability at the end of third grade, in the important self-monitoring skills often called executive functioning and in school attendance in eighth grade. Poor children are more likely to drop out of school or fail to obtain post-secondary education.
    POVERTY LEADS TO POOR PHYSICAL, EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
    Even when poverty does not directly alter human biological systems, we know that growing up poor increases the likelihood that children will have poor health including poor emotional and behavioural health, poverty works in multiple to constrict childrens opportunities and expose them to threats to well-being. Poor children are more likely to lack food security as well as have diet that are deficient in important nutrients. Rates of several chronic health conditions such as asthma are higher among poor children .they are less likely to receive preventive medical and dental care.
    POOR CHILDREN ARE MORE LIKELY TO LIVE IN NEIGHBORHOODS WITH CONCENTRATED POVERTY, WHICH IS ASSOCIATED WITH NUMEROUS SOCIAL ILLS
    While direct causal links between neighbourhoods, poverty and childrens outcomes are challenging to identify in research, scholars have found that growing up in neighbourhoods with concentrated poverty is associated with negative academic outcomes, more social and behavioural problems and poorer health and physical fitness outcomes. Poor children are more likely to live in neighbourhoods, where they are expose to environmental toxins and other physical hazards, including crime and violence. In the case of violence even in direct exposure witnessing or simply hearing of its occurrence has been linked with adverse developmental outcomes. Poor children are also disproportionately likely to attend schools in districts with fewer resources, with facilities that are grossly inadequate, and with school leadership that is more transient
    POVERTY CAN HARM CHILDREN THROUGH THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS IT HAS ON THEIR FAMILIES AND THE HOME ENVIRONMENT
    While the strength of poor families are often overlooked, parent experience numerous challenges that can affect their own emotional well-being, as well as their childrens. poor parents report higher stress, aggravation, and depressive symptoms than do higher-income parents. parent with scarce economic resources faces difficulty planning, preparing and providing for their families, material needs. Children in poor families have fewer books and other educational resources at home, and they are less likely to experience family outings, activities and programs that can enrich learning opportunities. Their families are more likely to experience housing instability. Direct evidence that additional income can improve childrens lives comes from several experimental evaluations: programs that increased family income showed improvement in childrens social and academic outcomes.

    POSITIVE IMPACT ON THE POOR HAVING MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    THE NEED FOR EXTRA LABOR
    More than 70 per cent of the worlds poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest cant afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    2.THE CARE FOR ELDERS
    In some developing countries, the government doesnt provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when theyre older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves

  65. Avatar MADUAGUM MADONNA CHIOMA says:

    NAME: MADUAGUM MADONNA CHIOMA
    REG NO: 2017/241456
    ECO 362
    Reasons Why The Poor Have More Children:
    1. Lack of Family Planning: There is high fertility rate amongst the poor because they tend to give birth to more children than they can cater for. This is due to the lack of education on use of contraceptives, birth control methods and family planning.
    2. Early Marriage and Polygamy: Girls in poor families are wedded off and begin to bear children at an early age so they are likely to birth many during their reproductive years. And in cases where a poor man has more than one wife, the number of children born will be many.
    3. Retirement Plan: Some poor people give birth to many children as a form of retirement policy, that is, as a back up plan for retirement so that when they are older and unable to work, the children will work and look after the parents.
    4. Beliefs: There is the popular belief amongst the poor that children are a source of wealth, that is there will be chances that at least one amongst the lot will be successful and bring the family large amounts of income.
    5. Social Reputation: Children in some cultures are seen as a status of virility. So the poor man, despite not having the means to care for many children still goes ahead to have many children to boost or increase his social status.
    Consequences:
    1. Poverty: Children cost much to raise, so being unable to keep up with their basic needs such as good food, shelter, education, etc. leads to poverty because the little income acquired is used up for feeding, leaving nothing to save or invest thus keeping them in their current unfavorable state for a very long time.
    2. Increased Crime Rate: The inability to cater for the family’s needs may lead the children to a life of crime in order to fend for themselves. Also, due to lack of good and quality education, chances of being employed to a well paying job is slim, hence they resolve to crime.
    3. High Mortality: This is common to mother and child. Some of the women die due to illnesses associated with childbirth while the children die of starvation or poor health.
    4. Lack of Quality Education: Poor families lack the funds to pay for quality education for themselves and their children. This shows in the way they reason and they would most times have to settle for menial jobs that are mostly labour-intensive.

  66. Avatar OJi Samuel Nkemakolam says:

    Oji Samuel Nkemakolam
    2017/249548
    Economics department
    Sammybou.sno@gmail.com
    Reasons why the people bare more children that the rich
    (1)lack of family planning : poor people do not have the necessary funds for family planning at the hospital, so they tend to gives birth to so many children .
    (2) illteracy : poor people who have no formal education do not understand the needs to have fewer children they can take care of . They do not know the consequences of having plenty children .
    3. Myth surrounding give birth to many children : most poor people believes the more children they have the more chances they have in leaving poverty . They believe one or two of the numerous children they have will take them out of poverty .
    Consequences
    1. Overcrowding in the family house.
    2. limited resources to ensure family wellbeing.
    3. It leads to increase in population which creates more labour.

  67. Avatar Ogbonna chika Philip,. Education Economics 300 level, 2017/242029 says:

    The world Bank program lending – Family Planning; why the poor have moor children than the Rich

    The world Bank program lending of 1960s to 1970s towards the developing nation’s was focused on key areas as nutrition, Health care, family planning, Education services etc.
    Among others, family planning was discovered to be problematic given that the poor among the masses have more children than the Rich, The following may serve as the reasons;
    – In subsistence agriculture and living practice; more hands are needed and is best served by having more children.

    – The cultural inclination which maintain that number is of value, that is more children the better.

    – Ignorance, limited knowledge, failure in understanding of birth control and it’s practical applications.

    – The nature of work, low return’s as wages, and lack of knowledge and access to alternative source for pleasure are contributing factors.

    Positive Implications

    – This will result to high population growth.

    – Supply of labour force is guaranteed.

    – High population growth makes for dynamic economy with functional system.

    Negative Implications
    – Creates problem for the government In terms of security and social welfare,

    – High chances of social vices, civil unrest etc.

    – A possibility of unemployment problem and migration

  68. Avatar EZIKE MARYCYNTHIA CHIAMAKA says:

    NAME: EZIKE MARYCYNTHIA CHIAMAKA
    REG NO: 2017/242944
    EMAIL: marycynthiachiamaka95@gmail.com
    DEPT: ECONOMICS.

    CAUSES OF HIGH FERTILITY RATE.
    Chief among the drivers of early childbearing is early marriage or living with a man as though married. Although Nigeria’s laws see persons under the age of 18 years as children who are below the age of consent and marriage, child marriage remains a common practice in many parts and more than 40% of Nigerian girls are victims of child marriage.
    In some contexts, the marriage of children who may be as young as 13 to older men as second, third or fourth wives is forced and supported with religious injunctions. In other situations, though less common than child marriage with the consent of parents, children may be abducted and kept as sex slaves by terrorists or other dissidents with little regard for state laws.
    In scenarios like these, the girls are exposed to sex without access to contraceptives or information on how to prevent pregnancies. Generally, Nigerian girls’ independent access to contraceptives is limited to those above the age of 18 years.
    The region where girls live within the country is also a predictor of the timing of their first birth. Of the six geopolitical zones, girls in the North West, North East and South South regions are the most vulnerable to early childbearing, which is least likely in the South East. The zones overlap somewhat with clusters of similar cultures in Nigeria, although cultural pluralism is high in the South South and North Central regions.
    In the North East and North West, the socio-cultural context is typically marked by a high level of conservatism, which community level gatekeepers of social norms and values uphold with Islamic teachings.

    CONSEQUENCES (positive)
    Smaller birth cohorts should reduce the pressure on schools, allowing improvements in education. Across developing countries, expenditures per pupil rise as the proportion of the population that is of school age declines. But education spending in total does not necessarily increase, and enrollment rates do not always rise (Schultz, 1987). The “demographic bonus” from declining fertility, which could be spent to increase enrollment or improve the quality of education, is sometimes spent instead on ineffective educational systems or on other things besides education.
    Lower fertility presumably is a boon not only for the educational system as a whole but also for individual parents in educating their children. With fewer children, parents should have more resources, time, and energy to spend on each child. Empirical studies generally confirm that fewer children means each gets more education, although the effect is neither universal nor necessarily sizable.
    Lower fertility also produces healthier children. Closely spaced children, large numbers of children in each family, and children born to younger mothers are all more common before fertility declines, and such children all face higher mortality risks. Even up to the age of five years, the risk of death is greater if the interval since the preceding birth is shorter. The risk of death in the first month of life (the neonatal period) is 35-60 percent higher after a birth interval under 2 years than after an interval of 2-4 years (as Figure 8 shows for three regions).
    Lower fertility therefore provides societies with opportunities, especially in the form of increased savings that could spur investment and economic growth, a “demographic bonus” that could be spent to improve education, and fewer high-risk births that could lead to healthier childhoods, if other health risks can be contained. Additional opportunities include reduced pressure on public expenditures and the grace period that lower fertility and slower population growth provide for dealing with pressures on the environment and for managing such typically limited resources as a society’s water supplies.

    NEGATIVE EFFECT.

    In countries such as Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, women still have from 5 to 6 children, on average, while in conflict-torn countries such as Yemen, Iraq, and Afghanistan, they are still having an average of 4 children during their lifetimes.
    Regions with very large youth cohorts are historically far more prone to violence than older populations, and high fertility rates are a formula for maintaining very young populations. Only when fertility falls and investments in each child start to rise do societies appear to get on track for political stability and sustained growth in per capita incomes.
    Much of sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East remains far from being on that track today. Moreover, an ever-greater proportion of the world’s children are growing up in these regions. Roughly 25 percent of the world’s children are in Africa today; by mid-century it will be 40 percent. Unless population growth in these regions slows to allow education and investment to catch up with surging youth cohorts, the prospects for long-term stability and prosperity in Africa and the Middle East will remain dim.
    High fertility poses health risks for children and their mothers, detracts from human capital investment, slows economic growth, and exacerbates environmental threats.

  69. Limited access to contraception

    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would prefer to curb or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the underprivileged countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available aids. Supply chains often don’t expand to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    Extra labor
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labours intensive agriculture to live. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to resist their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only certainty for survival.

  70. Avatar ODO DORIS KOSISOCHI says:

    NAME: ODOH KOSISOCHI DORIS
    REG NO: 2017/249542
    E- Mail : kosisochidoris@gmail.com
    DEPT. : ECONOMICS
    DATE : APRIL, 2021.

    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND THE ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE) OF SUCH ACTIONS BASED ON MY OPINIONS.
    The poor tend to have more children than the rich due to the following reasons:
    1. Lack of education: Women with little or no education are more likely to have more kids, because most times these women are often jobless, having little or nothing to do for themselves making them full-time house wives .
    2. Agricultural purposes: Most families in poverty see children as poverty alleviation schemes, wereby the larger number of children the larger barns of yams you will have. For instance, a poor man with four kids is likely to cultivate a plot of land for a week, while another poor man with 10 children might take three to four days to cultivate a plot of Land.
    3. Limited finances: Most poor families tend to have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood through hawking of commodities on the highway, engaging in domestic chores in the neighborhood for little pay and most times the ladies are been married off as a way of generating income.
    Consequences
    Positive consequences
    A. High child mortality rates: most developing countries especially in Nigeria where there is limited access to clean water, health care services and governmental support. Faced with this reality, parent may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    B. CARE FOR ELDERS: In most developing countries there are less governmental safety nets for the citizens not to talk of the aged. In these case having more kids to shoulder responsibilities of providing for the family provides an extra sense of security for parents.
    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    A. FAMILY PROBLEMS: Many poor families with greater number of children experience family problem, because running a household, paying bills can induce stress on the father who in turn transfers aggression on the wife and this often lead to domestic violence. These problems in the family are likely to have adverse effects on the children mentally and psychologically.
    B. Poor Education: Most of these Children from poor homes go to rundown schools with inadequate facilities where they receive inadequate schooling and they end up not been able to compete with their counterparts wealthier families, leaving them with not well paid jobs that can not be able to gain them financial security, and in turn fuels a vicious cycle of continuing poverty.
    C. CRIME AND VICTIMIZATION: Children living in poor neighborhood mostly where crimes are perpetuated are likely to grow up under such influence. For instance, in Ajegunle a suburb of Lagos state in Nigeria houses a lot of people living the poverty line, so these people in name of hussle engage in all manners of crimes like burglary, robbery and homicide just to generate little income. And most times kids and teens that grow up in these area turn out to become rogues and hoodlums.

  71. Avatar Izuchukwu Dominic Chinedu says:

    IZUCHUKWU DOMINIC CHINEDU
    2017/249522
    Chinedu.dominic.249522@unn.edu.ng

    The Reason Why The Poor Have More Children Than The Rich
    Poverty is a very bad disease in that when you come in contact with it, your life becomes miserable. Poor families face many challenges which make them take decision quite different from that of wealthy families.
    Taking Africa – which houses the world poverty capital – as a case study. Africa is the second most populous continent with a total population of about 1.34 billion after Ashia and am not surprised why it is so.
    The strong positive correlation between poverty and large family sizes is a function of many factors which may be social, cultural religious or economic.
    To me, I see economic factors as the major because, all other factors revolve around the financial strength of a family. Most of the factors that bring about large families can be controlled if the money is there.

    Economic factors that encourage large family are:
    1) Limited access to education: Poor families do not have what it takes to train their children in school. They barely finish primary school and this is bad especially for female children because, they are left with no option order than to get married early.
    In Nigeria today, we have about 10.5 million out of school children which is the highest in the world. The greater percentage of them are in the North. That’s one of the reasons why Northern Nigeria is highly populated.
    2) High child mortality rate: Statistics has shown that for every 1000 births in Nigeria, we have 58 deaths. In 2019, UNICEF’s study showed that under five mortality stood at 117.2 for every 1000 birth. This high mortality rate occurs as a result of poor medical care, poor nutrition, child diseases and illness. There is no doubt that the greater percentage of the affected children are from the poor home. To this effect, poor families tend to have more children considering the fact that they may loose them at any age between 0 and 5.
    3) Family planning which is one of the most effective methods in practice that helps families decide and maintain the decision of how many children they intend to have is not cheap. Many poor families can not afford it and this makes it difficult for them to control the number of children they have.
    4) In some places, female children are regarded as assets. They are being given away in marriage in return for valuables such as cloth, money, tubers of yam etc. To this end, poor families tend to give their daughters’ hand in marriage at young age. Such practice will subject the female ones to having many children.
    5) Another reason for having more children has to do with where and how a man sends his leisure time. A typical poor African man barely have enough to take care of his family let alone thinking of spending some time with his family in a cinema houses or any recreation center. The reason for this is simple, no money. Husband spends all his free time with his family thereby increasing the chances of having more children.

    Other factors which are not economically inclined are:
    1) Gender related factors: In a situation where a woman gives birth to one sex, they will try to balance the equation or at least have a combination of both sex. In a bid to achieve this aim, they will find themselves having large number of children which they don’t plan to have. This mentality resides with mostly with poor. They tend to places greater value on a particular sex, male precisely. For most wealthy people, their concern is on the quality not the sex of the child.
    2) Wealthy families value quality children, this well trained, nourished, and educated. To this end, they tend to have few children say 2 or 3. They do the best they can to put them in good schools, provide them with whatever materials they may need and sponsor them to highest attainable level of education. This is not the same for the poor. They prefer larg number of children so that they will have more hands in farm work and other home related work.
    3) Poor families tend to have more children with the hope that in future, 2 or 3 will be rich enough to alleviate the entire family from poverty.
    Consequences of Large Family Sizes
    The consequences of large family size of the live of the members of the family :
    1) Low living standard.
    2) Congestion and occurance of air borne diseases.
    3) Low self-esteem and self-worth.

    Consequences of large family size on the economy:
    The impact of large population size on the economy is still an object of debate. It is not clear whether or not large population size impacts negatively or positively on the economy. The reason being that, at different time period, historians have observed that population size and its composition impact differently on the economy depending on the economic cycle.

    The observed effect of large family size includes:
    1) A large family size will spend most of the income on food. Therefore it will affect the savings of that family. When savings is reduced, it will bring about decrease in investments which will then reduce income.
    2) A large family size will bring about overuse of public facilities.
    3) It causes excessive use of land resources which will definitely affect the economy of the nation.
    4) It brings about increase in crime rate because, when a child is not well taken care of, no education, no good foods, the child can easily be influenced by his peers and can be lured to joining bad gangs thereby posing a threat to the family members and the nation at large.

  72. Avatar Eric-nnaji Chiamaka Ngozi says:

    Eric-nnaji Chiamaka Ngozi
    2017/249499
    Economics department
    chiamaka.nnaji.249499@unn.edu.ng
    Reasons why poor people have more children than the rich
    Below are 3 reasons, based on my opinion, why poor people have a lot of children:
    1. Some poor religious people have this sentiment that the more children you have, the more blessed you are.
    2. Poor family planning: Most poor homes lack family planning; this could be as a result of illiteracy, ignorance and lack of current knowledge in that a lot of poor people are not up-to-date on the various developments that could used be used to control birth.
    3. Comfort for the future: A lot of poor people would like to be assured that they’d have a lot of people (children) that they can depend on in their old age. Majority of the poor people that I think like this are the ones without savings.

    Consequences
    1. More children would mean a larger population which would increase the labour force of a country.
    2. Most atimes, poor people do not have enough resources to fend for their numerous children, for instance they may not be able to afford education for the children and this can lead to them becoming vagabonds in the society.

  73. Avatar NKWOCHA IKECHUKWU BONAVENTURE REG.NO. 2017/249530 says:

    Introduction.
    Human being are the greatest phenomenon on the earth, children are precious, from biological process regarded as reproduction. From Bible knowledge (Psalm 127:3) : children are gift from God and with purpose.
    Poor families having more children than the rich is dominant in the society and in this literature work, to look at its main reason ranging from information availability, education, and time availability of such families. With its effects both positive and negative.

    Definition of some terma.
    — poverty
    — Absolute poverty
    — Children
    — Economic view on poverty
    * Poverty: poverty is the state of not having enough material possession or income for a person basic needs, povert may include social, economic and political elements.
    * Absolute poverty: is the complete lack of the means necessary to meet personal need including food, clothing and shelter.
    * Children: A young person especially between infancy and puberty a play for both children and adults.
    * Economic view on poverty: poverty is a state or condition in which a person or community lack the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.
    Main argument on why poor family have more children.
    Poor families ( many ) have more children than the rich with some clear reason based on health care, economic, education and other reason. Poor families with more children than the rich are dominant in our society especially in developing countries around the world. And this is majorly attributed to information available and society believe, again it have been recorded that women with education background or working class have less time to take care of their kids to now talk of having many.
    Some major reason poor families have more children.
    * Economic reason: poor families with many female children have this believe that money made of their bride price can be used to train the male once. Again another believe is that when their children grow and start making small money then as they are many, when the come together and make contributions for the family their money will be big. In the Igbo tribe there is one saying that goes like this NWA BU AKU, meaning a child is wealth.
    * Labor force: some poor familes see more children as a means of labor since the don’t have the finance to employe labor then more children will now help out in those area that labor is needed.
    * Management of sex life: poor families lack some of the information on sex that how couple can engage in sex and the women not taking in ( pregnancy ) but for families that are poor any meeting between the couple result to pregnant”CHI NA ENYE NWA” meaning god gives children and some of them that have the information are not well educated in it to ensure proper use it such. Again the knowledge of the poor on abortion and the rich to an extend is not same.
    * Health care services: In Uganda a poor family with eight children is mostly expected to lose between two and three during child birth and after child birth and before their adolescent age and this is because of lack of adequate health care services as a result of financial inability. With this reason a family that know that it cannot provide its health care services needs will always have more children so that after all, they have some remaining for the family to answer the family name.
    * Lack of knowledge of the fundamental right of every child: One of the fundamental right of every child is the right basic education and health care services and all of this requires finance and many of this poor families don’t know. In the Igbo tribe there is one adage that says ” CHI N’AZU NWA” meaning god trains child’s on his own.
    * Timing of the poor: poor families have more time to have sex than the rich families. For instance a woman with working career say in the banking sector will not have same time with a woman that goes to farm with the husband.

    Consequences of poor families with more children.
    * Positive consequences:
    – care during old age
    – More children as a source of income
    – positive effects of large population on the economy, people from poor families as many of them are not educated will be employed in the unskilled aspects of the economy production process while few of them that are educated will join the skilled labor force.
    * Negative consequences:
    – Draw back on national development: China as a case study, China today is still regarded as a developing nation because of it’s large population and the Major population is from the poor families and the families lives into the rural areas.
    – Negative effects on the woman’s body: During and after pregnancy and without proper health care services for the woman complications may arise and again this can course early death or serous illness

    – Negative effects on the children: Children from poor families, few are train in basic education while others are left to acquire unskilled training and effects on their nutrition, social life and personal development.
    Contributions made by World Bank toward reducing poverty in different nations.
    World Bank through it’s program lending scheme attacked poverty in different nations of the world starting from 1970s to date in collaboration with government of different nations of the world.
    Conclusion and recommendations.
    Mr president Poor families face’s a lot is issues even such families happiness is not dominant and the government can help through proper information, financial assistant and most importantly carrying out those fundamental right of it’s citizens. Again thank You Mr President for the opportunity to write on the issue.

  74. THE REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    In my country, child birth is like a sport most people engage in and the poor, I mean the very poor in the society seem to enjoy it more than others. It is the only thing they can do – to have sex and procreate. It should come as no surprise that Nigerian population will be the third largest in a few years, falling behind only China and India.
    These are some of the reasons poor people give birth to so many children in my country:

    Poverty in the Country: Poor people have no opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population like China did, which is something we need right now, despite having different government system. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities.

    Ignorance: Our grand mother, that old disease “ignorance” is probably the cause of it all. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance. Children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does.

    Lack of education: Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    Religious beliefs: In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    Death: Some countries of the world have very high child mortality rate and my country is at the top of the ladder. For this reason parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky enough to survive to adulthood. It’s a pity that even in the 21st century, many women living in under-developed countries still rely on luck for safe delivery and prevention of child death due to poor health care.

    High child mortality rates: Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive.

    Misconceptions about family planning: In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    Family legacy: For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

    Lack of access to health services: It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning, sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    POSITIVE ACTIONS OF THE POOR HAVING MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    Care for elders
    : In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older.

    Need for extra labour
    : More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    Wealth: For the poor, children are their wealth

    NEGATIVE ACTIONS OF THE POOR HAVING
    MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of family problems, including divorce and family conflict.
    Poor people are more likely to have several kinds of health problems.
    Children growing up in poverty are less likely to graduate high school or go to college, and they are more likely to commit street crime.

  75. Avatar Ogu Mercy Akudo says:

    Ogu Mercy Akudo
    2017/249545

    TOPIC-WHY THE POOR TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    1. Forced early marriage; Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.

    2. Lack of education; Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. [6] On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    3. Religious beliefs; In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    4. Lack of access to health services; It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.[3] For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    5. Patriarchal values; having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.

    6. Limited finances; Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    The effect of the high number of children born by the poor leads to an increase in unemployment rate and reduces the rate of capital formation.

  76. Avatar Ezeamaku Chukwuemeka Victor says:

    Ezeamaku Chukwuemeka Victor
    2017/243370
    Economics department

    Poverty amongst people have several characteristics and they include:
    – High infant mortality rate amongst the children of the poor leading parents to try to give birth to more children to reduce their risk of childlessness. The, children serve as a form of insurance for their parents when they get old

    -Lack of education on the importance of family planning.

    -Child marriages

    – Symbol of wealth or status, some people believe that several children is a sign of wealth

    POSITIVE EFFECTS OF HAVING LARGE NUMBERS OF CHILDREN

    – Families with large numbers of children have higher chances for social mobility.

    – Source of free care for parents when they get old

    – Parents use their large number of children as safety nets, and providers when they no longer can work.

    NEGATIVE EFFECTS
    — Low standard of living
    — Breeds poverty
    — Child Neglect
    — Poor education
    – Population explosion

  77. Avatar Ugwoke faith chinazaekpere says:

    Ugwoke faith chinazaekpere
    2017/249582
    Economics major
    These can mostly be seen in underdeveloped and developing countries( Africa) and it is due to the following reasons :

    1) High child mortality rate : Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive.
    2) Early marriage and gender roles: In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    3) Limited access to contraceptives :An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception.This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older.
    4) Need for extra labour : More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. 
    5)Family legacy :For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct
    6)Religious belief : In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    7) Social reputation : In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.

  78. Avatar Ewa Princess says:

    NAME: EWA PRINCESS
    REG NO: 2017/249501
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS
    WEBSITE: blogwithprincess.wordpress.com
    EMAIL: ewaprincess79@gmail.com
    Some reasons why poor families have more children than rich families includes, but are not limited to the following;
    1. Early marriages
    2. Poor family planning
    3. Need for extra labour
    4. High child mortality
    5. High illiteracy among poor families

    EARLY MARRIAGES:
    In most poor families of developing countries, a girl child is expected to be a libration to her family from poverty. As a result, she is given out to be married at an early age, sometimes earlier than the age of 18 and begin having children sooner. Most married girls are under pressure to become pregnant and start having children, as soon as possible. This early marriage, thus leads to having many children before she reaches old age, or menopause.
    POOR FAMILY PLANNING:
    In most developing countries, women in poor families have no or limited access to contraception. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for contraception. This is due to many reasons including, limited information, options of contraceptive methods, access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition, and poor quality of available services. This makes it quite difficult for such women in poor families to delay or stop childbearing, unlike women of rich families who have an unlimited access to this contraception because for them, it can be easily purchased.
    NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR:
    Most poor families live in the rural areas, with the families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. For this families, it is a cultural expectation for them to have a larger family size to combat their need for extra labour/work force.
    HIGH CHILD MORTALITY:
    In most poor families, they is a high rate of child mortality even before this children celebrate their fifth birthday. These children born into poor families have limited or no access to health care services. And so, child mortality are high, unlike children born into rich families, who have access to quality health facilities. As a result, poor families therefore, give birth to large families, in case of death of any of the children
    HIGH ILLITERACY AMONG POOR FAMILIES:
    In developing countries, women with little or no education are likely to have more children than their counterparts, who are educated. Improved education level leads to changed parental perceptions of the cost and benefits of having children. While most women and men in poor families have little or no education, they readily give birth to more children than richer people who are educated.

    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES:
    1. High dependency ratio
    2. Over population
    3. Vicious cycle of poverty
    4. Higher illiteracy level
    5. Child labour

    HIGH DEPENDENCY RATIO:
    One major setback of a larger family size, is the problem of high dependency. More children of unproductive ages from 0 to 15 depending on the peasant income of their parents. This dependency burden bore by parents makes it difficult for parents to carter properly for the high number of children. This leads to malnutrition, forced child labour and underdevelopment.
    OVER POPULATION:
    With larger family sizes, the population as a whole tends to increase. This becomes a burden too, for the government as they have to carter for an increased population. The downsides include, congestion, high population compressing on social amenities and infrastructures, lower living standard and low per capita income.
    VICIOUS CYCLE OF POVERTY:
    With a greater number of children born into poor homes, the dependency of this children on the low income of their parents leads to low saving. When the parents have a low saving, it leads to low investment. Low investment leads to low productivity. Low productivity leads to low income. Therefore, a vicious cycle of poverty.
    HIGHER ILLITERACY LEVEL:
    When poor parents have large families, they may not be able to send their children to school. Thus, they is a likelihood that this children; (a) will not be sent to school at all, (b) sent to public schools with poor quality education and poorly trained teachers, (c) drop out from primary school. This invariably leads to high illiteracy among children.
    CHILD LABOUR
    Most children born in poor families are forced to hawk things at a young age to support the family. Because the high number of children born to these poor families are not properly cartered for, they exist the case of forced child labour. These children after school everyday trekk long distances hawking, and even indulge in social vices to support their families. Some even drop out from school to hawk wares. All these are not obtainable in rich families.
    POSTIVE CONSEQUENCES:
    1. Increased labour force
    2. Increased productivity

    INCREASED LABOUR FORCE:
    A large family, in the long run, is important for increased labour force both at the family and national level. With a large family, more hands are available for work, instead of hiring outside workers.
    INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY
    Large families means increased labour force. Increased labour force leads to an increase in productivity at family and national levels.

  79. Name: Chukwu mmesoma faith
    Reg no: 2017/ 243807
    Department: education & economics

    The poor has many children than the rich with the following reasons:

    It can be said authoritatively that poor people have more children than the rich because while the rich man reflects on supporting his small family, the poor give little consideration to the number of children they have.
    Many poor people don’t think properly about the welfare of their family, some believe that, there is need for them to give birth to so many children because they don’t know the one that will make it in life, so if they have more children, then there is every possibility that one or two out of all will make it in life with the notion that “it’s God that gives and He will take care of them”. That is to say no plan for the kids, the kids will strive for themselves. Meanwhile the rich will only think of how to make the one or two kids that they have to make it in life, like sending them to school, enrolling them in any lesson etc. with the mindset “I want to give my children best education, good life, let me just have two so that I can cater for them”. they plan ahead for the kids, some even go as far as opening accounts for the kids from conception, where the money needed for their up keep will be saved and not touched.
    Again many poor people are illiterates, they know little or nothing about child bearing and that is why they will always meet their traditional midwifes during pregnancy, who couldn’t advise/counsel them on child bearing. This is mainly caused by early marriage, especially the ones that were pushed into marriage by their parent. While the rich visit specialist hospitals for checkup and counseling during antenatal.
    Poor people have so many children for fear of the unknown. They prefer giving birth to at least six, seven, eight or nine children in case of unforeseen circumstances. Most poor people’s mindsets are always corrupt, some will be like, it was because my father had only two children that was why I’m the only child since my brother died because of this some prefer to have many children in case if one or two or even three should die, they will still have more kids. But they rich doesn’t even have time to think about it.
    poor people have more children because of lack of orientation. Most of them will tell you their own father was a farmer and he had seventeen children, even more. So they see it as a generational something, so instead of them not to have about that number or even more, they will marry 4-6 wives in order to meet up forgetting that before and now are two different thing and that is why most of them end wallowing in abject poverty. While the rich knows better, most of them will see it as a mistake that their parents made and wouldn’t want to repeat it.
    Poor people have more children because they struggle less and jobless. They have plenty time to themselves. Hardly will you see a poor man that is always busy with work, they always do work like wheel barrow pushing, shoe mending and the likes, the kind of work they will do whenever they like. Whenever they comeback the wife is always at home to satisfy him because she also is a house wife, so every now and then the man and the woman are always meeting, unlike rich people who would not get enough sleep because they are planning the future, he barely has time for the wife and even if they do have time, meeting time will be scheduled. Poor man thinks of what he would eat on a daily basis, and once he can feed his family today, tomorrow will take care of itself.
    Lastly poor people that mainly farmers believe that when the have more children, the will have more labour, that is to say their children will make the farm work easier and faster forgetting that it will lead to great consumption and the storage will be less.

