Poverty & Social Exclusion

Week 11
 Poverty
• The definition of ‘overall poverty’ adopted by the United Nations talks of
‘social discrimination and exclusion’ and of ‘lack of participation in
decision-making civil, social and cultural life’.
• Poverty emphasizes material as well as social deprivation, while social
exclusion forefronts a person or a group’s ability to participate in social,
economic, political and cultural life and their relationships with others.
And while poverty has a profound effect on some, though not all, of
these aspects of social exclusion, there are other important causal
factors of social exclusion such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender and
employment status. 
• Any discussion of social class and mobility would be incomplete without
a discussion of poverty, which is defined as the lack of the minimum food
and shelter necessary for maintaining life. More specifically, this
condition is known as absolute poverty. Today it is estimated that more
than 35 million Americans—approximately 14 percent of the population
—live in poverty.
 International Poverty Line
• The international poverty line is a monetary threshold
under which an individual is considered to be living in
poverty.
• It is calculated by taking the poverty threshold from each
country – given the value of the goods needed to sustain
one adult – and converting it into dollars. The international
poverty line was originally set to roughly $1 a day.
• When purchasing power parity and all goods consumed are
considered in the calculation of the line, it allows
organizations to determine which populations are
considered to be in absolute poverty.
 International Poverty Line
• Using the international poverty line to determine how well off
a population is can be misleading, as the line can be low
enough that adding a small amount of additional income will
not create an appreciable difference in a person's quality of
life.
• In addition, it can be difficult to quantify other indicators, such
as education and health, thus masking the total economic
impact on a population.
• The international poverty line also does not take into other
indicators such as the availability of sanitation, water, and
electricity for those living in poverty and what effect that has on
their quality of life and opportunities.
 Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
• The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) was developed in 2010 by the Oxford
Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the UNDP and uses different factors to
determine poverty beyond income-based lists. It replaced the previous Human Poverty
Index. The global MPI is released annually by OPHI and the results published on its website.
• MPI is an international measure of acute poverty covering over 100 developing countries. It
complements traditional income-based poverty measures by capturing the severe
deprivations that each person faces at the same time with respect to education, health and
living standards.
• The MPI assesses poverty at the individual level. If someone is deprived in a third or more
of ten (weighted) indicators, the global index identifies them as ‘MPI poor’, and the extent –
or intensity – of their poverty is measured by the number of deprivations they are
experiencing in this ten factors which includes education, sanitation, food and various other
indicators. The MPI can be used to create a comprehensive picture of people living in
poverty, and permits comparisons both across countries, regions and the world and within
countries by ethnic group, urban/rural location, as well as other key household and
community characteristics.
• These characteristic make the MPI useful as an analytical tool to identify the most
vulnerable people - the poorest among the poor, revealing poverty patterns within
countries and over time, enabling policy makers to target resources and design policies
more effectively.
 WB - Poverty Line
• The World Bank sets the international poverty line at periodic
intervals as the cost of living for basic food, clothing, and shelter
around the world changes. In the 2008 update, the poverty line was
set at $1.25 per day.
• In 2015, the threshold was updated to $1.90 per pay. That figure
was set based on prices established in 2011 and that threshold
should reflect that same buying power that was set with the earlier
poverty line.
• According to the World Bank, in 2012, more than 900 million people
were estimated to be living under the international poverty line.
Based on data projections, the World Bank also estimated that more
than 700 million people lived in extreme poverty as of 2015.
 WB - Poverty Line
• Determining how many people live in extreme poverty is not a
simple calculation of the poverty rates in each country. The
threshold for poverty can vary drastically from wealthy nations
to countries facing economic hardship. The World Bank says it
needs to measure all people against the same standard.
Independent researchers working with the World Bank
established the figure for the initial international poverty line,
which was reassessed at later intervals taking the poorest
nations into greater consideration in their calculations.
• Organizations like the World Bank have made it an objective to
reduce worldwide poverty and might use the international
poverty line and data derived from it to assess their efforts.
 WB - Poverty Line
• According to the report, nearly 39 percent of
Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty, with the
highest rates of poverty in FATA and Balochistan.
Pakistan’s MPI showed a strong decline, with
national poverty rates falling from 55% to 39% from
2004 to 2015. However progress across different
regions of Pakistan is uneven. Poverty in urban
areas is 9.3 percent as compared to 54.6 percent in
rural areas. Disparities also exist across provinces
 Poverty in Pakistan
• Over two-thirds of people in FATA (73 percent) and Balochistan (71 percent)
live in multidimensional poverty.
• Poverty in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa stands at 49 percent, Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh
at 43 percent, Punjab at 31 percent and Azad Jammu and Kashmir at 25
percent.
• There are severe differences between districts: Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi
have less than 10 percent multidimensional poverty, while Qila Abdullah,
Harnai and Barkhan (all in Balochistan) have more than 90 percent poverty.
• Deprivation in education contributes the largest share of 43 percent to MPI
followed by living standards which contributes nearly 32 percent and health
contributing 26 percent.
