Poverty

• Absolute/subsistence poverty refers to the poor who are unable to attain food (in sufficient quantities to satisfy their basic nutritional requirements) and non-food items (such as clothing and shelter) necessary for survival.
• Critical poverty refers to people who are unable to obtain food necessary for survival.
• Relative poverty refers to those who are poor compared to or ‘relative to’ other members of the same society.
• Definitions of subjective poverty are based on surveys that use the households’ own assessments of the minimum or ‘just enough’ levels of income or consumption needed by people like them.
• Chronic poverty is a type of poverty that is characterized by its permanence or duration.
• Chronic poverty describes people who remain in poverty for most or all of their lives.
• Cyclical poverty describes poverty experienced only during stages of an individual’s life cycle, such as during childhood or old age.
• Seasonal poverty refers to people whose income falls below the poverty line only during certain months of the year.
• The term ‘temporarily poor’ refers to those who have recently become poor after certain measures such as structural adjustment.
• Voluntary poverty refers to poverty that is viewed as being desirable or necessary.
• Many people equate voluntary poverty to simplifying their lifestyles or adhering to the ‘less is more’ concept.