  80. Avatar Okwuchie Amos says:

    Name: Okwuchie Amos.
    Reg no. 2017/249562
    Email: okwuchieamos@gmail.com

    WHY THE POOR HAVE INCREASED BIRTH RATE.
    Mr President,
    All the honourable members of this house.
    The reason why there is increasing birth among the poor are explained below.
    1. ILLITERACY: There’s correlation between poverty and illiteracy. Hence those who are poor doesn’t know the implementation of increased number of children. This is why they keep producing and hatching children like chicken.

    SEARCH FOR MALE CHILD: To many families in Africa, important of male child cannot be overstated. Therefore, on course of seeking for male child. People keep breeding children.

    NO OR LACK OF PREVENTIVE MEASURE: The means of controlling pregnancy abound but most of y poor never apply or use them. This means that they keep getting pregnant at a slight intercourse.

    NO SOURCE OF PLEASURE APART THE WIFE OR HUSBAND: In poor setting, you can hardly find that which gives pleasure to man. Since there is no alternative source of joy, men and women resort to sex as the pleasure option.

    NOTION OF INCREASING FAMILY WORKFORCE. Since number of children is presumed to be proportional to increase labour supply to the family. Therefore, poor family keep giving birth not minding of the availability of resources to catter for them.

    Mr president.
    Honourable members of the house.
    I rest here with the aforementioned points that we can curtail the increased birth rate among the poor through reorientation and house-to-house sensitization on the need to give birth to the number of children you can catter for.
    Thank you!

  81. Avatar IROEGBU BLESSING ONYINYECHI 2017/249518 says:

    IROEGBU BLESSING O.
    2017/249518
    ECONOMICS

    In various parts of the world(mostly Africans) poor families tend to have an outrageous amount of children that is mostly beyond their control due to the facts that they felt lots children was some sort of proof of a strong fertility trait in the family and having male children even a more powerful factor because they believed male children were the future at that time. Having lots of siblings who could give you advice and direct you on the right part when the parents are no where to be found is an ancient landmark that should be made away with! A few reasons for the numerous child birth in poor families due to ancient orientation by our forefathers are;

    1. Ignorance: Ignorance is the worst thing any man can suffer from. It is a big disease that affects mainly the poor due to the fact they lack knowledge. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in their minds. Considering children as wealth is ignorance, children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the ‘United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology and sophisticated weapons, size does not count much.

    2. No Restrictions or Laws guiding birthrate: The poor families are open to having as many children as they can as a result of the fact that there are no laws guiding birthrate. Using Nigeria as a case study as against China, there are no laws guiding birthrate in Nigeria which causes poor families to have more children compared to China, whose one-child policy prevented all families from having more than one child. Although this policy had been amended in the early 2016 as all families is now allowed to have upto two children. Therefore the lack of such laws causes poor families to have high birthrate.

    3. Religious beliefs: In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. And the saying that children are blessings from God which increases birth rate by poor and this can also be linked to ignorance as regards to shallow minded beliefs.

    4. Limited Access To Education: Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. Gender wise, Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children and it is even possible that the Fathers also were uneducated probably because they were trained to become farmers or labour workers. So parents being uneducated might not see the need to also train their own children in school. Cost can also be a huge factor due to the number of children in a family.

    POSITIVE EFFECTS OF LARGE FAMILIES
    In my own view there are lesser positive effects in this case because that case burdens the economy but for reasons sakes… a positive effect is that;
    The increase in fertility would lead to increase in population, labour (work) force and productivity. It will also increase the political influence and voting strength of such community.

    NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF LARGE FAMILIES
    I could mention a whole lot but here is just a few… Increased fertility will lead to increase in budget spending, their will be a big burden on the family as to feeding, education and provision of good health care for the children.

  82. Avatar Kingsley Gift Ebubechukwu says:

    Name: Kingsley Gift EBUBECHUKWU
    Reg number; 2017/241438
    Dept: Economics

    Reasons why the poor have more children and the attendant consequences.

    Caring for the elders and Family Responsibility: It is believed that as children grow up, they carry the family’s legacies and also the responsibility of caring for their elderly one and also their siblings. And this is mostly common in countries with weak government support for the older citizens. As a result, having more children serves as a sense of hope and security that one day, one or more will be successful enough to life the family out of its present state of poverty.

    Social norms and reputation: In a culture or community where children are seen as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. Mostly common among poor village settings, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Families with large number of children are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not strange for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else. This practice is common among village cultures mostly in Nigeria where majority of them are POOR!

    Lack of education: Girls from poor families are much less likely to finish school and may not know the importance of educational values for children. They are likely to get married at adolescence age and have more kids, still making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. The reverse is the case where girls from rich homes who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They go on to marry later in life, prioritizing their own children’s education.

    Religious beliefs: According to many beliefs and doctrines, children are seen as blessings. Religious books, texts and scripture often acts as a strong guide influencing people’s way of life. When one is of the belief that their children will be provided for and that they (children) are incredible gifts, it stands as a reason why couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    Limited access to adequate health care services and facilities.
    Women who are poor or are from poor families miss out, mostly in the access to adequate health care facilities that helps to prevent excessive child bearing. This facilities such as contraception are usually expensive and mostly accessable by the rich. The supply chains often times don’t extend to rural areas where high majority of the families who live there are poor. A lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier in the supply chain toward receiving professional medical care in rural areas. This leads to high birth rate among the poor.

    Their Consequences are as follows:
    Positive Consequences.
    1. Most poor parents, despite the number of children try to educated and ensure their children are responsible. This increases the possibility of liberating the family from poverty.

    Negative consequences…
    High birth rates amongst the poor leads to leads to a number of disadvantage.
    1) overpopulation of an area.
    2) high level of unemployment. When a country is still battling with it’s current rate of unemployment, the increase in child bearing by poor families only worsen the case.
    3) Crime rate: when there is over population and high unemployment, resources available becomes inadequate for all. This leads to survival of the fittest struggle, thereby increasing crime rate aggressively such as kidnapping and killing, human and organ trafficking, increase in ritual practices. And this make the area unfriendly for humanity.
    4) All these listed above al leads to one direction which is increase in the poverty level of such nation or geographical area as a whole.

  83. Avatar Ogbonna Anthony says:

    OGBONNA ANTHONY CHUKWUDUBEM
    ECONOMICS
    2017/243368
    ogbonnatony54@gmail.com

    Over time, statistics has revealed that poor people tend to have more children than the rich. This idea is in most cases different from the region under consideration. But never the less studies on this phenomenon has revealed a number of generally causatives or reasons that brought about high birth rate among the poor families of the world. These reasons include;

    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. statistics shows that infant mortality rate in Nigeria from 2009 to 2019, the was at about 74.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In America, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:

    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.

    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

  84. Avatar Ezeorah chukwuebuka Emmanuel says:

    Ezeorah chukwuebuka Emmanuel
    2017/249508
    Economics
    emmanuellescot32@gmail.com

    Child bearing is very important in the world but people can still choose the number of children that they want to bear, this are the reasons why the poor bear more children than the rich in the world
    Firstly, since the poor cannot feed their daughters well, they prefer to give them out for marriage early and the earlier they got married the more child bearing years they have
    Secondly, people often keep producing children until a boy is born and sometimes even they have one, they will like to go for another
    Thirdly, many poor people don’t know much about birth control measures and even when aware, many don’t want to spend on them
    Lastly, most poor people are not educated enough and are not able to take a wise decision looking at pros and cons of producing an extra child

  85. Avatar AGBO EBUBE EDITH says:

    NAME: AGBO EBUBE EDITH
    REG NO: 2017/249475
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND IT’S POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES

    In many cultures, especially in the underdeveloped and developing countries, poor people tend to have more children than rich people and the following are the reasons.

    Education:
    The poor parents do not usually have the benefit of education and so are not oriented towards giving their children as much education as possible. They are content with public schooling or even sending their children to learn trades and crafts or sticking with farming.

    On the other hand, the education that rich people have gives them the orientation that their children need the empowerment that education gives. Due to this orientation they intend to give them the best education, train them in the best schools right from their crèche to tertiary level and beyond even if it means having fewer children. On the other hand,

    Early Marriage:
    Some cultures allow girls to be given away by their parents once they hit puberty or even before. Poor parents take advantage of this to marry off their daughters and reduce their responsibility. Girls who marry early begin to have children sooner, especially as they are under pressure to give birth early. The sooner they begin to have children, the more children they can have before they reach menopause.

    Rich people on the other hand send their daughters to school, and marry them off when they are older, so they don’t have as much time to give birth to many children even though they are in the same culture.

    Care at Old Age:
    Poor people are bothered about who will take care of them in their old age, and they usually hope their children will get the riches they were unable to make, so they are more prone to have more children on the off chance that one of them will be the one that gives them comfort when they are old and cannot work anymore.
    Rich people are usually less bothered about being taken care of at old age since they have wealth, technically speaking.

    Need for Increased Labour Supply:
    Most of the poor people in rural areas make their living through subsistence farming which is labour intensive. More income in subsistence farming demands more labour, and they solve this problem by giving birth to more children. Moreover there can be cultural expectation to have more children to solve the problem of extra labour.

    Rich people on the other hand do not have that problem as their wealth is seldom made from labour intensive businesses like subsistence farming and more from capital intensive businesses.

    Contraceptives and Family Planning:
    The poor people are less educated and so less impressed upon with the need for family planning or how to use contraceptives.

    The rich parents who are usually more educate are informed about the dangers of overpopulation on the economy and they are also enlightened about family planning, and so they are more likely to make use of contraceptives.

    CONSEQUENCES
    Negative Consequences:
    Overpopulation: high birth rate results in having a population so dense that the social amenities are unable to carry them all. This results in environmental deterioration, impaired quality of life.

    Limited opportunities: the overpopulation will then lead to unemployment, underemployment, and inadequate access to education.

    Increased crime rate: this rise in unemployment and limited opportunities forces people to engage in illicit activities in order to survive.

    Inadequate health care: Nigeria is currently in need of about three hundred thousand doctors to only meet up to the United Nations standard for national health care. This is an example of how overpopulation renders the people in an economy bereft of medical attention.

    Poor quality of life: More individuals suffer malnutrition, depending on one class of food. They also suffer poor education, having to rely on public schools even though their children are not attended to properly there.

    Increased mortality: many of the foregoing situations lead directly or indirectly to higher death rates, which in turn deprives the nation of people who would have developed the economy.

    Positive Consequences:
    1. Increased labour supply: There are more people available o engage in production, procesing and distribution of goods and services. This can potentially increase productivity and GDP per capita, the hallmark of development.

  86. Avatar UGWU PERPERTUA ODINAKA says:

    Name: Ugwu Perpertua Odinaka
    Reg no: 2017/244848
    Dept: Education Economics
    everlastinggift9507@gmail.com
    ugwuodinakap.blogspot.com
    ECO 362 Assignment

    WHY DO THE POOR HAVE LARGE FAMILIES THAN THE RICH
    As a child growing up in Canada, I wanted nothing more than a big family.
    With my mom as one of 11 siblings and my dad as one of ten, observing the joyful chaos of extended family Christmases, Thanksgivings and birthdays was something I longed to experience every day. Nothing made me happier than being surrounded by my big, loving, riotous family.
    As I grew older, however, my perspective began to shift. I learned how poverty had marked my parents’ childhoods in Guyana—especially my mother’s—and it confused me. ‘So, why do poor people have more kids?’ I’d wondered.
    My mom had often gone hungry so that her siblings could eat, and during the worst of times there just wasn’t enough to go around. It was hard for me not to judge what seemed like carelessness on the part of my grandparents.
    But for them, and many parents like them across the Global South, the factors that play into family size are far more complex than a teenager like me was willing to consider.
    So—why do impoverished parents in developing countries have more kids?
    CONNECTING WITH LARGE FAMILIES FOR ANSWERS
    Working with World Vision has given me a new lens for family life around the globe. As I’ve seen, there are many reasons why a family affected by poverty may choose to have many children—and why poor countries have high birth rates—ranging from cultural values to issues of social justice. Let’s explore some of the major ones.
    1.High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    2.Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    3.Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    4.Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.
    5.Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    6.Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    7.Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    8.Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else. Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    9.Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    10.Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    World Vision’s response through family planning programs
    It’s clear that, for all the reasons an impoverished family may end up with many children, there are definite challenges that follow. With their resources spread thin, large families are less likely to afford education for their children, meaning those kids will likely grow up to have lower earning potential and be more likely to repeat the cycle of poverty.
    But usually, it’s women who bear the highest cost of having many children.
    Pregnancy takes a substantial toll on a woman’s body—whether she lives in Canada or anywhere else—but the risks are more pronounced in developing countries, where access to quality health care isn’t a foregone conclusion.
    When a woman lives in difficult conditions, without a varied diet or access to prenatal vitamins, back-to-back pregnancies leave her especially vulnerable. Her nutritional stores, especially iron and calcium, are likely to become depleted and she will be less equipped to breastfeed her baby, meaning the child’s long-term health may be compromised as well.
    The health risks are even more extreme for teenage mothers, who are more likely to become malnourished during pregnancy—their bodies are still growing, even as they sustain the child growing within them. With pelvises not fully developed, girls face higher chances of complications in delivery.
    Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy
    Educating women and teens about the importance of family planning and methods of contraception could prevent as many as one in three maternal deaths and improve the survival rate of children. For this reason and others, World Vision incorporates family planning into our programs in the communities where we work, where it’s appropriate, encouraging healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.
    Partnering with faith leaders
    Family planning happens at the household level. Still, would-be parents are influenced by their community’s norms and values—which are often intrinsically linked to its religious beliefs. By equipping faith leaders with facts about the benefits of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, and contextualizing those principles within scriptures and social teaching, clergy are equipped to use their platforms to positively influence the health of their congregations.
    Small group coaching
    World Vision works with married couples in small discussion groups, where they learn about the benefits of birth spacing and the importance of gender equality in decision-making. It’s a great place to ask questions in a non-threatening atmosphere. At the end of the sessions, couples who decide they would like to implement family planning measures in their own homes are referred to health centres for more support and counselling.
    Educating men
    Men play a crucial role in birth spacing—particularly in traditional, patriarchal cultures. World Vision runs workshops where fathers are coached in gender equality, sharing childcare responsibilities and upholding the health of their partners and children as they make family planning decisions together.
    Working with youth
    World Vision empowers young people with information, helping them make life choices that will set them up well for the future.
    Strengthening health care systems
    World Vision works in communities to support health systems that are already in place. This includes training health workers to provide counselling in family planning and birth spacing, and ensuring facilities have the equipment and supplies they need to provide women and girls with proper care before, during and after pregnancy.
    Source: My world Vision by Kimberly Rupnarain
    CONSEQUENCES OF THE POOR HAVING MORE CHILDREN
    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    1.Family Problems: The various kinds of family problems thus happen more commonly in poor families than in wealthier families. Compounding this situation, when these problems occur, poor families have fewer resources than wealthier families to deal with these problems.
    Health, Illness, and Medical Care: The poor are also more likely to have many kinds of health problems, including infant mortality, earlier adulthood mortality, and mental illness, and they are also more likely to receive inadequate medical care. Poor children are more likely to have inadequate nutrition and, partly for this reason, to suffer health, behavioral, and cognitive problems.
    2.Education: Poor children typically go to rundown schools with inadequate facilities where they receive inadequate schooling. They are much less likely than wealthier children to graduate from high school or to go to college. Their lack of education in turn restricts them and their own children to poverty, once again helping to ensure a vicious cycle of continuing poverty across generations. A
    3.Housing and Homelessness: The poor are, not surprisingly, more likely to be homeless than the nonpoor but also more likely to live in dilapidated housing and unable to buy their own homes. Many poor families spend more than half their income on rent, and they tend to live in poor neighborhoods that lack job opportunities, good schools, and other features of modern life that wealthier people take for granted.
    4.Crime and Victimization: Poor (and near poor) people account for the bulk of our street crime (homicide, robbery, burglary, etc.), and they also account for the bulk of victims of street crime. The deep frustration and stress of living in poverty and the fact that many poor people live in high-crime neighborhoods. In such neighborhoods, children are more likely to grow up under the influence of older peers who are already in gangs or otherwise committing crime and people of any age are more likely to become crime victims.
    POSITIVE COSEQUENCES
    1.Having children regardless of the number is always a joy to the family.
    2.It provides more labour to the family.
    3.Large family makes household chores easier.
    4.In the olden days, large family brings award or chieftaincy titles to family.
    5.Having more children gives elders hope of those that will take care of them in their old age.

  87. Avatar AGBO EBUBE EDITH says:

    NAME: AGBO EBUBE EDITH
    REG NO: 2017/249475
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND IT’S
    POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES.

    In many cultures, especially in the underdeveloped and developing countries, poor people tend to have more children than rich people and the following are the reasons.

    Education:
    The poor parents do not usually have the benefit of education and so are not oriented towards giving their children as much education as possible. They are content with public schooling or even sending their children to learn trades and crafts or sticking with farming.
    On the other hand, the education that rich people have gives them the orientation that their children need the empowerment that education gives. Due to this orientation they intend to give them the best education, train them in the best schools right from their crèche to tertiary level and beyond even if it means having fewer children. On the other hand,

    Early Marriage:
    Some cultures allow girls to be given away by their parents once they hit puberty or even before. Poor parents take advantage of this to marry off their daughters and reduce their responsibility. Girls who marry early begin to have children sooner, especially as they are under pressure to give birth early. The sooner they begin to have children, the more children they can have before they reach menopause.
    Rich people on the other hand send their daughters to school, and marry them off when they are older, so they don’t have as much time to give birth to many children even though they are in the same culture.

    Care at old age:
    Poor people are bothered about who will take care of them in their old age, and they usually hope their children will get the riches they were unable to make, so they are more prone to have more children on the off chance that one of them will be the one that gives them comfort when they are old and cannot work anymore.
    Rich people are usually less bothered about being taken care of at old age since they have wealth, technically speaking.

    Need for Increased Labour Supply:
    Most of the poor people in rural areas make their living through subsistence farming which is labour intensive. More income in subsistence farming demands more labour, and they solve this problem by giving birth to more children. Moreover there can be cultural expectation to have more children to solve the problem of extra labour.
    Rich people on the other hand do not have that problem as their wealth is seldom made from labour intensive businesses like subsistence farming and more from capital intensive businesses.

    Contraceptives and Family Planning:
    The poor people are less educated and so less impressed upon with the need for family planning or how to use contraceptives.
    The rich parents who are usually more educate are informed about the dangers of overpopulation on the economy and they are also enlightened about family planning, and so they are more likely to make use of contraceptives.

    CONSEQUENCES-

    Negative Consequences:
    Overpopulation: high birth rate results in having a population so dense that the social amenities are unable to carry them all. This results in environmental deterioration, impaired quality of life.

    Limited opportunities: the overpopulation will then lead to unemployment, underemployment, and inadequate access to jobs and education.

    Increased crime rate:this rise in unemployment and limited opportunities forces people to engage in illicit activities in order to survive.

    Inadequate health care: Nigeria is currently in need of about three hundred thousand doctors to only meet up to the United Nations standard for national health care. This is an example of how overpopulation renders the people in an economy bereft of medical attention.

    Poor quality of life: More individuals suffer malnutrition, depending on one class of food. They also suffer poor education, having to rely on public schools even though their children are not attended to properly there.

    Increased mortality: many of the foregoing situations lead directly or indirectly to higher death rates, which in turn deprives the nation of people who would have developed the economy.

    Positive Consequences:
    1. Increased labour supply: There are more people available o engage in production, procesing and distribution of goods and services. This can potentially increase productivity and GDP per capita, the hallmark of development.

  88. Avatar Ugwu Amaechi Jude says:

    Ugwu Amaechi Jude
    2017/242434
    amaechi.ugwu.242434@unn.edu.ng
    Economics Department

    REASON WHY POOR PEOPLE HAVE MORE CHILDREN
    The poor countries are most times on the receiving end of aids from foreign rich nations or international organisations. The aids most times come in the form of food supplies, medical supplies, clothing, learning materials, shelter etc. Sometimes the aids also take the form of medical services at a lower cost or free of charge.. These medical services include vaccinations, inoculation, emergency surgery, family planning etc.
    Family planning is targeted at reducing the number of children per parent. But against these efforts by these foreign organisations like the United Nations to provide family planning to the poor countries, these poor people still bear more children than their rich counterparts. This could be as the result of following reasons.
    Firstly, the poor are primarily traditional in nature. The traditional society views multiple children as something that is desired. Therefore parents in this society will try to conform to this general view by birthing multiple children.
    Secondly, for the fact that they are poor, it will be very hard for them to source for external labour. Hence they opt for birthing many kids. When the kids come of age, they will be absolved into the family business. This will save the family extra money that they would have been paid to external labour.
    Thirdly, most poor people does not think long term. They don’t think about the impact of their decisions in the long term, they are only after their “daily bread” and as such they birth many children without a long term plan for them.
    The last but not the least cause of multiple birth by poor people is illiteracy. Inasmuch that the concept of family planning is thought and the facilities to ensure it are provided ; most of these poor people fail to understand and use it due to the fact that they are intellectually handicapped.
    CONSEQUENCES
    Birthing multiple children comes with its own consequence, both positive and negative. The positive consequences will be analysed first. The positive aspect includes
    • Looking after the parents at Old age.
    • Increase in the supply of labour.
    • Perpetuity of the family name.
    • Immortality of the linage.

    The negative aspects include
    • Population explosion
    • Increased unemployment
    • Increased poverty rate
    • Increased crime rate etc

  89. Avatar Okoye Obinna says:

    NAME: OKOYE OBINNA CHIDIEBERE
    REG NO: 2014/191864
    DEPT: ECONOMICS
    ECO 362

    The poor tend to give birth to more children due to the following reasons.

    1. NO FAMILY PLANNING – most poor people have limited knowledge about what contraceptives are, and those with the knowledge will not have the financial power to go through with it. So they just keep on reproducing.

    2. RELIGION: When the literacy of a population is low, their belief in a supernatural being is very high. According to those beliefs, it is a sin that a couple use contraceptive methods because it qualifies as “abortion or murder”. Most religious institutions always talk about how children are a blessing from God, and in a poor population where people aren’t getting blessed financially, they resort to the next available blessing; which is giving birth to more children.

    3. BLACK TAX: The Nigeria culture, the poor believe that as the children they give birth to grow up, they carry the responsibility of taking care of their siblings and parents in their old age and relieve them of some financial burdens. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of future security for parents with the hope that one of them may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    4. CHILD LABOUR: Since the major livelihood of poor parents is labour-intensive agriculture they have preference for many children so that the extra hands will be used on the farms and they pay little or nothing for this extra labour. In cases where there are no farms, most of the children go out to hawk and bring the proceeds back home.

    5. ENTERTAINMENT: There is limited form of entertainment for a poor individual, and sex is the one that is easily attainable. The only source of relaxation and pleasure is having sex and more sex, and in the process of engaging in this one and only form of entertainment, they tend to produce more offspring

  90. Avatar Targema Josiah Terzarmo says:

    NAME: TARGEMA JOSIAH TERZARMO
    REG NO: 2017/249457
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS

    In the developing countries the poor people bear more children than the rich due to the following factors:
    1. Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    2. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    3. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:

    * Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.

    * Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    Other factors may also include:
    *Limited access to contraception
    *Early ma

  91. Avatar FERDINAND DANIEL NWEKE says:

    Name: FERDINAND DANIEL
    REG: 2017/245020
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMIC

    The reason why the poor give birth to more gives than the rich is more like an Africa setting were children are seen as a source of wealth. Were by the one or more of the children will be rich and he or she will upheaval the rest of the children.
    Here are some factor why the poor give birth to more children
    1. SURVIVAL: Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care, poor security system and minimal government support.
    2. Lack of Family Planning: Most persons have differnt beliefs about using contraceptives and some even have stigmas against these contraceptives. This result to confusion over using certain family planning methods. sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care. Some poor families who don’t even want to give birth to mich kids or who wants to make use of contraceptives maynot be able because of limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available service.
    3. Forced Early Marriage: Most times, the popr forced thier daughters into marriage due to reeasons of not being able to cater for them and the family. So they force thier children into early marriage so that the in law can take care of the daughter and the family. When they are forced into an early marriage, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    4. Beliefs: In many belief, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. These poor families tend to go with the belief and go ahead in producing more kids because the “more the kids the more the blessings” that is thier belief. Some believe the larger the family, the more poweeful the family.
    5. Family Legacy: For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    6. Care and Protection for Elders: As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty
    7. Labour Force: Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force to earn more income for the family wellbeing

  92. Avatar Ufomadu Oscar Onyekachi 2017/249579 Eco 362 Development Economics II Economic Development Discussion says:

    NAME-UFOMADU OSCAR ONYEACHI
    REG NO-2017/249579
    DEPARTMENT- ECONOMICS
    COURSE TITLE-DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS II
    COURSE CODE-ECO 362
    TOPIC-WHY THE POOR TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    1. Little education or stack illiteracy of the poor familles especially the women
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    2.Labour intensity nature of their work -The poor give birth to more children to help them work on their farms for agricultural purposes. this as a means of putting food on their table tends to move then to give birth to mire children than the rich ones who friend on capital intensive or machines to do mist of their works.
    3.Mentality of poverty elimination-it is believed in the igbo land that more children is more fortune as to the prosperity of those children and also that poor man gives birth to rich children.This is one reason why they tend to give birth to more children even though the saying seems fallacious..
    4.Early Marriage and Gender Roles-this is one major reason why poor people give birth more .in the sense that the earlier one starts doing something the more of it and the best with accumulated energyhe achieves and generally,most african nations in the world or less civilised countries per se believe that the main work of females is to give birth so are encouraged to start it at an early stage with the believe to end childbirth in good health and full strenght to train the kids finally,they end up giving birth to many unlike the rich or civilised countries.
    5.Lack of/or inadequate appropriate birth control measures due to either negligence or unaffordabilty of the price-due to negligence or high price for contraceptives or otherbirth control measures,the poor tend to overlook birthcontrol and endup having more children maybe even than planned.
    6.It is also believed that the number of children one gives birth to is the number of people or caretakers of him/her during old age or dependent stage in life as an elder who is incapable of self fending.
    7.Some religions in some part of the world is against birth control as these tool or instruments necessary for it are not made available or scarce only for those who can afford them.
    8.High Death Rate and need for Continuity-the poor due to either inability to afford standard hospitals or health care centers for proper and safe delivery or other reasons not too well known to me fear death of their children so tend to give birth more because of this popular talk in the igbo land.”íhè fòró òțú áģwûļa áģwú”…’whats remaining one is at risk of finishing by interpretation ‘.

  93. Anopueme Franlin Ifeanyi
    2017/249485
    http://www.franklin.anopueme.249485@unn.edu.ng
    http://www.franksempire.com
    Based on my personal opinion, I’d say the reason why the poor have more children than the rich is majorly due to lack of formal education. As it is already known, developing countries like Nigeria are largely characterized by citizens with low level of knowledge attainment, otherwise known as education. Large number of people who reside in rural areas lack proper knowledge on the use of contraception and birth control. Most of their men even go as far as marrying more than one wife, without having enough income to carter for the family. On the other hand, the rich, with proper formal education, understands that having more children has more negative than positve impact on the society. A typical example of what I’m saying can be seen in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries. In Burkinafaso, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids in a family is between five and six. While in Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children.
    Another reason why the poor have more children than the rich is due to early marriage and gender roles. This factor mostly applies to the women. In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger, and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which also, limits her life choices.

    Negative effects of having more children
    a) having more children can effect one’s mental health, especially when the children in question do not adhere to simple instructions.
    b) having more children can increase social vices in society; that’s if the supposed children involve in this vices.
    c) having more children means having more mouths to feed, and this can lead to extreme poverty, especially when the family in question does not have an efficient means of survival.
    d) having more children can lead to an economic problem known as overpopulation.

    Positive effects of having more children
    a) having more children means having more workforce in the society
    b) having more children slightly ensures the growth of the economy; this can be achieved when the children grow up to become important members of the society e.g doctors, engineers, farmers e.t.c.
    d) having more children means having more people to vote during election, which is important in every democratic nation.
    d) having more children also increases the nations force/security.

  94. Avatar Nwankpa Lilian Ugomma says:

    Name: Nwankpa Lilian Ugomma
    Reg no: 2017/244743
    Dept: Social science Education
    THE REASON WHY THE POOR HAVE LARGER FAMILIES THAN THE RICH
    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families. Some might surprise you!
    1. Early marriage and gender roles:
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    2. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    3. Religion;
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.
    4: Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children. There are
    a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    5. Ignorance:
    Our grand mother, that old disease “ignorance” is probably the cause of it all. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance—- children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the ‘United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology and sophisticated weapons, size does not count much.
    6. Quantity Over Quality:
    It is not strange here in Nigeria to see or hear that half of a community belong to the same family, not only that, they all answer the same surname. This families don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size tremendously for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.

  95. Avatar Fidelis Emmanuel Oluebubechukwu says:

    Name: Fidelis Emmanuel Oluebubechukwu
    Reg. No.: 2017/241440
    Email: emmanuel.fidelis.241440@unn.edu.ng

    There are several reasons why the poor have more children than the rich. Some of these reasons are:

    1. Ignorance/illiteracy: the poor are ignorant of the modern day advancement. Some of them have never heard of family planning while some have heard about it but choose to ignore it. Some see family planning as a taboo in their society.

    2. Religion and belief system: Religion and belief system of the people is also a reason why the poor have more children than the rich. For example, a Christian will tell you that God said we should go into the world and multiply, fill the earth. When you tell them about family planning they see it as a sin against God. For a Muslim man who is allowed to marry up to 4 wives, you don’t expect him not to have children his wives them. Most times, these people don’t any tangible business that will be able to provide the basic needs of the family.

    3. The search for a Male child: most families believe that a Male child is more important than a female because he will be the one to carry the name of the father and continue from where his father stops and because of this, when there is no male child, the family will continue to bear more children in order to get altleast one male child.

    4. Some see children as investment: the poor give birth to more children so that when they get old, they will have people who will take care of them at old age. To them, the condition of the family doesn’t really matter, all they are seeing are are people who will take care of them at old age.

    5. Death rate: because of the rate people die from sickness, accident and other things in this country and Africa at large, they will tell u that it is better to have more children so that even if death comes, they will still have some left.

    The negative consequences these are as follows:

    1. The poor give birth to children they can’t care and provide for and they send their children to the streets to beg, hawk or do other things to provide for themselves.

