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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Contents
Wealth and Poverty ........................................................................................................................ 3
Diagram: Framework to Understand Poverty ................................................................................. 4
Wealth.......................................................................................................................................... 4
Mindmap : Overview of Poverty in India ....................................................................................... 5
Definitions of Poverty ................................................................................................................. 6
Definitions of Poverty ................................................................................................................. 6
Income-Based Definitions: .......................................................................................................... 6
Basic Needs Approaches ............................................................................................................. 6
Participatory Definitions: ............................................................................................................. 7
Box: Summary of Household Wealth Indicators as Described by Poor People .................................... 8
Box: Poverty More Explanations ................................................................................................... 8
Box: Sen‟s Capability Measure ..................................................................................................... 9
Diagram: Vicious Cycle of Poverty ................................................................................................ 9
More Definitions of Poverty ......................................................................................................... 9
More Explanations on Poverty.................................................................................................... 11
Poverty Vulnerability & Inequality .............................................................................................. 12
Deprivation ............................................................................................................................. 12
An Example of Severe Deprivation of Basic Human Need .............................................................. 12
Box: The discovery of poverty ................................................................................................... 13
Literature Review on Poverty ..................................................................................................... 14
Poverty Basic Facts .................................................................................................................. 15
Poverty Synonyms.................................................................................................................... 15
Causes of Poverty ........................................................................................................................ 16
Scheme I &II ........................................................................................................................... 16
Diagram: Poverty & Inequality ................................................................................................... 17
Types of causes of poverty........................................................................................................ 17
A. Individual ............................................................................................................................ 17
B. Aggregate ........................................................................................................................... 17
Herbert Gans - Functions / Uses of Poverty ................................................................................. 18
Case vs. Generic Theories of Poverty .......................................................................................... 19
What can we do about poverty? ................................................................................................ 19
Acute causes of poverty:........................................................................................................... 20
Box: How poverty is measured & How it is percieved by the poor .................................................. 20
Entrenched factors associated with poverty:................................................................................ 21
Diagram: Poverty Causes & Consequences .................................................................................. 22
Oscar Lewis - Culture of poverty ................................................................................................ 23
Box & Diagram: Causes of Poverty ............................................................................................. 24
Box: Feminization of Poverty ..................................................................................................... 25
Causes of Poverty in India (Wikipedia)........................................................................................ 26
Perceptions of Poverty & Traditional picture of the distribution of wealth in the world ...................... 28
Types of Poverty ...................................................................................................................... 29
The Effects of Poverty .............................................................................................................. 30
What is the Cycle of Poverty? .................................................................................................... 30
Diagram: Vicious & Virtuous cycle –Effects of Poverty .................................................................. 32
Box: Cycle of Poverty among Share Croppers & Poverty among child labourers ............................... 33
Diagram: The tragic cycle of interaction among poverty, malnutrition & disease .............................. 34
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Introduction
Wealth and Poverty
People tend to be quite judgmental when it comes to wealth and poverty. On the one hand, ideas
like wealth comes to those who work hard—leads many people to blame the poor for their
poverty. On the other hand, compassion for
the poor (and perhaps envy of the wealthy)
leads others to blame the wealthy for
poverty, judging them too selfish and
Poverty
unfeeling to assist the poor.
It is easy to examine wealth and poverty in terms of income. Data on income is readily available,
reliable, and relevant, especially in discussing poverty in several parts of the world, where
inherited wealth is a minor factor and most people live on wages and salaries.
It's useful to think of wealth and poverty in relation to one another. That's because income
inequality is really the underlying issue in poverty, especially in developed nations.
Human social Income inequality refers to the differences in income between and
systems being what among various groups of individuals and households in an economy
they are, it is often
the differences in wealth that make people feel rich or poor. In a Third World nation, a family
with indoor plumbing, running water, decent food and clothing, and access to health care and
education is quite well off. In the United States, however, millions of people who have those
things are considered poor, because they have little else and those things constitute the bare
essentials in America. In this most developed of economies, dwellings without plumbing are not
legally fit for habitation; public assistance programs, such as Food Stamps, Medicare, and
Medicaid, assure at least adequate levels of nutrition and health care; and public education is
compulsory for children.
