ARPIT JAIN | TANYA SINGH THAKUR | VINTI AGARWAL AMARTYA SEN ON POVERTY INDIAN ECONOMIST | PHILOSOPHER | PROFESSOR ARPIT JAIN | TANYA SINGH THAKUR | VINTI AGARWAL

POVERTY Global definition- Poverty refers to not having enough money to meet the basic human needs; and to remain deprived from such needs. Basic needs include access to food, clothing, shelter, education and health. Amartya Sen’s Definition. He believes that poverty should not be measured on the basis of the poverty line. Some people do have a potential to cross the borders of poverty but are deprived of suitable opportunities. In his book ‘Poverty and Famines’, he highlights the various concepts of Poverty which has to be taken under consideration for the effective understanding of the Theory of Poverty Source:- http://www.wrsc.org/attach_image/factors-driving-poverty-cycle

CAPABILITY APPROACH Capabilities denote what people really “can do and can be”. The freedom to choose from what real opportunities and options a person have with respect to the life he/she leads is inherent in the definition of capability. He believes that Poverty must be seen as the deprivation of basic capabilities rather than merely taking into consideration the income aspect. According to government of India Rs 447 per month in rural areas is upper limit for Poverty Line. This might be valid for a normal healthy person but a differently abled person cannot survive in the same amount of money. Hence it is important to consider the capabilities of a person for determining poverty. A person who is suffering from disability is adversely affected from competing with the able bodied person in respect of earning as much income as him.

CAPABILITY APPROACH Capability deprivation aspects- Mortality Rate Morbidity Undernourishment Medical neglect Gender bias Cultural identity and social belonging. Social backwardness Resources (Characteristics of goods available) Capability set (functioning available to choose from) Functioning achieved Utility (subjective well-being) Personal ‘utilization function’ (depending on interpersonal differences: physiology, physical and social environment) We support the capability approach of Amarteya Sen’s on poverty because we feel that giving a larger share of income to a person with more needs due to his disability may be against the principle of equalizing incomes, but it is in total agreement with the rules of economic equality, since the persons greater need for economic resources due to his disability has to be taken into consideration in judging the requirement of economic Equality.

Poverty is Deprivation of Basic Capabilities Poverty must be seen as the deprivation of basic capabilities rather than merely the lowness of incomes. – Amartya Sen “I am Expanding my Capabilities !” Income alone can’t map the whole landscape of multidimensional poverty. For instance, in India over 50% of all malnourished children come from non poor families. When the Indian government claims that the poverty is down to 22% or 29% it tells nothing about the state of deprivations poor people are facing. Image Source:http://hubpages.com/education/Amartya-Sens-Concept-of-Development-and-Poverty

Approach of his predecessors Rowntree’s Absolute Poverty Approach In this approach Rowntree only focuses on the individual income of a person to determine how poor a person is. Other aspects like age, the type of society the person belongs to, physical and mental health etc. are not taken into consideration Townsend’s Relative Poverty Approach Unlike Rowntree, he takes into account the public participation. However his focus also lies only on the resources. If a person’s resources fall short than he would be considered to be suffering from poverty Amartya Sen Capability Deprivation Approach. Amartya Sen came up with the capabilities deprivation approach in which he involved factors like age of the person, various mental and physical health problems the person is suffering from, social biases the person is facing in the society he resides in, etc. Thus the real poverty lies in terms of capability deprivation rather the reduction of income and it is also region specific. Source :- http://rogerpielkejr.blogspot.in/2012/06/just-dont-call-it-poverty.html

Gender bias- There is an inherent gender bias in the distribution of resources. This results in the neglecting of the female members. Social belonging- A person who is relatively poor in a rich surrounding suffers from a great capability handicap even though his income is high with regards to the general world standards. They are not given equal opportunities to participate in social processes and activities. This is an example of absolute deprivation in respect of capabilities. Social backwardness- The ability to earn income by a disabled person is reduced due to his medical situation. However he would require more income to achieve the same functioning as an able-bodied person. The Government of India has opened many schools in Rural Areas in order to educate the children of that region but many children who belong to lower caste are not allowed to attend classes because of the social backwardness hence the scheme fails. So it is important to consider the approach of Amarteya Sen on poverty.

In the year 1993-1994 when the government was considering poverty in terms of only per capita income then the percentage of poverty was 25-35% but in the year 2009-2010 when the government started considering poverty in terms of other factors like health, education, job creation, social equality etc. then the percentage of poverty significantly started to reduce in the country. Let us look at Kerala as an example. The percentage of literacy in Kerala in the year 1994 was 85% and by the year 2010 the literacy rate was 93%. Poverty in Kerala in the year 1994 was in the range of 25-35 % and by the year 2010 it was less than 15%. Hence increase in literacy rate resulted in reduction of poverty.

How Rich Countries may have Poor Quality of Life? Per capita GDP is the common way to compare countries. It is expected that economic growth should make people’s life better but the relationship between per capita GDP and quality of life is not straightforward. For example, Sri Lanka and the Indian state of Kerala have low per capita GDP but have higher life expectancies and literacy rates than richer countries like Brazil and South Africa. Likewise, the African Americans in the US have lower life expectancy than China or Kerala despite higher average income. The GDP income can remain concentrated in few hands due to nature of the economy and exclusionary forces.  The rich elites influence state policies in their fever which leaves ordinary citizens at disadvantage.  Source: http://hubpages.com/education/Amartya-Sens-Concept-of-Development-and-Poverty