Poverty become an ongoing problem in some countries which made the people cannot fulfil their living needs and do not consider their health anymore. However, health is one of the factors to determine the quality of human resources and means health is a thing to be noticed and maintained.
Poverty is when humans can not managed properly their main needs such as clothing, food and shelter. There are many factors that cause poverty in some countries such as low levels of education, uneven distribution of government, unemployment, lack of attention from the government, and much more. The poorest people will also have less access to health, education and other services. Problems of hunger, malnutrition and disease afflict the poorest in society. The poorest are also typically marginalized from society and have little representation or voice in public and political debates, making it even harder to escape from poverty (Shah, 2013).
The most common factor that keeps the poor from living unhealthy lives is the that they consume. Food becomes the one that people do not really care anymore if they are in a life of poverty, whereas the food eaten also determines health. Consuming nutritious food is still an obstacle for people to live healthy, especially the poor. One of the main reasons because most people assume that healthy food is expensive. These thinking may be wrong because actually there are many alternatives to getting healthy food with an affordable price. An example is when there are parents who want their children to grow up healthy and smart by consuming fish, but the price of fish expensive. The solution offered is to buy the remaining fish that is still worth eating, so they can get a cheaper price. Choosing cheap and easy-to-obtain vegetables is also one of the solutions offered for getting nutritious food, or people can also try to grow vegetables that are easy to grow and quickly harvest such as tomatoes, spinach and kale. Another simple example is shopping on weekends, because it will make us want to cook ourselves rather that buy food from outside, shopping in traditional market also one of the alternatives to get cheaper food prices rather than shopping in modern market, also reduce meat consumption and more increase the consumption of vegetables. These examples prove that to have good nutrition does not mean have to eat healthy food with an expensive price but we can use a healthy substitute food in addition to instant food or fast food.
Other factors that cause humans to live unhealthy lives because poverty is their living condition. Almost every city has a slum area, this is due to the high level of urbanization. Many villagers thought that city life was much easier than in the village so they decided to move to the city. But some of those who have bad luck can not adapt so they can not get a job in the city and can not meet their needs, including not being able to get a decent residence.
It can be seen also that the worse the environmental situation is occupied, it can be ascertained if their health level is also low. In general, slum areas are defined as a residential area or even a residential area that serves as a residence whose buildings are substandard or inadequate inhabited by densely populated poor (Purnomo, 2012). As we know slum settlements are usually under bridges, on the banks of rivers and on the rails of railways where places of disease spread easily. Some examples of slum-dwelling problems that are easy to spread disease are the problem of clean water sources, indiscriminate defecation, and littering. Clean water is usually hard to get in slums, even people who live in riverside areas use river water to bathe, wash, even for cooking and drinking too. When the water is contaminated and certainly contains many bacteria that can cause diseases such as diarrhea. Then, slums are also usually not equipped with toilet facilities so that people who live there often defecate carelessly and leave it alone. Dumped waste is also one of the problems that cause disease because the waste trigger the arrival of insects such as flies and mosquitoes that can transmit disease to humans.
Slums are a serious problem and can not be handled only by the people who live there, but need to intervene from the local government. the most frequent attempts by government to deal with slums are through evictions, but these efforts do not provide a solution for the people who live there and usually shortly after their evictions will come back and occupy the land again. The way that should be done by the local government is to build a simple and decent apartment to live in which the poor can afford to rent because the price is affordable. The development of the residence should also be equipped with several facilities that support the needs of residents such as places of worship, schools for children, affordable markets, and health centers for treatment. It would be better if the government also provides jobs for people who do not have jobs so they can earn and use their money to buy their needs. When the government has taken part in realizing the development of decent housing, the people who live there must also begin to realize to be able to care for the surrounding environment so as to achieve a clean environment and of course healthy.
Another factor that makes poor people have an unhealthy life is because of poor and inaccessible health services. Health is the right of everyone. But in everyday life we ​​see many disparities in health services, especially by those who can not afford (Suadu, 2013). Difficult to reach can be interpreted that the cost required for treatment is high enough, it is what makes people less able to choose not to cure the disease they suffered and prefer to let it just like that until their disease becomes more severe. The right handling of this problem is the provision of health services to those in need, and some healthcare efforts that can be provided to the community is to provide free medical expenses, and to prioritize treatment of common illnesses or communicable diseases, then also health counseling, provision of medicines and free health checks regularly. The local government is also obliged to routinely control the environmental health of the community and quickly in providing solutions. Because the area inhabited by the population certainly requires special attention on the health of the local community. This is a very important thing to consider the increasing number of deaths due to hygiene related diseases (Ervianto, 2018).
In conclusion, poverty and health are two interrelated aspects, because in every poverty there must be a bad health condition as well. The poor are burdened by the situation because of the limited access for them to get a decent living material to use. In addition, because of their low level of education, they can not develop the mind to find solutions to the problems they face. Humans also need to start to realize that health is the most important primary capital for humans, because when the condition of the body is not healthy the disease will easily give up and eventually humans can not perform activities optimally. Living a healthy life is not expensive and difficult to live, but the intention of the human self is necessary because there are many ways and solutions for us to live healthy with cheap and easy.