Perhaps Webster's Dictionary provides an accurate definition of poverty: the state of one who
lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. This is not to
minimize the plight of the poor. It's easily arguable that poverty of any kind is unacceptable in a
society with the riches and opportunities. Also, many poor do live without adequate nutrition,
shelter, and health care. This is especially true of the rural poor, and for the physically,
emotionally, and mentally disabled poor.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Fairness
Ownership of resources
Equity
Social Justice
Qualification
Individual
Equality of distribution
Motivation
Family Size
Absolute Poverty
Equality
Poverty Relative Poverty
Causes of Inequality
Poverty Trap
Size & Quality of the Labour force
Causes of Poverty
Climate
National
Lorenz Curve
Measurement of Poverty
Stage of Economic Development
Gini Coefficient
Economic Power
Governance
Market distortion
Costs Stock
Redistribution of Income
Taxation
Size
Wealth
Incentives Benefits
Types Shares, Houses, Bank Deposits, Land
Regulation
Income Distribution
Flow Individual Household Factors of Production Gender Age Ethnic Group Disposable Income
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Definitions of Poverty
A variety of ways to define poverty are available, each with their own strengths and deficiencies:
Income-Based Definitions:
This approach seeks to specify a level of income per
capita in a household below which the basic needs of Poverty refers to the
the family cannot be satisfied. It shares the difficulties condition of not having the
of the next class of definitions of imposing an means to afford basic human
official's or observer's view of necessities. It does not needs such as clean water,
nutrition, health care,
acknowledge variation in costs of similar goods for
education, clothing and
different consumers. The vital importance of non- shelter. This is also referred
market household production and non-monetarized to as absolute poverty or
exchanges in poor families is not counted. destitution. Relative poverty
is the condition of having
fewer resources or less
A level of income that is not sufficient to provide the
income than others within a
material needs and comforts viewed as minimal in a society or country, or
given society. compared to worldwide
Situation of a man with a wife (not working) and two averages
children where total weekly income ... less than the basic
wage plus child endowment ...
Minimum amount of income below which a person cannot attain a predetermined
consumption bundle of goods and services...
people/ households with an INCOME below a certain threshold level irrespective of their
standard of living.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
If one does not own land, a house, household property, or domestic animals, then the person is
considered to be poor. —Uganda 1998
Water is life, and because we have no water, life is miserable. —Kenya 1997
It’s the cost of living, low salaries, and lack of jobs. And it’s also not having medicine, food
and clothes. —Brazil 1995
When I leave for school in the mornings I don’t have any breakfast. At noon thereis no lunch,
in the evening I get a little supper, and that is not enough. So when I see another child eating,
I watch him, and if he doesn’t give me something I think I’m going to die of hunger. —A 10-
year-old child, Gabon 1997
Participatory Definitions:
In this approach, respondents from communities are themselves invited to identify their
perceptions of their needs, priorities and requirements for minimal secure livelihood.
Some sacrifice of comparability of estimates in different communities or at different
times is traded for better information on the identified demands of the individuals
themselves. At times such analyses supplement and reinforce the more quantitative
measures; at other times they reveal a very different experienced reality. A study in
Rajasthan, India, identified 32 conditions which individuals felt necessary for a
satisfactory minimal lifestyle. Comparison of interview results over a decade revealed
that despite reductions in income of the residents, and little change in living conditions of
the kind generally surveyed in basic needs estimates, significant improvements had
occurred in experienced quality of life.
Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent on them, and of being forced to accept
rudeness, insults, and indifference when we seek help.
The poor person has to exist so he can serve the great one, the rich. God made things like that.
—Brazil 1995
Poverty is lack of freedom, enslaved by crushing daily burden, by depression and fear of what
the future will bring. —Georgia 1997
You know good but you cannot do good .That is such a person knows what should be done
but has not got the means. —Ghana 1995a
For a poor person everything is terrible — illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we
are afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that
everyone wants to get rid of. —Blind woman from Tiraspol, Moldova 1997
No Excuse 2015
United Nations
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Poverty defined is the “extent to which an individual [or community] goes without resources.” The
resources are the following:
Financial: Having the money to purchase goods and services.
Emotional: Being able to choose and control emotional responses, particularly to negative
situations, without engaging in self-destructive behavior. This is an internal resource and shows itself
through stamina, perseverance, and choice.
