'Friendship Between Rich and Poor Can Be Beneficial Towards Poverty Elimination'

Being a wealthy friend can be beneficial! This is something that a lot of us were aware of however, we now have evidence-based proof to this. A recent research has shown that a better mix of people of various socioeconomic backgrounds can help the suffering of more people. This, in turn, could help achieve attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number one: No poverty! Friendships that transcend socio-economic lines can be the difference between the children of low income achieving success in the real world.

Although it's not easy to know how these connections impact a person's financial situation. A study on 21 billion Facebook connections in the United States has made it possible.The latest study, which was published in the well-known journal Nature suggests that early friendships with wealthy and less wealthy people are associated with higher income later in life for children who are poor . That is, kids tend to be more likely to rise from poverty if they're with children who are wealthy.

Raj Chetty, a Harvard economist, and the study's principal researcher, said ,"Growing up in a neighborhood with a strong connection across class lines can improve children's chances of success and offers them a better chance to rise from poverty".The researchers looked closely at the profiles of more than 70 million Facebook users from 25 to 44, which is the majority of American adults. The huge social graph of the nation with billions of connections showed an interesting pattern: the extent of how rich and poor children were connected within the same community predicted how children did later on in their lives. In actuality this factor of friendship between rich and poor was more powerful than any other that was studied, including academic performance as well as family structure, job opportunities, and racial composition.
 

Global poverty is among the most threatening social issues that people around the world continue to confront even today. People who are poor frequently face malnutrition and hunger, and are denied access to health, education and sanitation. More than 700 million which is 10% of the population are living in extreme poverty. This means they have the ability to eat every other day and make less than Rs150. COVID-19 and the continuing effects of climate change and war are causing a chain reaction which have exacerbated the poverty crisis.
 

The study is the most thorough analysis yet on the impact of these social connections on children's performance better in school and in life. Friendships between social classes, also known as what researchers call "cross-class friendships" are believed to have more impact on kids than excellent schools stable families, stable families, job opportunities or a diverse and large community. The study suggests that when kids interact with one with each other, chances to bridge the gap between classes arise.