Poverty definition

There is no one agreed universal definition of poverty. In recent decades poverty has been defined as a relative rather than absolute notion. Some scholars such as Wisely Shaw argue that poverty has been perceived as poor relative to a level of income, social condition, accepted as average or normal for the community. This is further emphasised by other scholars such as May who defined poverty relative to the expenditure distribution line.  In his definition people living 20% to 40% below the expenditure distribution line are poor.  

In year 2000 organisations such as World Bank came up with another definition of poverty. In their definition  people with a relative income of one dollar or two dollars per day are poor.  Whereas scholars such as Townsend defined poverty as a lack of basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter. In his deprivation index people are in poverty if, amongst other things they lack is not having a one cooked meal three times a week.  A researcher by the name of Potgieter developed the Household Subsistence Level. In his definition of  poverty he included the lacking of medical expenses, education, savings, holidays/ recreation, insurance, buying household equipment and any transport beyond that of the breadwinner going to and from work.

Researchers such as Rose and Charlton did some work  to develop a food poverty line which sought to cost a nutritionally balanced minimalist diet for a household. This work used the very low cost food ration scale for food items used by the Household Subsistence Level (HSL). This approach is also referred to as a “calorific” approach to setting a poverty line. Certain poverty lines are drawn based on a calorific base for food consumption, to which other non-food items are then added.