Mental: Having the mental abilities and acquired skills (reading, writing, computing) to deal with
daily life.
Spiritual: Believing in divine purpose and guidance.
Physical: Having physical health and mobility.
Supportive Systems: Having friends, family and backup resources available to access in times of
need. These are external resources.
Relationship/Role Models: Having frequent access to adult(s) who are appropriate, who are
nurturing to children and youth and who do not engage in self-destructive behavior.
Knowledge of Hidden Rules: Knowing the unspoken cues and habits of a group.
Coping Strategies: Being able to engage in procedural self-talk and the mindsets that allow issues
to be moved from the concrete to the abstract. It is the ability to translate from the personal to the
issue.
Poverty is “pronounced deprivation in well-being.” The conventional view links well-being
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
primarily to command over commodities, so the poor are those who do not have enough income
or consumption to put them above some adequate minimum threshold. This view sees poverty
largely in monetary terms.
Poverty may also be tied to a specific type of consumption; thus someone might be house poor or
food poor or health poor. These dimensions of poverty can often be measured directly, for
instance by measuring malnutrition or literacy.
The broadest approach to well-being (and poverty) focuses on the “capability” of the individual
to function in society. The poor lack key capabilities, and may have inadequate income or
education, or be in poor health, or feel powerless, or lack political freedoms.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Definitions of Poverty
Poverty is an income level below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs.
This minimum level is usually called the “poverty line”. What is necessary to satisfy
basic needs varies across time and societies. Therefore, poverty lines vary in time and
World Bank
place, and each country uses lines which are appropriate to its level of development,
societal norms and values. But the content of the needs is more or less the same
everywhere. Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not
being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to
read. Poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Poverty is
losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. Poverty is powerlessness, lack of
representation and freedom.
Poverty is the deprivation of common necessities such as food, clothing, shelter and safe
drinking water, all of which determine our quality of life. It may also include the lack of
Wikipedia
access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape from
poverty and/or allow one to enjoy the respect of fellow citizens. According to Mollie
Orshansky who developed the poverty measurements used by the U.S. government, “to
be poor is to be deprived of those goods and services and pleasures which others around
us take for granted”.
including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and
information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services. It includes a
lack of income and productive resources to ensure sustainable livelihoods; hunger and
malnutrition; ill health; limited or lack of access to education and other basic services;
increased morbidity and mortality from illness; homelessness and inadequate housing;
unsafe environments and social discrimination and exclusion. It is also characterized by
lack of participation in decision making and in civil, social and cultural life. It occurs in
all countries: as mass poverty in many developing countries, pockets of poverty amid
wealth in developed countries, loss of livelihoods as a result of economic recession,
sudden poverty as a result of disaster or conflict, the poverty of low-wage workers, and
the utter destitution of people who fall outside family support systems, social institutions
and safety nets.
dignity. It means lack of basic capacity to participate effectively in society. It means not
having enough to feed and cloth a family, not having a school or clinic to go to, not
having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living, not having
access to credit. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals,
households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies
living on marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Poverty is related to, but distinct from, inequality and vulnerability. Inequality focuses on the
distribution of attributes, such as income or consumption, across the whole population. In the
context of poverty analysis, inequality requires examination if one believes that the welfare of an
individual depends on their economic position relative to others in society. Vulnerability is defined as
the risk of falling into poverty in the future, even if the person is not necessarily poor now; it is often
associated with the effects of “shocks” such as a drought, a drop in farm prices, or a financial crisis.
Vulnerability is a key dimension of well-being since it affects individuals‟ behavior (in terms of
investment, production patterns, and coping strategies) and the perceptions of their own situations.
Deprivation
Deprivation can be conceptualized as a continuum which ranges from no deprivation through
mild, moderate and severe deprivation to extreme deprivation.