    2. The number of out of school children increases because their parents are not able to cater for their education.

    3. Children who are sent out to the street to beg or hawk will also meet other children who will influence them negatively and make them engage in criminal activities like robbery, pick-pocket, and other social vices which will lead to an increase in the rate of criminal activities.

    4. Poor parent give out their Under-age children out in marriage to rich and old men either to settle their debt or as a means to get out of poverty. This will increase the rate of early marriage in the society.

    5. Continuous Increase in population which may lead to over-population

  96. Avatar AKOMA CHIOMA ONYINYE (2017/241339) says:

    In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family, the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more children as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival. Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    It’s no question that poverty and its effects harms communities and even entire countries, but did you know that socioeconomic status directly impacts children as well? Children living in poverty experience a wide variety of risk factors, ranging from health concerns to increased difficulties at school.Because children grow within the context of a family unit, it is important to recognize how poverty affects the household as a whole. Firstly, parents living below the poverty level often have difficulties meeting basic economic needs for their families, such as paying for rent, food, utilities, clothing, education, accommodations, health care, health insurance, transportation, and child care. Living in poverty often means having limited access to health care, food and housing security, greater risk of school drop-out for children, homeless, unemployment due to lack of education or child care and, unfortunately, not reaching one’s full potential.

  97. Avatar Ifetayo Kosi Anwoluwa says:

    NAME: IFETAYO KOSI ANWOLUWA
    REG NO: 2017/249343
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS

    REASONS AND CONSEQUENCES WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    1. Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    2. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    3. Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning among other complications she’s likely to have more kids.
    4. Patriarchal values. Having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they will end up having.
    5. Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    6. Limited access to education. Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    7. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.

  98. ENEH KENECHUKWU FRANKLIN
    2017/249496
    ECONOMICS DEPT

    LACK OF PROPER EDUCATTION
    Lack of proper education is the main root cause of why poor families has higher birth rate than rich homes, a well learned person must have been exposed to the dangers of lack of family planning which can be attained by acquiring proper education most of this poor families sees giving birth as a money making investment hoping that one of them gets rich and subsequently alleviate the poverty status of the family, its more of a selfish gain of the parents clouded by the shadows of illiteracy, The consequence to this is creation of nuisance to the society as most of them are allowed to roam the street in search of food exposing them to different social vices which includes prostitution, robbery, kidnapping ,drug addiction amongst others .

    EARLY MARRIAGE
    Most Africans see marriage as a poverty alleviation scheme, where one quickly runs of to marry mist times induced by the parents so as to make swift money off them, Early marriage is a social problem as young girls with little or no life experience are exposed to child rearing at a young age without proper self-evaluation in terms of taking care or discharging her motherly duties. This is tantamount to making large number of children as the girl child believes that the only reason to get married would-be making children.

    ILL SOCIAL REPUTATION
    Most poor families have this false belief that the number of children one bears determines their social standing in the society leading to them making more children than they can take care of ju8st to satisfy their selfish ego, this leads to and increased children on the street that ends up being a bad influence to the entire society as they were not properly cared for.

  99. Avatar Ani, Gabriel ogbonna says:

    Name: Ani Gabriel ogbonna
    Reg. Number: 2017/249483
    Department: Economics
    Email: anigabriel05@gmail.com

    Reasons the poor bear more children than the rich

    1.Care for elders
    The poor parents believed that having more children will help provide a very good health care in the future. In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in Nigeria, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    2. Need for extra labour
    The poor live in area that they can at least sustain themselves either through menial job or farming. More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    3.Cultural and superstitious belief
    In some communities, they believe that large family is a wealthy family. They see children as a future blessings and source of wealth. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of Nigeria, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    Furthermore, poor parents perceived that they are financially constrained in training and provision of good nutrition that will sustain the child life, so they believe that the child can die at any time, that is high child mortality. This made them to have more of it believing that some will at least survive.

    4. Family legacy
    The poor have the belief that if they don’t have more children, poverty will wipe away they family lineage. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy. This, is mostly common among the poor parents.

    5. Limited income
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    6. Lack of jobs and recreational activities
    The rich usually have a job that give them little or no time for family procreation. Even little time they have they will engage it in recreational activities such as weekend vacation, field trip, games and watching television and listening to news. In the case of the poor is opposite, they don’t have good standard of living. They have more time for themselves and family procreation.

    The positive effect of having a large number of children:

    Poor parents believe in diversity gift of children. Large families have the advantage of utilizing each family member’s strengths in daily life. Children come with their own personalities and skills. Some are quiet, some loud; some are kind and caring, some bold and independent; some may love music or sports; some kids are culinary gurus, while some may have inventive ideas. Pulling from everyone’s skills can make family life more enjoyable and fulfilling.

    Utilize this diversity in family problem solving, planning trips or trying to generate ideas. Each unique person will have something new and different to contribute. Not only will each person feel needed and wanted, but they will also each develop a strong sense of self. Each personality can be fun to get to know and love.

    The Negative effects:
    Poor large family will result to large poverty. Poor children are like free rancher, they move around without being controlled and as a result engage in so many social vices such as stealing, public vandalization, smoking etc. Larger families are more frequent with early marriage and rapid birth of the first child. In larger families, child rearing becomes more rule ridden, less individualized, with corporal punishment and less investment of resources. Smaller families tend to result in higher IQ, academic achievement, and occupational performance. Large families produce more delinquents and alcoholics. Perinatal morbidity and mortality rates are higher in large families as birth weights decrease. Mothers of large families are at higher risk of several physical diseases. At times such mother look more older than her age.

  100. Avatar Igweh Sixtus Ozioma says:

    IGWEH SIXTUS OZIOMA
    2017/247588
    ECO 362
    DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS 2
    ANSWER
    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND THE ATTENNDANT CONSEQUENCES BY IGWEH SIXTUS
    According to African Traditional Beliefs, most rich or influential individuals do not have much children because it is believed that they used their children to offer sacrifices to various deities to maintain their influential status in the society, and the believe that is why most influential people have only one or two children. Also according to African Beliefs, most poor or impoverished children have children not just to help them with farm work and other menial labours but to provide the rich with slaves and servants. It is a good thing that we have left such Era of thought, now we look at some of the real reasons and not just thoughts and beliefs that occurs in the society which makes it possible for poor families to have more children than rich families

    REASONS FOR LARGE FAMILY SIZE BY POOR FAMILIES
    1) Lack of understanding of the use of family planning: across the world, particularly developing countries the term “family planning” is often misinterpreted a lot. Most citizens of developing countries have the notion that family planning is something that will involve paying a lot of money to obtain, some view it as an opposition to their cultural beliefs that bigger is better, some view it as one of the cultures that developed countries want to impose on the developing countries, etc.
    2) Family Values: Most citizens born from large families in the country, feel that they are obligated to maintain that same family culture by also having a large family just like the one they were born into.
    3) Forced Early Marriage: In Nigeria this type of culture is predominant among the citizens of the Northern part of the country, where young girls aged 13-17 are married off to older men. When a woman is married off early like that, she begins child-bearing process at a very young age and it is likely for her to give birth to many children before reaching the age of menopause. If we assume that a young girl in northern Nigeria starts giving birth at age 15 and the age of Menopause is 35, and the she gives birth to one child every two years, she will give birth to ten children before attaining the age of menopause.
    4) Religious Beliefs: across developing countries the influence and power of religion on citizens of various countries is very strong. Citizens do not oppose anything that their religion teaches. In many religious doctrines, it is quoted that children are blessings and that one should not limit himself to having a particular number of children, because it would mean limiting the blessings that one is entitled to enjoy. Some strong adherents of their religions’ teaching will obey the doctrines to the LETTER and will continue having as much children as they can, not minding if the children can be properly catered for or not.
    5) Limited Finances: poor families especially the ones that depend on agriculture may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children often start at a young age to do some forms of labour such as gardening, gathering firewood, fetching water, etc, some even join the labour force illegally to help provide more income to the family.
    6) Social Reputation: most people maintain large family size just to maintain their social standing in the society, most times this is a result from family members.

    CONSEQUENCES (POSITVE AND NEGATIVE) OF LARGE FAMILY SIZE ON A NATION’S ECONOMY
    1) Population Size: a large family size in any country accounts for more than the total labour force of that country especially with labour-intensive developing countries. Developing countries are very labour-intensive and so any developing country that does not have a large population size is seen as not developing. Large population size which arises from large family size across different families in the country is necessary for economic growth and development for developing countries, since most of their production processes are labour-intensive. Also large population size will mean that a country has enough military power to expand and defend its borders from external and internal attacks, hence the lives of the citizens are secured at all times.
    2) Living Conditions: large family size is not needed in countries and economies that have relatively small land mass area, as it leads to overpopulation, basic amenities which are provided to be used by few persons are used by much number of people. Also large family size indicates high birth rate in an economy, which occurs predominantly in places where living conditions are bad, parents living in such places will have as many children as possible so as to not feel the death of one child since they have many more mouths to cater for.
    3) Division of Labour: children born into large families are already used to house chores being shared to them by their parents and as such when they reach the age of employment and are employed in a particular department or section of a company their output is different than others since at a young age they have been exposed to division of labour, so when they are assigned to a particular sector they invest all their human resources there to make it the best out of the rest. For an economy this means that they will be having workers who are efficient and reliable in carrying out their different duties which in the long run will set the economy on the path of proper growth and development.
    4) Wage Rate: it is pertinent to note that the family size in a country does not affect the wage rate of that economy. That is to say that wage rate is determined solely by the market forces of demand and supply, and that population size is not a determinant of wage rate. This is to pour water to the notion that higher population means higher wages.
    To conclude, historically it has been known that poor families give birth to more children than rich families but that point of view is beginning to change as the society is always evolving.

  101. Avatar Ugochukwu Onyinyechi Marycynthia says:

    NAME: UGOCHUKWU ONYINYECHI MARYCYNTHIA
    REG NO: 2017/249580
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS

    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family struggle why do parents expand their families??. There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reason why parents in developing countries or world have large families.
    Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable.

    SOME FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO LARGER FAMILIES.

    1. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    2. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.

    7. Family legacy
    For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.

    8.Lack of education
    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    9. Misconceptions about family planning
    In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    It’s clear that, for all the reasons an impoverished family may end up with many children, there are definite challenges that follow. With their resources spread thin, large families are less likely to afford education for their children, meaning those kids will likely grow up to have lower earning potential and be more likely to repeat the cycle of poverty.

  102. NAME: OKOLI MARYANN AMAUCHE
    REG NO: 2017/243272
    DEPT: ECONOMICS EDUCATION
    EMAIL: maryannokoli14@gmail.com

    REASONS POOR PEOPLE GIVE BIRTH TO MANY CHILDREN.

    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families.
    At Compassion, we believe that every child is a precious gift from God: ‘Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him,’ Psalm 127:3.Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons, it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable. Here we take a look at some of the factors that contribute to larger families.

    1. HIGH CHILD MORTALITY RATES
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    2. LIMITED ACCESS TO EDUCATION
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    3. EARLY MARRIAGE AND GENDER ROLES
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    4. LIMITED ACCESS TO CONTRACEPTION
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. CARE FOR ELDERS
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    7. RELIGION
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

  103. Avatar OHANADO SHEPHERD IFEANYI 2017/249547 says:

    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young
    Here we take a look at some of the negative factors that contribute to the reasons the poor tend to have more children;

    1.Illiteracy
    Due to lack of access to basic education and knowledge on family planning the poor tend to be negligent on family planning and how child birth would affect them so the absence of that would give room for birth of various number of children without thinking of the consequences

    2.Traditional and cultural beliefs
    Many people tend to beliefs due to tradition and culture that many children is sign of strength because that means it gives more room for labor in the family and more hand in agricultural work not really bordering about the adverse consequences of it

    3.High child mortality rate
    Due to the fact that some community tends to not be conducive for some children and death rate is at high the poor tend to give birth to more children due to high mortality rate in their society

    4.High dependence on their offspring
    The poor tend to depend more on their children cause of the benefits when they get old so with thoughts like this they would want to give birth to lots of children to enjoy financial and all benefits from all the lots of their offspring

    5.Inability to afford contraceptives
    The inability to accept contraceptives such as birth control, condoms etc. would lead to high number of child birth

    The positive factors of this are basically more

    1.More labor would be available;
    There would be more labor covered in few hours as opposed to when there are few hands

    2.combact against child mortality rate
    There would be more children in the society for a balanced population in the society, there would always be children in the society irrespective of the mortality rate

    3.More labor opportunity
    There would be more labor opportunity for people with lots of children

  104. Avatar Enyum Joseph ikechukwu says:

    Name: Enyum Joseph ikechukwu
    Reg No: 2017/249498
    Email address: Enyumjoseph@gmail.com
    Dept: Economics.

    The poor believes that procreation is essential to man because the more the children u have, the more your chances of living a better life in future. They see children as opportunity of having a better life. Because when you have 4 hard working children. That can change the life of the family forever Lack of education is also one of reason poor people have more children. They are not informed and also not exposed to the disadvantages of having too many children in their modern age.
    Here are some of the reasons while poor people give birth to more children’s (1)Religious and Cultural Norms: Religion such as Islam permit a man to marry upto four(4) women. A poor man who is not occupied or have less work to do tends to marry such amount of women. Thus, such a polygamous family will have a high birthrate as all the women will want to have equal amount of children. This will lead to competition among them as each will want to have more children. Some cultures also encourage high fertility rate, as more children are being given birth to, so that their livestocks can properly be taken care of.
    (2)Consequences of High birth rate (negative and positive) One of the negative consequence is quantity-quality trade offs: as poor people tend to have more children than the rich people, their behaviour is either irrational or a sign that they cannot control their fertility.
    One positve effect of this is that there’s better division of labour as more children are available to share the large work available, in which a single child will be unable to do or will take more time for few individuals to do. But having more children to do the work will save time and opportunity cost of employing labour would be reduced or prevented. Higher tendency of mortality rate: For the fact that child death or mortality rate in developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the actual reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. For instance, in Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 percent of children usually die before reaching their 5th birthday.
    As a result of this scenario, poor parents found in such situation, will want to have many children based the ideology that not all would die before their 5th birthday. More work-force needed and the income a child could bring home:
    Some poor couples may intentionally give birth to more children in order to assist in farm related jobs. In cases were a familt have more large farms instead of employing labour, such family will resort to having more children which will help in working at the various farms. Thus reducing the opportunity cost of employing labour.
    (3) Also poor families give birth to more children add a result of the income they might bring home by doing menial jobs or hawking food items. Although this income is relatively low, but collectively would solve little financial problems at home.

  105. Avatar MGBA CLARA CHINECHEREM says:

    Name: Mgba Clara Chinecherem
    Reg no: 2017/249527
    Dept: Economics
    Assignment: Reasons why the poor have more children

    1. High child mortality rates: Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because they tend to believe that not all of them will survive.
    2. Limited access to education: This tends to be the major cause, Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write.
    Furthermore, increasing girls participation in school over time decreases fertility rates and child control.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles: In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner,thereby giving birth to more kids than they can train
    4. Limited access to contraception: Most women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5. Care for elders: In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

  106. Avatar Enyum Joseph ikechukwu says:

    Name: Enyum Joseph ikechukwu
    Reg no: 2017/249498
    Email: Enyumjoseph@gmail.com

    The poor believes that procreation is essential to man because the more the children u have, the more your chances of living a better life in future. They see children as opportunity of having a better life. Because when you have 4 hard working children. That can change the life of the family forever Lack of education is also one of reason poor people have more children. They are not informed and also not exposed to the disadvantages of having too many children in their modern age Religious and Cultural Norms: Religion such as Islam permit a man to marry upto four(4) women. A poor man who is not occupied or have less work to do tends to marry such amount of women. Thus, such a polygamous family will have a high birthrate as all the women will want to have equal amount of children. This will lead to competition among them as each will want to have more children. Some cultures also encourage high fertility rate, as more children are being given birth to, so that their livestocks can properly be taken care of. Consequences of High birth rate (negative and positive) One of the negative consequence is quantity-quality trade offs: as poor people tend to have more children than the rich people, their behaviour is either irrational or a sign that they cannot control their fertility. One positve effect of this is that there’s better division of labour as more children are available to share the large work available, in which a single child will be unable to do or will take more time for few individuals to do. But having more children to do the work will save time and opportunity cost of employing labour would be reduced or prevented. Higher tendency of mortality rate: For the fact that child death or mortality rate in developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the actual reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. For instance, in Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 percent of children usually die before reaching their 5th birthday. As a result of this scenario, poor parents found in such situation, will want to have many children based the ideology that not all would die before their 5th birthday. More work-force needed and the income a child could bring home: Some poor couples may intentionally give birth to more children in order to assist in farm related jobs. In cases were a familt have more large farms instead of employing labour, such family will resort to having more children which will help in working at the various farms. Thus reducing the opportunity cost of employing labour. Also poor families give birth to more children add a result of the income they might bring home by doing menial jobs or hawking food items. Although this income is relatively low, but collectively would solve little financial problems at home.

  107. Avatar Umelo Chidera Nicole says:

    NAME: UMELO CHIDERA NICOLE
    REGISTRATION NUMBER: 2017/249589
    EMAIL: nicoleumelo@gmail.com

    In today’s world, it has become something of an irony whenever the topic of procreation is brought up especially with regards the number of children birthed by the rich as against those birthed by the poor. While this commentator is positive that there already exists a whole book of theories to explain this irony, because it is ironical in many ways, she is also positive that it is best explained by those who have lived and who thrive daily in these conditions. Hence, from the layman’s point of view, the following reasons could be responsible for this phenomenon:

    1. Way of life: it is not new knowledge that in the past, the subsistence farming was the main stay of the Nigerian economy. For those still new to this term, it simply means an agricultural farming practice where the farmer provides for himself and his family. In this system, we have every man to himself. Hence, for a person to provide adequate food to fill his barn and to provide for all members of his family, there was a need to have as many hands on deck as was possible. At that time, there were two main options; the farmer could employ hands on the farm and then make payments with the crops he farmed or he could simply use the help of his relatives. Of course, his brothers would have their own farms too, so the only option for this farmer would be to start his own family and then have as many children as possible to work as farm hands. In this way, the farmer could produce as much as possible with the lowest possible cost. That was in the past; does this “practice” still continue in today’s society? Absolutely. In the rural areas which are less developed, agriculture still remains the mainstay of such societies the only difference in this case is that subsistence farming has evolved into commercial farming, i.e. the farming practice where a farmer produces not just for himself, but also for selling or exchange as the case may be. Hence, people, in order to make ends meet, have to farm their lands, produce crops and then sell some of those products in order to earn an income. The same practice still applies; a man marries a wife and then produces as much children as possible to work on the land so as to produce as much crops as possible because more crops equals more income and more food.
    2. Superstitious beliefs: another prominent cause of this problem is superstition. Before I dive into this, I want to share an experience. I cannot remember for sure where I was, but I do remember two women talking one was older than the other and their conversation was centered around family. The younger woman had some questions concerning how many children she should have and imagine my surprise when the older woman said “as many as possible!” then I almost fell off my seat when she stated her reason. She said “because all these witches in your family might try to kill your children. So if you have only one, when they strike, you will have none at all, but if you have up to ten, when they strike, you will have nine left”.
    What baffled me in this conversation was not her answer as much as it was the “when” in her answer. She used ‘when’ and mot ‘if’ meaning that she truly believed that these “witches” would surely strike, and so to her, having so many children would be an insurance. As absurd as this might sound, so many people in the world live with this fear, it might not be the fear of witches per se, but they could fear that something of someone would take their children away and in the normal traditional sense, the best way to insure against this loss is to have a lot of children. Now that I think about it, I probably should have asked the older lady what her plan would be if these witches did not eventually strike.
    3. Status symbols: in the past, a powerful man was known by the size of his barn and the number of his children. Women were also praised for their ability to produce children for their husbands in quick succession. It was probably from those periods that the terms: “fertile womb” and “fertile seeds” originated. It became a thing of honor for a family to have many children. People wanted to marry into such families, people wanted to have families like such families. Unfortunately, that idea has found its way into some part of today’s society after all these years. However, in today’s society, the cost of living is not as it was in the past and so many unprepared families find themselves sinking deeper into the bowels of poverty.
    4. Excessive leisure: this is an argument this commentator does not usually subscribe to, but perhaps an iota of truth may be found here. If a couple has no serious paid employment, they simply work a few hours for a minimum wage, come back home, kick back to the news and wait till night falls to retire, it doesn’t leave much activities on their repertoire of things to do. A wealthy individual on the other hand, could have a lot of business trips lined up in one week, business meetings or even family vacation trips. This person is always on the move and hardly has any time to think of anything outside the world of business, at least for some time.
    5. Family planning: in the past, when foreigners brought the idea of family planning to the shores of Nigeria, it was met with acute disdain and distrust. Or ancestors probably saw it as another scheme of the “white man” to exert control. Besides, it was not a part of the culture of our people. Having only two children? Preposterous! How then would Amandi be considered wealthier than Okorafor? Who would farm the lands to produce crops? How would a man know which family could produce strong and healthy sons when he eventually decided to marry? This fear and distrust, although centuries old, is still very much a part of our society today. In different societies, family planning is still scorned and rejected, while in others, it is only taken with a pinch of salt.
    6. Education: I saved the best for last. This reason sums up the other reasons. Lack of education has crippled a lot of societies in ways that structural development cannot fix. It is only a lack of proper education that can lead a woman to believe that witches will snatch away her children, it is only a lack of proper education that will cause a society to see the number of one’s children as a sign of prosperity, it is only the lack of proper education that causes people to reject the idea of family planning on a daily basis. It is for the fact that the wealthy man in today’s society as a bevy of advisers and resources to guide him in the area of family planning that he has noticeably lesser children than the poor man. For instance, many wealth families have been known to seek the services of a family planner to advice their choices. Such persons consider the issues of education, resources available, medical care, family vacations, even legacy etc., before considering the number of children they decide to bring into the world.
    Some might ask; wasn’t the rich man also exposed to all the superstitions, fallacies and ideas as the poor man? The answer is the same. The rich man has attained a level of education or at least is surrounded by a good number of resources and persons with good knowledge of these issues to help him make sound decisions.

    This debate is not one that can be so easily solved. It requires careful observation and understanding. The irony does continue and until such a time when a decisive solution is obtained, the debate also continues. Thank you.

  108. Avatar Enyum Joseph ikechukwu says:

    Enyum Joseph ikechukwu
    2017/249498
    The poor believes that procreation is essential to man because the more the children u have, the more your chances of living a better life in future. They see children as opportunity of having a better life. Because when you have 4 hard working children. That can change the life of the family forever
    Lack of education is also one of reason poor people have more children. They are not informed and also not exposed to the disadvantages of having too many children in their modern age
    Religious and Cultural Norms: Religion such as Islam permit a man to marry upto four(4) women. A poor man who is not occupied or have less work to do tends to marry such amount of women. Thus, such a polygamous family will have a high birthrate as all the women will want to have equal amount of children. This will lead to competition among them as each will want to have more children. Some cultures also encourage high fertility rate, as more children are being given birth to, so that their livestocks can properly be taken care of.
    Consequences of High birth rate (negative and positive)
    One of the negative consequence is quantity-quality trade offs: as poor people tend to have more children than the rich people, their behaviour is either irrational or a sign that they cannot control their fertility.

    One positve effect of this is that there’s better division of labour as more children are available to share the large work available, in which a single child will be unable to do or will take more time for few individuals to do. But having more children to do the work will save time and opportunity cost of employing labour would be reduced or prevented.
    Higher tendency of mortality rate: For the fact that child death or mortality rate in developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the actual reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. For instance, in Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 percent of children usually die before reaching their 5th birthday. As a result of this scenario, poor parents found in such situation, will want to have many children based the ideology that not all would die before their 5th birthday.
    More work-force needed and the income a child could bring home: Some poor couples may intentionally give birth to more children in order to assist in farm related jobs. In cases were a familt have more large farms instead of employing labour, such family will resort to having more children which will help in working at the various farms. Thus reducing the opportunity cost of employing labour. Also poor families give birth to more children add a result of the income they might bring home by doing menial jobs or hawking food items. Although this income is relatively low, but collectively would solve little financial problems at home.

  109. Avatar Okoye Felix Onyekachi says:

    Okoye Felix Onyekachi
    2017/241446
    Economics Department, University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

    Some of the reasons why poor people tend to have more children than the rich are are discussed hereunder:
    First, most poor people reside in the under-developed and developing countries of the world where high rate of infant mortality abounds. Because of this, a lot of children born into this countries do not survive into adulthood. Against this backdrop, the decision to have a large size of family is to a great extent justified at least for the poor couples in these countries.
    Second, in the context of most developing countries where social care services meant to support the aged people do not exist, poor people see children as an insurance package for old age and thus tend to have more children. The rationale behind this decision is that these poor couples believe that the higher the number of children they have, the better they would be taken care of at old age.
    Also, poor people may not have access to the myriads of family planning methods and the use of contraceptives in averting unwanted pregnancies and this could be one of the reasons why they often have larger family sizes than the rich.
    Female education and literacy rate also has a role to play in this discourse.Women who attended Higher education often marry later than their counterparts who didn’t and it is a medical fact that the fertility of a woman decreases as the woman ages. Thus an educated couple would on average have fewer number of children than the uneducated ones. And we know that education itself to a large extent depends on the income level of the family and the country of interest. In some countries where the cost of obtaining higher education is very high,obtaining higher education training may be beyond the rich of an average poor family.
    Some religious teachings of which the poor are mostly at the receiving end could also be one of the reasons why the poor have bigger family sizes. Most religious organisations and denominations hold the view that abortion in all ramifications is immoral, notwithstanding the circumstances surrounding such abortions and the purpose they were meant to serve. Also, the use of contraceptives in preventing pregnancies is also questioned in some of these religious organisations. Unfortunately the poor in the society who are mostly not educated do not have the mental shrewdness to question these religious teachings.

  110. Name:Meteke Joy Orimusue
    Reg.no:2017/242430
    Department:Economics
    Website: metekejoy01.blogspot.com
    Email:joymetex2000@gmai.com

    REASONS WHY POOR FAMILIES TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN RICH FAMILIES AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF LARGE NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN POOR FAMILIES .
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    a.Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.

    b.Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    3.Early marriage and gender roles:
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5.Care for Elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    CONSEQUENCES
    1.Increased population with few resources to go round(over population)
    2.Unemployment
    3.Increased Crime Rate(because of the high rate of unemployment)
    4.For women ,there are multiple health risk of having multiple pregnancies like post pertem bleeding.

  111. Avatar Oforka Blessing Oluchi (2017/243365) says:

    Name: Oforka Blessing Oluchi
    Reg No: 2017/243365
    Email: blesscolls@gmail.com
    Answer:

    Reasons the Poor have More Children than the Rich and the Attendant Consequences
    The economic theory of fertility assumes that the household demand for children is determined by family preferences for a certain number of surviving (usually male) children, by the price or “opportunity cost” of rearing these children, and by levels of family income.

    Children in poor economies are seen partly as economic investment goods in that there is an expected return in the form of both child labour and the provision of financial support for the parents in their old age.
    In developing countries child mortality rates are high as parents may have more children than they actually desire in the expectation that some will not survive. In Burkina Faso 8.5% of the children dies before their fifth birthday in comparison to a developed country like Australia, where there is 0.4% of child mortality rate.

    The governments in some developing countries do not provide pension or social security benefits for the elderly. So parents depend on their children to care for them in their old age and provide them with financial support. In India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, housing and healthcare for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    With more than 70% of the world’s population living in rural areas, most families depend on intensive agriculture to survive and because of this, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families. Parents depend on their children for the extra labour needed for harvest.

    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. For example, in Burkina Faso, which is one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the population can competently read and write. Here, the average number of children a woman has is between five to six. In countries like this, a woman’s role is to be a wife and bear children. This may often mean she gets married early and does not use any method of contraception and starts having children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later and have fewer children.

    Reverend Thomas Malthus in his “Essay on the Principle of Population” (1798) put forward a theory of the relationship between population growth and economic development. He theorized that population grew in a geometric progression and food production increases in an arithmetic progression. He argued that because there will be a higher population than the availability of food, many people will die from the shortage of food. He in his essay theorized that the correction for this would take place in the form of positive or natural checks and preventive checks.

    Malthus encouraged the poor to marry late and have fewer children, if any at all. The way to encourage the poor to adopt this solution would be to eliminate all types of aid, this would eliminate poverty and dismantle the poverty trap in the long run.

  112. Avatar Omeke Anslem Francisco says:

    Omeke Anslem Francisco
    2017/249564
    assurance081@gmail.com
    Eco 362

    According to the official U.S. measure of poverty, in 1995 the child poverty rate in this country was nearly 21%, compared with an adult poverty rate of 11%. This research explores why, according to the official measure, there are so many poor children. Working from the premise that children are poor because they live with poor adults, the reasons for adult poverty are reviewed. Both economic forces and demographic trends have contributed to growing inequality of earnings among workers. That inequality coupled with stagnating real earnings has increased poverty. Some of its reasons are (high birth rate among the poor);

    1. Patriarchal values; having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.

    2. High child mortality rates; Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.

    3. Religious beliefs; In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    4. Misconceptions about family planning; In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    5. Social reputation; In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.

    The positive effect of the high number of children born by the poor if well managed and developed is increased human capital which would lead to increase in productivity of the economy.

    The negative effect of the high number of children born by the poor leads to a growing lower standard of living, declining trend of agricultural development: per capita availability of land for cultivation declined from 1.1 acre in 1911 to 0.6 acre in 1971 in our country which makes the size of holdings very small, creates the Problem of Unemployment, leads to a vicious Circle in poverty and reduces the rate of capital formation.

  113. Avatar OKEKE NANCY OGADIMMA says:

    NAME:OKEKE OGADIMMA NANCY
    REG NO:2017/249557
    DEPARTMENT:ECONOMICS
    EMAIL:ogadimmanancy12@gmail.com

    WHY DOES THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    There are many reasons why the poor have more children than the rich.
    One of the reasons is that for poor families, more kids mean more working bodies for the family in the future that can bring home money and food to be shared with as a whole.
    Also, they believe that more kids means better opportunity that one will become successful enough to bring the family large amounts of income.
    Children are often the only sense of purpose and fulfillment if you don’t have much else going on in your life ,with having dead end jobs, no prospects, living in the middle of nowhere with nothing to pass the time but Television. Kids might start to sound pretty tempting ,as a cure for boredom if nothing else.
    Another reason is that higher income earners may have higher projected future liabilities for their child, that high income individual may be thinking about college, post graduate work, private schooling and they may be thinking about putting money aside for their child. The present value of those future liabilities may be added to the direct cost for having a child. They believe that having more kids will give them more chances of getting out of poverty but it is not the same with a poor person. A poor person in general has no control over their life, including family planning. This is because it’s hard to think of the future when daily life is a struggle.
    Another reason is that for poor people, sex and children is one of the few source of joy they have and children are the hope for a better future and social status. And most times, the women’s worth is determined by how many kids they have especially sons.
    Another reason is low or no girl child education. Most girls living in the rural area have no reasonable life script for them. The common life script for them is passing through high school and get married at 18 yrs of age and start popping babies. Also, most times, it‘s because of lack of hope. They have no hope of ever leaving the village, no hope of going to higher institutions, no hope of getting a better job. Having kids feels like the one thing they can accomplish or the one thing they can brag about in their life. In other words, women with little career prospects don’t have any other goals in life other than being a mother.
    Finally, the poor people believe that having more kids means having someone that will take care of you when you are too old to work. It is like a retirement policy, the more you kids you have, the more kids that will take care of you as you get old.
    In conclusion, flipping the question around, all things being equal, people with more kids generally end up poorer than those with fewer kids.

