A Study Of Poverty And Anti-Poverty Strategies For South-east Area In Cangnan County

Poverty is a common enemy faced by the human, and it threatens not only the state but also the family. The main purpose of this research is to study the phenomenon of poverty in Cangnan county which lies in the south of Zhejiang Province, explore the causes and then present a series of effective anti-poverty measures. To begin with the concept of poverty, the paper put forward a new concept of poverty, which emphasized that poverty is a dynamic and realistic phenomenon, but not static and historical. After reviewing and concluding the existing theories relative to poverty, the paper put forward a new theoretic hypothesis: poverty or non-poverty is the result of the balance of power between poverty and anti-poverty, and the fact that the structure of society loses its balance is one of the most important roots which cause social poverty. The case study of the county indicated that the basic factors which caused poverty were environment, natural resources, public investment, public education and some other factors. The in-depth investigation on the vicissitudes of three small towns in the county justified the theoretic hypothesis above. Then based on the proved theory, some suggestions for anti-poverty could be given. The concrete measures included transferring agricultural population to non-agricultural departments, increasing capital investment and public investment, introducing proper projects to promote economic development and implementing different anti-poverty strategies according to different sorts of poor population. By these measures, the structure of society could be rebuilt and the root of poverty could be eliminated to some extent.