Continuum of deprivation
In order to measure absolute poverty, it is necessary to define the threshold measures of severe
deprivation of basic human need for:
1. Food 3. Sanitation facilities 5. Shelter 7. Information
2. Safe drinking water 4. Health 6. Education 8. Access to services
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Destitution, on the other hand, becomes rampant as soon as frugality is deprived of its
foundation. Along with community ties, land, forest and water are the most important prerequisites
for subsistence without money. As soon as they are taken away or destroyed, destitution lurks. Again
and again, peasants, nomads and tribals have fallen into misery after being driven from their land,
savannahs and forests. Indeed the first state policies on poverty, in sixteenth-century Europe, were a
response to the sudden appearance of vagabonds and mendicancy provoked by enclosures of the
land- it had traditionally been the task of communities to provide for widows and orphans, the
classical cases of unmaintained poor people.
Scarcity derives from modernized poverty. It affects mostly urban groups caught up in the money
economy as workers and consumers whose spending power is so low that they fall by the wayside.
Not only does their predicament make them vulnerable to the whims of the market, but they also live
in a situation where money assumes an ever-increasing importance. Their capacity to achieve through
their own efforts gradually fades, while at the same time their desires, fuelled by glimpses of high
society, spiral towards infinity; this scissor-like effect of want is what characterizes modern poverty.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
The Literature review shows that poverty definitions currently used by various countries (especially
developing) for administering their poverty programmes are inadequate, because very little research
has been done in this area.
In fact, it is not easy to have one uniform definition of poverty because there are a number of specific
issues that are normally linked with poverty. These are:
The historical definitions of poverty;
The use of index numbers in the measurement of poverty;
Family size and composition adjustments on measures of poverty;
Geographical variation in public service provision by type of service;
Regional income differences;
Wealth and assets and consumption as measures of poverty;
Poverty standards and the consumption of leisure;
Determinants of the turn-over rates of poor families;
Social and economic proxies for poverty;
Social indicators of poverty; and
State administrative definitions of poverty.
It is a known fact that the extent of poverty is both severe and staggering all over the world. In this
context, many studies report that
There exists an overlap between poverty and inequality, and that they are closely related;
incidence of poverty correlates with low levels of health, education, and nutrition, inadequate
shelter and other unsatisfactory social conditions;
Poverty in most of the developing countries, despite being urbanized, still remains overwhelming a
rural phenomenon;
Poverty tends to be concentrated in the areas with little or no access to health, education and
infrastructural services like transport and communications;
Specific characteristics of the poor are limited to only to bi-variate correlations of the poor, and
not to joint interrelationships with other characteristics of poverty.
Besides, poverty has many dimensions too. These are briefly mentioned below:
Larger household size is associated with greater incidence of poverty as measured in terms of
household consumption or income per person;
Child- adult ratios are larger in poor households;
Higher mortality, especially of children, among the poor households stimulates excess
replacement births;
There exist a strong correlation between high fertility and poverty;
There is widespread feminization of poverty ( especially in male-dominated societies) in the sense
that young females are more exposed to poverty-induced nutritional and health risks;
Poor households depend heavily on unskilled labour income;
Poor households often over exploit their immediate physical environment and the subsequent
degradation intensifies poverty;
Poor households increasingly lose access in private and common resources; and
Poverty in urban areas is often associated with pollution due to the concentration of people,
industry, and traffic.
Poverty gets normally concealed because of the marginalization of the poor by the so-called rich
people.
All these contentions constitute what we term as the poverty syndrome, especially in developing
countries.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Causes of Poverty
Scheme I &II
Scheme I Scheme I
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Poverty Cycle
Poor education
Limited access to outcomes
housing –rental
accommodation
Limited job
opportunities Feelings of
rejection
Low salary frustration &
dependence on failure
social security
Low self Family
esteem, breakdown
alcohol, wife &
child abuse
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Natural Disasters: Natural disasters such as hurricanes and earthquakes have devastated
communities throughout the world. Developing countries often suffer much more extensive
and acute crises at the hands of natural disasters, because limited resources inhibit the
construction of adequate housing, infrastructure, and mechanisms for responding to crises.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Centralization of Power: In
many developing countries, political
power is disproportionately
centralized. Instead of having a
network of political representatives
distributed equally throughout
society, in centralized systems of
governance one major party,
politician, or region is responsible
for decision-making throughout the
country. This often causes
development problems. For
example, in these situations
politicians make decisions about
places that they are unfamiliar with,
lacking sufficient knowledge about the context to design effective and appropriate policies and
programs.
