Narayan, D Can Anyone Hear Us? Voices from 47 Countries, World Bank Group, PREM 1999. Chapter 5: Changing Relations in the Household: Poverty is pain. Poor people suffer physical pain that comes with too little food and long hours of work; emotional pain stemming from the daily humiliations of dependency and lack of power; and the moral pain from being forced to make choices such as whether to pay to save the life of an ill family member or to use the money to feed their children.