Poverty is defined as a condition where people’s basic needs are not met. There are two types of poverty, Absolute and Relative Poverty. Absolute Poverty refers to people being unable to achieve a minimum level of physical health, it is measured in terms of calories and nutrition. Absolute Poverty is the same everywhere. Relative Poverty refers to people not being able to reach a certain minimum standard of living which is determined by their government, and enjoyed by others within the same country.
Absolute poverty refers to a prolonged deficit in some human basic needs that the person’s life becomes endangered (Poverties org, 2011). For a person to be classed as being absolutely poor they would have to meet a certain criteria, for example, the World Bank uses a monetary method to classify a person as being poor or not. If a person spends less than $1 per day they would fall below the poverty line for international comparison, then they would be classified as being absolutely poor by
The absence of other measurements will not only simplifying poverty issues, but also difficult to envisage the correct policy and solution towards poverty alleviation. Thus, approaching poverty requires more comprehensive view. It involves, from economic to health services, from education to people’s culture. The World Bank had extended the conventional definition of poverty with income to a more comprehensive notion of lack of opportunities, capabilities, sense of voiceless-ness and vulnerability to external shocks. (World Development Report, 2000/2001).
Poverty can also be defined into absolute or relative terms. The first concept has to be with the income necessary to meet basic needs, like food, clothing and shelter. On the other hand, the second concept takes into account the social and cultural aspect of someone’s life, defining poor as the failure to meet some pre-established standards of living in a certain societal context.
According to Encyclopedia Americana (1989) poverty can be viewed from two different perspectives and these two points of view are: (i) “ moneylessness” which means both an insufficiency of cash and serious inadequacy of resources of all kinds to satisfy and meet basic human needs, such as, nutrition, rest, and body maintenance; and (ii) “powerlessness” meaning those that lack the chances and choices open to them and whose lives seem to them to be governed by forces and persons outside their control. From this, it is seen that poverty has various manifestations which include among others: lack of income and productive resources enough to make sure sustainable livelihood, hunger and malnutrition, limited or lack of access to education, ill health, and other basic services, increased morbidity and mortality from illness, homelessness and inadequate, unsafe and degraded environment and social discrimination and exclusion LITERATURE REVIEW Vital to the clamour for policies and programmes that will reduce poverty is the issue of the conceptualization of poverty. Conceptually, there three dominant views that will be identified as the meaning of poverty in this paper. Aliyu, (2002) has specifically identified the first view that views poverty as a chronic deprivation of some basic human needs at the individual or household level. Put differently, poverty is a material deprivation and this can best be measured and quantified in monetary terms.
This is why discourse and definitions of poverty in the views of Adebayo (2012) are multifarious and highly extensive. Existing literatures have however pointed to the fact that poverty as a concept is a global phenomenon which affects continents, economies, and peoples differently (Jegede, Kehinde and Akinlabi, 2011). Adebayo (2012), believes that poverty is pronounced only when the basic necessities of life (which include adequate income, education, good health, security, self-confidence and certain freedoms) are absent. This definition expresses the concept of poverty relatively to the life situations of people. In a broader perspective, Ekong (1991) asserts that poverty is a concept that has defied universally accepted and objective definition or assessment because it is not only an expression of life situation, but equally a state of mind and a perception of self in the complex web of social
2.1.2 THE MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS OF POVERTY As Sen (1983) stated that after the second half of the 20th century poverty explained because of inefficient economic growth and individual deteriorating, and measured as per capita income or consumption, pay no attention to structural issues relating to the uneven distribution of wealth and opportunity among the society. Hence, the possible remedy therefore interpreted as a need for greater economic improvement, with a focus on constructing human capital. The concept of poverty broadly includes non-economic and economic components. Therefore, poverty recognized as multiple dimensional, which distinguishing the various aspects of people lives affected by poverty, having economic and non-economic dimensions,
Chronic poverty is an intensely studied subject in India. It is a state of destitution which traps people in poverty for long periods, making the escape inevitable (Devereux, 2003). A person stuck in chronic poverty is most likely to be unable to satisfy his or her basic requirements of food, water, shelter and financial support (CPRC,2004). CPRC’s initial works focused on identifying and addressing the major reasons for chronic poverty. These reasons majorly included insecurity, risk and vulnerability (Shepherd,2007).
Is the concept of poverty and how to measure? Generally, poverty is considered as a subjective issue that can be viewed from multiple dimensions. Among the factors associated with it, including economic factors, the attitudes of individuals (social psychology) and distribution systems as well as growth in a country. Most researchers associate poverty with a lack of income and inability of individuals and households to make ends meet or daily needs. This includes those who only can meet the requirements for an adequate living for at least a month.
POVERTY Poverty is studied as two different concepts by the researchers and sociologists , which are absolute poverty and relative poverty. Absolute poverty-The idea behind this concept is that the basic conditions that must be met in order to sustain a physically healthy existence .People who fail to meet these requirements for human existence, such as sufficient food, shelter and clothing - are said to live in poverty. The concept of absolute poverty is seen as universally applicable.The other concept is relative poverty which basically says that poverty can be measured universally as some goods for a country might be neccesities and for another may be luxaries therefore poverty is a relative concept varrying for place to place. One common technique used in attempts to measure absolute poverty is to determine a poverty line, based on the price of the basic goods needed for human survival in a particular society. Individuals or households whose income falls below the poverty line are said to be in poverty.