Vinay Lamba
BA. LLB. Sec A
ID: 20141347
Poverty, Social Exclusion and Welfare
Poverty is the state of a human being, who lacks the ability to feed himself due to the absence of money. The United Nations fundamentally define poverty as the inability of getting choices and opportunities; a violation of human dignity. It means not having a school or clinic to go to, not having the land on which to grow one’s food or a job to earn one’s living. It means insecurity, powerlessness and exclusion of individuals, households and communities. It means susceptibility to violence, and it often implies living in marginal or fragile environments, without access to clean water or sanitation (Gordon, 2011). The deplorable conditions of health, hunger, education
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Sociologists have questioned the irregularities of wealth distribution across different countries over a period of time. Researchers have measured poverty as either absolute or relative. Absolute poverty involves a judgment of basic human needs and is measured in terms of the resources required to maintain health and physical efficiency. Majority of the measures of absolute poverty are concerned with establishing the quality and amount of food, clothing and shelter which are deemed necessary for a healthy life. Absolute poverty is also referred to as subsistence poverty because it is based on the system of assessment of the minimum requirements for the subsistence of the human body. One can include education, security, leisure and recreation in the category of cultural needs. One commonly used technique to measure absolute poverty is to establish a poverty line. It is based on the price of the basic goods essential for human survival in a particular society. Households or individuals whose income falls below the poverty line are said to live in poverty. Yet, using only a single criterion of poverty can be problematic because such definitions have failed to take into account the variations in human needs: within and between societies. For example: It is more expensive to live in some areas of a country than others, as the cost of basic necessities will differ from region to region. This can be further explained with the help of another example: Individuals who are engaged in physical labor outdoors are likely to have greater nutritional needs than, office workers who spend their days sitting inside buildings. A single gauge of poverty tends to mean that some individuals are assessed as being above the poverty line, when in fact; their income doesn’t even meet their basic survival