Article on Poverty
Poverty may be known as a state
symbol in less developed countries. Laster R. Brown in his book 'World without
Borders' explains poverty thus; "Unfortunately it is not an economic
abstraction, it is a human condition. It is despair, grief and pain. It is the
despair of a father with a family of seven children in a poor country when he
joins the, swelling ranks of unemployed with no prospects of unemployment
compensation. Poverty is the longing of a young boy playing outside a village
school but unable to enter because his parents lack a few rupees needed to buy
text books. Poverty is the grief of parents watching a three year old child die
of a routine childhood disease because they cannot afford any medical
care." This is the grim, spectacle of poverty. India is a poor country. We
can see easily this picture of uneducated, hungry and poverty stricken people
also in India. Mass poverty is one of the important characteristics of the
Indian economy. In India, due to abject poverty about half of our population
lead a miserable life.
By poverty we generally mean a
situation in which a person fails 10 earn income sufficient to purchase his
bare means of subsistence. A poor man is one who does not have command over the
basic needs of life like enough food, clothing, drinking water and shelter on
the material level. On the nonmaterial level a poor man is deprived of basic
social needs like health and education.
Three broad concepts of poverty can
be identified. Poverty can be defined as subsistence, inequality and
externality. But poverty is mainly viewed in two ways absolute and relative. In
absolute sense, poverty relates to subsistence. It means absence of the minimum
physical quantities of food required for an individual daily. People are
considered poor if they fail to attain minimum standard of consumption and
nutrition necessary for their bare existence.
Absolute poverty can be measured
through income levels. Besides, progress in health and nutrition, literacy
levels, consumption of essential goods and services etc. may indicate the level
of absolute poverty also. Thus, it relates to the minimum standard of living.
This may be expressed in terms of income or consumption expenditure.
Relative poverty means difference in
the relative standard if living of the people. It stands for the large
inequalities of income and wealth. In short, it relates to inequality in the
level of living. It is due to mal distribution of national income. Some people
are of high income group and some are of low income group. Hence the later are
relatively poorer than the former. This relative poverty is found in all the
countries, developing and developed more or less. In India, we are mostly
concerned with absolute poverty. Absolute poverty has been expressed in terms
of minimum calories intake or recommended nutritional requirements.
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