  114. Ogumba Joy Chidinma
    2017/242028
    Education Economics

    ANSWER
    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    Economists refer to goods that you purchase more of when your income increases as “normal” goods and those that you purchase less of as “inferior” goods. For example, steak dinners are likely to be a normal good while mac and cheese is likely to be an inferior good.

    Before 1800, just about everybody was poor. You had royalty, you had these huge landowners, but they were a tiny, tiny minority and just about everyone lived in poverty. And everyone lived very much wedded to their land. This was the entire history of humanity. There were some huge changes, of course: agriculture. What happened was that mostly people were hunters and gatherers before agriculture. And then, when agriculture started, food production was then brought to people rather than vice versa. People didn’t go out looking for food. There were places where they knew that a steady supply of food would be created.

    But wealth was tied to land, and those who controlled land, controlled much of the world’s wealth. And the difficulty was in shipping or moving anything: things, ideas, people. It was very difficult to move anything, so there wasn’t very much trade. And so, the cost of moving things really mattered and shaped the way societies were formed.

    This triggered most families into giving birth to more children as this does not only improve their trade but also showed their strength. Then the level of education was still low and there was no much dependence on education so the parents were not concerned about education but rather that the children become successful farmers and get married, start up their family and multiply their produce.

    Casual observation of data on fertility rates would suggest that having children is an inferior good. Across countries, there is a strong negative correlation between GDP and fertility, and within countries there is a strong negative correlation between household income and fertility. That is, richer countries have lower fertility rates than poor ones, and high-income families in a given country have fewer kids than low-income families do.
    But there are two major challenges to interpreting these correlations as evidence that income causes fertility to drop.

    First, individuals and families with higher incomes often have other characteristics such as higher education levels, stronger commitment to the labor force, or a preference to live in urban locations that distinguish them from the general population and might affect their fertility decisions.

    Second, the observed relationship between income and fertility might simply reflect the effect that fertility decisions have on income (rather than the other way around).

    THE ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE) OF SUCH ACTIONS
    More Children in the economy shows that the level of fertility is high and the economy is productive. This is at the International level. At the Family level, it is not advisable to have more children than your income because the task of taking care of them has increased over the years. Children suffer from malnutrition and various diseases because of lack of proper care. The more these children grow without education, good moral upbringing, they tend to form the rouges in the society and this tends to increase the crime rate.
    More Children is good but more children without enough resources is exposing the children to suffering in their early upbringing which is not ideal.

  115. Ugwu Perpertua Odinaka
    2017/244848
    everlastinggift9507@gmail.com
    ugwuodinakap.blogspot.com
    ECO 362 Assignment

    WHY DO THE POOR HAVE LARGE FAMILIES THAN THE RICH
    As a child growing up in Canada, I wanted nothing more than a big family.
    With my mom as one of 11 siblings and my dad as one of ten, observing the joyful chaos of extended family Christmases, Thanksgivings and birthdays was something I longed to experience every day. Nothing made me happier than being surrounded by my big, loving, riotous family.
    As I grew older, however, my perspective began to shift. I learned how poverty had marked my parents’ childhoods in Guyana—especially my mother’s—and it confused me. ‘So, why do poor people have more kids?’ I’d wondered.
    My mom had often gone hungry so that her siblings could eat, and during the worst of times there just wasn’t enough to go around. It was hard for me not to judge what seemed like carelessness on the part of my grandparents.
    But for them, and many parents like them across the Global South, the factors that play into family size are far more complex than a teenager like me was willing to consider.
    So—why do impoverished parents in developing countries have more kids?
    CONNECTING WITH LARGE FAMILIES FOR ANSWERS
    Working with World Vision has given me a new lens for family life around the globe. As I’ve seen, there are many reasons why a family affected by poverty may choose to have many children—and why poor countries have high birth rates—ranging from cultural values to issues of social justice. Let’s explore some of the major ones.
    1.High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    2.Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    3.Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    4.Patriarchal values. To Canadians, having fewer children—or no children—is an increasingly familiar norm and the conversation around women’s reproductive rights is one that’s top of mind. But in many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.
    5.Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    6.Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    7.Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    8.Social reputation. In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the Global South, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else. Family legacy. For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    9.Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    10.Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    World Vision’s response through family planning programs
    It’s clear that, for all the reasons an impoverished family may end up with many children, there are definite challenges that follow. With their resources spread thin, large families are less likely to afford education for their children, meaning those kids will likely grow up to have lower earning potential and be more likely to repeat the cycle of poverty.
    But usually, it’s women who bear the highest cost of having many children.
    Pregnancy takes a substantial toll on a woman’s body—whether she lives in Canada or anywhere else—but the risks are more pronounced in developing countries, where access to quality health care isn’t a foregone conclusion.
    When a woman lives in difficult conditions, without a varied diet or access to prenatal vitamins, back-to-back pregnancies leave her especially vulnerable. Her nutritional stores, especially iron and calcium, are likely to become depleted and she will be less equipped to breastfeed her baby, meaning the child’s long-term health may be compromised as well.
    The health risks are even more extreme for teenage mothers, who are more likely to become malnourished during pregnancy—their bodies are still growing, even as they sustain the child growing within them. With pelvises not fully developed, girls face higher chances of complications in delivery.
    Healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy
    Educating women and teens about the importance of family planning and methods of contraception could prevent as many as one in three maternal deaths and improve the survival rate of children. For this reason and others, World Vision incorporates family planning into our programs in the communities where we work, where it’s appropriate, encouraging healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy.
    Partnering with faith leaders
    Family planning happens at the household level. Still, would-be parents are influenced by their community’s norms and values—which are often intrinsically linked to its religious beliefs. By equipping faith leaders with facts about the benefits of healthy timing and spacing of pregnancy, and contextualizing those principles within scriptures and social teaching, clergy are equipped to use their platforms to positively influence the health of their congregations.
    Small group coaching
    World Vision works with married couples in small discussion groups, where they learn about the benefits of birth spacing and the importance of gender equality in decision-making. It’s a great place to ask questions in a non-threatening atmosphere. At the end of the sessions, couples who decide they would like to implement family planning measures in their own homes are referred to health centres for more support and counselling.
    Educating men
    Men play a crucial role in birth spacing—particularly in traditional, patriarchal cultures. World Vision runs workshops where fathers are coached in gender equality, sharing childcare responsibilities and upholding the health of their partners and children as they make family planning decisions together.
    Working with youth
    World Vision empowers young people with information, helping them make life choices that will set them up well for the future.
    Strengthening health care systems
    World Vision works in communities to support health systems that are already in place. This includes training health workers to provide counselling in family planning and birth spacing, and ensuring facilities have the equipment and supplies they need to provide women and girls with proper care before, during and after pregnancy.
    Source: My world Vision by Kimberly Rupnarain
    CONSEQUENCES OF THE POOR HAVING MORE CHILDREN
    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    1.Family Problems: The various kinds of family problems thus happen more commonly in poor families than in wealthier families. Compounding this situation, when these problems occur, poor families have fewer resources than wealthier families to deal with these problems.
    Health, Illness, and Medical Care: The poor are also more likely to have many kinds of health problems, including infant mortality, earlier adulthood mortality, and mental illness, and they are also more likely to receive inadequate medical care. Poor children are more likely to have inadequate nutrition and, partly for this reason, to suffer health, behavioral, and cognitive problems.
    2.Education: Poor children typically go to rundown schools with inadequate facilities where they receive inadequate schooling. They are much less likely than wealthier children to graduate from high school or to go to college. Their lack of education in turn restricts them and their own children to poverty, once again helping to ensure a vicious cycle of continuing poverty across generations. A
    3.Housing and Homelessness: The poor are, not surprisingly, more likely to be homeless than the nonpoor but also more likely to live in dilapidated housing and unable to buy their own homes. Many poor families spend more than half their income on rent, and they tend to live in poor neighborhoods that lack job opportunities, good schools, and other features of modern life that wealthier people take for granted.
    4.Crime and Victimization: Poor (and near poor) people account for the bulk of our street crime (homicide, robbery, burglary, etc.), and they also account for the bulk of victims of street crime. The deep frustration and stress of living in poverty and the fact that many poor people live in high-crime neighborhoods. In such neighborhoods, children are more likely to grow up under the influence of older peers who are already in gangs or otherwise committing crime and people of any age are more likely to become crime victims.
    POSITIVE COSEQUENCES
    1.Having children regardless of the number is always a joy to the family.
    2.It provides more labour to the family.
    3.Large family makes household chores easier.
    4.In the olden days, large family brings award or chieftaincy titles to family.
    5.Having more children gives elders hope of those that will take care of them in their old age.

    • Avatar Ogbodo peace says:

      Ogbodo peace chinenyenwa
      2017/249543
      nenyepeace2010@gmail.com
      Peacenenye.blogspot.com
      NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: The poor give birth to many children in other to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them and also they believe that when the number of children increase, the production of goods and services have also increased.
      RELIGION: In some religion, they see contraception as a sin that is, they are against it and because contraception is against their believe they will deviate from it thereby making them not to protect themselves. When they don’t engage in contraception which would have prevented them from having many babies therefore this will lead them into having more babies more than they panned for.
      CHILD MORTALITY RATE: In this situation the poor parents are afraid of loosing all their children to misfortunes. In some places they would say that “one who has only one child have no child”. Therefore, for the fear of being childless the would prefer to bear more children to avoid unwanted stories.
      CULTURE: Some cultures are strict when it comes to child bearing. For instance, in some culture that gives title to elders, some elders may be denied that opportunity because they don’t have many children, which implies that they would marry many wifes so as to have many children.
      These choice can be either positive or negative. Positively, the farm work will not be a burden on them, also they believe that they will stand to gain more when they are old. Negatively, they might not be able to train all their children in school and also feeding might be difficult for the family.

  116. Avatar Okoronkwo Emmanuel Ositadinma. (Economics) (2017/242433) says:

    THE WORLD BANK AND LENDING PROGRAM

    The objective of the study is to understand how the world works and their necessary lending procedures.
    Firstly, what is the meaning of World Bank:
    The World Bank is an international organization that indulge in the activity of providing financial assistance, advice and research to developing nations to ensure their economic development. The bank majorly acts as a body the seeks to fight poverty by rendering developmental assistance to both middle and low income countries.
    Origin of the World Bank: The world Bank was initiated in 1944 at the UN Monetary and Financial Conference (also known as the Bretton Woods Conference), with the aim of establishing a new, Post-World War II international economic system. But the World officially began operations in June 1946, its headquarter is in Washington, D.C.
    The world Bank establishes as the international Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), in this contemporary era the IBRD grants loans and technical assistance to developing countries and less developed countries. Today’s IBRD is only a part of the World Bank. Another different aim of World Bank is the International Development Association (IDA) which evolved in 1960 to render loans and grants to the poorest countries.
    Obtaining loan from World Bank is not meant for advance countries or private individuals but it’s meant for creditworthy government of developing or underdeveloped countries. Hence, the poorer a country is the more it favours them receiving long from world Bank.
    Some major objective of world Bank:
    To facilitate the advancement and reconstruction of member countries by ameliorating the investment of for productive purposes. Which may include renovation of economics disrupted war and also reconversion of productive in the direction of peaceful needs.
    Enhancing the improvement of productive resources and facilities in underdeveloped countries and developing countries.
    To improve long term balanced growth of international trade and maintaining equilibrium in the balance of payments of member countries via encouraging long term international investment in order to develop productive resources of members and hence increasing the standard of living, productivity and labour conditions.
    Encourages private foreign investment via guarantees, taking part in loans and other investment made by private investors.
    Supplement private foreign investment by granting direct loans from its own capital fund on affordable terms and conditions for productive purposes.

    World Bank lending procedure:

    The world bank grant loan to it member using the following ways:
    The world Bank can grant loan to its members that’s in need from its own funds raised from capital contribution its members to the extent of 20% the annual subscribed capital.
    Loans out of Borrowed: world bank initiated certain conditions for advancement of loan, either indirectly or directly, which are to be fulfilled.
    Loans via Bank’s Guarantee: world Bank encourages the private investors to lend their funds to another country by ensuring the repayment of such loan and its interest.
    World bank conditions for loan advancement:

    These conditions as stated (incorporated) in the Article III of the Articles of Agreements are as follow:

    World Bank grants (advances) loan to its member country’s government and also satisfies itself about the repaying strength of the borrowing of its member country.
    The competent committee of the Bank reports fovourably on the project.
    The Bank is assured on the issue that the borrower is almost unable to obtain the loan otherwise from reasonable terms.
    The bank looks into the possibility of the project for which the loan is sought by the member nation.
    World Bank should ensure that the interest rate and other charges are rational and along with it should ensure that such rate, charges and the schedules of repayment are quite appropriate to the project.
    The world may ensure a loan made by other investors and accordingly the bank must receive good compensation for such risk bearded by it.

    The world Bank should also insist upon a guarantee from the government of the country to which the loan is given or extended by the bank.
    Also the World bank ensures the following conditions are mate while advancing a loan:

    The world bank can grant loan to private bodies or institutions provided such loan is guaranteed by either the government or the central bank of that country. This is because the world bank majorly deals with the central bank or the government of the member country.
    The world bank normally deposits the amount of loan to the central bank of the country in favour of the borrowing institution or body.
    The bank establishes and maintains the right to determine the amount of loan and the necessities for its guarantee.
    The country the loan is granted is given a free option to spend the proceed of the loan on importing goods from any member country, but the bank does not impose compulsion on its members.
    The member country that wants loan has to spend the proceed on the loan of on specific project for which the loan is sanctioned by the Bank.
    The bank is not meant to advance that amount of loan which is more than the aggregate of its subscribed capital and reserves.
    The member country to which the loan is granted has to repay the loan to the world Bank either in terms of gold or in the currency in which the loan was granted.

    World Bank assistance strategies for highly indebted middle income countries:

    The world Bank seeks to assist and promote the advancement of middle income countries in indebtedness using the following strategies to restore growth to a level that will reduce the debt ratio of these middle income countries and also allow a gradual increase in per capita consumption along with renewed attack on poverty. The strategies include:
    Raising lending for structural and sectoral adjustment.
    Intensifying policy dialogue with member governments on introduction of necessary structural changes and agreement on required policy reforms.
    To advance effort for alternation of poverty.
    To ameliorate investment on rehabilitation and restructuring of projects, many existing enterprises and investment programmes along with expansion of its productive capacities.
    Raising and ensuring the assistance for mobilizing financial support from commercial and official lenders.

  117. I believe the poor have more children than the rich because, the rich who most times are more educated, are more exposed to family planning than the poor and they understand the different methods of indulging in sexual acts without having children, the rich also understands and believes in quality of children rather than quantity- having fewer children, means you can give them the best of everything; the best education, the best living standards, the best human capital development etc

    Also, the poor believes in quantity of children because most jobs they engage in are labour intensive and they require more hands, for example farming , so they tend to have more children.

    Lastly, the poor most times believe that the higher the number of children, the higher the opportunities of having a redeemer that can lift them out of poverty.

    The negative consequence of having much children is Overpopulation, if you are in a less developed country like Nigeria , that has been termed the poverty capital of the world. The increasing number of population will not match with the resources and this will lead to a decrease in the standard of living of the general population.

    The positive consequence is an increase in labour force if you are in a country with under population like Germany.

    In Conclusion:
    I advise all citizens who plan on having children to do a forecast on their wealth and wealth increase and also do a forecast on their country’s wealth and wealth increase, before deciding the number of children to have.

  118. Avatar Nweke Ngozi Veronica 2017/242946 says:

    Why poor families have more children
    Poor people have more reasons for so many reasons, some it may include ignorance. They are ignorant of the value of education, cost of taking care of the large family. Most people don’t have work aside agricultural work. Poor families are either at the farm or at home. This implies they have more time in their hands for leisure, hence the large family.
    Some poor people have more children due to need for more labour at the farms. Because the cost of employing more is high and it will be cheaper to have your family work for them without cost. This extra hands help increase the farm output.
    Poor people desire to have more children because they want them to take care of them in their old age. Unlike in the developed Western world where himey is provided for older citizens by the country, here in Africa there is no provision for that. So parents depend on their children to take care of them in their old age.
    In rural regions of Africa where illiteracy is dominates, parents are to exposed to family planning of any kind. This results in them having more children that they can take care of.

  119. Avatar Okoronkwo Uchechukwu David says:

    NAME; Okoronkwo Uchechukwu David
    REG NO; 2017/241455
    DEPARTMENT; Economics major
    EMAIL; uchechukwu.okoronkwo.241455@unn.edu.ng

    Some of the reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich are;
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the Less developed countries are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive pass some certain age and they are left with little or no choice than to have multiple offsprings.
    2. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In less developed countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can/will limit her life choices and only helps perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    3.Care for elders
    In less developed countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. so therefore, couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    4.Need for extra labour
    More than 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    5. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    6. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In some african societies, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception products are limited because of religious institutions and causes short supply for them.
    in summary/conclusion, Poorer children and teens are at great risk for several negative outcomes such as poor academic achievement, school dropout, abuse and neglect, behavioral and socioemotional problems, physical health problems, and developmental delays and these leads to deepening poverty, which is inextricably linked with rising levels of homelessness and food insecurity/hunger for many
    Poverty which is a result for multiple birth has been found as a major barrier, which has blocked the way of parents to perform their parental duties with full attention. Furthermore, economic deprivation leads to depression and stress in the parents and ultimately dysfunction of the family, and thus, parents stress directly affects the children as well.

  120. Ogumba Joy Chidinma
    2017/242028
    Education and Economics
    exclusivejoy1.blogspot.com

    ANSWER
    REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH
    Economists refer to goods that you purchase more of when your income increases as “normal” goods and those that you purchase less of as “inferior” goods. For example, steak dinners are likely to be a normal good while mac and cheese is likely to be an inferior good.

    Before 1800, just about everybody was poor. You had royalty, you had these huge landowners, but they were a tiny, tiny minority and just about everyone lived in poverty. And everyone lived very much wedded to their land. This was the entire history of humanity. There were some huge changes, of course: agriculture. What happened was that mostly people were hunters and gatherers before agriculture. And then, when agriculture started, food production was then brought to people rather than vice versa. People didn’t go out looking for food. There were places where they knew that a steady supply of food would be created.

    But wealth was tied to land, and those who controlled land, controlled much of the world’s wealth. And the difficulty was in shipping or moving anything: things, ideas, people. It was very difficult to move anything, so there wasn’t very much trade. And so, the cost of moving things really mattered and shaped the way societies were formed.

    This triggered most families into giving birth to more children as this does not only improve their trade but also showed their strength. Then the level of education was still low and there was no much dependence on education so the parents were not concerned about education but rather that the children become successful farmers and get married, start up their family and multiply their produce.

    Casual observation of data on fertility rates would suggest that having children is an inferior good. Across countries, there is a strong negative correlation between GDP and fertility, and within countries there is a strong negative correlation between household income and fertility. That is, richer countries have lower fertility rates than poor ones, and high-income families in a given country have fewer kids than low-income families do.
    But there are two major challenges to interpreting these correlations as evidence that income causes fertility to drop.

    First, individuals and families with higher incomes often have other characteristics such as higher education levels, stronger commitment to the labor force, or a preference to live in urban locations that distinguish them from the general population and might affect their fertility decisions.

    Second, the observed relationship between income and fertility might simply reflect the effect that fertility decisions have on income (rather than the other way around).

    THE ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE) OF SUCH ACTIONS
    More Children in the economy shows that the level of fertility is high and the economy is productive. This is at the International level. At the Family level, it is not advisable to have more children than your income because the task of taking care of them has increased over the years. Children suffer from malnutrition and various diseases because of lack of proper care. The more these children grow without education, good moral upbringing, they tend to form the rouges in the society and this tends to increase the crime rate.
    More Children is good but more children without enough resources is exposing the children to suffering in their early upbringing which is not ideal.

  121. Avatar Agholor Sozorchukwu Jason says:

    Name: Agholor Sozorchukwu Jason
    Reg No: 2017/243874
    Dept: Economics
    Email: jasonagholor7@gmail.com

    Why the Poor have more children than the Rich

    It has been observed that the poor or low income earners tends to have more children than the rich or high income earners. The reason for this is in no way linked to fecundity, as the poor do not necessarily have a higher fecundity than the rich.
    The reason for this phenomenon could be the fact that in many developing countries, most poor people are heavily concentrated in rural areas, which is dominated by the existence of subsistence agriculture. Since agriculture here is labour-intensive, couples believe the more they have children, the better. It is believed the strength of a family is in the number of children they have as these can grow and assist in farming activities that will produce greater yield.
    Another reason is that those who are wealthy or rich tends to place emphasis on quality over quantity, while the poor places emphasis on quantity over quality. The rich believe that when they have fewer children they can give them the best education, care and attention while low income earners do not consider this.
    Also, in many developing countries, where the poor do not have social safety plan before old age, children are seen as a savings product, an insurance plan and a lottery ticket all rolled into one tiny, convenient bundle.
    These reasons are just a few that can be used to explain the phenomena.

    Consequences in most countries

    From the above, it can be seen that these decisions by low-income families have economic considerations, and the consequence is that family planning programs will not have the the desired effect in most cases.
    Also when the poor gives birth to many children who most times do not have proper education, chances are they too will grow up to have many children and this can lead to overpopulation which can result in increase in crime rate, prostitution and other social vices which is a sign of underdevelopment.
    If i am to be positive, i believe the large number of children born by the poor, if properly harnessed and utilized by governments, can be a strong driver of economic growth and development as they can be valuable human capital.

  122. Avatar Okoye Obinna says:

    NAME: OKOYE OBINNA CHIDIEBERE
    REG NO: 2014/191864
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    The poor tend to give birth to more children due to the following reasons.

    1. NO FAMILY PLANNING – most poor people have limited knowledge about what contraceptives are, and those with the knowledge will not have the financial power to go through with it. So they just keep on reproducing.

    2. RELIGION: When the literacy of a population is low, their belief in a supernatural being is very high. According to those beliefs, it is a sin that a couple use contraceptive methods because it qualifies as “abortion or murder”. Most religious institutions always talk about how children are a blessing from God, and in a poor population where people aren’t getting blessed financially, they resort to the next available blessing; which is giving birth to more children.

    3. BLACK TAX: The Nigeria culture, the poor believe that as the children they give birth to grow up, they carry the responsibility of taking care of their siblings and parents in their old age and relieve them of some financial burdens. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of future security for parents with the hope that one of them may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    4. CHILD LABOUR: Since the major livelihood of poor parents is labour-intensive agriculture they have preference for many children so that the extra hands will be used on the farms and they pay little or nothing for this extra labour. In cases where there are no farms, most of the children go out to hawk and bring the proceeds back home.

    5. ENTERTAINMENT: There is limited form of entertainment for a poor individual, and sex is the one that is easily attainable. The only source of relaxation and pleasure is having sex and more sex, and in the process of engaging in this one and only form of entertainment, they tend to produce more offspring.

  123. Avatar Okoye Obinna says:

    NAME: OKOYE OBINNA CHIDIEBERE
    REG NO: 2014/191864
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    The poor tend to give birth to more children due to the following reasons.

    1. NO FAMILY PLANNING – most poor people have limited knowledge about what contraceptives are, and those with the knowledge will not have the financial power to go through with it. So they just keep on reproducing.

    2. RELIGION: When the literacy of a population is low, their belief in a supernatural being is very high. According to those beliefs, it is a sin that a couple use contraceptive methods because it qualifies as “abortion or murder”. Most religious institutions always talk about how children are a blessing from God, and in a poor population where people aren’t getting blessed financially, they resort to the next available blessing; which is giving birth to more children.

    3. BLACK TAX: The Nigeria culture, the poor believe that as the children they give birth to grow up, they carry the responsibility of taking care of their siblings and parents in their old age and relieve them of some financial burdens. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of future security for parents with the hope that one of them may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    4. CHILD LABOUR: Since the major livelihood of poor parents is labour-intensive agriculture they have preference for many children so that the extra hands will be used on the farms and they pay little or nothing for this extra labour. In cases where there are no farms, most of the children go out to hawk and bring the proceeds back home.

    5. ENTERTAINMENT: There is limited form of entertainment for a poor individual, and sex is the one that is easily attainable. The only source of relaxation and pleasure is having sex and more sex, and in the process of engaging in this one and only form of entertainment, they tend to produce more offspring

  124. Avatar Oko nkem frankline says:

    Name: Oko nkem Frankline
    RegNo: 2017/ 243813
    Dept: : Economics

    ANSWER
    The poor has the tendency to make more babies because it is like an achievement of sought – the way the rich looks at their assets. The more the children, the probability of at least one of them breaking out from the vicious cycle of poverty is a major consideration. It is assumed that when this occurs, the chances of the success of a member of the family having a positive multiplier effect on others should be the case. Considerations are basically not opined on statistics or the prevailing economic reality. The rule of thumb and the populist generalisation amongst their ranks is what major decisions are based, and sadly so.

    Religion, belief systems (culture and traditions) and education to a larger extent helps determine and influence the number of children by the poor. The first two aforementioned; have a major upward influence in this regard (children) on the poor. Only education stands out, in that, it not only guarantees freedom from irrational decision making, but may also break up the shackles of poverty itself – when one is really focused, if I may add. There is no telling the resolve of the informed and determined mind, all things being equal.

    For wealthy people, the reverse is almost the case. But for some reasons, especially religious and cultural ones. The rich are also guilty of having more children. It doesn’t matter how highly educated they are, the intervening influences of culture and religion supersedes that of education. However, the propensity for the rich to breed more children can be summed up as negligible vis-a-vis the poor.

    The positive effect of the high number of children born by the poor if well managed and developed is increased human capital which would lead to increase in productivity of the economy.
    The negative effect for the high number of children born by the poor is lack of formal jobs due to the unemployability of the people from poor parents who did not have access to education. It would also lead to increase in crime

  125. Avatar Nnadi Chinwe Monica says:

    Nnadi Chinwe Monica
    2017/241532
    Education Economics
    chinwe.nnadi.241532@unn.edu.ng
    chiebest.blogspot.com
    Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

  126. Avatar Ezeorah chukwuebuka Emmanuel says:

    Ezeorah chukwuebuka Emmanuel
    2017/249508
    Economics

    The reasons why the poor have more children than the rich
    1: Early marriages- since the poor cannot feed their daughters well, they prefer to give them for marriage early and the earlier they get married the more child bearing years they have
    2: Preference for a boy child- people often keep producing children until a boy is born and sometimes even when they have one, they will like to have another
    3: lack of women empowerment- women in poorer sections of the society are mostly uneducated and young while they married off and are not taught and spoken to much about contraception and stuff like that
    4: lack of awareness- many poor people don’t know much about birth control measures and even when they are aware, many don’t want to spend on them
    5: illiteracy- most poor people are not educated enough and are not able to take a wise decision looking at pros and cons of producing an extra child

  127. Avatar Nwobodo Christian Chukwuemeka says:

    Nwobodo Christian Chukwuemeka
    2017/241437
    christian.nwobodo.241437@unn.edu.ng

    Poverty isn’t just a state of lack of material resources but it affects the state of reasoning of the victim, thus many poor people, see having more children as an asset. this is due to the following reasons.

    Poor people believe that more children will necessarily translate to a better opportunity to be nursed adequately in their old age. Thus they commit to giving birth to as much as 10, so their reward ratio is higher.
    On the other hand, some persons give birth to many children because their exposure doesn’t make them seem any danger in doing so. in other words, they are ignorant of the cost of raising a large family.

    Some persons are victims of religions that promote large family size as important for their kingdom advancement. They believe more children will help them dominate an area easily.
    Others just lack the basics of adequate family planning or they are not opportune to have access to a cheap or free family planning counselor.

    On its advantage, we see a large family Ceterius Paribus will have more labour force which when adequately employed will bring in more resources to the family. While this is not true for all the cases, many cases turn out this way.

    On the negative side, overpopulation is putting more pressure on the earth we live in and if poor people continue to give birth to more children, soon they may not be land enough to contain the inhabitants of the earth.

  128. NAME: IKE GODSWILL CHINED
    REG NO: 2017/249515
    DEPT: ECONOMICS
    ANSWER:
    Poor families have high birthrate as against the rich due to the reasons below;

    1- More work-force needed and the income a child could bring home: Some poor couples may intentionally give birth to more children in order to assist in farm related jobs. In cases were a familt have more large farms instead of employing labour, such family will resort to having more children which will help in working at the various farms. Thus reducing the opportunity cost of employing labour. Also poor families give birth to more children add a result of the income they might bring home by doing menial jobs or hawking food items. Although this income is relatively low, but collectively would solve little financial problems at home.

    2- Preference for a particular Gender: The preference for a particular gender by a couple usually result to high birthrate. In a contemporary African home, a couple in need of a male child have higher tendencies of giving birth to more children until a male child is born. Some couples do not actually stop at having just one male child after giving birth to series of female children but might go ahead to having more. Thereby leading to a higher number of children. In the aspect of the other gender, some families might want more female children because of the income they will receive as prices paid for giving their female children out for marriage.

    3- Illiteracy: Generally, oleaster people do not have much education. Therefore poor families or parents who are uneducated tend to have high birth rate as a result of the lack of the idea of using contraceptives when not in of children, they go further having unprotected sex and thus increasing the birth rate in the family.

    4- No Restrictions or Laws guiding birthrate: The poor families are open to having as many children as they can as a result of the fact that there are no laws guiding birthrate. Using Nigeria as a case study as against China, there are no laws guiding birthrate in Nigeria which causes poor families to have more children compared to China, whose one-child policy prevented all families from having more than one child. Although this policy had been amended in the early 2016 as all families is now allowed to have upto two children. Therefore the lack of such laws causes poor families to have high birthrate.

    5- Uncontrolled urge for sex: In most poor families, when either of the spouse or both cannot control their urge for sex there’s a higher tendency of high birthrate especially when either or both of them oak work to do. As a result of lack of job mostly, they use sex to enjoy their leisure time and also uses it to celebrate memorable events such as birthdays, marriage anniversaries, Valentine e.t.c.

