9+`1g .

gUnit I
Concept of Poverty
Meaning and Definition of Poverty and Impoverishment
Poverty is scarcity, dearth (shortage) or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material
(nothing in possession) refers to the deprivation of basic human needs which commonly includes
food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education.

Condition where people are basic needs for food, clothing and shelter are not being met. Poverty
is the condition of having insufficient resources or income. It is a situation in which an individual
person is unable to attain a minimum standard of living.

According to World Bank – “poverty is the inability to attain a minimal standard of living”.

World Bank defines – “poverty that who cannot earn one dollar per day”.

According to Dilip S. Thakur –“the minimum basic requirements of food, clothing and shelter
are necessary for survival of mankind. In order to meet out these employment or through wage
employment when an individual even after his best possible efforts, does not get work on the
existing wage rate or even at low wage rate to earn high means of subsistence, he is termed as
unemployment or as well as poor”.

Poverty can be defined as “a state of economic, social and psychological deprivation occurring
among people of countries lacking sufficient ownership, control or access to resource to
maintain the minimum standard of living”.

Of course, poverty is not just about physical deprivation, it is also about lack of opportunity and
loss of hope (poverty of spirit).

It is argued that –“poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific
time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs
and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted
part of daily life in that society”.

Forms of Poverty
Forms of poverty are the main basis of measuring poverty. It refers to where and how many poor
people are living within the country. Forms of poverty or poverty level are generally defined into
two ways – such as absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Absolute Poverty

Absolute poverty refers to a situation in which income level is below the level required to fulfill
a minimum daily requirements, such as food, shelter and clothing. Absolute poverty is
synonymous with destitution and occurs when people cannot obtain adequate resources
(measured in terms of calories or nutrition) to support a minimum level of physical health.
Absolute poverty means about the same everywhere.

According to Parvez Hasan –“absolute poverty is defined to mean income levels below those
required to provide for adequate nutrition and expenditure for essential non-food items”.
Absolute poverty in developing countries as defined by international organization, means having
a household income of less than US dollar 1 per day.

Relative Poverty

The situation in which a person has enough income to sustain life but which is low compared to
rest of the community is known as relative poverty. In other words, relative poverty is the
condition of having fewer resources or less income than other within a society or country, or,
compared to worldwide averages. The absolute poverty rather than relative poverty has been a
matter of great concern. Relative poverty occurs when people do not enjoy a certain minimum
level of living standards as determined by a government that vary from country to country,
sometimes within the same country. Relative poverty occurs everywhere, is said to be increasing
and may never be eradicated.

Identification and measurement of poverty

Poverty does not arise itself in the society. Human being on the process of development creates
it. Some major identification can be measured as poverty are as follows:

1. Low income: the major sources of income of poor is unskilled labor that they are
compelled to sale at low quality and low productivity. The average per capita annual
income of these farmers in less than $100. Most of these poor people earn less than $1
per day.
2. Risky settlement pattern: poverty is deeply rooted in rural areas than in urban areas. The
location of rural poor is generally in the low productive area where farm is depended on
monsoon. They can hardly return their investment from agriculture on monsoon. They
can hardly return their investment from agriculture. More than 80% poor live in rural
areas. Urban poor are often landless and their settlement areas are usually overcrowded
polluted, lack of sanitation, low physical facilities.
 3. Low Consumption level: Expenditure on consumption shows almost the real picture of
poor. Generally a poor spends more that 70% of income on food consumption. Most of
the diseases and infections are happening as a result of inadequate calorie and mal-
nutrition. Poor cannot able even to manage their income. The consume mostly low
protein and vitamin.
4. Bad Housing condition: Majority of poor has very bad housing condition. Due to large
family size and bad housing, there is always overcrowding. In the case of rural poor, all
family members have to stay in a small hut with limited space.
5. Low Literacy Rate: most of the poor family are illiterate both in rural and urban areas.
Literacy rate of poor families is very low than that of non-poor families.
6. Low social development and social structure: low level of per capita income and low
level of social development are the main characteristics of the poor. The main indictor of
social development is human development. Life expectancy, literacy and income are the
main indicator of human development is very low in poor.
7. Place where poor live
8. Demographic characteristics
9. Lack of assets
10. Sources of income
11. Expenditure pattern
12. Status of poor in society

Poverty and impoverishment

What is impoverishment?

