Poverty

As a student of Economics, throughout my studies I have found myself reading about the complex issue of poverty that this social science often finds itself grappling with. Despite growing up outside India, I was uncomfortably aware of the stark differences in life standards between the people of the country. I have read about this in more and more detail and in my Development Economics classes here at the University of Hyderabad, certain sources have opened my eyes to how multi-faceted poverty actually is and why it still seems to persist despite the leaps and bounds society has made.

Development literature has long focused on the worrying issue of poverty. Families and citizens have been living and hovering alongside poverty lines for decades and this has some worrying implications in many different areas. Most people are aware of how access to education, healthcare, food security and secure household infrastructure are impacted negatively when communities and individuals live in poverty. Being sensitized to political economy too, I was cognizant of how women and children are affected more. Power in one’s hands can determine the kind of life one may lead, and in some cases if you are born without power in your hands, then you are especially vulnerable to the world.

The syllabus comprised of many readings, but a few specific ones helped widen my understanding of poverty. Oscar Lewis’ book – “A Study of Slum Culture”, provided an anthropologist’s take on the ‘culture’ of poverty. How it transcends regional, rural-urban and national differences, meaning those in poverty all over the globe share similarities in their situations. Commonalities included:

a) cash economies, wage labour and production for profit

b) high unemployment rates

c) low wages

d) weak socio-political and economic institutions and organization

e) a social class with an extremely high concentration of wealth assets

What was new to me was understanding that poverty is both an adaptation of these conditions and a reaction to the same. It perpetuates itself from generation to generation, creating a vicious cycle. The already vulnerable such as the landless have the highest chances of being sucked into the cycle of poverty.

During this course, I was introduced to Robert Chambers’ work titled ‘Rural Development: Putting the last first’, specifically chapter 5 of the book – ‘Integrated Rural Poverty’. I have connected this to another reading from the same course; Jeffrey Sach’s work, chapter 3 – ‘Why Some Countries Fail to Thrive’ from his book ‘The End of Poverty’. This will be the content for my next blog post.

Chambers writes and provides his explanation to why poverty has been persisting despite numerous efforts, work and people studying it. He says the root causes of poverty work together and trap people in poverty, not allowing them to break free. The five interlocking disadvantages are as follows and together their influence is known as the ‘Deprivation Trap’:

i) Poverty itself

ii) Physical weakness

iii) Isolation

iv) Vulnerability

v) Powerless-ness

Point (iv) vulnerability and (v) powerless-ness are sometimes ignored, but it is crucial to not ignore their influence on poverty. The deprivation trap’s interlocking disadvantages feed into each other, exacerbating the issue. The five are entwined with each other very deeply, yet many do not actually understand just how they affect the lives of the poor. Many are under the false and untruthful assumption that the poor are poor because of their attitudes to work, that they’re ‘lazy’ or ‘stupid’. This couldn’t be further from the truth, and Chambers writes very bluntly: the fact of the matter is that they cannot afford to be lazy or stupid, or else they will be wiped out. It sounds crude, but their survivability is based on these foundations. They are very resourceful, with highly developed skills, a determination within them that showcases their work ethic.

Point (i) poverty itself is a feature that should be recognized, a household with very few assets, lack of hygienic sanitation facilities. Small or no land holdings, and if they do own land, there is no confidence of it providing them enough to live off of. Usually there is only one earning member of a considerably young and highly dependent family system, or whoever is of the age and good health to work is immediately sent to earn outside, the money immediately being used up. Women work outside and even inside the home. Point (ii), the household is physically weak with elderly, the very young and sometimes those struck with illnesses, with many people depending the earning members. Many members may have left due to forced migration too. Point (iii), isolation can affect this issue too. Being located at the boundaries and far away from a town centre or a city, without access to radios, the household misses out on important news and as such are dependent on only the off chance that they hear important events via word of mouth which is unreliable. Point (v), the household’s vulnerability is at the forefront when it comes to crises that fall upon their shoulders, with very little contingency plans made for these kinds of events. In a situation where there is anyhow very little in terms of assets, sometimes their meagre assets are also sold. Point (v), the household is powerless, the isolation, and their lack of education makes them vulnerable to the mercy of rich and powerful, without legal knowledge and financial basics. Informal money lending is rampant and they often are the victims of such perverse exploitations.

Poverty and isolation do not take much imagination to figure out how they can be severely harmful, but it is high time to not underestimate the impact of vulnerability and powerlessness.

Of course, every household suffering under poverty may not showcase every single one of these characteristics, however keeping an eye out for these clusters of disadvantages is important. The interplay between the five can result in 20 different combinations of factors, all of them working together to create this deprivation trap, somewhat like a spider’s web. The intensity of the combinations differs from case to case, but for example: poverty can contribute to physical weakness through lack of nutritious food. Physical weakness in turn can in turn feed poverty because malnutrition impacts how you work. People affected by malnutrition are further left behind, isolated due to their inability to seek help. Isolation drives vulnerability, which in turn drives isolation but also heightens powerlessness. By conducting similar ‘connect-the-dots’ rounds with various different contexts, it doesn’t take much to see how impossibly tangled the situation truly is.

It is not unheard of to hear crises happen, indeed we are currently going through what may be one of the worst events humanity has ever had to face – the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sometimes for the short term, quickly selling one of the few assets they hold may stave off a crisis, but for an extended period of time, there are 5 different kinds of ways that the poor may be pushed into selling their assets fast – known as ‘poverty ratchet’.

a) Social conventions – such as dowry, marriages and funerals. This perpetuates the vulnerability and powerlessness of women, in a system where daughters who have as much potential as anyone else are looked upon as burdens for fathers.

b) Disasters – death of livestock, flooding and severe droughts. I would personally say that the covid-19 pandemic could also be an example of this.

c) Physical incapacity – bad sicknesses, the impact of childbirth on women. Perhaps even those who have survived Covid could have long term health issues which will impact them later on.

d) Unproductive expenses – people can fall to the lure of vices, be rich or poor. Alcohol consumption, drug consumption all are examples of this. It could also be party fulfilled trainings or investments in education, which are sometimes challenging to understand and see the result. After all, these are long term investments. In the short term it means it’s someone who’s not bring home money to buy food to fill their stomachs.

e) Exploitation – the vulnerability that was spoken of earlier, shows up here. Being a pawn for the rich and powerful in their overarching games.

It can seem incredulous to the outside world, that the poor would sell what little they own. Hopefully, this breaks down the impossible situation they can find themselves in. Chambers provides a table to help us understand why some would sell their land – sometimes the one most valuable asset they hold. With case studies from the Global South to keep it real, from India to Kenya, marriages, funerals and sickness are the events with highest frequency of quickly needing money at hand. Some even sell to buy food, which is a testament to how much difficulty they actually face in their lives. These are sales of distress, not to accumulate money to store in a bank account. Many a time they are forced to part with their asset for meagre amounts, nothing compared to the actual value of the asset in question, a frustrating thing but they are powerless in these scenarios. It’s unfortunately a well-known fact that sometimes the police and the politically powerful are in cahoots, and orchestrate a mechanism where the poor seller has no choice but to sell with a loss. Bargaining is out of the question. The odds are truly stacked against the poor, and it will take a structural shake down and overhaul to be able to create any meaningful change.