    6- Higher tendency of mortality rate: For the fact that child death or mortality rate in developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the actual reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. For instance, in Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 percent of children usually die before reaching their 5th birthday. As a result of this scenario, poor parents found in such situation, will want to have many children based the ideology that not all would die before their 5th birthday.

    7- Religious and Cultural Norms: Religion such as Islam permit a man to marry upto four(4) women. A poor man who is not occupied or have less work to do tends to marry such amount of women. Thus, such a polygamous family will have a high birthrate as all the women will want to have equal amount of children. This will lead to competition among them as each will want to have more children. Some cultures also encourage high fertility rate, as more children are being given birth to, so that their livestocks can properly be taken care of.
    Consequences of High birth rate (negative and positive)

    One of the negative consequence is quantity-quality trade offs: as poor people tend to have more children than the rich people, their behaviour is either irrational or a sign that they cannot control their fertility.

    One positve effect of this is that there’s better division of labour as more children are available to share the large work available, in which a single child will be unable to do or will take more time for few individuals to do. But having more children to do the work will save time and opportunity cost of employing labour would be reduced or prevented.

    • Avatar Okaome Esther Chioma says:

      Okaome Esther Chioma.
      Economics
      Reg number: 2017/249554
      estherokaome@gmail.com
      Good day Mr President and honorable members of the house. It is undoubtedly said that the relationship between poverty and fertility is a direct relationship. This means that in most cases especially in underdeveloped or third world countries, the number of children are high compared to a developed country. Logically, when there is a higher income it is expected that there will be more children. This is due to the fact that it will be easier to take care of them financially, however, in third world countries the absence of many collar jobs for citizens give enough time for their children. This means that because of excessive time on their hands to raise children, citizens tend to give birth to more children. Also, it is evident that children can be put to good use especially during work. In underdeveloped countries there tend to be more land to farm because of lack of industries and blue collar jobs. This means that in order to increase the standard of living helping hands will be needed. That is why they tend to give birth to more children so that they will have more people to work on their farms.
      In some countries, incentives and monthly dues are given to families who have a quite a large number of people. Example is Extonia. In Extonia giving birth to a child attracts $1000 grant. So the more children they have the higher the grants. These incentives can make people give birth to more children thereby increasing the birth rate, fertility rate and dependency ratio. Another example is China. In the late 1960’s the government of China ruled by Mao Zedong initiated the cultural revolution and suggested that couples could give birth to as many children as possible. In the long run labor increased rapidly and was distributed among various sectors thereby resulting to a rapid increase in their economy.
      Due to a rapid increase in the betterment of health and drugs contraceptives have evolved. However due to the poor development of some countries citizens cannot afford it. This means that there are no means to avoid pregnancy apart from abstinence. Therefore many people in underdeveloped countries tend to give birth uncontrollably. In countries like Honduras and Japan, contraceptives are banned. This also means that there are no available means to avoid pregnancy. In countries like Japan and Germany, children are basically needed by adults for companionship. This is because there are more older people than young ones. Therefore, the need for companionship results in the increase of birth rate.
      It is relatively true that division of labor is an incentive to increase in output and better working conditions. Since many African countries specialize in mainly the agricultural sector, division of labor is crucial and for division of labor to be effective surplus labor must be available. This is also a reason why citizens give birth to more children.

  129. Avatar Irueforum joseph emeka says:

    Name: Irueforum joseph emeka
    Reg: 2017/249519
    Email: Josephirueforum@gmail.com

    In most developing countries people in the poor strata tends to have more children because of the following reasons:

    Extra labour for the family
    Most poor people live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, having a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Taking care of elders
    Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older.
    That is if they don’t have a reliable source of income that will keep them through.

    Lack of job opportunity
    Where there’s are no job to keep couples busy they tend to create more children
    Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.

    This reasons have many benefits to the poor and also disadvantages, because regardless of the situation the increase in child birth leads to the increase in the cost of living.
    Because all the children must eat and their basic need must be met.
    Also the cost of raising children adds to the burdens of the poor.

    The rich tends to have less children than the poor because of the following reasons;

    Less leisure time: since the rich are mostly busy with work they don’t have time to mendrobosh.

    They’re educated so they know more about family planing, they already know what they want for their family.

    They have retirement funds (Pension)
    So they don’t need to depend or have more children to help them in their old age.

  130. ISAAC BLESSING CHIYANTIRIMAM
    2017/242942
    ECONOMICS
    ECO362
    The reasons for the numerous child birth in poor families (mostly Africans) is due to ancient orientation by our forefathers who believed having lots of children especially the males would out stretch the family name which they believe should enjoy continuity. Having lots of siblings who could give you advice and direct you on the right part when the parents are no where to be found is a treasure we should trash out. Probability of these children to become independent bodies recognised and acknowledge by the society would be of the greater good of the parents. Some of these reasons are;
    1. High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries.
    2. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child.
    3. Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. And the saying that children are blessings from God which increases birth rate by poor .
    4. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    5. Lack of access to affordable reproductive health care and birth control options. At least in the US, the cuts in funding to clinics like Planned Parenthood and such mean that there are fewer of them in general, especially in poorer areas. Some of the consequences are increase in crime rate, increase in unemployment rate, high level of poverty etc.

  131. Name:Meteke Joy Orimusue
    Reg.no:2017/242430
    Department:Economics
    Website: metekejoy01.blogspot.com
    Email:joymetex2000@gmai.com

    REASONS WHY POOR FAMILIES TEND TO HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN RICH FAMILIES AND NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF LARGE NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN POOR FAMILIES .
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    a.Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.

    b.Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.
    3.Early marriage and gender roles:
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5.Care for Elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    CONSEQUENCES
    1.Increased population with few resources to go round(over population)
    2.Unemployment
    3.Increased Crime Rate(because of the high rate of unemployment)
    4.For women ,there are multiple health risk of having multiple pregnancies like post pertem bleeding.

  132. Name:Oroke charity Nnedimma
    Reg no :2017/243816
    Department:Economics
    E-mail: amieeukpaka@gmail.com
    Course code: Eco 362
    Bank, in full World Bank Group, international organization​affiliated with the United Nations (UN) and designed to finance projects that enhance the economic development of member states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the bank is the largest source of financial assistance to developing countries. It also provides technical assistance and policy advice and supervises—on behalf of international creditors—the implementation of free-market reforms. Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization, it plays a central role in overseeing economic policy and reforming public institutions in developing countries and defining the global macroeconomic agenda.
    The World Bank Group comprises five constituent institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The IBRD provides loans at market rates of interest to middle-income developing countries and creditworthy lower-income countries. The IDA, founded in 1960, provides interest-free long-term loans, technical assistance, and policy advice to low-income developing countries in areas such as health, education, and rural development. Whereas the IBRD raises most of its funds on the world’s capital markets, the IDA’s lending operations are financed through contributions from developed countries. The IFC, operating in partnership with private investors, provides loans and loan guarantees and equity financing to business undertakings in developing countries. Loan guarantees and insurance to foreign investors against loss caused by noncommercial risks in developing countries are provided by the MIGA. Finally, the ICSID, which operates independently of the IBRD, is responsible for the settlement by conciliation or arbitration of investment disputes between foreign investors and their host developing countries.
    From 1968 to 1981 the president of the World Bank was former U.S. secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara. Under his leadership the bank formulated the concept of “sustainable development,” which attempted to reconcile economic growth and environmental protection in developing countries. Another feature of the concept was its use of capital flows (in the form of development assistance and foreign investment) to developing countries as a means of narrowing the income gap between rich and poor countries. The bank has expanded its lending activities and, with its numerous research and policy divisions, has developed into a powerful and authoritative intergovernmental body.
    World Bank and IMF Debt And Policy Reform
    The debt crisis of the early 1980s—during which many developing countries were unable to service their external debt to multilateral lending institutions, because of a slowdown in the world economy, high interest rates, a decline in commodity prices, and wide fluctuations in oil prices, among other factors—played a crucial role in the evolution of World Bank operations. The bank had become increasingly involved in shaping economic and social policies in indebted developing countries. As a condition of receiving loans, borrowing countries were required to implement stringent “structural adjustment programs,” which typically included severe cuts in spending for health and education, the elimination of price controls, the liberalization of trade, the deregulation of the financial sector, and the privatization of state-run enterprises. Although intended to restore economic stability, these programs, which were applied in a large number of countries throughout the developing world, frequently resulted in increased levels of poverty, mounting unemployment, and a spiraling external debt. In the wake of the debt crisis, the World Bank focused its efforts on providing financial assistance in the form of balance-of-payments support and loans for infrastructural projects such as roads, port facilities, schools, and hospitals. Although emphasizing poverty alleviation and debt relief for the world’s least developed countries, the bank has retained its commitment to economic stabilization policies that require the implementation of austerity measures by recipient countries.
    The World Bank and the IMF played central roles in overseeing free-market reforms in eastern and central Europe after the fall of communism there in the 1980s and ’90s. The reforms, which included the creation of bankruptcy and privatization programs, were controversial because they frequently led to the closure of state-run industrial enterprises. “Exit mechanisms” to allow for the liquidation of so-called “problem enterprises” were put into place, and labour laws were modified to enable enterprises to lay off unneeded workers. The larger state enterprises often were sold to foreign investors or divided into smaller, privately owned companies. In Hungary, for example, some 17,000 businesses were liquidated and 5,000 reorganized in 1992–93, leading to a substantial increase in unemployment. The World Bank also provided reconstruction loans to countries that suffered internal conflicts or other crises (e.g., the successor republics of former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s). This financial assistance did not succeed in rehabilitating productive infrastructure, however. In several countries the macroeconomic reforms resulted in increased inflation and a marked decline in the standard of living.
    The World Bank is the world’s largest multilateral creditor institution, and as such many of the world’s poorest countries owe it large sums of money. Indeed, for dozens of the most heavily indebted poor countries, the largest part of their external debt—in some cases constituting more than 50 percent—is owed to the World Bank and the multilateral regional development banks. According to some analysts, the burden of these debts—which according to the bank’s statutes cannot be canceled or rescheduled—has perpetuated economic stagnation throughout the developing world.

  133. Avatar ONAH GEORGE CHIEDOZIE says:

    Name:ONAH GEORGE CHIEDOZIE
    Reg: 2017/241453
    Department: Economics

    It is obvious that the poor normally have more children than the rich, putting many reasons into considerations, sometimes the poor see more children as more work force, quite funny .The below explains some of the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich.
    One of the major reasons of this argument is lack of education: Elaborating this reason, girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    Religious Beliefs: In many faiths, for instance in Nigeria, most especially in the north children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    Less finance: Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    Most importantly, another heartbreaking reason is high mortality rates, Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. “According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries”. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    Finally, Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care. All these reasons have negative effects in the economy, it hinder economic growth which inturn prevents development in the economy.

  134. Name: Anthony Oluchi Precious
    Reg. No.: 2017/249486
    Department: Economics
    The reasons why the poor have more children than the rich can be attributed to the following reasons:
    (i) Difference in Mindset: There is a saying that goes thus, “poverty is a disease”. I believe this is true because there is a way poverty makes one to think. It can be noticed that Most poor people feel the normal way of life is just to be fruitful and multiply and God will take care of the rest, they don’t consider the fact that planning for the oncoming children is a very vital issue that would go a long way. But the rich, mostly, believes that one need to plan ahead for whatever he wants to go into, including reproducing.
    (ii) Underdevelopment of the Nation they find themselves in: One would agree that the number or percentage of people in underdeveloped countries like Nigeria(poor nation) that are aware of the thing called family planning is less than that of the developed countries(rich). This stands as a major reason because it can not be denied that prior to now, when Nigeria was still totally underdeveloped, and is characterized only by subsistence agricultural activities. Which would most likely include absence of the knowledge of family planning and what it entails, the then society(characterized by poverty) didn’t see any wrong or harm in giving birth to many children. Infact, it made them feel more honoured and affluent.
    (iii) Financial barrier: Most of these poor families can hardly feed, talk more of to afford expenses pertaining to birth control, but the rich can afford birth control pills and the cost of having family planning.
    The positive consequences, if at all there is any, would be very few because more children automatically means more work load and responsibility for the family, and the government.
    The negative consequences can be :
    * Overpopulation leading to increase in unemployment rate and hence, wage rate
    * Decrease in percapital income and possibilities of attaining development
    * It widens the financial gap between the poor and the rich. The poor gets poorer because they have more children to take care of with the very little income.
    * Increase in deathrate

  135. Avatar Onah Hope Nnenna says:

    Name: Onah Hope Nnenna
    Reg no: 2017/249565
    Dept: Economics
    Email: onahnnenna123@gmail. com

    In the world generally, the poor tends to give birth to more children than the rich. We tend to look at some of the reasons why it is so, and they are:
    1). Ignorance: : ignorance is a big disease that affects mainly the poor due to the fact they lack knowledge. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance—- children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the ‘United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology and sophisticated weapons, size does not count much.
    2) Poverty: Poor people have no opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population like China did, which is something we need right now, despite having different government system. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities. Couples will openly tell you ‘Condom no sweet’ and family planning is nonsense—— na God dey give pikin, children na blessing from God. Hence over-population.
    3) Death: the death rate in a country is very high and every parent hate to stay childless when death unfortunately come visiting in their family. For this reason parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky enough to survive to adulthood. It’s a pity that even in the 21st century, many women living in under-developed countries still rely on luck for safe delivery and prevention of child death due to poor health care
    4) Wealth: For the poor, children are their wealth. That is why parents give their children names like; Akunna– meaning father’s wealth, Tubolayefa— there is nothing like a child, Tubodeinyefa— nothing can be compared to a child, Tubokeyi— child is the only important thing, etc. Rarely will you hear such names in a wealthy household. On average, lower to middle class Nigerians give birth to 5 children. The rich give birth to 2 on average.
    5). Lack of education: generally, poor people are not privileged to get good education. So far they are not educated, they won’t get to know the needs to have children by checking the size of their pocket. And also, they won’t get the knowledge on how they can have a good family planning and the use of contraceptives to control birth.

    ADVANTAGES OF GIVING BIRTH TO MANY CHILDREN
    1). Giving birth to many children reduces the amount of workload in the family
    2) It is viewed that having many children helps parents in the sense that the children will care for them in future and take care of them
    3) Having many children makes the family more lively and interactive
    NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF HAVING MANY CHILDREN
    A) The children suffer it all, in the sense that they will not get a good basic education like the rich because there are too many to train and the family are unable to do that
    B) It reduces the emotional well being of children
    C) It increases psychological distress
    D) Leads to crime: when the population is much without people being engaged in something they can be earning money, then crime will increase because when people are not employed, they look for any means possible to sustain life.

  136. IJIGA CHRISTIAN ADAKOLE
    207/241255
    EDUCATION ECONOMICS

    ECO 362 ASSIGNMENT

    DISCUSS THE REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH, AND THE ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE).
    The are many reasons to why the poor have more children than the rich. Some of the reasons are;
    1. A rich man have many ways of enjoying him self due to his financial status while a poor man is limited to what he can enjoy and as such find pleasure in the wife and this will result in giving birth to more children.
    2.Limited contraception: Most women in developing Countries would like to delay or stop child bearing, but are not using contraceptive. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or religious or cultural opposition and poor quality of available services.
    3.Forced early marriage: Forced early marriage is any marriage where the persons is below 18years and hasn’t given their fill assent to be married. Therefore when a girl is married young, her childbearing years starts much earlier meaning that she is likely to have more kids.
    5.Lack of education: Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children.
    POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES
    There are many perceived economic, psychological and social benefits to having children. Firstly, the perceived economic costs are expected financial support by children in the parents’ old age and additional workers to contribute to contribution to the household production and income. Secondly, the psychological value derived from having children includes companionship, love, stimulation and the extension of family name across generations. Finally, there are many social advantages of having children such as providing parents with important community roles, making the transition to adulthood or being accepted by other family members (East- West Population Institute 1989).
    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    On the other hand, there are many economic, psychological and physical costs to having children. Economic costs include both direct costs such as those of food, clothing and education and also indirect costs such as the mother’s potential loss of income because of responsibilities of childbearing. The psychological burden consists of restrictions on parents’ freedom, loss of flexibility, a reduction in free time and an increase in worries. Finally, the physical strain faced by couples is related to work of bearing and rearing children (East-West Population Institute 1989).

  137. Avatar Okonkwo Faith Munachi says:

    Name: Okonkwo Faith Munachi
    Reg. No.: 2017/242422
    E-mail: faith.okonkwo.242422@unn.edu.ng

    Answer
    Why Do the Poor Have More Children?
    Fertility rates tend to be higher among the poor. There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why poor people have large families or give birth to more children; this is mostly evident in developing countries as their poverty levels keeps increasing. Some of these reasons include:
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    • Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children.
    • Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs in many faiths see children as enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family. Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives.
    8. Limited finances
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    Developed countries tend to have a lower fertility rate due to lifestyle choices associated with economic affluence where mortality rates are low, birth control is easily accessible and children often can become an economic drain caused by housing, education cost and other cost involved in bringing up children. The see children as inferior goods and are concerned about the quality and not quantity of the children.
    CONSEQUENCES OF MORE CHILDREN OR LARGE FAMILIES
    Low per Capita Income:
    Slow growth rate or low per capita income has been the result of high growth rate of population despite high national income in certain years.

    Burden of Unproductive Consumers:
    The number of unproductive consumers is increasing in poor countries. Unproductive consumers are those who are not employed but they do consume. They include children below the age of 15 years and old persons who are above the age of 60 years. It is not that all children and old persons are not employed. A few among them may be employed part-time or full time. It is also possible that some persons in the age group 15-59 years may not be engaged in any work. So it is difficult to estimate correctly the number of unproductive consumers (or non-working population).

    Increase in Unemployment:
    With rapid increase in population, the most daunting task in poor countries is to provide employment not only to the growing labour force every year, but also to reduce the backlog of the unemployed from the previous years.
    Low standard of Living
    The rapidly growing population has kept the standard of living of the majority at a very low level. The low quality of life is reflected in the deprivation in knowledge by illiteracy, deprivation in economic provisioning by the percentage of people lacking access to health services and safe water and the percentage of children under five who are moderately or severely underweight.

    Burden on Public Utility Services:
    Rapid increase in population puts a heavy burden on social infrastructure like health care, education, housing (both rural and urban), water supply, sanitation, power, roads, railways, etc.

    Adverse Effects on Saving, Investment and Capital Formation:
    One of the most serious effects of rapidly increasing population is on saving and investment and the rate of capital formation in the country. This high burden of dependency reduces the capacity of people to save. Such persons do not produce anything but they do consume. They are supported by their families. The majority of such families have low incomes. Such persons are a drag on the economic development of the country. They are to a great extent responsible for low rate of saving, low rate of investment and low rate of capital formation.

    Ultimately, rapid population growth as a result of too many children especially by the poor has undermined the quality of life of people. Society’s responsibility extends beyond simply ensuring the survival of the population. Society must strive to provide people with a good life–one with dignity.
    Given the highly complex nature of the population problem, efforts must be made on many fronts including:
    1) Family planning promotion.
    2) Improvements in education, health, and social conditions for high fertility populations.
    3) Enhancement of worker skills.
    4) Rapid progress in technology.
    5) Greater capital accumulation and economic reorganization.

  138. Avatar Okonkwo Faith Munachi says:

    Name: Okonkwo Faith Munachi
    Reg. No.: 2017/242422
    E-mail: faith.okonkwo.242422@unn.edu.ng

    Answer
    Why Do the Poor Have More Children?
    Fertility rates tend to be higher among the poor. There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why poor people have large families or give birth to more children; this is mostly evident in developing countries as their poverty levels keeps increasing. Some of these reasons include:
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    • Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    • Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs in many faiths see children as enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family. Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives.
    8. Limited finances
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    Developed countries tend to have a lower fertility rate due to lifestyle choices associated with economic affluence where mortality rates are low, birth control is easily accessible and children often can become an economic drain caused by housing, education cost and other cost involved in bringing up children. The see children as inferior goods and are concerned about the quality and not quantity of the children.
    CONSEQUENCES OF MORE CHILDREN OR LARGE FAMILIES
    Low per Capita Income:
    Slow growth rate or low per capita income has been the result of high growth rate of population despite high national income in certain years.

    Burden of Unproductive Consumers:
    The number of unproductive consumers is increasing in poor countries. Unproductive consumers are those who are not employed but they do consume. They include children below the age of 15 years and old persons who are above the age of 60 years. It is not that all children and old persons are not employed. A few among them may be employed part-time or full time. It is also possible that some persons in the age group 15-59 years may not be engaged in any work. So it is difficult to estimate correctly the number of unproductive consumers (or non-working population).

    Increase in Unemployment:
    With rapid increase in population, the most daunting task in poor countries is to provide employment not only to the growing labour force every year, but also to reduce the backlog of the unemployed from the previous years.
    Low standard of Living
    The rapidly growing population has kept the standard of living of the majority at a very low level. The low quality of life is reflected in the deprivation in knowledge by illiteracy, deprivation in economic provisioning by the percentage of people lacking access to health services and safe water and the percentage of children under five who are moderately or severely underweight.

    Burden on Public Utility Services:
    Rapid increase in population puts a heavy burden on social infrastructure like health care, education, housing (both rural and urban), water supply, sanitation, power, roads, railways, etc.

    Adverse Effects on Saving, Investment and Capital Formation:
    One of the most serious effects of rapidly increasing population is on saving and investment and the rate of capital formation in the country. This high burden of dependency reduces the capacity of people to save. Such persons do not produce anything but they do consume. They are supported by their families. The majority of such families have low incomes. Such persons are a drag on the economic development of the country. They are to a great extent responsible for low rate of saving, low rate of investment and low rate of capital formation.

    Ultimately, rapid population growth as a result of too many children especially by the poor has undermined the quality of life of people. Society’s responsibility extends beyond simply ensuring the survival of the population. Society must strive to provide people with a good life–one with dignity.
    Given the highly complex nature of the population problem, efforts must be made on many fronts including:
    1) Family planning promotion.
    2) Improvements in education, health, and social conditions for high fertility populations.
    3) Enhancement of worker skills.
    4) Rapid progress in technology.
    5) Greater capital accumulation and economic reorganization.

  139. Name: Okeke Mercy Adaugo
    Reg. No.: 2017/241449
    Department: Economics
    Reasons why the poor have more children than the rich
    The main reasons why the poor have more children than the rich can be attributed to the following reasons:
    (I) Lack of Formal Education: Education is known as the bedrock for the knowledge of family planning, contraceptives,etc. But since poor people can hardly afford good education, they end up not knowing about these and hence, gives birth uncontrollably.
    (ii) Difference in Minset: Most times, the poor has a mindset that giving birth to many children increases or earns them respect and as long as they can feed their children, they are good to go. While on the other hand, the rich does not only think of being able to feed their children but also how to provide them with the right nutrition, quality education& healthcare service, good environment, secured future,etc.
    (III) Time availability: Most poor parents spend time at home, with their partners, which gives room for uncontrollable sexual meeting that leads to uncontrollable possibilities of pregnancy, while most rich parents are hardly at home or usually comes back late from work. Also a situation where both the man and his wife are working, they hardly have time for each other.
    In conclusion, the positive impact this brings on the society is just an increase in cheap labour supply while the negative effects it bring are stangnancy of the nation, over dependence on the government and other nations, unnecessary population growth with less or no development.

  140. ANENE VICTORIA CHIOMA
    2017/242435
    ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT
    Victoria.anene.242435@unn.edu.ng
    Toria20@simplesite.com

    There exist a huge gap between the number of children given birth by those considered poor than the number of children given birth by those considered rich is an economy. These difference exist as a result of certain actions which increase the chances of the poor having more children compared to the rich. Some of the Factor responsible for larger families include;
    -Higher preference for male child: This is a major attribute to the amount of children given birth to in most poor families. The male child is considered important as they are the ones to continue the family line while the female child are said to leave them after a certain period and so are not their entirely.so when a family is unable to give birth to a considerable number of male children they continue to give birth thereby increasing the family. Child discrimination is not as common to the rich as it is to the poor, the rich see each child equal as far as they are able to prove both their male and female children with equal love and opportunity..
    –Early marriage: The female children from poor families are groomed with the sole aim of getting married, and when this eventually happens they are under the pressure to give birth to children immediately. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty. While the female children of the rich are send to school to attain the highest level of education which limits the number of children they can give birth to considering their age before getting married.
    -Limited access to contraceptive-Most poor women would want to delay or stop childbearing but are not using any method of contraceptive. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to. The rich have access to education which include family planning which helps plan their childbearing.
    -Care for elders: In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re while the rich enjoy pension scheme and insurance policies which help provide for them when they are old so they do not entirely rely on their children in their old age.
    -Need for extra labour: Most of the poor live in the rural areas of the country with most families relying on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for while the rich have white collar jobs which do not require them giving birth to children for the success since labour could be employed.

  141. Avatar Egbo Chinemelum Chinonso says:

    Egbo Chinemelum Chinonso
    2017/249493
    egboemecs@gmail.com

    Reasons Why the Poor Tend to Have More Children Than the Rich

    There are many social, cultural and economic reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich.

    Lack of education: There is no family planning. The resources available to provide for the family, and the health effects of bearing so many children on the woman- such things are rarely considered.

    Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labor force-often illegally-to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    Need for extra labor: More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labor-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra laborers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning-sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

  142. Avatar Egbo Chinemelum Chinonso says:

    Egbo Chinemelum Chinonso
    2017/249493
    egboemecs@gmail.com

    Reasons Why the Poor Tend to Have More Children Than the Rich

    There are many social, cultural and economic reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich.

    Lack of education: There is no family planning. The resources available to provide for the family, and the health effects of bearing so many children on the woman- such things are rarely considered.

    Religious beliefs. In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labor force-often illegally-to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.

    Need for extra labor: More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labor-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra laborers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning-sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

  143. Name: Ikechukwu Chizoba Peace
    Reg no: 2017/249517
    Dept: Economics

    Family is said to be a group of people who are related to each other especially parents and their children, and children in this context is not limited to any number except in some countries.
    In terms of the poor seeming to be having larger family than the poor is because the rich most times sees many children as a liability. They estimates having more children as a breach to higher investment and as a foreseen crisis in terms of property allocation. They believe that if one or two children can be given a proper education that will suit to the continuity of their assets that it is ok for them. But that of the poor is much more different.
    What constitutes this larger family by the poor is poverty which has is already an adjective of qualification of family of such kind and other factors includes illiteracy, early marriage and gender roles, mindset, Religion/culture, poor healthcare awareness and, e.t.c.
    Poverty: it is the main engine that causes more child bearing and it is said that ideal mind manufactures unimaginables. Idealness causes poverty and an ineffective mind must keep it self busy and when this happens among ideal couple the starting point is sex and this is due to the law of body chemistry which people of opposite sex cannot be able to avoid talk more of ideal couple and the end product might lead to pregnancy and which they cannot get rid of as it seems to be evil in the eyes of God. And this in turn increases mortality rate.
    Illiteracy: limited access to education limits some one brain in active reasoning, the size of your pocket determine the size of your thinking faculty. The higher the degree of education the higher the gdp per capital of a country and this as well decrease the number of mortality rate. Women that are formally educated most likely marry later, uses contraception and have fewer children. But when illiteracy is order of the day otherwise becomes the case.
    Early marriage and gender roles: in some cultures, the role of a woman is just to be a wife and mother which some believe that women education ends in the kitchen. This can cause a girl child to marry early there by limiting the girl child education. And once she gets married early she begins to make childrenand they are said to have more strength to bear more children compared to the advanced woman.
    Mindset: Care for parents/elders, need for extra labour, fear by enemies, firmousity they all boils down to mindset. Some people believed that the larger family you have the more you will live long, cared for by Children, expand economically and socially, and be known by people and feared by your enemies. These mindset turn out to be bloody because some family turn out not train up their children to social standard and education wise.
    Religion/culture: this also constitutes to large family. Like in some part of the country it is believed a man is respected based on how many wives he has and the more wives the more children, because no woman will want to be denied of possession allocation and everyone will want to have a root in the family and this in turn increases the number of children.
    Conclusion
    Lack of proper education makes some couples not have a proper awareness of contraception and then woman knowing the prepercaution of having many children. The mindset of firm and security. They end up not giving the children proper education and they end up being nuisance.

  144. Avatar Emegbue Benjamin says:

    EMEGBUE BENJAMIN
    2017/241452
    Economics Department.

    High fertility has over the years been associated with poor families for numerous reasons which are not limited to:

    1. Lack Of Women Education/Ignorance: Ignorance is one of the leading factor for the high fertility rate in poor families, since the families involved know little or nothing about family planning or birth control.

    2. Inaccessibility To Family Planning Ideas: Contraceptions and other instruments of family planning are not accessible by families in poor neighborhood because of lack of purchasing funds, most times these instruments and materials to prevent indiscriminate child birth are not affordable.

    3. Religious/Cultural Reasons: Some religion believe in polygamy and high level of child bearing also certain cultures is children as a means of gauging family prestige.

    POSITIVE IMPACT
    The increase in fertility would lead to increase in population, labour(work) force and also productivity. It will also increase the political influence and voting strength of such people/community.

    NEGATIVE IMPACT
    Increased fertility will lead to increase in budget spending, it’s adverse effect here will normally cause strains in the family, increased fertility will also cause no availability of sufficient resources to feed, educate and provide good health care for children.

  145. Avatar Emegbue Benjamin says:

    EMEGBUE BENJAMIN
    2017/241452
    Economics Department.

    High fertility has over the years been associated with poor family for numerous reasons which are not limited to:
    1. Lack Of Women Education/Ignorance: Ignorance is one of the leading factor for the high fertility rate in poor families, since the families involved know little or nothing about family planning.
    2. Inaccessibility To Family Planning Ideas: Contraception and other instruments of family planning are not accessible by families in poor neighborhoods because of lack of purchasing funds, most times these instruments and materials to prevent indiscriminate child birth are not affordable.
    3. Religious/Cultural Reasons: Some religion believe in polygamy and high level of child bearing also certain cultures use children as a measure of family prestige.

    POSTIVE EFFECTS
    The increase in fertility would lead to increase in population, labour (work) force and productivity. It will also increase the political influence and voting strength of such community.

    NEGATIVE EFFECTS
    Increased fertility will lead to increase in budget spending, it’s adverse effect here will normally strains in the family, non availability of sufficient resources to feed, educate and provide good health care for children.