 That act or process of making poor or diminishing the quality of life

 National isolation can only causes economic and cultural impoverishment. It
is depriving process
 The state of having little or no money and few or no material possession

Social impoverishment is nothing b more than a condition of never ending, non-

escapable way under the line of poverty, in which most third world countries and
several social groups in developed countries are in this process. They are the direct
product of wrongful economic policies from the last 250 years. Impoverishment is
directly stemming from the industrial revolution , and not a disparate descendent of
feudalism. In this process of impoverishment very few people are satisfied while
millions are hungry.

Developed counties have produced new goods by their high technology and
extended their market throughout the world. They have materialized the
capitalististic mode of production. A clear line between rich and poor has been
seen after industrial revolution. All the under developed countries have accepted
their technologies in the name of development and bought in high price. Gradually,
people of underdeveloped countries as well as counties are in the process of
impoverishment.

Impoverishment as a process of making poor was started whereas the self-reliant

development process and self-reliant economy of under developed countries was
dominated by capitalist economy, with high technology. Impoverishment as a
process can be seen in comparison between developed and under developed
countries when the developed countries have exploited to under developed
countries, it is known as under development. Discrimination in national planning
shows impoverishment. In Nepalese context, people of rural are in the process of
impoverishment. Rural areas are depended with urban areas.

Determinants of impoverishment

Many under developed countries are in the process of impoverishment and being
impoverished,. People of that countries have been loss their indigenous capacity,
skill, knowledge and potentiality as well as fertility of human resources. Natural
resources of under developed countries have been used by developed countries and
it is used for profit. Under developed countries are being depended with developed
countries.

Impoverishment as a process in Nepal started from systematic planning. It starts

from planning with democratic revolution, when the countries of the world became
independent. All the powers for planning and development were centralized in
capital. Remote areas of Nepal are not connected in development process. All
types of facilities and opportunities have been provided to people from centralized
mechanisms. Many people are discriminated, isolated and being impoverished by
process.

Development process itself, creates underdevelopment. Poverty is also the

consequence of underdevelopment. All the people cannot be facilitate and equally
treated at one time. Some are more facilitate those who got opportunities.
Maximum facilities and infrastructures are developed for few people and majority
of the people are being depended, they are in the process of impoverishment.

Some determinants of impoverishment:

1. Landlessness
2. Joblessness
3. Homelessness
4. Marginalization
5. Food insecurity
6. Increased morbidity
7. Loss of access to common property resources
8. Community disarticulation

According to Harrison- “Development has meant massive increase in inequality,

the replacement of cooperation by competition and mutual help by exploitation.” It
shows that many people are in the process of impoverishment.

Causes of poverty
The problem of poverty has been serious in Nepal. The inability to check
population growth rate and the lack of sustainable economic growth rate is the
major cause of poverty. Besides, there are many other causes responsible for the
existence of extreme mass poverty in Nepal, which are as follows-

1. High population growth: high population rates contribute to over population

in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families
because they provide labor. The governments of developing countries often
provide little or no support for family planning. Developing countries
 including Nepal tend to have high rates of population growth. This has been
defeating the efforts to reduce poverty.
2. Low economic growth: the average economic growth rate is very low, as
compared to population it is insufficient to arise the standard of living of
people. Facilities of development have been centralized in few classes and
few areas. The low economic growth rate is the main cause of poverty.
3. Subsistence agriculture: agriculture of Nepal is depended on monsoon. The
growth rate of agriculture is very low. There is continuation of subsistence
agriculture and no modernization. Occupational agriculture is not
modernized.
4. Low rural development: Nepal is a rural based economy with about 70% of
population living in rural areas, but there is less development of rural
infrastructure and low rural development activities which have been
responsible for low income.
5. Slow industrialization: the pace of industrialization is slow in developing
countries. There is not an increase in employment opportunities in non-
agriculture sector. People have to remain unemployed and underdeveloped.
Modern employment opportunities are not sufficient due to slow
industrialization.
6. Ineffective plan implementation: even after completion of economic plans,
the level of living standard of people has not remarkably increased. This is
due to the poor implementation of plan, the gap between planning and
effective execution. Due to the inability of the government services, the
effort to reduce poverty has not been materialized.
7. Non-utilization of local resources and environmental
8. Lack of social mobilization
9. Inadequate education and employment
10.Unequal distribution of income
11.Problems of good governance, political stability, peace and security
12.Low social development