• These findings further confirm that social indicators are very weak in Pakistan,
even where economic indicators appear healthy. The report also found that the
decrease in multidimensional poverty was slowest in Balochistan, while
poverty levels had actually increased in several districts in Balochistan and
Sindh during the past decade. kistan’s 114 districts are also covered in this
report.
 Facts About Global Poverty
• Nearly 1/2 of the world’s population — more than 3 billion people
— live on less than $2.50 a day. More than 1.3 billion live in extreme
poverty — less than $1.25 a day.
• 1 billion children worldwide are living in poverty. According to
UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty.
• 805 million people worldwide do not have enough food to eat. Food
banks are especially important in providing food for people that
can’t afford it themselves.
• More than 750 million people lack adequate access to clean drinking
water. Diarrhea caused by inadequate drinking water, sanitation,
and hand hygiene kills an estimated 842,000 people every year
globally, or approximately 2,300 people per day.
• In 2011, 165 million children under the age 5 were stunted (reduced
rate of growth and development) due to chronic malnutrition.
 Facts About Global Poverty
• Preventable diseases like diarrhea and pneumonia take the lives of 2
million children a year who are too poor to afford proper treatment.
• As of 2013, 21.8 million children under 1 year of age worldwide had not
received the three recommended doses of vaccine against tetanus.
• 1/4 of all humans live without electricity — approximately 1.6 billion
people.
• 80% of the world population lives on less than $10 a day.
• Oxfam estimates that it would take $60 billion annually to end extreme
global poverty--that's less than 1/4 the income of the top 100 richest
billionaires.
• The World Food Programme says, “The poor are hungry and their hunger
traps them in poverty.” Hunger is the number one cause of death in the
world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
 Types of Poverty
• Social scientists define global poverty in different ways, taking into
account the complexities and the issues of relativism described
above.
• Relative poverty is a state of living where people can afford
necessities but are unable to meet their society’s average standard
of living. People often belittle “keeping up with the Joneses”—the
idea that you must keep up with the neighbors’ standard of living to
not feel deprived. But it is true that you might feel ”poor” if
• you are living without a car to drive to and from work,
• without any money for a safety net should a family member fall ill,
• and without any “extras” beyond just making ends meet.
 Types of Poverty
• Contrary to relative poverty, people who live in absolute poverty
lack even the basic necessities, which typically include adequate
food, clean water, safe housing, and access to health care.
Absolute poverty is defined by the World Bank (2011) as when
someone lives on less than a dollar a day.
• A shocking number of people––88 million––live in absolute
poverty, and close to 3 billion people live on less than $2.50 a day.
If you were forced to live on $2.50 a day, how would you do it?
• What would you deem worthy of spending money on, and what
could you do without? How would you manage the necessities—
and how would you make up the gap between what you need to
live and what you can afford?
 Types of Poverty
• Subjective poverty describes poverty that is composed of
many dimensions; it is subjectively present when your actual
income does not meet your expectations and perceptions.
• With the concept of subjective poverty, the poor themselves
have a greater say in recognizing when it is present. In short,
subjective poverty has more to do with how a person or a
family defines themselves. This means that a family
subsisting on a few dollars a day in Nepal might think of
themselves as doing well, within their perception of normal.
However, a westerner traveling to Nepal might visit the same
family and see extreme need.
 Causes of Poverty
• Poverty is an exceptionally complicated social phenomenon, and
trying to discover its causes is equally complicated. The
stereotypic (and simplistic) explanation persists—that the poor
cause their own poverty—based on the notion that anything is
possible in America.
• Some theorists have accused the poor of having little concern
for the future and preferring to “live for the moment”; others
have accused them of engaging in self‐defeating behavior.
• Still other theorists have characterized the poor as fatalists,
resigning themselves to a culture of poverty in which nothing
can be done to change their economic outcomes.
• In this culture of poverty—which passes from generation to
generation—the poor feel negative, inferior, passive, hopeless,
and powerless. The “blame the poor” perspective is stereotypic
and not applicable to all of the underclass.
 Causes of Poverty
• Not only are most poor people able and willing to work hard, they
do so when given the chance. The real trouble has to do with such
problems as minimum wages and lack of access to the education
necessary for obtaining a better‐paying job.
• More recently, sociologists have focused on other theories of
poverty. One theory of poverty has to do with the flight of the
middle class, including employers, from the cities and into the
suburbs. This has limited the opportunities for the inner‐city poor
to find adequate jobs. According to another theory, the poor would
rather receive welfare payments than work in demeaning positions
as maids or in fast‐food restaurants. As a result of this view, the
welfare system has come under increasing attack in recent years.
• Again, no simple explanations for or solutions to the problem of
poverty exist. Although varying theories abound, sociologists will
continue to pay attention to this issue in the years to come.
 Effects of Poverty
• The effects of poverty are serious. Children who grow up in poverty
suffer more persistent, frequent, and severe health problems than
do children who grow up under better financial circumstances.