Corruption: Corruption often accompanies centralization of power, when leaders are not
accountable to those they serve. Most directly, corruption inhibits development when leaders
help themselves to money that would otherwise be used for development projects. In other cases,
leaders reward political support by providing services to their followers.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Little
income
Lots of
homeless
people No income
Health Lack of
hazard money
Could
become Unhygenic No one
Poverty
sick wants to be
(Being Poor)
in poverty
Can affect
anyone
Become
sad
Lonelines
s
Free meals
(Soup
Money
kitchen) Provides shelter
become
suicidal Lots of people
go there Only
while
eating
Not only Volunteers Free food
homeless work there for the poor
but also
retarded &
addicted
Don’t get paid
Social Inequality: One of the more entrenched sources of poverty throughout the world is
social inequality that stems from cultural ideas about the relative worth of different genders,
races, ethnic groups, and social classes. Ascribed inequality works by placing individuals in
different social categories at birth, often based on religious, ethnic, or 'racial' characteristics. In
South African history, apartheid laws defined a binary caste system that assigned different rights
(or lack thereof) and social spaces to Whites and Blacks, using skin color to automatically
determine the opportunities available to individuals in each group.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Lewis gave some seventy characteristics (1996 [1966], 1998) that indicated the presence of the
culture of poverty, which he argued was not shared among all of the lower classes.
The people in the culture of poverty have a strong feeling of marginality, of helplessness, of
dependency, of not belonging. They are like aliens in their own country, convinced that the existing
institutions do not serve their interests and needs. Along with this feeling of powerlessness is a
widespread feeling of inferiority, of personal unworthiness. This is true of the slum dwellers of Mexico
City, who do not constitute a distinct ethnic or racial group and do not suffer from racial
discrimination. In the United States the culture of poverty that exists in the Negroes has the additional
disadvantage of racial discrimination. People with a culture of poverty have very little sense of history.
They are a marginal people who know only their own troubles, their own local conditions, their own
neighborhood, their own way of life. Usually, they have neither the knowledge, the vision nor the
ideology to see the similarities between their problems and those of others like themselves elsewhere
in the world. In other words, they are not class conscious, although they are very sensitive indeed to
status distinctions. When the poor become class conscious or members of trade union organizations,
or when they adopt an internationalist outlook on the world they are, in my view, no longer part of
the culture of poverty although they may still be desperately poor. (Lewis 1998)
Although Lewis was concerned with poverty in the developing world, the culture of poverty concept
proved attractive to US public policy makers and politicians. It strongly informed documents such as
the Moynihan Report (1965) and the War on Poverty more generally.
Since the 1960s critics of culture of poverty explanations for the persistence of the underclasses have
attempted to show that real world data do not fit Lewis' model (Goode and Eames, 1996). Despite
decades of this criticism by prominent sociologists, anthropologists and other academics who argue
that descriptions of the poor as being culturally unique have little explanatory power, the culture of
poverty concept persists in popular culture.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Causes of Poverty
Steps Taken by Government to Reduce Unfair trade
Rural Poverty
Economic
Year All India % Rural % High rate ofUrban%
unemployment
The government of India has been trying its best
to1973
remove poverty. 54.9Some of the measures which 56.4 49.0
Corruption (Economically-wise)
1978
the government has 51.3taken to remove rural poverty53.1 45.2
Tackling corruption
are:
1983 44.5 45.7 40.8
1988Small farmer‟s development Programme. Poor Governance
38.9 39.1 38.2
1994Drought area36.0development Programme. Political
37.3 Prejudice and inequality
32.4
1999Minimum needs 26.1 Programme. 27.1 23.6
Centralization of Power
National rural employment Programme.
Assurance on employment. External & Other Causes
Causes for Urban Poverty.
Civil War
Causes for Urban Poverty
The causes of urban poverty in India are: Historical
Improper training Natural Disasters
Slow job growth.
Failure of PDS system Uneven distribution of resources
Problems of Urban Poverty Lack of adequate resources in the world economy
Restricted access to employment opportunities
and income.
Lack of proper housing facilities
Unhygienic environments Causes of Poverty in India
No social security schemes High level of dependence on primitive methods
Lack of opportunity to quality health and of agriculture
educational services. High population growth rate
The steps taken by government to remove High Illiteracy (about 35% of adult population)
urban poverty are: Regional inequalities
Nehru Rozgar Yojna. Protectionist policies pursued till 1991 that
Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna. prevented high foreign investment
Urban Basic services for the poor Programme.
