Poverty
Poverty
Poverty is defined as the inability to attain a minimum standard of living. In other words, it is an income below some minimum level to meet basic needs. The basic needs include foods, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information.
According World Bank “Poverty is more than inadequate income or human development; It is also vulnerability and lack of voice, power and representation.”
Hence, the poverty is the situation of inadequate income, illiteracy, malnutrition, lack of social services like health care, sanitation and lack of social and political status.
Types of poverty
In general, there are two types of poverty. They are as follows:
1. Absolute poverty:
Absolute poverty is the situation of inability to fulfil basic needs of people or inability to attain a minimum standard of living. To understand the meaning of absolute poverty, it is necessary to understand the concept of poverty line. Poverty line is the minimum income required to fulfil the basic needs of food, clothing and shelter. If the income of a person is below the poverty line, it is known as absolute poverty. In our context, the problem of absolute poverty is widely discussed. It is also measured in terms of calorie intake per day. If the calorie intake per day is below 2144, it is known as absolute poverty. In Nepal around 25.16 percent population lives below the poverty line (Nepal Living standard Survey. CBS, 2010/11).
2. Relative poverty: Relative poverty is the situation in which a person has enough income to sustain the life, but the income and living standard is lower compared to rest of the community. It is also the condition of less income in a country compared to the worldwide average. The absolute poverty is the great problem of developing countries rather than the relative poverty. Relative poverty is impossible to express in figure and almost impossible to alleviate.
Causes of poverty
The population growth rate of Nepal is high, i.e. 1.35. But Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capital growth rate is lower. The high rate of population growth accompanied by low growth rate of economy is cutting down the per capita income and per capita consumption. Consequently, the number of people under poverty line is high in Nepal.
2. Unemployment and underemployment: Unemployment and underemployment are the root causes of poverty. In the developing countries like Nepal, underemployment is more responsible factor than the open unemployment for poverty. In Nepal, around 14 percentage of labour force is openly unemployed and 40 percentage labour forces is underemployed.
3. Low productivity in Agriculture sector: In Nepal, productivity in agriculture is very low. It is because of lack of skilled manpower, lack of modern technology, lack of use of improved seeds, inadequate irrigation facilities and so on. Agricultural productivity can be increased without modernization and commercialization of agriculture.
Nepal is rural based economy where more than 80 percent population is living in the rural areas. But there is less development of rural infrastructures and low rural development activities. In the rural areas, there are no opportunities of employment and income generation which are the major causes of rural poverty in Nepal.
5. Slow pace of industrial development: The pace of industries development is slow in the country. Hence, there is no increase in employment opportunities in non-agriculture sector. People have to remain unemployed and underemployed. Mainly the problem of underemployment is found in the rural areas where there are not any alternative sources of employment. This is also one of the major causes of poverty in Nepal.
6. Inflation:
Continuous rising price level is another cause of poverty in Nepal. When price rises, the purchasing power of the money falls and it badly affects middle and poorer section of the society. The consumption per head of fixed income earning people decreases during inflation. In Nepal inflation rate is around 8 percentages. If inflationary pressure increases, number of poor people will further increase.
7. Non-utilization of local resources: One of the causes of poverty in Nepal is non-utilization of local resources in the rural areas. Without proper utilization and mobilization of local resources, income can not be generated. In Nepal, local resources have not been properly utilized and mobilized due to lack of capital and skill.