How does your respective community measure poverty?

List down the indicators of poverty in your

community.

Ans: The community that I’m living in measures poverty through many factors. Some of the factors
that are used as indicators poverty in my community are as follows: –

 Food insecurity and poor health status : Poor people do not have the accessibility to enough
good, healthy and nutritious food. This leads to malnutrition or undernourishment of the
people. Mostly, the food intake and healthy eating patterns of poor people are disrupted due to
lack of money and resources. Hence, poverty can be clearly indicated by food insecurity and
poor health status.

 Improper shelter: Improper shelter is also one of the main factors that indicate the poverty of
the people. Many poor or low-income families struggle to keep a decent roof over their heads,
and, some are even homeless. House prices have been stretching further and further away
from the normal wages, thus, making it difficult for the poor to get proper shelter and for the
homeless to get on the housing ladder.

 Inaccessibility to modern lifestyles: The modern lifestyle is pretty expensive. Each and every
single thing ranging from food products to clothing is not cheap. Thus , it is obvious that poor
people with low earnings and income cannot access the modern way of living.

 Low income status: Most poor people are either engaged in low-paying jobs or are without
jobs. They cannot avail the benefits like bank loans due to self-employment. Hence, their
income status is low and this indicates poverty.

 Improper medication and poor health care: It is very obvious that low income contributes to
improper medication and poor health care. Health facilities nowadays are too expensive for
poor people to afford. This also leads to poor health of the poor people. Thus, poverty is
greatly indicated by improper medication and poor health care.

 Improper schooling and Illiteracy: Mostly, children living below the poverty line have lower
chances of achieving school success. Poor children are many a times more likely to drop out
when they reach high school due to extreme financial problems. This amounts up to illiteracy.
Therefore, improper schooling and illiteracy shows or indicates poverty.