WHAT IS POVERTYPoverty
is a condition in which a person or community is deprived of, or lacks the essentialsfor a minimum standard of well-being and life. Since poverty is understood in many senses,these essentials may be material resources such as food, safe drinking water, and shelter, or they may be social resources such as access to information, education, health care, socialstatus, political power, or the opportunity to develop meaningful connections with other people in society.Poverty may also be defined in relative terms. In this view income disparities or wealthdisparities are seen as an indicator of poverty and the condition of poverty is linked toquestions of scarcity and distribution of resources and power.The definition and measurement of poverty have evolved over time. The periodic changes inthe definition stem from the variation both across time and space in the description of whatconstitutes socio-economic well-being. The ability of meeting the costs of minimumnutritional requirements is the most important component of the “basic needs” approach tothe measurement of poverty. This definition has been strengthened by including socio-economic indicators of well being such as high rates of morbidity and mortality, prevalenceof malnutrition, illiteracy, high infant and maternal mortality rates. Most elements of theseaspects of poverty are based mainly on economic considerations. Consequently, many of these indicators are quantifiable. Recently, the definition of poverty has been further broadened. New definitions incorporate problems of self-esteem, vulnerability to internal andexternal risks, exclusion from the development process and lack of social capital. The newadditions to the definition of poverty capture the qualitative aspect of socio-economic well being. These definitions also influence the design of pro-poor policies for economic growth, public expenditures, safety net programs and tools for assessing the impact of programs and projects on poverty reduction.Generally poverty is a result of many and often mutually reinforcing factors including lack of productive resources to generate material wealth, illiteracy, prevalence of diseases, naturalcalamities such as floods, drought and manmade calamities such as wars. With increasingurbanization expected in the coming decades, the number of poor in urban areas, mainly the
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