Slumdog Millionaire: Multiple Bravehearts living in Poverty
Poverty is not just a lack of resources. The lens goes deep inside. My insights on poverty and its effect on individuals, family, income, healthcare and so on.
Poverty as a phrase is used to state the condition where a person or a community lacks financial resources for a minimum standard of living. Many research says the main reason for living in poverty is the “Income being too low”. Finance as a whole is just one element of being in poverty, the other conditions include no shelter or housing, water, health, food and medical attention all being inferior. One component has been identified to connect the different pieces into one, known as “Money”. But what we fail to understand is that Money itself is a sub-domain.
What exactly defines Poverty?
The World bank defines poverty as surviving on less than $1.90 per day. Statistics on global poverty shows that most of the under-privileged are concentrated in 5 main countries — India, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia and Bangladesh. The reason these countries top the list is population and scarcity of employment to provide for one’s family. Further, there is a measure known as MPI(Multidimensional Poverty Index) developed by Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative(OPHI) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) that uses health, education and standard living as indicators to categorize poverty based on intensity of population. Based on the indicators the calculation is done to identify the ‘deprivation score’ which is determined by the number of indicators that households are deprived of and weightage for each element of indicator.
India and Poverty:
India is one of the fastest growing countries which has recorded a marginal decrease in poverty, with about 44 Indians breaking free from extreme poverty every minute, as per World Poverty Clock. This can be termed as an achievement as the incidence of MPI is reduced to 6 percent as per 2020 report. The methodology adapted to remove paucity include various measures taken by the government such as Integrated Rural Development Program which introduced the concept of subsidy and bank credit to rural poor and other being Employment Assurance Program that provides employment to people of agriculture at times of drought or hilly-area blocks. These are just a few of the conceptualizations done by our Government. Further, each country has their own measures that are being employed to exterminate the word ‘Poverty’. The United Nations has joined as a companion to various countries by passing an agenda of 2030 that acknowledges to remove poverty in all forms and dimensions. Nevertheless, in spite of all astounding achievements done by each component of the world, still inequality persists which makes progress uneven.
Economy and Poverty:
Economists such as Amartya Sen symbolize poverty as much larger deprivation than just lack of money. Their thought led to a newer form of thinking about poverty known as Capabilities Approach. An apt statement could be “deprivation of a person’s capability to realize one’s potential to live life for purpose”. This approach can look through various options available for a particular person to choose from, more of a trial and error. In a country like India, poverty relies mainly on the income source ignoring the capability approach leading to confusion. Some measurement techniques undertaken by Tendulkar and Rangarajan, drifted partially away from income by including factors such as expenditure of health, education and consumption of food. Still, the main origin comes back to lack of money even though there might be something more.
Capabilities Approach on Poverty:
This technique brings into attention how people’s ability to differentiate things they value can bring about change in their lives. The process detaches from specific life choices as it is deficient to judge someone based on someone’s current situation, as circumstances behind the decision remain largely unknown. For Example, a rich person might leave one’s wealth and choose to inhabit a simple life which cannot be compared to another person such as a farmer. The difference lies in the action of freedom to choose what one desires. This brings together an argument that poverty can be terminated only when the under-privileged gain an influence to define what they want and take necessary actions. While income as a factor in poverty can be abated through various measures, the capability as a form of poverty can only be changed through empowering to take altering decisions. This could be done through analyzing the current situation and seeing reality. This empowerment as a tool is needed to attain an increase of income or better education ,but acts as a prerequisite to eliminate poverty as in Multi-dimensional Poverty by making people realize their capacity to manifest a better life.
