Poverty may be known as a state symbol in less developed countries. Poverty is despair, grief and pain. It is the despair of a father with a family of seven children in a poor country when he joins the, swelling ranks of unemployed with no prospects of unemployment compensation. Poverty is the longing of a young boy playing outside a village school but unable to enter because his parents lack a few rupees needed to buy text books. Poverty is the grief of parents watching a three year old child die of a routine childhood disease because they cannot afford any medical care. This is the grim, spectacle of poverty.
By poverty we generally mean a situation in which a person fails t0 earn income sufficient to purchase his bare means of subsistence. A poor man is one who does not have command over the basic needs of life like enough food, clothing, drinking water and shelter on the material level. On the nonmaterial level a poor man is deprived of basic social needs like health and education.
Absolute poverty can be measured through income levels. Besides, progress in health and nutrition, literacy levels, consumption of essential goods and services etc. may indicate the level of absolute poverty also. Thus, it relates to the minimum standard of living. This may be expressed in terms of income or consumption expenditure.
Relative poverty means difference in the relative standard if living of the people. It stands for the large inequalities of income and wealth. In short, it relates to inequality in the level of living. It is due to mal distribution of national income. Some people are of high income group and some are of low income group. Hence the later are relatively poorer than the former. This relative poverty is found in all the countries, developing and developed more or less. In India, we are mostly concerned with absolute poverty. Absolute poverty has been expressed in terms of minimum calories intake or recommended nutritional requirements.
