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WHAT IS POVERTYPoverty is a condition in which a person or community is deprived of, or lacks the essentialsfor a minimum standard of well-being and life. Since poverty is understood in many senses,these essentials may be material resources such as food, safe drinking water, and shelter, or they may be social resources such as access to information, education, health care, socialstatus, political power, or the opportunity to develop
meaningful connections with other people in society.Poverty may also be defined in relative terms. In this view income disparities or wealth disparities are seen as an indicator of poverty and the condition of poverty is linked to questions of scarcity and distribution of resources and power. The definition and measurement of poverty have evolved over time. The periodic changes in the definition stem from the variation both across time and space in the description of what constitutes socio-economic well-being. The
ability of meeting the costs of minimum nutritional requirements is the most important component of the basic needs approach to the measurement of poverty. This definition has been strengthened by including socio-economic indicators of well being such as high rates of morbidity and mortality, prevalence of malnutrition, illiteracy, high infant and maternal mortality rates. Most elements of these a spects of poverty are based mainly on economic considerations. Consequently, many of these indicators are quantifiable.
Recently, the definition of poverty has been further broadened. New definitions incorporate problems of selfesteem, vulnerability to internal and external risks, exclusion from the development process and lack of social capital. The new additions to the definition of poverty capture the qualitative aspect of socio-economic well being. These definitions also influence the design of pro-poor policies for economic growth, public expenditures, safety net programs and tools for assessing the impact of programs
and projects on poverty reduction. Generally poverty is a result of many and often mutually reinforcing factors including lack of productive resources to generate material wealth, illiteracy, and prevalence of diseases, natural calamities such as floods, drought and manmade calamities such as wars. With increasing urbanization expected in the coming decades, the number of poor in urban areas, mainly the unemployed and those engaged in the informal sector, will grow faster and thus turn poverty into an
urban nightmare from the currently observed rural phenomena. At the international level, an unequal economic and political partnership, as reflected in unfavorable terms of trade and other transactions for developing countries is also a major cause of poverty in developing countries. Some causes of poverty are not direct, for example, traditions and norms which hinder effective resource utilization and participation in income generating activities.
Map of world poverty by country, showing percentage of population living on less than 1 dollar per day.
The percentage of the world's population living on less than $1 per day has halved in twenty years. However, most of this improvement has occurred in East and South Asia. The graph shows the 1981-2001 period.
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poverty in pakistan
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