  146. Avatar Omada Dorathy Amarachukwu says:

    OMADA DORATHY AMARACHUKWU
    REG NO: 2017/243131
    EDUCATION ECONOMICS
    DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS II
    ECO 362
    amarachidora8@gmail.com
    dorathyamarachi.blogspot.com

    It is argued that the poor who suffers serious deprivation in basic needs and see little opportunity for their children’s education and their opportunities feel little interest in controlling their family size, for them it would not matter how many children they may bear since the intensity of their poverty ratio and food consumption to subsistence ratio marginality improve as the number that a family planning programme to succeed, it must be part of an anti- poverty strategy. Here are some of my candid reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich.
    1. Misconceptions about family planning
    In many communities like Nigeria for instance, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources including breakdowns in public health, education, cultural biases and even skepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion using certain family planning methods.
    2. Lack of access to health services
    It is not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning sometimes, it is lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages making it difficult to travel to get needed support in especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier towards receiving professional medical care.
    3. Forced early marriage
    Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and has not been given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her child bearing years start much earlier, meaning- among other complications she is likely to have more children.
    4. Lack of education
    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are likely to have more children making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children, they often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the finance it will require.
    5. Limited finances
    Families in poverty particularly those who make their living through agriculture may have more children as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they are very young. In more dire situations children may enter the labour force, often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    6. Family legacy
    For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It is not common for parents to be parental to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    Consequences of large family size on the quality of individual lives
    The large size of a family affects the quality of life of the individual in the following ways:
    1. Many members of large family grow up in hostile environment
    2. There will be Jealousy and envy in the large family
    3. Access to good and qualitative education might not be possible because of shortage in family size
    4. There is tendency of fighting with one another in a big family
    5. Room occupancy ratio will be high in a large family. Over population per room might occur
    6. The members may be malnourished, that is they may not be able to feed well.
    CONCLUSION
    Having seen the following reasons why poor families tend to have more children than the rich and the consequences that may occur when having large families which affect the quality of life of the individual, I believe that there should be various precautions that should be taking when setting up a family, especially in Nigeria as a case study in order to avoid problems that may occur.

  147. Avatar Emegbue Benjamin says:

    EMEGBUE BENJAMIN
    2017/241452
    Economics Department.

    High fertility has over the years been associated with poor family for numerous reasons which are not limited to:

    1. Lack Of Women Education/Ignorance: Ignorance is one of the leading factor for the high fertility rate in poor families, since the families involved know little or nothing about family planning.

    2. Inaccessibility To Family Planning Ideas: Contraception and other instruments of family planning are not accessible by families in poor neighborhoods because of lack of purchasing funds, most times these instruments and materials to prevent indiscriminate child birth are not affordable.

    3. Religious/Cultural Reasons: Some religion believe in polygamy and high level of child bearing also certain cultures use children as a measure of family prestige.

    POSTIVE EFFECTS
    The increase in fertility would lead to increase in population, labour (work) force and productivity. It will also increase the political influence and voting strength of such community.

    NEGATIVE EFFECTS
    Increased fertility will lead to increase in budget spending, it’s adverse effect here will normally strains in the family, non availability of sufficient resources to feed, educate and provide good health care for children.

  148. Avatar Omada Dorathy Amarachukwu says:

    OMADA DORATHY AMARACHUKWU
    REG NO: 2017/243131
    EDUCATION ECONOMICS
    DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS II
    ECO 362
    amarachidora8@gmail.com
    dorathyamarachi.blogspot.com

    It is argued that the poor who suffers serious deprivation in basic needs and see little opportunity for their children’s education and their opportunities feel little interest in controlling their family size, for them it would not matter how many children they may bear since the intensity of their poverty ratio and food consumption to subsistence ratio marginality improve as the number that a family planning programme to succeed, it must be part of an anti- poverty strategy. Here are some of my candid reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich.
    1. Misconceptions about family planning
    In many communities like Nigeria for instance, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources including breakdowns in public health, education, cultural biases and even skepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion using certain family planning methods.
    2. Lack of access to health services
    It is not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning sometimes, it is lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages making it difficult to travel to get needed support in especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier towards receiving professional medical care.
    3. Forced early marriage
    Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and has not been given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her child bearing years start much earlier, meaning- among other complications she is likely to have more children.
    4. Lack of education
    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are likely to have more children making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children, they often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the finance it will require.
    5. Limited finances
    Families in poverty particularly those who make their living through agriculture may have more children as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they are very young. In more dire situations children may enter the labour force, often illegally to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    6. Family legacy
    For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It is not common for parents to be parental to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    Consequences of large family size on the quality of individual lives
    The large size of a family affects the quality of life of the individual in the following ways:
    1. Many members of large family grow up in hostile environment
    2. There will be Jealousy and envy in the large family
    3. Access to good and qualitative education might not be possible because of shortage in family size
    4. There is tendency of fighting with one another in a big family
    5. Room occupancy ratio will be high in a large family. Over population per room might occur
    6. The members may be malnourished, that is they may not be able to feed well.
    CONCLUSION
    Having seen the following reasons why poor families tend to have more children than the rich and the consequences that may occur when having large families which affect the quality of life of the individual, I believe that there should be various precautions that should be taking when setting up a family, especially in Nigeria as a case study in order to avoid problems that may occur.

  149. Avatar OZUEM DEBORAH OGHENEKEVWE says:

    NAME: OZUEM DEBORAH OGHENEKEVWE
    REG NO: 2017/249572
    EMAIL: deborah.ozuem.249572@unn.edu.ng

    Looking at the rate of population explosion in African countries, it could easily be said that there’s a connection between poverty and overpopulation. This has given rise to so many speculations as to why the poor tend to have more children increasing the population base of poor countries. This argument has further led to series of debates each trying to give valid argument for the cause of this pattern of occurrence (i.e. why the poor have more children). There has not been one specific or particular reason as to why this trend occurs but there have been different reasons such as:
    1. Cultural beliefs: During the times before colonization, in Africa, the strength and wealth of a man was measured by how large his farm was. To own such large farms require lots of workers. So they had their families (children, wives, etc) work for them on their farm. Due to this, producing lots of children automatically translated to greater labour force for them. This was one of the major reason why the underdeveloped countries always struggled with population explosion.
    2. Illieracty/ Ignorance: As at the time when colonization came down to Africa, not many could afford basic education, so the illiteracy rates also rised alongside bursting population. The aim of education was to enlighten the mind of people, change their mindset on certain beliefs and practices that were no longer beneficial for development and growth. Since most of them were uneducated, they weren’t even aware that such things as family planning existed. On the other hand, we see that women in the developed countries are more exposed and enlightened. They know that there is more to being a woman than reproducing children. They go to school, pursue a career, go into entrepreneurship, etc. All these are possible because they had the knowledge, information and right education.
    3. Religious beliefs: People practice different beliefs and some of these beliefs contradict the use of contraceptives or birth control pills. The resultant effect is that even for those who are aware of the existence of family planning, they’re forced not to use it as it is seen as committing a grave offense in their religion.
    4. Unemployment/ Poverty: Being gainfully employed keeps people busy. When there’s no job, people just wake up and live each day as they see it. A man who stays at home from Monday to Friday because he has no job with his wife who is also a full time housewife would just end up making love and having more babies. For a rich man, even if he stays at home for a whole month, there are lots of things he could do to take his mind off sex: vacations, shopping, games, tours, etc all of which a poor man cannot afford. So poverty also leads to high birth rate.
    5. Girl/woman orientation: Girls are groomed right from childhood that their roles in the family is in the kitchen, doing house chores, making babies and being submissive to their husbands. There’s no orientation for her to have a dream, a voice of her own. And so she grows up, gets married, the will of her husband becomes hers, she bears as many children as the man wants and ends up babysitting, cleaning, cooking, etc. She gives birth to a female child and grooms her in the same stead. And the circle continues.
    6. Lastly, when we talk about the cost of childbearing, the rich man considers, tuition in Oxford or Harvard or one of the finest college in his country, he considers clothing his child like a fashionista, giving him not just food but balanced diet and nutritional supplements, health expenses such as regular checkups, leisure expenses such as vacations in Paris, etc. At this cost, he prefers to have 2 kids and provide them all of these than 6 kids with none of the above. To a poor man, they do not consider all of these. As long as you’ve got a leaking roof over your head and food to eat, they’re good to go. The common phrase ‘it’s God that looks after children’ has eaten so deep into them that they believe that the only role they have in the child’s life is to bring them into the world and somehow, they’ll survive.
    The above reasons accounts for why the poor ends up with more children than the rich.

  150. Avatar Ogba ifeanyi favour says:

    Ogba ifeanyi favour
    2017/243369
    Economics
    oifeanyi621@gmail.com

    The poor tend to have more children than the rich
    The rich always think about quality while the poor believe in quantity – the poor don’t always considered the quality of the children upbring while the rich always have that in mind that why their number of children are very few so they can give them the best of life (quality ) quality education, quality upbringing and so on . Picturing the northern part of Nigeria with the highest rate of school drop out and which is occupied by the poor class .The poor only give birth for satisfaction of feeling and nothing else compared to the rich that consider the impact of the children in the school .
    Wrong mindset – The poor believe that the more children you have the closer your chance of getting a better child out of the many .so they keep on multiplying the number hoping they will have chance of producing future governor and president 😂.
    Idleness – the poor is always idle and those not engaged in productive active rather than sex , they are always so jobless And they see their wife as a place for relaxation of all time .Like wise the rich that is always occupied with alot of productive activity which is time consuming and there is little time for such
    Education – the poor is not educated to understand about children and their purpose in the society they see children function of re production and not a pillar of the society or product of purpose in the society
    The poor see children as a edge for the future like the more they reproduce alot of children ,when they go old alot of their children will take care of them .
    The poor don’t engaged in family planning and various ways of controlling child birth due to ignorance .

  151. Avatar Ogba ifeanyi favour says:

    Ogba ifeanyi favour
    2017/243369
    Economics

    The poor tend to have more children than the rich

    The rich always think about quality while the poor believe in quantity – the poor don’t always considered the quality of the children upbring while the rich always have that in mind that why their number of children are very few so they can give them the best of life (quality ) quality education, quality upbringing and so on . Picturing the northern part of Nigeria with the highest rate of school drop out and which is occupied by the poor class .The poor only give birth for satisfaction of feeling and nothing else compared to the rich that consider the impact of the children in the school .

    Wrong mindset – The poor believe that the more children you have the closer your chance of getting a better child out of the many .so they keep on multiplying the number hoping they will have chance of producing future governor and president .

    Idleness – The poor is always idle and those not engaged in productive active rather than sex , they are always so jobless And they see their wife as a place for relaxation of all time .Like wise the rich that is always occupied with alot of productive activity which is time consuming and there is little time for such

    Education – The poor is not educated to understand about children and their purpose in the society they see children function of re production and not a pillar of the society or product of purpose in the society

    The poor see children as a edge for the future like the more they reproduce alot of children ,when they go old alot of their children will take care of them .

    The poor don’t engaged in family planning and various ways of controlling child birth due to ignorance .

  152. Avatar Nwobodo Ifeanyichukwu Victor says:

    NWOBODO IFEANYICHUKWU VICTOR
    2017/249535
    ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT
    Many characteristics of poverty lead to high level of child birth. They include:
    – High infant mortality leading parents to more children to reduce their risk of childlessness. That is, children serve as a form of insurance.
    -Lack of education or enlightenment on family planning
    – Inaccessibility to family planning
    -Early marriage
    – Cultural factors; as some cultures sees a large family as a sign of family wealth and status
    POSITIVE EFFECTS
    -Large number of children can increase a family’s chance of social mobility
    – Children acts as a form of safety net as aging parents struggle to support themselves in the absence of retirement savings and pension funds.
    NEGATIVE EFFECTS
    – low life expectancy
    -Low to living standard
    -Low level of education
    – Increase population and if productivity isn’t increased this can lead a Nation to fall into the Malthusian trap.

  153. Avatar AFUBE BLOSSOM CHIBUZOR says:

    AFUBE BLOSSOM CHIBUZOR
    2017/249473
    ECONOMICS DEPARTMENT

    There are numerous reasons why the poor have more children than the rich especially in developing countries like Nigeria despite the existence of family planning in the world today. A reason for this phenomena is the fact that education is not as widespread as is believed especially in the backward rural areas where the poor inhabit. In these rural areas, the female folks are not usually educated with their roles predetermined as child-bearers, a role which they excel at to prove their worth in the society.
    Due to the fact that there is no access to health care services in rural areas –which as said before is where the poor are mostly found- there is no also provision for contraception nor the information about its use. Hence there is mass production of babies as a result of sexual activities where conception is left to chance.
    The importance of family legacy is one that has been passed down from generation to generation with family legacy believed to be passed down by the males. Therefore, in a case where there are no males in the family, reproduction is continued until there are males. Also, children are the hopes of their underprivileged parent who look to them for care in their old age so it follows that the more children you have, the higher the chance of you being taken care of in your old age since the poor do not have pension plans like the rich.
    The poor are usually involved in subsistence agricultural production mostly, for a source of livelihood which is labour intensive hence they give birth to a lot of children to supply labour for the farm. In some communities, no matter how poor you are, you are respected when you have children who are to be the source of future affluence either by their supply of labour or by their “bright” futures.
    In a country such as Nigeria, there is none more religious than the ones that are not as privileged, they have a lot of time to devote to religion. Some of the poor in their religiousness have taken it upon their selves to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth…”, using the bible as the evidence as to why they should procreate even to the point of having too many children.
    The negative effect of the large amount of children far outweigh the positive. Some of the negative effects include but are not restricted to
    1.It causes health issues for the mothers especially who start child birth at an early age (depression)
    2.There will be insufficient resources to take care of the children and basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, health services, education amongst others will not be met.
    3.Over population on the rural areas and the country as a whole.
    4.Crime rate will be very high due to the population and the fact that a high number of that population do not have the education or skill set to make something of themselves and thus resort to crime to survive.
    5.There will be prolonged economic hardship as there is a vicious circle of poverty existing with a tradition of excessive reproduction.

    The only positive effect I can think of is the fact that there is a large labour force which can be used positively to boost economic growth and development if utilized properly.

  154. NAME: Emmanuel Treasure Adanne
    Department: Economics
    Reg No: 2017/242436
    Email address: http://www.treasureadaemmanuel@gmail.com
    Website: treshvinaemman54.blogspot.com
    Answer:
    Poor families have more children than the rich ones due to the following ressons:
    1. Poor families have misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    2.Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent poor people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care. And even the ones available, they become quite expensive that the poor ones cannot afford them.
    3. Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. and we can find these group of girls amongs the poor ones. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    4. Limited finances. Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.

    5. Care for elders. As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, poor families believe that having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    However there are some positive consequences of many children or high birth rates from poor families and they include:
    1. Less workers: As birth rates fall which is evident in rich families, working-age populations eventually fall as well. This leads to labor shortages in countries where the working-age populations are in decline, thus reducing the rate of development due to lack or reduced competition.
    2. Rich families with lower birth rates and falling working-age populations also mean that there are fewer consumers. This reduces the opportunities to generate growth on the domestic market, leaving those countries with low birth rates more exposed to external shocks.
    Conclusion
    Having more children means a young population and working class. However it comes with its disadvantages as it leads to over population. And coupled with the fact that these ones might end up uneducated poses a threat to the society since it will lead to survival of the fittest, these poor children will end up engaging in just anything just to make ends meet. Thus leading to increased crime rate, insecurity, low standard of living, etc.
    The lack of access to family planning and to modern methods of contraception is the major cause of this persistence in high fertility. Smaller family size allows for greater investment in the health and education of children in the longer term both from the family and government.

  155. Avatar IWUALA CHIOMA FAVOUR says:

    NAME: IWUALA CHIOMA FAVOUR
    REG NO: 2017/249520
    DEPT: ECONOMICS
    EMAIL: iwualafavour573@gmail.com
    In my own opinion, this category of people are not poor because they have no wealth but because they don’t have good education and awareness. If they have both these things, the will have an idea of what to do and what not to do and the importance of doing something.
    They are not educated so they don’t have any idea of family planning. And they produce more children and think if one fails in the future in his career the second will be successful.
    Secondly, the survival rate of children in rich families is better and so they may have fewer children whereas the poor, due to malnutrition, poverty, children die and hence they have more children.
    Thirdly, for the poor additional hands means more income when children grow up and they treat children as insurance against old age. The rich have no such need.
    Lastly, rich educated women cannot be pressurised to have more children whereas the poor hardly seek the consent of their uneducated wives and more children are the natural consequence of their intimacy.

  156. Name: Okaforukwu chizaram sandra

    Reg no: 2017/249551

    Reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich .

    We believe that every child is a valuable gift of God in compassion: ‘The children are a Lordship, they have been rewarded by him.’ Psalm 127:3. Psalms. If a family wishes to grow for social, cultural, religious, or economic purposes, it is our duty as a society to care for our most vulnerable members. We look here at some of the factors contributing to bigger families.

    1. Early and gender marriage roles
    In many developing countries mostly from poor families the girls are often sent off for marriage at very young age (13-18) pending on when she’s fully a woman . Some cultures/traditions believe that the role of a woman is and should be to produce children or rather makes her husband happy ,this means the younger she gets married the sooner she procreates. Girls married under the ages of 18 are mostly under pressure to produce children which in turn kills whatever dreams or aspirations she has and limits her life choices and helps perpetuate a cycle of poverty( this happen mostly in poor families). Where the female child in forced or sent of for marriage in exchange for the dowry that will be paid to the family.

    2. Source of wealth
    In many poor families ,larger number of children are seen or a believed to be source of wealth in the family . Just like the rich look at their assets , the poor see a large number of children as a chance to break out of poverty ( the more the children the chances of one of them becoming successful).

    3. Need for extra labour
    More than 70% of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families relying on labor-intensive agriculture to survive. To compensate for the need for extra labor, there may be a cultural expectation in these communities to have large families. Farmers living off harvest usually cannot afford to pay extra workers and only rely on themselves and their children. A large family could be the only survival assurance for them.

    4. Religion
    Religious beliefs may lead to a family’s refusal to use contraception. Also many communities lack access to family planning services due to social norms and religious tradition. Affordable contraception and health-care options for remote or rural communities are scarce.

    5. Zero form of entertainment
    There are no hobbies or recreational activities available to the poor. The only source of relaxation and pleasure is having sex and more sex, and in the process of engaging in this one and only form of entertainment, they tend to produce more offspring.

    6. Lack of awareness
    Many poor people are unaware of birth control methods due to a lack of awareness. Many people are unable to afford or want to spend money on them even if they are aware of it.

  157. Name: Idu Ifeanyi Peculiar
    Reg No: 2017/249511
    Email: ifeanyi.idu.249511@unn.edu.ng

    Why do the poor bear more children than the rich?
    It is true that the poor bear more children than the rich and this is due to but not limited to the following reasons;
    Firstly, ignorance. The major factor that influences the amount of child birth among the poor is ignorance. Due to poor educational background the poor tends to be ignorant of the negative effects of over population hence, they keep reproducing without making proper plans or implementing any form of family planning unlike the rich who are well schooled and have a good educational background, they always adopt a good family planning strategy to control birth rate.
    Secondly, most poor people have this ideology of giving birth to many children so they can help out in farm work and other menial jobs to help support the family and also be able to take care of them when they are old. This ideology gives rise to high birth rate among the poor but the rich don’t need many children to take care of them when they are old because they have enough savings and asset to hope on when they get old.
    Idleness also influences the birth rate among the poor in the sense that the poor are usually unemployed and allocate more time to sex unlike the rich who have careers to build and are less idle, this also makes the reproduction rate among the poor to be higher compared to the rich.
    However, in as much as the negative effects of having more children supercedes it’s positive effects, the positive effects can’t be ruled out. Having more children gives a sense of fulfillment and also make parents have enough people to take care of them when they become old but on the same vein it’s better to have smaller children you can take care of and give quality upbringing than having too many children and not being able to train them which might constitute a nuisance to the society

  158. Asika joy ogechukwu
    2017/242025
    Economics dept
    joy.asika.242025@gmail .com

    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture tends to have more children in order to support the family’s Livelihood. The reasons why the poor have more chldren are as follows:
    1. Limited contraception: Most women in developing Countries would like to delay or stop child bearing, but are not using contraceptive. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or religious or cultural opposition and poor quality of available services.
    2. Forced early marriage: Forced early marriage is any marriage where the persons is below 18years and hasn’t given their fill assent to be married. Therefore when a girl is married young, her childbearing years starts much earlier meaning that she is likely to have more kids.
    3. Lack of education: Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children.

  159. Avatar Okpor Martha Ashinedu says:

    NAME: OKPOR MARTHA ASHINEDU
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS
    REG. NO: 2017/241430
    EMAIL- marthaokpor2017@gmail.com
    LEVEL: 300L
    Answer:
    Generally, every child I a gift and joy but when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? This could be as a result of limited access to education of these poor masses. The higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. Women with some formal education are more likely that uneducated women to use contraceptives, marry late and have fewer children. Early marriage and gender roles play a key role in this regard. In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. This married girls are often under oressure to become pregnant as soon as possible regardless of how comfortable they are in the marriage. This would limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of povery. This is mostly obtainable among poor families who want to marry off their girl child as a result of poverty.

    Another reason for poor families having more children than the rich is the need to rely on their children to cater for them at old age as the government does not provide a pension or Sofia security benefit. Religion beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. Example, in Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply. This would also lead increased number of children the poor families.
    Poor families having more children could have both positive and negative consequences. Its positive consequences could be that the parents of these poor families would have many children children to cater for them at old age. Also there would be increase in the labpur force of the country as there would be more labour available to work at the prevailing wage rate. There would also be negative consequences. Large families are less likely to afford education for the I children, meaning those kids will likely grow up to have lower earning potential and be more likely to repeat the cycle of poverty. This could make these poor children source to income by engaging themselves in criminal activities such as robbery, fraud, etc. Also, when a woman lives in difficult conditions without a varied diet or access to prenatal vitamins, back to back pregnancies leave her especially vulnerable. Her nutritional stores, especially iron and calcium, are likely to become depleted and she will be less equipped to breast feed her baby, meaning the child’s long-term health can be compromised as well.

    In conclusion, it is always better in my own opinion to have a small family size or simple put, bear children you can comfortably cater for in the long- run.

  160. Asika joy ogechukwu
    Economics dept
    joy.asika.242025@unn.edu.ng
    2017/242025

    High reproduction with little or no significant impact to the labour force has a great impact on aggregate demand and according to the Malthusian theory we are made to understand that overpopulation with little growing economy should be avoided. Coming down to the immediate family,a family with lots of children would basically not have enough resources to properly train and cater for the essentials of life. Then why bring a child to the world with so much discomfort and all. And the truth is the more children you bore,the more problems you’d encounter because training a child who would be beneficial to himself family and society at large is a big duty.
    But then amongst these negative lies the fact that most families with lots of offspring even though are not well to do,tend to be happy and then we understand the link between happiness and development. Having lots of siblings who could give you advice and direct you on the right part when the parents are no where to be found is a treasure we should trash out. Probability of these children to become independent bodies recognised and acknowledge by the society would be of the greater good of the parents. So it’s actually left for the parents to decide through family planning if they are ready to bear the cross,start the reproductive.

  161. Avatar Ojigwe Shalom Chinaza says:

    Name: Ojigwe Shalom Chinaza
    Reg No: 2017/249549
    Department: Economics
    Email: shalomoj1@gmail.com

    Why do the poor have large families?
    This is a question that has bothered economics especially welfare economists for a long time. The concept of the poor having a higher number of children than they can cater for is sincerely baffling. Personally, I think this all boils down to Ignorance. It is popularly said that “knowledge is power”, this knowledge is often times accquired through education, mostly formal education. Obviously,the poor cannot afford this. The educational system of Nigeria has been structured in such a way that the students/pupils are being taught the concept of family planning, and the consequences of overpopulation consistently. The poor obviously cannot afford and also are quick to believe the myths regarding family planning and contraceptives.
    They would rather keep having children till they can have no more. They believe that their job is to bring in the children while “God” takes care of them. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    Also, the poor lack the necessary financial requirements which would provide recreation and satisfaction to them during their leisure times. A rich man could go on a vacation, play golf with friends, snooker, throw a party, have TV shows to see and the rest, but a poor man cannot afford it. So they see sex as the only source of recreation, it becomes a relaxing sport to them and they end up bearing lots of children because they have nothing else to do. That’s why it’s common to see a poor man have more than one wife.

    Furthermore, the African culture see girls and women as child-bearing facilities, because of this the girl-child is made to marry early. It is a known fact that the younger a woman is, the higher her child-bearing rate.

    The idea that male children are the important children has made many women have more children than necessary because she is searching for a male folks. It is a common phenomena in Africa to see a woman with 6 or 7 female children and one male-child because she was searching for a male child.

    Also the need for labor has a negative impact on the child-bearing rate of a country. More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    Africa’s mentality of children being an investment has made many poor families give birth to more children than they can cater for. They believe that their kids would take care of them when they get older. It is common to hear among the poor folks, “what I could not give my children,my children would give it to me and their children” or they would say, ” who would now take care of me when I get old?”.
    This makes them have more children than necessary which has a negative impact on the economy as a whole

  162. OKORORIE EMMANUEL KELECHI
    2017/242947
    ECONOMICS
    manuelokororie@gmail.com

    Discuss the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich and the attendant consequences (positive and negative) of such actions based on your opinion.

    High child mortality rates: Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    Early marriage and gender roles: In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    Care for elders: In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    Need for extra labour: More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES
    Children and families living and growing up in poverty and low-income households experience many disadvantages. These can have negative health and social consequences during childhood and into adulthood.
    Poorer health and wellbeing: There are several ways in which living in poverty can lead to poorer health outcomes in children, as well as into adulthood.

    Being exposed to some or all of the key factors below, as well as the accumulation of exposure over time, can adversely impact on child development and health outcomes.
    Limited money for everyday resources – including good quality housing.
    Stress of living in poverty.
    Unhealthy lifestyles.
    Poorer education and employment opportunities.
    Children’s experience of poverty can also lead to bullying, or feelings of exclusion, as they may have fewer friends and less access to the social activities of their peers.

    Health inequalities: When considering health inequalities, children growing up in poverty or in the most deprived areas are at greater risk of poorer health outcomes than children from better off families or from more affluent areas.
    This can be seen in:
    higher infant mortality rate
    low birthweight
    risk of being overweight or obese
    not being breastfed
    tooth decay
    unintentional injury
    poorer general health and mental wellbeing
    teenage pregnancy.
    Poverty is also a risk factor for experiencing adverse childhood experiences (ACEs). Having high numbers of ACEs has been found to be related to deprivation with a higher proportion of people in the most deprived areas reporting ACEs.

    POSITIVE CONSEQUENCES
    Poor peoples having many kids increases the probability of one of the kids become successful and liberating the entire family from the vicious cycle of poverty. Cases like this has occurred in our society where kids born into poor homes, struggled and became very successful in their respective careers.

    A large, united and peaceful family establishes a strong sense of security amongst members of the family.

  163. Avatar Onyekanma Chidinma cynthia says:

    NAME: ONYEKANMA CHIDINMA CYNTHIA
    REG NO: 2017/249569
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS
    WHY THE POOR BEAR MORE KIDS THAN THE RICH
    1. Limited access to education and Illiteracy
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    2. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. Social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.
    3. Time is valueless to them;
    As a popular saying goes that “ An idle man is in the Devil’s workshop”, since they( couples) are not productive or gainfully employed, they tend to fill their time with something else (busy prolifically procreating).
    4. Attitudinal behavior and Association;
    For poor people, sex & children is one of the few joys they have. Children=hope for the future, social status. Women’s -and to a lesser extent men’s- worth is determined by how many kids they have, especially sons.
    5. Believe that more children would bring more resources and wealth to the family:
    For poor families, more kids mean more working bodies for the family in the near future that can bring home money and food to be shared with the family as a whole.
    6. Low cost of raising children
    7. Inaccessibility to basic Health Care Facilities
    8. Lack of Exposure

  164. Avatar Ezeugwu Augustine Okechukwu says:

    NAME: EZEUGWU AUGUSTINE OKECHUKWU
    DEPT: ECONOMICS
    REG NO: 2016/234579
    EMAIL ADDRESS: OKEYEZEUGWU19@GMAIL.COM

    Over the years, it has discovered that poor and underdeveloped countries are suffering from the menace of over population even as the level of poverty amongst individuals in those countries are increasing. As strange as this phenomenon might be it’s effect are nonetheless very brutal.
    This phenomenon is caused by various reasons which include the following
    1.High child mortality rate:
    Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.
    2. Misconceptions about family planning:
    In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    3. Lack of access to health services:
    It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.
    4. Lack of education:
    Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    5. Social reputation:
    In a culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family—the more blessed you are. In many parts of the underdeveloped countries, couples without children are stigmatized and looked down upon. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman is unable to bear children, it’s not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    6. Family legacy:
    For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    7. Limited finances:
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force—often illegally—to earn more income for the family’s survival.
    8. Care for elders:
    As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    This phenomenon has led to so many ripple effect which can be classified in both positive and negative categories. These consequences include the following:
    1. Positive Effect:
    i. For families whose major source of livelihood depends on the produce they get from their farm, having too many children will be very beneficial to them because more hands will be on the farm which will invariably increase their productivity.
    ii. Catering for the welfare of the elderly and aged ones in the family won’t be a problem because their is a lot children and people around to cater for their welfare.
    2. Negative Effect:
    i. Having too many children in a country or society that is been besetted by poverty will go along way in increasing the level of poverty in that society.
    ii. Giving birth to too many children impacts the health negatively that’s why family planning has been on the lips of almost everybody.
    iii. A poor family having too many children ends up making their condition worse than it was because they need to cater for those children which will require money of which they don’t have.
    iv. Having too many children can affect the quality of education those children are able to receive when their parents are poor.

  165. REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN
    Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture tends to have more children in order to support the family’s Livelihood. The reasons why the poor have more chldren are as follows:
    1. Limited contraception: Most women in developing Countries would like to delay or stop child bearing, but are not using contraceptive. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or religious or cultural opposition and poor quality of available services.
    2. Forced early marriage: Forced early marriage is any marriage where the persons is below 18years and hasn’t given their fill assent to be married. Therefore when a girl is married young, her childbearing years starts much earlier meaning that she is likely to have more kids.
    3. Lack of education: Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education on each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tends to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education understanding the financial investment required.
    4. Religious belief: Religious belief can acts as a strong force in peoples lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offsprings will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.
    5. Social reputation: In a community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger the family the more blessed you are. Big families are viewed as powerful and if a woman us unable to bear children, its not uncommon for her husband to abandon her or begin a family with someone else.
    6. Family legacy: The desire to preserve lineage, history and family name can feel like a natural human instinct. Its not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to control their family legacy.
    7. Care for elders: As children grow up, they do not only carry their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents with the added hope that one day, one or more children will be successful enough to lift the family out of poverty.