• Many infants born into poverty have a low birth weight, which is
associated with many preventable mental and physical disabilities.
Not only are these poor infants more likely to be irritable or sickly,
they are also more likely to die before their first birthday.
• Children raised in poverty tend to miss school more often because
of illness. These children also have a much higher rate of accidents
than do other children, and they are twice as likely to have
impaired vision and hearing, iron deficiency anemia, and higher
than normal levels of lead in the blood, which can impair brain
function.
 Effects of Poverty
• Levels of stress in the family have also been shown to correlate
with economic circumstances. Studies during economic recessions
indicate that job loss and subsequent poverty are associated with
violence in families, including child and elder abuse.
• Poor families experience much more stress than middle‐class
families. Besides financial uncertainty, these families are more
likely to be exposed to series of negative events and “bad luck,”
including illness, depression, eviction, job loss, criminal
victimization, and family death.
• Parents who experience hard economic times may become
excessively punitive and erratic, issuing demands backed by
insults, threats, and corporal punishment.
 Social Exclusion
• Social exclusion is distinct from poverty. Poverty is a distributional
outcome, whereas exclusion can be defined as the process of
declining participation, solidarity, and access to opportunities.
• Social exclusion refers to ways in which individuals may become cut
off from full involvement in the wider society. It focuses attention
on a broad range of factors that prevent individuals or groups from
having opportunities open to the majority of the population.
• Unemployment or lack of transportation can be causes of social
exclusion.
• The problem of social exclusion is usually tied to that of equal
opportunity, as some people are more subject to such exclusion
than others.
• Sociologists see strong links between crime and social exclusion in
industrialized societies such as the United States.
 Social Exclusion
• In order to live full and active life individuals must not only be
able to feed, clothe and house themselves but should also have
access to essential goods and services such as education, health,
transportation, insurance, social security, banking and even
access to the police or judiciary.
• Social exclusion is not accidental but systematic –it is result of
structural features of society.
• The social exclusion is involuntary –that is exclusion is practiced
regardless of the wishes of those who are excluded. For example
rich people are never found sleeping on the roads or under
bridges like thousands of homeless poor people in cities and
towns.
• This does not mean that the rich are being excluded from access
to roads and park benches
 Social Exclusion
• Social exclusion is sometimes wrongly justified by the
same logic –it is said that the excluded group itself does
not wish to participate. The truth of such an argument is
not obvious when exclusion is preventing access to
something desirable.
• Prolonged experience of discriminatory or insulting
behavior often produces a reaction on the part of the
excluded who then stop trying for inclusion.
• For example upper caste Hindu communities have often
denied entry into temples for the lower castes. After
decades of such treatment the lower casts may build their
own temple or convert to another religion like Buddhism,
Christianity or Islam.
 Social Exclusion
• After they do this they may no longer desire to be included in the
Hindu temple or religious events. But this does not mean that
social exclusion is not being practiced.
• The point is that the exclusion occurs regardless of the wishes of
the excluded. India like most societies has been marked by acute
practices of social discrimination and exclusion.
• At different periods of history protest movements arose against
caste, gender and religious discrimination. Yet prejudices remain
and often new ones emerge. Thus legislation alone is unable to
transform society or produce lasting social change. A constant
social campaign to change awareness and sensitivity is required
to break them.
 Poverty & Social Exclusion
• The sociological literature on both poverty and
social exclusion is large and varied and It
becomes even more difficult when trying to
compare different nations or cultures.
 Myths about Poor
• We are presented with differing views on poverty and what should be done
about it.
• One side argues that more government aid and the creation of jobs are
needed to combat changes in the employment needs of the national
economy.
• The other side contends that government assistance programs launched
with the War on Poverty in the mid-1960s have encouraged many of the
poor to remain poor and should be eliminated for the able-bodied poor of
working age.
• Our perceptions of the poor shape our views of the various government
programs available to help them. It is important that we have a clear
understanding of who the poor are to direct public policy intelligently. Many
Americans believe a number of common myths about the poor. Let us try to
clear some of them up.
 Myths about Poor
• Myth 1: People Are Poor Because They Are Too Lazy to
Work
• Myth 2: Most Poor People Are Minorities, and Most
Minorities Are Poor
• Myth 3: Most of the Poor are Single Mothers with
Children
• Myth 4: Most People in Poverty Live in the Inner Cities
• Myth 5: Welfare Programs for the Poor Are Straining
• the Federal Budge
 Changing Face of Poverty
• It appears that economic rewards are distributed more unequally
in the United States than elsewhere in the Western industrialized
world. In addition, the United States experiences more poverty
than other capitalist countries with similar standards of living.
• In one international study, the poverty rates for children,
working-age adults, and the elderly were tabulated for a variety
of countries. The results showed that the United States has been
successful in holding down poverty among the elderly. The
American elderly experience far less poverty than the elderly in
Great Britain, approximately the same as the elderly in Norway
and Germany, and far more poverty than the elderly in Canada
and Sweden.