Poverty

POVERTY

There is no universally acceptable definition of poverty, although there are several connotations and definitions in vogue. Poverty implies a condition of life characterised by deprivation some sort or the other, and perceived as undesirable by the person concerned or others. It is a multidimensional concept and phenomenon.

Generally, there is a consensus among scholars about poverty being conceived and defined as absolute or relative.

Absolute poverty implies a person’s lack of access to objectively determined, reasonably adequate quantities of goods and services, to satisfy his/her material and non-material basic needs.

Relative poverty, on the other hand, means that a person’s access to the basic needs of life is relatively lower, as compared to some reference group of people. Between two households or two persons, one may be considered as poor, while the other in comparison may not be so, even though both may be in a position to fulfill their basic needs.

Following the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Statistical Policy Directive 14, the Census Bureau uses a set of money income thresholds that vary by family size and composition to determine who is in poverty.  If a family’s total income is less than the family’s threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.  The official poverty thresholds do not vary geographically, but they are updated for inflation using Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).  The official poverty definition uses money income before taxes and does not include capital gains or noncash benefits (such as public housing, Medicaid, and food stamps).

|Income | |

|used to compute |Money income |

|poverty status: |Includes earnings, unemployment compensation, workers’...