What is Poverty ? What does mean by Poverty? The culture of poverty

What is Poverty? What does mean by Poverty? The culture of poverty

What is Poverty

Poverty is the deprivation of food, shelter, money and clothing when people can’t satisfy their basic needs. Poverty can be understood simply as a lack of money or more broadly in terms of barriers to everyday human life.

What does mean by Poverty

· Deprives people of their security and well-being;

· Deprives people not only of safe water and adequate food, clothing and shelter, but also education and healthcare;

· Takes away people’s rights, and their freedom, dignity and peace of mind;

· Puts people's lives in danger and robs them of their future.

ü According to Mollie Orshansky who developed the poverty measurements used by the U.S. government, “ Poor is to be deprived of those goods, services and pleasures which others around us take for granted.”( Orshansky 1995)

ü Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent, and of being forced to accept rudeness, insults, and indifference when we seek help.( Narayan, D 2000)

ü This is based on the national definition as well as the international standards of US $1/day/person and US $2/day/person. Lately poverty definition is changed to US $4/day/person. (WB 2015)

Poverty is the other economic problem facing most of the nations in the world. There is no unique definition of poverty. Some people describe poverty as a lack of essential items, such as food, clothing, water, and shelter needed for proper living. Poverty is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information (WSSD 2005).

Types of Poverty

Absolute Poverty

It is the extreme kind of poverty involving the chronic lack of basic food, clean water, health and housing. Poeple in absolute poverty tend to struggle to live and experience a lot of child deaths from preventable diseases like malaria, cholera and water-contamination related diseases. This type is usually long term in nature, and often handed to them by generations before them. This kind of poverty is usually not common in the developed world.

Relative Poverty

This kind is usually in relation to other members and families in the society. For example, a family can be considered poor if it cannot afford vacations, or cannot buy presents for children at Christmas, or cannot send its young to the university. Even though they have access to government support for food, water, medicine and free housing, they are considered poor because the rest of the community have access to superior services and amenities.

Situational Poverty (Transitory)

People or families can be poor because of some adversities like earthquakes, floods or a serious illness. Sometimes, people can help themselves out of this situation quickly if they are given a bit of assistance, as the cause of their situations was just one unfortunate event.

Generational or Chronic Poverty

This is a more complicated type and we will see a detailed example here. This is when poverty is handed over to individuals and families from generations before them. In this type, there is usually no escape from it, as people are trapped in its causes and have no access to tools that will help them get out of it.

The culture of poverty

The theory discuss about certain groups and individuals tend to persist in a state of poverty because they have distinct beliefs, values and behavior that are incompatible with economic success. The culture of poverty theory is a social theory that tries to explain the cycle of poverty. Poverty is a subculture with its own structure and rationale, as a way of life which is passed down from generation to generation along family lines. This view directs attention to the fact that the culture of poverty in modern nations is not only a matter of economic deprivation, of disorganization, or of the absence of something. It is also something positive and provides some rewards without which the poor could hardly carry on.

It’s the theory developed by Oscar Lewis (an anthropologist) in 1959. Lewis developed his theory from his experience of Mexico. The culture of poverty is a specific syndrome that grows up in some situations. It requires an economic setting of cash economy, a high rate of unemployment and under employment, low wages and people with low skills. In the absence of voluntary or state support and stable family, the low-income population tends to develop the culture of poverty against the dominant ideology of accumulation of the middle class. The poor realize that they have a marginal position within a highly stratified and individualistic capitalistic society, which does not offer them any prospect for upward mobility. In order to survive the poor have to develop their own institutions and agencies because the larger society tends to ignore and bypass them. Thus the poor come to embody a common set of values, norms and pattern of behaviour, which is different from the general culture as such. In short the poor have a way of life - a specific subculture. Lewis found 70 traits that underlay this subculture.

He classified these traits into four types:

1) Relationships between the subculture and the larger society:

People either disengage or maintain distance from the larger society. They do not belong to labour unions or political parties, go to banks or hospitals or enjoy leisure facilities of the city. They have a high mistrust of the dominant institutions of society.

2) Nature of the slum community:

The slum community is characterized by poor housing and overcrowding and a minimum of organizational structure beyond the space of family. These institutions grow up mainly to meet their minimum needs. The slum economy is inward looking. It is embedded in pawning of personal goods, informal credit and use of second hand goods.

3) Nature of the family:

bilateral kinship system, unstable marriage, matrifocal family.

4) Attitudes, values and personality

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

CONCLUSION

Generally poverty situation has been always perceived in negative way due to its great negative impact to individual and communities. Poverty has lead to no access to basic needs like food and shelter to the majority of people in rural and urban areas of developing countries. Despite its great negative impact to the communities’ poverty plays great role in championing social economic development by forcing people to work hard, to use available resources in effective manner as well as to fostering technological discoveries.

Refference:

1. Mollie Orshansky ( 1965) Counting the Poor: Another Look at the Poverty Profile. Social Security Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 1,

2. Narayan, D. et al (2000) Voices of the Poor: Can Anyone Hear Us? World Bank, New York

3. World Bank (2016)

http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/overview

4. World Summit for Social Development, (2005)

5. Lewis, Oscar (1998). "The culture of poverty”