  166. Avatar OKAFOR FESTUS OBINNA says:

    OKAFOR FESTUS OBINNA
    2017/249550
    festusoby18@gmail.com
    WHY DO POOR PEOPLE GIVE BIRTH TO MORE CHILDREN?

    Poverty is a disease. Out of this disease emanates all sort of side and ripple effect. One of such effects is over-population. Here are some of
    the reasons why poor people give birth to more children:

    Lack of access to contraceptives: The poor have limited finance. As a result, they focus on the basic needs of life like food, clothing and shelter.
    Some times, they even find it very much difficult to provide these basic needs. If this be the case, how then will poor families make provisions
    for subsidiary and “unimportant” needs like contraceptives. Not using contraceptives increase the possibilty of having a child after sex and because
    poor people cannot afford it, they tend to have more children.

    Care for Elders: “If i no get money, make I get pikin”. These are the pure words of a poor man. Poor people believe that with no landed property or
    asset, they could save their lives through having having more children. In other words, the only alternative of receiving care at old age is to give
    birth to more children who are expected to grow and become rich.

    Lower levels of education: Illitracy and ignorance are ravaging the poor generation of today. If neither or both of the parents are not educated,
    then there are higher chances of giving birth to more children. The reason being that they do not understand the macro or even micro effect of having
    so many children, especially in cases where they do not have enough money to take care of these children.

    Need for extra labour: A good percentage of poor people live in the rural areas. As a result, the major means of survival is farming. Since farmers
    know that they need human labour to be more productive, they use the reproduction of more children to bridge that gap.

    • Avatar Ogbodo peace says:

      Ogbodo peace chinenyenwa
      2017/249543
      nenyepeace2010@gmail.com
      Peacenenye.blogspot.com
      NEED FOR EXTRA LABOUR: The poor give birth to many children in other to assist them in domestic chores like washing, sweeping, cleaning etc. and most importantly to assist them in farm work and to make things easy for them. They believed that the number of children they have will determine how easy and fast the work will be. Their aim is to produce as many children as possible which will assist them and also they believe that when the number of children increase, the production of goods and services have also increased.
      RELIGION: In some religion, they see contraception as a sin that is, they are against it and because contraception is against their believe they will deviate from it thereby making them not to protect themselves. When they don’t engage in contraception which would have prevented them from having many babies therefore this will lead them into having more babies more than they panned for.
      CHILD MORTALITY RATE: In this situation the poor parents are afraid of loosing all their children to misfortunes. In some places they would say that “one who has only one child have no child”. Therefore, for the fear of being childless the would prefer to bear more children to avoid unwanted stories.
      CULTURE: Do.e cultures at strict when it comes to child bearing. For instance, in some culture that gives title to elders, some elders may be denied that opportunity because they don’t have many children, which implies that they would marry many wifes so as to have many children.
      These choice can be either positive or negative. Positively, the farm work will not be a burden on them, also they believe that they will stand to gain more when they are old. Negatively, they might not be able to train all their children in school and also feeding might be difficult for the family.

  167. Avatar Nnamani Great Ogomuegbunam says:

    Nnamani Great Ogomuegbunam
    2017/249532
    nnamanigreat20@gmail.com
    Economics Major

    WHY POOR PEOPLE GIVE BIRTH TO MORE CHILDREN

    “Children are the heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is His reward” Psalm 12. These words keep ringing in my mind as
    I type this assignment. But, only a poor and ignorant man will adhere strictly to these words and produce as many children as he can.
    With these thoughts, I have to ask myself if I am poor.
    Poor people have a very strange perspective about children. Having had a poor background, or perhaps a poverty stricken life,
    poor people believe that the only best alternative out of poverty is giving birth to so many children. In other words, children are
    seen as wealth and reward. These children will grow, become rich and take care of their parents at old age. However, they do not take
    into account the welfare and education of these children which are the key facilitators of the success of these children.

    Additionally, the poor see more children as more work force. It is a well known fact that majority of poor people reside in the remote
    villages where subsistence agriculture plays an imperative part in the survival of families. In a bid to survive, or perhaps compete relatively
    with other farmers, the poor decide to give birth to more children who would work in their farms and improve productivity. As a matter of fact,
    a smart poor farmer might even compute the productivity of each child and use that as a basis to decide how many children he would produce.
    For instance, if Maduka, a poor farmer who resides in Afoikpo in Ebonyi state discovers that the productivity of his son’s neigbour is about
    250 hectres of land per week. Maduka, knowing fully well that he has about 10,000 hectres of land, might decide to give birth to more than 10
    children, so he could have enough man power to work in his farm.

    Also to be considered are the religious beliefs existing in the environment of the poor person. Some believe that the more children you have,
    the more you show the world that you are man enough. There is also this tradition in the Igbo culture of which a cow is killed for a woman who
    gives birth to about 10 children. Women, therefore, see this as an avenue to compete with one another. In the long run, the community receives
    such a massive and heart-breaking population.

  168. There are so many reasons why the poor parents or people give birth to more children than their well to do counterparts. I will mention but a few of these reasons and they include:
    IDLENESS: Most poor parents are unemployed or probably farmers,so they have all the time in the world to make love and make babies. The adage”an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”is very true in this case. Unlike the rich who have job or business,they do not have time for lovemaking because they go to work early and return late at night and by then they are tired or rushing to sleep so as to wake up early the next morning. The poor sees sex as a means of relaxation.
    QUANITY INSTEAD OF QUALITY: The poor believe that the more children you have the more respect you earn. They don’t consider the resources needed to take care of those children. They believe if they can provide food for them,then they have tried. Even though some of them don’t have enough food for these children,they still don’t care much. They believe that the more children the more money and the more people to take care of them in old age. They also believe that when you have more children,nobody will toil with your family. But the rich believes that one well trained child is more than twenty untrained children.
    NEGATIVE MINDSET: A woman gave birth to eight children and was pregnant for the ninth one,a friend of hers asked her why and in her words she said” you know,I need to give birth to them while I can because I don’t know which one will be killed by armedrobbers,accident or cultist”. The mindset is that since a woman experience menopause,she needs to give birth to as many as possible during her reproductive age so that even if any of the children dies when she is 60,she still has others to take care of. But this is not really logical because even if you gave birth to 20 children,if one dies,you will still feel the loss.
    THE NEED FOR A PARTICULAR GENDER: Poor people give birth to more children because they are looking for either male or female child. In Africa,the quest for a male child can make parents to give birth to more children than they planned for. For example,a couple that had the intention to give birth to four children and their first four children happen to be girls,have this tendency to continue giving birth in order to get the male child. Also some people believe that female children take care of their parents more than the male children,so when a woman have up to four male children,she begins to get worried and will continue to give birth in order to get a girl child whom will take care of her and whose house she will go for omugo.
    IGNORANCE/FEAR: Some poor people are not aware of family planning and even those who are aware seems to be afraid of practicing it. They believe that practicing family planning can have a negative effect on the woman’s womb. Most couples knows that condom prevents at least 99% chances of getting pregnant but yet,they will prefer to have unprotected sex because sex with condom is not enjoyable. Also some believe that using contraceptive is equal to aborting a baby because to them preventing the formation of a baby is the same as preventing a child from coming into the world. There is a man in my town who believes that all his sexual effort must count. He kept impregnanting the wife every year and the wife dare not refuse him sex because that will result to him beating her mercilessly. The woman decided to do family planning,she told the man and he said no,the woman went ahead to do it and after sleeping with her for a year without any show of pregnancy,the man called family meeting and told his people to ask his wife why she is wasting his effort.
    Nevertheless,there are positive and negative impact of giving birth to more children.
    Positive impact
    1. There will be more people to do house chores and farm works(for farmers). When there are many children in a family, division of labor is employed. There is a saying that what one person cannot do can be done by two people.
    2. It gives each child a sense of responsibility,the children knows that their parents are poor so they will try to assist in one way or the order unlike fewer children that everything is been provided for them by their parents.
    3. It gives you the privilege to have more siblings to play and interact with. Honestly,having more siblings takes away boringness. It is boredness that makes people of now adays so attached to their phones and TV set. But if you have siblings to chat and discuss with,you won’t see the need for such.
    Negative Impact:
    1. Giving birth to more children increases the population and these can lead to overpopulation.
    2. It increases the unemployment level as there is no enough resources to take care of the growing population. And also lack of jobs because of increase in technology.
    3. It gives rise to more crime rates. Lack of employment can make the young ones to start engaging in robbery,rape,cultism and so on. If there is no proper channel for the young ones to channel their energy,crime is inevitable.

  169. Avatar Bright Anayo says:

    Name: Anayo Bright Udochukwu
    Reg. Number: 2017/249482
    Dept: Economics Major

    The poor and large family, reasons and consequences (positive and negative)

    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families which may even be surprising, and their consequences both positive and negative.

    Over the years the World Bank has being helping in curing so many economic disease, directly and indirectly which include family planning. Above all the rich tend to have lesser children. Several reasons abound why this occurs but this is still an object of intellectual and socioeconomic debate. So many belief more than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour- intensive agriculture to survive. There can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply. Moreover, in some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age.

    Although, there are positive reasons the poor have many children in their understanding, there also a negative consequences. As the recreation among the poor continues without thinking of capital-intensive manufacturing sector to survive, at then, almost every land have be infertile and cultivate due to common increase in population, many person will be left with nothing. Hunger, less harmony and economic distortion will arise in family level.

    At Compassion, we believe that every child is a precious gift from God. Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons, it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable.

  170. NAME: OBUTE CHISOM HELLEN
    DEPT: ECONOMICS
    REG NO: 2017/249539
    EMAIL ADDRESS: hellytec4@gmail.com
    BLOGGERS ADDRESS; obutechisomhellen.blogspot

    THE REASON WHY THE POOR GIVE BIRTH TO MORE CHILDREN THAN RICH PRIOR TO 1960s BEFORE THE INTERVENTION OF THE WORLD BANK WITH FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAM.
    In my country, child birth is like a sport most people engage in, and the poor, I mean the very poor in the society seem to enjoy it more than others. It is the only thing they can do – to have sex and procreate. It should come as no surprise that Nigerian population will be the third largest in a few years, falling behind only China and India.
    In some cultures girls are married much early. Their productive period is more, naturally more children. Family planning techniques have not reached the villagers and poor. Even today people are shy to purchase condoms from shop. For some time free condom vending machines were installed in public places. Now they have disappeared

    THESE ARE SOME OF THE REASONS POOR PEOPLE GIVE BIRTH TO SO MANY CHILDREN IN MY COUNTRY
    The poor has the tendency to make more babies because it is like an achievement of sought – the way the rich looks at their assets. The more the children, the probability of at least one of them breaking out from the vicious cycle of poverty is a major consideration. It is assumed that when this occurs, the chances of the success of a member of the family having a positive multiplier effect on others should be the case. Considerations are basically not opined on statistics or the prevailing economic reality. The rule of thumb and the populist generalisation amongst their ranks is what major decisions are based, and sadly so.
    Religion, belief systems (culture and traditions) and education to a larger extent helps determine and influence the number of children by the poor. The first two aforementioned; have a major upward influence in this regard (children) on the poor. Only education stands out, in that, it not only guarantees freedom from irrational decision making, but may also break up the shackles of poverty itself – when one is really focused, if I may add. There is no telling the resolve of the informed and determined mind, all things being equal.
    Wealth: For the poor, children are their wealth. That is why parents give their children names like; Tubokeyi— child is everything, Tubolayefa— there is nothing like a child, Tubodeinyefa— nothing can be compared to a child, Tubokeyi— child is the only important thing, etc. Rarely will you hear such names in a wealthy household. On average, lower to middle class Nigerians give birth to 5 children. The rich give birth to 2 on average.
    Death: Some countries of the world have very high child mortality rate and my country is at the top of the ladder. For this reason parents give birth to so many children with the hope that some would be lucky enough to survive to adulthood. It’s a pity that even in the 21st century, many women living in under-developed countries still rely on luck for safe delivery and prevention of child death due to poor health care.
    Poverty: Poor people have no opportunity for sex education and family planning. The government of my country has not taken family planning seriously as a means to cut down over-population like China did, which is something we need right now, despite having different government system. Contraceptives are like taboo in some families and communities. Couples will openly tell you ‘Condom no sweet’ and family planning is nonsense—— na God dey give pikin, children na blessing from God. Hence over-population.
    Quantity over quality: It is not strange here in Nigeria to see or hear that half of a community belong to the same family, not only that, they all answer the same surname. This families don’t necessarily have plans for the children they give birth to, with the exception of a microscopic few. These families usually don’t care much about the education and well-being of the children but about increasing the family size tremendously for farm work or to withstand external conflicts.
    Ignorance: Our grand mother, that old disease “ignorance” is probably the cause of it all. Many people are not just poor financially, they are also poor in knowledge. Considering children as wealth is ignorance—- children not well cared for usually end up destitutes and make life difficult for everyone all over the world. Child mortality will greatly reduce if only couples could make necessary arrangements for quality health care before conceiving in order to reduce risk, luck is just not enough and complains solve no problem, only action does. In the 21st century, any family that thinks they can avert conflict or protect themselves due to their large numbers is mistaken, if it were, the ‘United States’ wouldn’t be world power, not when we have countries like China and India. In this world of technology..
    EXPLANATION OF THE CONCEPT FAMILY PLANNING
    Family planning has been of practice since the 16th century by the people of Djenné in West Africa. Physicians advised women to space their children, having them every three years rather than too many and too quickly. Other aspects of family planning include sex education, prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections, pre-conception counseling and management, and infertility management.
    EVENT LEADING TO GOVERNMENT ADOPTION FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAM OR POLICIES
    Official adoption of family planning policies and programs in developing countries was precided by a great deal of activity on the part of private physicians and private groups and by much discussion of the rationale for government involvement. The activities of private groups demonstrated that there was a market for family planning and that most of the population was not opposed to the provision of family planning services. Private groups which developed the initial service delivery system and gave impetus to research for media pressure group to make governments adopt such a policy.
    FAMILY PLANNING PROGRAMS AND POLICIES
    To concentrate primarily on cultural and socioeconomic barriers as a main reason for low contraceptive prevalence in the African region belies the fact that small, well-managed projects and programs throughout the subcontinent have been achieving prevalence rates of 20 percent or more in recent years.1 These include projects in Muslim and Catholic francophone countries (e.g., projects in Matadi in Zaire, Ruhengeri in Rwanda, Niamey in Niger), Muslim Sudan, and a host of anglophone countries (Kenya, Ghana, and others). Although it may be argued that some of these projects achieved such prevalence levels in the more educated and urbanized sectors of society, this pattern of uptake was also common in Asia and Latin America in the earlier days of family planning. In any event, although none of the projects discussed in this chapter were located in the deepest rural reaches, some such as Ruhengeri were outside urban areas.

  171. Avatar IJE VORDA GOODNESS says:

    NAME: IJE VORDA GOODNESS
    REG NO: 2017/249514
    EMAIL ADDRESS: vordagoodness78@gmail.com

    THE REASON WHY THE POOR HAVE LARGE FAMILIES AND ITS RELATED EFFECTS

    It’s no news that the poor tend to have more children than their rich counterparts. Their reasons maybe based on sociological, religious or cultural sentiments. Poverty has a devastating effect for people living in it. Poor parents are likely to breed poor children who are likely to be poor as adults, to drop out of school and because teenage parents. Studies depicts that about 32% of poor children become poor young adults.

    The following are a few reasons why
    ▪️ High child mortality rate has been a major reason for the preference of more children by poor parents. Because of chronic poverty and inadequate access to good nutrition and health care the poor have numerous children with the hope that few children will survive until adulthood and break the vicious cycle of poverty. In Burkina Faso 8.5% of children will die before their fifth birthday.
    ▪️ Limited access to education and widespread illiteracy has been a major determinant of large families. In poor nations like Burkina Faso with less than a third of its population been able to read and write a mum has an average of 5 to 6 children in contrast to Australia with a 99% literacy level and an average of 1.77 children per mum. Educated women are more likely to use contraception, marry later and have fewer children.
    ▪️ Furthermore early marriages and gender roles indeeds plays a role in the more having more children. In many poor nations which translates to having a greater ratio of poor citizens a woman’s role is limited to motherhood and wifehood, so 1 in 3 girls are married before age 18 and soon enough they start birthing children.
    ▪️ Poverty leaves people with limited access to contraceptives and information about contraceptives. About 225 million women in poor countries desire to delay or stop childbearing but don’t have access to contraceptives. Moreover stigma about contraceptives still abound due to poor health education, religious and cultural biases and scepticism about government motives in controlling the population growth rate.
    ▪️ Providing care and basic necessities for the elderly is a reason for preference over many children. In Nigeria with an almost non- functional welfare system people want to have large families so that someone will take care of them in their old age.
    ▪️ Since the major livelihood of poor parents is labour-intensive agriculture they have preference for bmany children so that their extra labour maybe employed and they pay little or nothing for this extra labour.
    ▪️ In patriarchal societies like ours there’s preference for male children over female children so if a woman doesn’t have male children they tend to keep birthing children until they have one or the men just go and start new families with another woman.
    ▪️ Having large number of children in traditional societies like Nigeria is seen as a great achievement.

    POSITIVE EFFECTS OF THE POOR HAVING LARGE FAMILIES
    There are some positive effects of poor people having numerous children. The following are a few reasons
    ▪️ They supply labour that if positively employed can lead to economic growth and development. China has been able to utilize her population to foster economic development.
    ▪️ Large families provide psychological reassurance to individuals that they’re not alone.
    ▪️ Siblings act as protectors to one another against common enemies especially in poor societies where security is grossly inefficient.

    NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF THE POOR HAVING NUMEROUS CHILDREN
    The negative effects of having the poor having large families cannot be over emphasized. Because these children are exposed to hardship at a very tender age they experience physical, mental and psychological trauma and stress. The following are a few:-
    ▪️ Teenage pregnancy: girls born into poverty tend to get teenage pregnancy than there fortunate counterparts born into richer families.
    ▪️ Greater crime rates and unemployment is a negative effect of poor people having numerous children. Since they’re unable to cater for the basic necessities of their children like food, education, clothing, shelter and housing these children turn to crime and drug abuse. And because they’re more likely not to have a decent education this renders them unemployable or if they do get employment are limited to menial jobs.
    ▪️ Poor access to health care and health problems: because poor women hardly have access to adequate care before, during and after pregnancy this takes a toll on their bodies and their store of iron and other bodily minerals more likely to be depleted. Of course the health of their babies and children is not any better.
    ▪️ Inadequate education and schooling: poor parents hardly have a penny to send their children to school and so therefore their children are rendered unemployable. They grow up in poor neighborhoods that don’t even have good schools and other basic amenities.
    ▪️ Housing and homelessness/ overcrowding in the home: this is a common feature in poor homes, children grow up in rundown and dilapidated homes, they are more prone to risk of assault, abuse and rape. The children don’t even have the luxury of space to develop properly since the house is overcrowded.
    ▪️ Poor families and their children have a poor diet. Many cannot even afford to feed 3 times a day combine with the foods they eat lack the basic nutrients needed for a strong and healthy body little wonder they are more prone to illness than well fed and nutured families.
    ▪️ High maternal death is a recurrent feature of having large families as so many women die at childbirth since they have little or no access to health care during pregnancy. Teenage mothers are far at greater risk since their pelvis is not fully developed.
    ▪️ Greater female illiteracy rate: often times once these poor women get pregnant any chance at education is also terminated.
    ▪️ Having large number of children places financial stress on the poor parents as inadequate resources will have to be split among more children.
    ▪️ The poor are at greater risk of domestic violence, divorce and other family problems. The stress of running a family and catering for children can put immense pressure on a family and trigger violence and other family problems.
    ▪️ Low self esteem and antisocial behaviour is a common characteristics among poor children.
    This above is my honest opinion.

  172. Avatar Odu David Oluchukwu says:

    NAME: ODU DAVID OLUCHUKWU
    REG: 2017/241432
    DEPT: ECONOMICS

    REASONS WHY THE POOR TEND TO HAVE
    MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    There are so many reasons why the poor in our society tends to have many children than the rich.
    Some of these reasons includes :
    1. Ignorance of what family planning is all about : Most of the poor are illiterate and are ignorant of family planning. The reason for this is that some of the poor are not educated and therefore cannot read and does not even listen to news where they could have acquired the necessary information concerning family planning.
    Another reason is that majority of the poor are living in the rural area or village . So, even if they become aware of family planning, some resort to traditional methods of family planning which may not be reliable and efficient.

    2. Another important reason why the poor have more children than the rich is that, the rich always consider the cost of training the children, while the poor don’t always consider this.
    This is the reason why the poor people’s children have poor academic background and poor health.
    That is because their parents don’t always consider the cost of sending their children to school and the cost of medical care.
    The rich always put all these into considerations before they start giving birth to the children.
    3. Religious Beliefs : Some of the religious sets are against the use of family planning and contraceptives as a method of birth control.
    Using the Catholic Church as an example, their doctrine is against the use of family planning and contraceptives as a method of birth control.
    They preach that people should make use of the natural methods of birth control .
    Natural method like, the couples using the ovulation method to know when the woman have the risk of conceiving after intercourse.
    But, the problem with this, is that some of the poor are ignorant, and can not go with this natural method.

    CONSEQUENCES
    1. Having many children in a family limits the chances of those children going to school. That means that at the same time, this also limits the chances of those children escaping circle vision of poverty.
    As education is one of the ways of escaping poverty.
    2. A family having many children also poses a great challenge to the society in general.
    Having many children increases the population of the society, which may in turn Increase the level of unemployment.
    3. Another risk of having many children is an increase in the crime rate in the society.
    This is because most often, the children don’t go to school to acquire the necessary skills they need in order to succeed in life.
    So, when there’s no work or source of income for them, some of them resort to stealing, kidnapping, cyber crime etc in order to make a living.

  173. Name: Ndem Nneka Grace
    Reg no: 2017/249529
    Dept: Economics
    Course: Eco 362
    Blog: Nnekagrace.Blogspot.com

    Discuss the reasons why the poor have more children than the rich and the attendant consequences (positive/ negative) of such actions based on your own opinion.

    It is already said that poverty is a disease. Anyone poor is already classified as someone with so many diseases like illiteracy, lack of health care services, unemployed and there is a tendency that they will be lacking the basic amenities like food, shelter, clothing, access to clean/ drinking water, and they are mostly seen in underdeveloped or developing countries.
    The poor have more children than the rich following these reasons;
    1. Encouragement and Strength: A man with more children is encouraged and strengthened than a man with only one or two children. It is said that “onye nwe otu nwa, gba aka nwa” (I.e a man with one child is as good as having no child), what do I mean? If a man has 5 to 10 children, he is strengthened that if anything should happen to anyone or five of the children he still has others who will replace them, but if a man has only 1 or 2 children, there is a tendency that if something happens to one, the other might not survive it. The poor have more children because it strengthens them.
    2.Quest for care and support: Poor people have more children because they believed that once they are old their children will take care of them, but the rich people believe that once they are old their money will take care of them. When a man has so many children, he feels satisfied that he has people who will care and support him when he is weak than a man who has 1 or 2 children they might forget about their parents I.e they might not really be out for them, they assumed that they have money, and they will take care of themselves, but the poor with many children receive care from the children, even if some of the children might overlook them at their old age others will still remember and take care of them.

    There is a negative consequence of giving birth to more number of children;
    1. Increase in societal crime: It is one thing to give birth to many children, and another thing to provide for them. When a man gives birth to many children, and he is poor I.e he can’t provide 50% of what the children needs, it is a problem; How? The children quest for survival because their parents cannot provide for them lead them into venturing into many bad things in the society like arm robbery, drug dealings, pickpocketing, smoking, and other things for the boys and the girls will go into prostitution, smoking and some might end up sleeping and lottering the streets in other to provide for themselves which has at the same time increase the rate of crime in the society.
    2. Overpopulation in the economy: The poor giving birth to more children has caused overpopulation, which had also cause unequal distribution of resources, because the number of people which tends to increase every day is more than the available resources in the society.

  174. Avatar Anachunam Daberechi MaryJane says:

    NAME: ANACHUNAM DABERECHI MARYJANE
    REG NO: 2017/241448

    Reasons why poor people have more children than the rich

    Ignorance: most poor people are illiterates and are ignorant of the different birth control measures that could be used in controlling the number of children One has.
    Planning for the future: some poor people know that their jobs won’t give them enough retirement income and they can’t work for ever, so they have more children that will be able take of them at their old age.
    Rich people would also want to have lesser children so that raising them won’t reduce their standard of living.
    In rural areas and villages where most poor people live, polygamy is predominant and this leads to having alot of children.
    In urban areas where most women work and therefore make the family have high standard of living, the women won’t want to have many children because raising many children may affect their career.
    Poor people who practice subsistence farming may need more children to help in the farmlands while the rich can afford to employ people and buy machine to do the work, so they don’t need extra children for the labour.

    Consequences of having many children when ones standard of living is already low (poor) are in many ways more negative than positive.
    First of all, the person’s standard of living may even get lower as he now has to share his little income with raising more people. This includes eating little food without enough nutrition content, which will inturn make the children and everyone in the family prone to different diseases. And because of low income, affording proper health care becomes a problem and it may lead to early death of citizens in the country.
    Frustration from this low standard of living may also lead to people committing different crimes like stealing or kidnapping inorder to earn more income.
    Lastly, more children may be good for the nation as it increases the labour force but it be of no value if there isn’t any available job for the growing labour force

  175. Okere success chigoziem
    2017/243145
    Education Economics
    Eco 362

    Reasons why the poor give birth to more children that the rich and it’s effect/consequences

    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.

    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:

    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply. A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

    Consequences of Large Family Size on the Quality of Individual Lives

    The large size of a family affects the quality of life of the individual in the following ways:
    The members may be malnourished, that is they may not be able to feed well.
    is tendency of fighting with one another in a big family.
    Access to good and qualitative education might not be possible because of shortage in family resources.
    There will be jealousy and envy in the large family.
    Many members of large family grow up in hostile environment.
    Room occupancy ratio will be high in a large family. Over population per room might occur.

    Consequences of Large Family Size on the National Economy
    The size of a large family affects the national economy in the following ways:consequences on the economy of the nation:

    It may bring about the under-utilization of economic resources.
    A small family size may not be able to have more people that will vote during election.
    Small family size will produce inadequate labour force which will be smaller than that of a larger family.
    It brings about low output because of its small nature.
    It will have wastage of output. In case the family produces more than it can consume, it will be wasted or given out to those that do not labour with them.
    This is because the family is small.

  176. Reasons why the poor give birth to more children that the rich and it’s effect/consequences
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.

    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:
    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in Guatemala found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.
    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply. A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

    Consequences of Large Family Size on the Quality of Individual Lives

    The large size of a family affects the quality of life of the individual in the following ways:

    The members may be malnourished, that is they may not be able to feed well.
    is tendency of fighting with one another in a big family.
    Access to good and qualitative education might not be possible because of shortage in family resources.
    There will be jealousy and envy in the large family.
    Many members of large family grow up in hostile environment.
    Room occupancy ratio will be high in a large family. Over population per room might occur.
    Consequences of Large Family Size on the National Economy
    The size of a large family affects the national economy in the following ways:consequences on the economy of the nation:
    It may bring about the under-utilization of economic resources.
    A small family size may not be able to have more people that will vote during election.
    Small family size will produce inadequate labour force which will be smaller than that of a larger family.
    It brings about low output because of its small nature.
    It will have wastage of output. In case the family produces more than it can consume, it will be wasted or given out to those that do not labour with them.
    This is because the family is small.

  177. Avatar Ogbonnaya Victor Nnanna says:

    NAME: OGBONNAYA VICTOR NNANNA
    REG NO: 2017/249544
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS
    E-mail: nnanna.ogbonnaya.249544@unn.edu.ng
    COURSE CODE: ECO 362
    TOPIC: DISCUSS THE REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH

    The reasons why poor people tend to give birth to more children than the rich is because of the following reasons:
    1. HIGH LEVEL OF ILLITERACY: In less developed countries like Nigeria, fulani girls with no basic education marry and begin their families in adolescence age. They are also likely to have more kids making it difficult to afford the cost of education. While women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children, they often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education understanding the financial investment it will require.
    2. SOCIAL REPUTATION: In some parts of the Nigeria Igbo culture or community where children are viewed as blessings, the larger family you have, the more blessed you are. In many parts, couples that have difficulty in child bearing are stigmatized and looked down upon and the women sometimes carry the whole blame. Big families are viewed as powerful.
    3. FAMILY LEGACY: In some parts of the Nigeria’s culture, they prefer birthing male children to preserve their family legacy, so in the search for male children they tend to over birth. In some cases where a family is constantly giving birth to female children they continue trying until they get a male children which tends to increase the family size.
    4. CARE FOR ELDERS: The Nigeria culture, the poor believe that as the children they give birth to grow up, they carry the responsibility of taking care of their siblings and parents in their old age and relieve them of some financial burdens. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of future security for parents with the hope that one of them may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty.
    5. MISCONCEPTION ABOUT FAMILY PLANNING: In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. They belief that children come from God so they have no right to restrict how the children come. They have an innate fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.
    The reasons above are few reasons why the poor tend to have more children than the rich.

  178. Avatar Ugwu Sandra Ogechukwu says:

    Name: Ugwu Sandra Ogechukwu
    Reg no: 2017/241433
    Email: sandra.ugwu.241433@unn.edu.ng
    Answer:
    Poverty has been defined by different scholars. The UN defines poverty as a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. The Encyclopaedia Britannica defines poverty as the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions to satisfy his basic needs. Wikipedia on the other hand defines poverty as the state of not having enough material possessions or income for a person’s basic needs. However, poverty can be considered as a contextual word which is to say that a person is considered poor in relation with the level of wealth of people living in his surroundings. Poverty has affected different aspects of people’s life which include feeding, clothing and even child bearing.
    It has been discovered that the poor always have more children than the rich. One of the major causes of this is illiteracy. Not less than sixty pecent of illiterates constitute the poor population. Illiteracy can simply be defined as the inability to read and write. This definition however could be considered vague in this case as most illiterates are unaware of measures of child control. There is always little or no knowledge possessed by illiterates on how to plan their home in terms of child birth; hence, they bear children as it comes. Illiteracy also has a strong role to play on the part of women. An illiterate woman has no carrier to ‘pursue’ and have no restrictions on getting pregnant unlike some carrier women who has one of its criteria for promotion as not being pregnant during the period of promotion.
    Ignorance also plays a major role in the number of children the poor have. Most of the poor who are fully aware of family planning or birth control are ignorant of it. It is worthy to note that ignorance on the part of the poor is always as a result of lack means to source the necessities of family planning.
    In addition, neglect of the cost of having children on the part of the poor has also been a major cause of high birth rate. The real cost here is the cost of training (educating) their children in school. The poor do not factor in this cost because in rare cases do they have plans on sending they children to school. The opportunity cost on the other hand is the forgone alternative of having children which is mostly a cost that acquires to the women. To have many children women have to forgo so many economic business and even other activities.
    Moreover, belief and\or religion can never be neglected in this context. It is a fact that the poor is more dedicated to religious beliefs than the rich. This is so because the poor believe more in mighty miracle that can turn things around than the rich. Hence, some belief has it that children are gifts from God and should never be prevented from coming into the world to avoid the rot of God. The poor being dedicated to their faith follows and keeps to this thus having more children.
    Furthermore, consideration of old age sustenance (expected benefit) has also been a major cause of high birth rate among the poor. It is a proven fact that the rich always save and\or invest for financing old age consumption. At such age when they (the rich) must have retired they live on saved or invested resources; hence, they do not hope or depend on their children for old age sustenance. This reason makes the rich have concise number of children as they expect nothing or less from them. This is however the contrary for the poor who have nothing saved or invested for old age sustenance. Hence, to ensure such sustenance the poor tend to have more children whom they depend on to pull resources together and take care of them at old age.
    However, this line of character by the poor has its consequences on the poor families and even the nation at large. One of which is increase in population especially population of unskilled labour. The poor a times do not consider education as a basic necessity for a child and hence deprives the child of the opportunity of acquiring formal skills to strengthen his labor potentials; thereby leading to increase in unskilled labour in the nation at large. It is therefore rational to say that the higher the numbers of poor people the higher the population of unskilled labour.
    Another consequence of this pattern of child birth by the poor is increase in crime rate. With an increase in the population of illiterate individuals who will probably be unemployed or underemployed there will be increase the crime rate in the society as such individual try alternatives by all means to sustain life.