National social Assistance Programme.
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Feminization of Poverty
Causes
What causes the impoverishment of women may also cause the impoverishment of men. Therefore,
what matters most to understand the causes of the feminization of poverty is not what causes poverty
in aggregate terms but the gender inequalities behind poverty. In fact, since feminization is a process,
women are prone to suffer greater and longer forms of poverty. The poverty suffered by women is far
more severe than men and is rising disproportionately. Women headed households are the poorest of
the poor and the hardships from the family are transferred to the children, continuing the poverty.
The feminization of poverty, among many other factors, may be caused by changes in:
Family composition
Dissolution of marital unions, constitution of families without these unions, higher male mortality
Family organization
Gender division of labor and consumption within the household, gender roles regulating the control
over household resources
Inequality in the access to public services or in their quality
Barriers to education of girls, educational segregation by sex, lack of women specific health attention
Inequality in social protection
Contributory pensions systems reproducing previous labor market inequalities, lower access to
pensions and social assistance by women, inequality in benefit concession or in benefit values in
targeted policies
Labor market inequalities
Occupational segregation, intra-career mobility, differential levels of employment in paid work, wage
discrimination, duration of work shifts.
Legal, paralegal and cultural constrains in public life
Property rights, discrimination in the judiciary system, constrains in community and political life, etc.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Perceptions of Poverty & Traditional picture of the distribution of wealth in the world
Perceptions of Poverty
“Poverty often deprives a man of all spirit and virtue; it is hard for an empty bag to stand
upright”- Benjamin Franklin
“Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty.” - Mother Teresa.
“Poverty is the worst form of violence.”- Mahatma Gandhi
“The mother of revolution and crime is poverty”- Aristotle
“It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and
only $53 annually on the victims of poverty.”- Martin Luther King
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a
theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” Dwight
D. Eisenhower
“Poverty is lack of freedom, enslaved by crushing daily burden, by depression and fear of what
the future will bring." - A Georgian
"If you want to do something and have no power to do it, it is talauchi (poverty).” A Nigerian
"Lack of work worries me. My children were hungry and I told them the rice is cooking, until they
fell asleep from hunger.” - An Egyptian.
"When one is poor, she has no say in public, she feels inferior. She has no food, so there is
famine in her house; no clothing, and no progress in her family." - A Ugandan
"For a poor person everything is terrible - illness, humiliation, shame. We are cripples; we are
afraid of everything; we depend on everyone. No one needs us. We are like garbage that
everyone wants to get rid of.” - A Moldovian
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Types of Poverty
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Various studies reported that 35 percent of poor families experienced six or more risk factors
(such as divorce, sickness, or eviction); only 2 percent experienced no risk factors. In contrast,
only 5 percent of well-off families experienced six or more risk factors, and 19 percent
experienced none.
The aggregate of risk factors makes everyday living a struggle; they are multifaceted and
interwoven, building on and playing off one another with a devastatingly synergistic effect. In
other words, one problem created by poverty begets another, which in turn contributes to
another, leading to a seemingly endless cascade of deleterious consequences called “Poverty
Cycle”.
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Due to the many root causes of poverty and the complexity with how poverty is measured and
defined there are
multiple cycles of
poverty—based on,
among other things,
economic, social,
spiritual and
geographical factors.
Many cycles overlap or
perpetuate new cycles
and therefore any
attempt to depict the
cycle of poverty will be
far more simplistic
than realistic.
The figure above shows—in very simplistic terms—how a cycle of poverty related to hunger
keeps a person or household poor in one of the world's developing countries.
The following figures show examples of how to break this cycle of poverty
Training in
agriculture
Working with farmers
to help them improve
their agriculture
techniques, create
greater crop yields &
protect the
environment
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S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Effects of Poverty
Powerlessness
Isolation Vulnerability
Poverty Physical
Weakness
32
S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Box: Cycle of Poverty among Share Croppers & Poverty among child labourers
33
S.Rengasamy -Understanding Poverty -Definitions, Causes & Consequences-(Part-I)
Diagram: The tragic cycle of interaction among poverty, malnutrition & disease
34