  179. Avatar UDUMA IKECHUKWU OBASI says:

    NAME: UDUMA IKECHUKWU OBASI
    REG: 2017/241441
    EMAIL: ikechukwuuduma9@gmail.com

    Statistics and studies has revealed that poor people tend to have more children than the rich. This idea is in most cases different from the region under consideration. But never the less studies on this phenomenon has revealed a number of generally causatives or reasons that brought about high birth rate among the poor families of the world. These reasons include;

    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. statistics shows that infant mortality rate in Nigeria from 2009 to 2019, the was at about 74.2 deaths per 1,000 live births. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent.

    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Nigeria, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In America, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children.
    There are a few reasons why education is connected to a lower birth rate:

    Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. A study in found that for each additional year a young woman spent in school, the age at which she had her first child was delayed approximately six to 10 months.

    Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 per cent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner.
    In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    4. Limited access to contraception
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    5. The old age benefits
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    7. Religion
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.

    ADVANTAGES OF HAVING CHILDREN:

    There are many perceived economic, psychological and social benefits to having children. Firstly, the perceived economic costs are expected financial support by children in the parents’ old age and additional workers to contribute to contribution to the household production and income. Secondly, the psychological value derived from having children includes companionship, love, stimulation and the extension of family name across generations. Finally, there are many social advantages of having children such as providing parents with important community roles, making the transition to adulthood or being accepted by other family members (East- West Population Institute 1989).

    DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING CHILDREN:

    On the other hand, there are many economic, psychological and physical costs to having children. Economic costs include both direct costs such as those of food, clothing and education and also indirect costs such as the mother’s potential loss of income because of responsibilities of childbearing. The psychological burden consists of restrictions on parents’ freedom, loss of flexibility, a reduction in free time and an increase in worries. Finally, the physical strain faced by couples is related to work of bearing and rearing children (East-West Population Institute 1989).

    Couples in most countries have strong psychological and social motivations to initiate childbearing. After the first child’s birth, parents frequently report wanting a second child to provide companionship to their first child. After the first two children, consideration of the economic costs and benefits generally becomes more important (East-West Population Institute 1989).

  180. Avatar NNANYELUGO CHIDERA MICHAEL says:

    Name: NNANYELUGO CHIDERA MICHAEL
    Reg no: 2017/245023
    Dept: ECONOMICS
    Course code: ECO 362
    Second assignment
    Email: chideramichael@gmail.com

    Discuss the positive and negative reasons why the poor have more children than the rich
    Every child is a gift and a joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families.
    At Compassion, we believe that every child is a precious gift from God: ‘Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him,’ Psalm 127:3. Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons, it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable.
    some of the factors that contribute to larger families by the poor and advantages involved.
    1. High child mortality rates
    Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, as a result of this, mostly the poor parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. In Burkina Faso, a shocking 8.5 per cent of children will die before reaching their fifth birthday; in Haiti, it’s 6.7 per cent. For comparison, in Australia, the same figure is 0.4 per cent. So the poor families are also sceard to loose their child as that they have love for children more than the rich.
    2. Limited access to education
    Generally, the higher the degree of education and GDP per capita a country has, the lower the birth rate. In Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries, less than one-third of the country can competently read and write. Here, the average number of kids a mum has is between five and six. In Australia, where the literacy rate is 99 per cent, the average couple has 1.77 children. Women with some formal education are more likely than uneducated women to use contraception, marry later, and have fewer children. With that believe,the poor believed that when they give more births that out of all the children that educational system must at least favour a particular child which will amounts for betterment of others.
    3. Early marriage and gender roles
    From my opinions, the issue of early marriage and gender roles always comes from the poor families. In some countries, a woman’s role is expected to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.
    4. Limited access to contraception and lack of resources.
    An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.
    5. Care for elders
    In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.
    6. Need for extra labour
    More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.
    The religion can as well make the rich and the poor to have more child bearings such that:
    Religious beliefs may mean a family chooses not to use contraceptives. In Latin America, social norms and religious tradition mean family planning services aren’t available to many communities. Affordable options for accessing contraception and health care for remote or rural communities are in short supply.A couple’s family size is their own personal decision and our local staff would never seek to denigrate it. As part of our Mums and Babies critical intervention, local staff share family planning methods in a culturally appropriate way so parents can make informed decisions.

    Effects of poor having more children
    It’s no question that poverty and its effects harms communities and even entire countries, but also the socioeconomic status directly impacts children as well? Children living in poverty experience a wide variety of risk factors, ranging from health concerns to increased difficulties at school.
    1. The Health Risks of Childhood Poverty
    Most are unaware of just how greatly low-income households & extreme poverty can influence child health and cognitive child development. However, poverty does indeed impact growth from early childhood, starting with brain development and other body systems. Poverty itself can negatively affect how the body and mind develop, and economic hardship can actually alter the fundamental structure of the child’s brain.
    2. Growing Up in Impoverished Neighborhoods
    Unfortunately, mostly the families with high birth rates, the children who are poor are more likely to be raised in impoverished neighborhoods. These types of neighborhoods that have concentrated poverty levels are often associated with difficulties in academics, behavioral and social issues, and worsening health. Additionally, these children are more likely to live in neighborhoods where they are exposed to environmental risk factors. These socioeconomic risk factors may include malnutrition, pollution, food insecurity, housing instability, economic hardship, led exposure, violence, and crime.
    3. Poverty and Academics
    In addition to these macro-level factors that influence neighborhood schools, poverty affects the way children learn as well. For starters, children who directly or indirectly experience risk factors associated with poverty or low parental education have higher than a 90% chance of having 1 or more problems with speech, learning, and/or emotional development due to the lack of funds to train in school caused by high child bearings.
    4. Finally, poor families living in poverty may not have access to adequate resources. Family income inequality creates high risk for neglect, criminal activity, and physical abuse due to additional stress in the home. While it is significant to note that most parents living in poverty or under stressful circumstances will not abuse or neglect their children, kids who grow up in poverty are at a greater risk for maltreatment overall.
    Conclusion
    according to Harvard’s Center on the Developing Child, Nigeria as a case study it is best and more useful for government to intervene right at the start of development, rather than to try to fix things later. In other words, if we provide the right tools for parents and poor families in need, their children will have greater chances to get out of poverty and become successful as adults. Children who live in poverty are affected by one or more risk factors that have been linked to academic failure and poor health, a perfect combination for remaining in the cycle of poverty. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (2017), between three and 16 percent of children are affected by poverty in combination with risk factors.

  181. Avatar ArinZe miracle ozioma says:

    Arinze miracle Ozioma
    2017/241428
    Ozioma.arinze.241428@unn.edu.ng

    Answer:
    In Nigeria it has been observed that the poor tend to have more children relative to the rich. This is prompted by the following reasons:
    1. The poor believe that more children means more wealth. This means that if they give birth to more children then they will have more wealth in their old age. They do not consider the fact that these children have to be trained before they will make wealth. This misconception causes the poor to give birth to more children in order to to live better later in life
    2. The poor most of the time have nothing doing. The only way to have fun and relieve stress for them is to have sex and give birth. But the rich have a lot to do ranging from going to work and engaging in other leisure activities.
    3. Early marriage also constitute the high rate of birth amongst the poor. For instance in the northern region of the country a poor uneducated father usually gives out his daughter’s hand in marriage at an early age. And the child is expected to start giving birth at that early adolescence age. Because they believe that the more children you have the more labor hands you have for your farm. So children are seen as jackpots for making wealth

    There are consequences that follow this :
    Firstly there is increase in the crime rate. This is because this children given birth to by the poor are not properly trained and educated. They grow up in the streets and feed by legal or illegal means mostly. In the streets they learn how to survive by commiting crimes thereby increasing the crime rate.
    Secondly since these poor families can’t afford good health care services and nutritious food, there will be increase in child mortality and death rates generally. This in turn reduces the labor force. There are of course other consequences of these actions by the poor which all cannot be listed here.
    The summary of all is that the tendency of the poor having more children than the poor has bad consequences which should be minimized.

  182. NGWU OSITA ENOCH

    2917/242022

    OSITANGWU95@GMAIL.COM

    EDUCATION ECONOMICS

    ECO 362 ASSIGNMENT

    DISCUSS THE REASONS WHY THE POOR HAVE MORE CHILDREN THAN THE RICH, AND THE ATTENDANT CONSEQUENCES (POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE).

    At Compassion, we believe that every child is a precious gift from God: ‘Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him,’ Psalm 127:3. Each child has a purpose, and whether a family chose to expand for social, cultural, religious or economic reasons, it is our responsibility as a society to care for our most vulnerable. Because child mortality rates in the developing world are so high, parents may intentionally have large families because the grim reality is that sometimes children don’t survive. Generally, rich people tend to have or are more educated than poor people and the higher the degree of education and GDP per capital a country has, the lower the birth rate. Increasing girls’ participation in school over time also decreases fertility rates. An educated woman is likely to marry at a later age and have fewer children. Educating girls also helps women control how many children they have. UNESCO estimates 60 percent fewer teenage girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia would become pregnant if they all had a secondary education.

    Poor people do have more children than rich people because poor people (girls) are victims of early marriage, where parent marry off their daughters to lessen the burden in the family. In a poor family, a woman’s role is limited to be as a wife and mother. This may often mean she gets married younger and begins having children sooner. In developing countries, one in every three girls is married before age 18. Married girls are often under pressure to become pregnant as soon as possible. This typically means an end to a girl’s education, which can limit her life choices and help perpetuate the cycle of poverty.

    Poor people have more children than rich families because the poor tend to have limited access to contraceptions. An estimated 225 million women in developing countries would like to delay or stop childbearing, but are not using any method of contraception. Most of these women live in the poorest countries on earth. In Africa, one in four women of reproductive age have an unmet need for modern contraception. This is due to many reasons, including limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available services. Supply chains often don’t extend to remote or rural areas, where families in extreme poverty tend to live.

    Poor parents may see children as a way to escape poverty so they tend to have more children. In some developing countries, the government doesn’t provide a pension or social security benefit, so parents must rely on their children to care for them in their old age. Couples may choose to have large families to ensure they are supported when they’re older. For example, in India, children and grandchildren are legally required to provide food, accommodation, and health care for their parents if they are unable to provide for themselves.

    Poor Families will always want more children because of the extra need for labour. More than 70 per cent of the world’s poor family live in rural areas, with most families depending on labour-intensive agriculture to survive. In these communities, there can be a cultural expectation to have big families to combat their need for extra labour. Usually, farmers who live off their harvest can’t afford to pay extra labourers and can only depend on themselves and their children. For them, a large family might be the only assurance for survival.

    ADVANTAGES OF HAVING LARGE FAMILY

    1. You always have a play mate. Like I stated above, there always seems to be someone fighting when there are lots of children. But the best part of this is that someone will probably always be mad at you, but there will always be someone that has your back as well! You will never be at a loss for a listening ear or a partner in crime.

    2. Lots of cousins & grandchildren! One day I decided to do some math. I realized that my mother could end up with a minimum of 8 grandchildren if each of us has children, and a possible maximum of 64 if we all had 8 children ourselves! That’s a lot of grandkids, not the mention cousins. Honestly, the thought of it makes my heart all warm and fuzzy because those memories with my grandparents and cousins are some of the best of my childhood.

    3. You always have enough people for games. In the summer we loved to have baseball games, and in the winter we played lots of board games and card games. You never had to wait for the extended family to come over because we had at least 2 built in teams for any game!

    4. Someone is always doing something fun. There’s literally never a boring moment in a large house. After I got married, sometimes I would just wander over to my parent’s house to see what was going on. On the other hand, my home is currently very boring and quiet and sometimes my son gets so aggravated with me and wants to leave for more adventure!

    5. Great conversation. I’m sure that there were many years where my mother felt starved of real human contact and really sick of baby talk. But after we have all grown up more, family dinners can be an absolute blast. Bring up pretty much any controversial topic and you’ll have quite a fiery debate! The best part about them though is that we all have mostly similar opinions because of our upbringing, so a lot of the time our conversations actually end up resolved, or helping each other make decisions.

    6. New babies ALL the time. Like, really. All the time. It’s the best.

    7. Character building for all involved. The parents are obviously shaped beyond your wildest dreams. Older children are mature and responsible and sacrificial. Younger children are used to being ignored and figuring things out for themselves. Generally, everyone ends up being more considerate of others and more selfless. Of course, we are all human, but in a large family there is no room for being a selfish brat. Eventually it will get booted out of you.

    8. The circle of life means no youngest kid syndrome! On both sides of the family, the youngest sibling (aunt/uncle) is either younger than, or no more than a year older than, the oldest grandchild. Both my parents and my in-laws have perfectly alleviated the youngest child syndrome. All the youngest children are used to sharing their toys, helping out with the babies, and realize that titles don’t matter – we’re just all family and we all love each other!

    9. More creativity & diversity. Two of my siblings are very quiet and peaceful. Six of us are loud and obnoxious. Two of my siblings, and myself, are logical perfectionists. Four of them are artistic. One of them is somewhere in between. Four of them struggle with anger. The other four of us not so much. Three of us are sporty. All of us are musical. Let me just tell you that there is NO shortage of diversity in our family. We are all so vastly different, and yet there is this part of us all that is so much the same. It’s so magical and beautiful and I can’t wait to watch those individual personalities emerge in my own children.

    10. So much love. Regardless of all the above things, the more hearts in the home, the bigger potential there is for BIG love. Yes, if there are parenting or mental/physical issues this can all have an effect. But if you do your best to usher a loving atmosphere into your home, there will be BIG, REAL and POWERFUL love in your home. The protective and connective love between siblings is amazing, and the more you have the stronger a force you will be to reckon with.

    DISADVANTAGES OF HAVING LARGE FAMILY

    1. Not as much 1-on-1 time with parents. I didn’t know this as a child because what I had was all I knew. I didn’t realize that other kids were spending a lot more time with their parents individually. However, my parents always made the time to go on occasional get away’s with us… maybe a weekend to a hotel, or a day of shopping, riding along with dad in the semi, or even just taking ONE of us on the weekly grocery trip. They just had to work extra hard to make sure we each received quality time with them. But in the long run, I have a deep relationship with both parents. And even when we didn’t have our parents attention, there was always a sibling to hang out with and I would say that was just as good as anything else!

    2. Less money. I think this one pretty much speaks for itself. Choose your priorities, I guess!

    3. Less space. Unless you have the budget to build a gigantic house with rooms for all your kids, having a big family is going to require some strategic organizational skills. But, it can be done! It also might mean just having less stuff, and my personal opinion is that that’s the best way to go regardless of the amount of people in your home.

    4. Less alone time. This is one thing that really irked me the most as a kid. I grew up surrounded by 7 VERY loud siblings, moved on to a missionary school and lived in a single dorm room with 15 other girls for 3 years, then finally got married. I will always remember that first morning in my new home… sitting in my recliner, reading a book and drinking a cup of coffee. ALL. ALONE. I was just a little freaked out at the silence, but very very happy.

    5. Someone is always fighting – at least when you’re kids. Even as adults someone always seems to have a messy relationship. There are just too many personalities to avoid some sort of friction.

    6. People will hardcore judge you and possible make fun of you. But that’s the case no matter what parenting decisions you make. So, why even let it phase you? The thing that is exclusive to large families are the jokes people made to my parents about whether or not they “knew what caused” the children. Ummm…. WHAT?

    7. You’ll get stared at. Honestly, I was just used to it. Every time we went out to dinner, or when mom took us all grocery shopping, people gawked. There were 10 of us including mom and dad, and apparently we looked like a freak show. I don’t know. It all seemed normal to me.

    8. Your younger kids will always be known as “so and so’s little brother/sister”. There’s truly nothing more aggravating when you’re 13 and trying to make a name for yourself.

  183. Avatar OBODO CHISOM JESSICA says:

    NAME: OBODO CHISOM JESSICA
    REG NO: 2017/249538
    EMAIL: chrisom.obodo.249538@unn.edu.ng
    DEPARTMENT: ECONOMICS

    It is known that every child is a gift and a bundle of joy. But when income is scarce and a family is already struggling, why do parents expand their families? There are many social, cultural, religious and economic reasons why parents in the developing world have large families.
    Some of these reasons are;

    1.High child mortality rates. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care and minimal government support. All of these factors contribute to child mortality and parents in poverty know this keenly. According to the World Health Organization, 5.4 million children under five are dying every year, with most of these children in developing countries. Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive.  

    2.Misconceptions about family planning. In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    3.Lack of access to health services. It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    4.Forced early marriage. Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married.It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.

    5.Lack of education. Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.

    6.Religious beliefs: In many faiths, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. When a life philosophy is engrained in the belief that your offspring will be provided for and that children are incredible gifts, it stands to reason that couples would embrace the idea of a large family.

    Consequences of Large Family Size
    1)The members may be malnourished, that is they may not be able to feed well.

    2)There is tendency of fighting with one another in a big family.

    3)Access to good and qualitative education might not be possible because of shortage in family resources.

    4)There will be jealousy and envy in the large family.

    5)Many members of large family grow up in hostile environment.

    6)A large family size will spend most of the income on food. Therefore it will affect the savings of that family. When savings is affected, it will reduce investments.

    7)A large family size will bring about overuse of public facilities.

    8)It will also increase government expenses on the provision of amenities.

    9)It can bring about overuse of land resources which will definitely affect the economy of the nation.

    10)Families with large Children are Important for
    Long-Term Economic Growth
    Economic developers now recognize that human capital and workforce development are critical
    strategies for future economic competitiveness .

  184. Avatar Mbaukwu Nkiruka Precious says:

    Mbaukwu Nkiruka Precious
    2026/242425
    Economics

    The poor having more children than the rich is no new phenomena. The birth rates are quite alarming especially in African and Asian Countries.
    The following reasons listed below are what I think causes the poor to produce more children than the rich.
    Misconceptions about family planning: In many communities, stigmas against contraception still exist. These beliefs can originate from a variety of sources, including breakdowns in public health education, cultural biases and even scepticism about the motives of the government in controlling family size. Often, they contribute to the cultivation of fear and confusion over using certain family planning methods.

    Lack of access to health services: It’s not always misconceptions that prevent people from practicing family planning—sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care.For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care.

    Patriarchal values: It can be seen that In many countries, the severity and pervasiveness of patriarchal values is still an overwhelming reality. In these circumstances, men can often make the decisions for their wives and families, including whether or not to use contraception. As a result, women are often left without any control over how many kids they’ll end up having.
     
    Forced early marriage: Forced early marriage is any marriage where either person is under 18 and hasn’t given their full consent to be married. It happens for many reasons and teenage girls are by far the most vulnerable. When a girl is married young, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.

    Lack of education: Girls who marry and begin their families in adolescence are much less likely to finish school and go on to model educational values for their children. They are also likely to have more kids, making it difficult to afford the cost of education for each child. On the other hand, women who go further in their education tend to have fewer children. They often marry later in life and are more likely to prioritize their own children’s education, understanding the financial investment it will require.
    The rich have access to all these informations and privileges.They are educated and more knowledge than the poor. So they can’t make the decisions the poor make due to ignorance!

  185. IGWILO EBUKA VINCENT
    2017/241434
    ebuka.igwilo.241434@unn.edu.ng
    vingist.blogspot.com

    The problems of poor families having more kids ranges from cultural values to issues of social justice.
    1. SURVIVAL: Faced with this reality, parents may have more kids, understanding the heartbreaking truth that some of their children simply won’t survive. Imagine living in a place where your children’s lives are constantly threatened. There’s not enough nutritious food, limited access to clean water, inadequate housing, poor health care, poor security system and minimal government support.
    2. Lack of Family Planning: Most persons have differnt beliefs about using contraceptives and some even have stigmas against these contraceptives. This result to confusion over using certain family planning methods. sometimes it’s the lack of accessible health care. For some, health clinics are located far from their homes and villages, making it difficult to travel to get needed support. In especially rural areas, a lack of infrastructure, roads and transportation can also be a barrier toward receiving professional medical care. Some poor families who don’t even want to give birth to mich kids or who wants to make use of contraceptives maynot be able because of limited information, options of contraceptive methods and access to contraception, or cultural or religious opposition and poor quality of available service.
    3. Forced Early Marriage: Most times, the popr forced thier daughters into marriage due to reeasons of not being able to cater for them and the family. So they force thier children into early marriage so that the in law can take care of the daughter and the family. When they are forced into an early marriage, her childbearing years start much earlier, meaning—among other complications—she’s likely to have more kids.
    4. Beliefs: In many belief, children are seen as an enormous blessing. Religious texts and scripture can enforce this idea and often act as a strong guiding influence in people’s lives. These poor families tend to go with the belief and go ahead in producing more kids because the “more the kids the more the blessings” that is thier belief. Some believe the larger the family, the more poweeful the family.
    5. Family Legacy: For many, the desire to preserve lineage, history and a family name can feel like a natural, human instinct. It’s not uncommon for parents to be partial to passing on their own genetics to continue their family legacy.
    6. Care and Protection for Elders: As children grow up, they not only carry on their family’s legacy, but also the responsibility of providing for and protecting their parents and siblings. This is especially important in countries without strong governmental safety nets. In these cases, having more kids may provide an extra sense of security for parents, with the added hope that one day, one or more children may be successful enough to lift the entire family out of poverty
    7. Labour Force: Families in poverty, particularly those who make their living through agriculture, may have more kids as a way of supporting the family’s livelihood. Children are often tasked with chores like walking to collect water, gardening, field work and animal care, even when they’re very young. In more dire situations, children may enter the labour force to earn more income for the family survival
    Consequences
    These factors lead to poor wellbeing of the children, poor health and poor education

  186. Avatar NWAFOR CLARA DABELECHI says:

    NWAFOR CLARA DABELECHI
    2017/249534
    ECONOMICS
    Why the poor have more children than the rich

    The cost of raising children: unlike the rich, the poor do not consider the cost or raising the children. This cost include the cost of education, good health care, good nutrition, etc. therefore giving birth to a lot of children is not a problem since a lot of cost and finance is not needed. The rich would consider all this before having children. Since he wants the best education, best nutrition and the best healthcare service, he would limit the number of children he will have to that which he can afford
    The need of more persons to provide necessities: the poor feels that they need other persons to assist in providing necessities hence the need for more children to assist usually in the farm for production of food and other basic necessities. But the rich can provide for his necessities himself; therefore this won’t be a reason to have a lot of children to the rich
    The poor also have the notion that women are only for reproduction, therefore they do not engage in any other productive activity but only to birthing children

  187. Avatar Onuigbo Francis chiemezie 2017/249568 Economics major says:

    Onuigbo Francis chiemezie
    2017/249568
    Economics major

    Reason why the poor have more children than the rich:

    There are various reasons, the poor have plenty children than the rich, but i will like to discuss on two points.
    • Lack Of or Limited Access to Education: In many developing countries the poor lack access to education as the government fail in most cases to provide efficient and quality education. The low enrolment in school lead to early marriage and poor family planning. Even though there are science and technology that support effective control and family planning, the poor with his limited knowledge and limited resource, has low access to family planning. many people do not even believe it work, while some that got the idea lack the knowledge of effective usage of the of the science (contraceptive), and eventually end up producing more children.
    • The Belief System: Many people don’t believe in family planning, as a result they don’t even try it all. they believe that children are the inheritance from God and that every child is a blessing, therefore they did not see any reason to stop that. while some other people believe to have more children because of the uncertainty of who will take care of them even in their old aged. They believe by having plenty children, at least one among them will take care of the parent in their old aged.
    On the other hand the rich people dnon’t prioritize having plenty children, but having born few with effective and quality training and education. In other word, the rich unlike the poor has the access to education, access to family planning, and can give their children quality education and training.

    The consequences of giving birth to plenty children by the poor is that, they may be helpful to the parents as individual, helping them in their activities and take of them during their old aged, and also may helpful to the society in general. On the other hand since producing plenty children means adding to the population, when the population growth exceed the capacity of the economy there will be negative consequences. In this case unemployment will lead to criminal activities in the society.

  188. UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA NSUKKA
    FACULTY OF EDUCATION
    DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SCIENCE EDUCATION (ECONOMICS EDUCATION)

    TOPIC:
    THE HARRIS-TODARO MODEL OF MIGRATION

    AN ASSIGNMENT PRESENTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
    FOR THE COURSE
    DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS (ECO361)
    BY
    EKE PROMISE CHINAZA
    2017/241531

    LECTURER:
    DR. TONY

    MARCH, 2020.

    promise.eke.241531@unn.edu.ng

    THE INTRODUCTION
    The harris-todaro model of migration, this model was named after John R. Harris and Michael Todaro, these are renewed American economist, this economic model was developed in 1970, and this model is mostly used by development economics and welfare economics to discuss issues concerning rural-urban migration. The model’s main assumption states that income differentials between rural and urban areas rather than just wage differentials. It is an early multisector labor-market model.
    THE HISTORY OF HARRIS-TODARO MODEL OF MIGRATION
    The government of Kenya faced unemployment in Nairobi as their main difficult situation as at that time and this situation affected all other parts of the country. The only solution brought up that time was that the private-sector and public-sector employers agreed to increase employment and to exchange it with unions agreeing to hold wages at their current levels. The increasing number of jobs employed is supposed to decease unemployment but in the case the revise was the case, even after applying the solution the unemployment continued. Because of the issue, John Harris and Michael Todaro formulated this model of migration the explain the event. Not long after the formulation of this model the government of Kenya followed harris-todaro model of migration by putting in place certain programs of rural development.
    The harris-todaro model of labor migration is best studied by development economist and welfare economist.This model made the unemployment in Kenya to fell. The model is one of the classic rural-urban migration theories. The model states that migrants reacts and responds to certain phenomenon like wages, economics incentives, different earnings and the possibilities of getting a job in a desired location. The model states that rural- urban migration is possible when the urban wage rate exceeds rural wage rate. The fundamental contribution of this model is on labor market and their analyzing.
    THE HARRIS-TODARO MODEL OF MIGRATION ASSUMPTION
    John Harris and Michael Todaro studied the moment of workers mainly in a two sector economics system, which is the rural sector and urban sector. The main difference between these two sectors is the difference in goods produced, the technology used in production, the technology advancement and the ways of wage determination (what determines wage rate). The cob-Douglas production function is used to describe the productive process of the sector.
    The major assumption of the harris-todaro model of migration is that there is a marginal flow from the rural to urban sector; meanwhile the expected wages is higher than the rural wages.
    The model assumes that there is no existence of unemployment in the rural agricultural sector. An another assumption of this model is that they assumes that rural agricultural production and the subsequent labor market is perfectly competitive, because of this, the agricultural rural wage is equivalent to agricultural marginal productivity of labor.
    The harris-todaro model states that in equilibrium, the expected urban wages must be in equivalent with the agricultural wage (the only wage source is agricultural labor). The Harris-Todaro model was made to explain how internal migration occurs from rural to urban sectors through the difference in the expected wage. Pritchett points out that migration can be of a benefit to the developing countries and their population much more significantly than any aid attempts.
    Fundamentally it was used to explain migration within an economy, but we attempt to expand the model to an international level. The model begins by accepting that the assumption of (nearly) full employment in urban labour markets isn’t particularly appropriate for developing countries which are beset by a chronic (under/)unemployment problem whereby many uneducated and unskilled rural migrants cannot find a job in the formal sector so become unemployed or join the informal sector. Thus in deciding whether to move to the city or stay at home on the farm, an individual has to weigh up the probability and risks of being unemployed for a considerable period of time against the positive urban-rural real income differential. Probably the most fundamental assumption in this model is that migration is an economic phenomenon in response to urban-rural differences in the expected income. This assumes that people only move for monetary gains, when in reality there are many other factors involved in this decision.

    THE CRITICISM OF THE HARRIS-TODARO MODEL OF MIGRATION

    The most fundamental criticism with this model is the barriers which exist preventing labor from migrating to rich (urban sector) countries from poor (rural sector). This makes it incredibly difficult to model international migration in a Harris-Todaro framework, simply because there are barriers to entry from workers wanting to move and not being able to do so. Furthermore, there are other barriers to entry, such as not speaking the language, cultural issues, not having a social or business network and needing sufficient capital to afford to physically move and then set up in a far away land.

    Moreover, the model assumes that costs are given in a monetary sense, whereas in reality it might be quite difficult to put a value on leaving your family in a distant country to go and work abroad. Similarly, the model assumes that individuals can rationally calculate the economic gains from migration, but by moving individuals would be imposing a cost upon themselves, and would have to include the value of living abroad (i.e. even though wages are higher they are eaten up by housing, food, clothing and other living costs) which may be quite difficult to calculate.

    Other issues with the model, in both an internal and international perspective, are that it doesn’t include human capital, there are no externalities and it treats workers and citizens as homogenous. On the first issue, including human capital in the model is quite relevant, especially in an internationally empirical sense as developed countries allow more skilled workers than they do unskilled workers.
    On the second issue, Carrington, Detragiache and Vishwanath, develop a model which incorporates a positive externality associated with earlier people moving from nearby villages and the probability of a rural citizen migrating. Because this increases the social network of a migrating individual it may increase the probability that he decides to move.
    The third issue is a more interesting point, in that cities aren’t homogenous: different cities develop different industrial sectors, an