Introduction
Amartya
Sen, Nobel prize winner of the economics, he said that the main objective of
The development is to enhance human freedoms. The process of evolution can
increase the human capabilities, skills, knowledge, attitudes and improve the
human lives and not the richness of the economy which is an only area of it.
What is Poverty?
Poverty
Is not a lack of money. Simply debt is the lack of basic needs. Ex. Food,
shelter, water. Amartya Sen said that poverty is not a lack of funds. It is not
having the capability to get one's full potential as a
human being. Debt is a multidimensional concept. It relates to the many sections of the economy. There are education, health, infrastructure, employment, etc. (Appendix 01)
Types of poverty
There
are two kinds of debt,
1.
Absolute
poverty
2.
Relative
poverty
Ø Absolute poverty relates to the
lack of basic needs in a considerable period in the economy. Ex: food,
clean water, and housing.
Ø Relative poverty occurs when
people in a country do not enjoy a certain minimum level of living standards as
compared to the rest of the population and so would change from state to
Country or sometimes within the same country. Ex: A family can be considered as
a sick family if they cannot get vacations, cannot buy gifts for children, relations
to festival season, and cannot send their children to higher education such as
a university.
What is the income disparity?
Income includes the sum of wages,
salaries, interest on the savings account, dividends, rent, profit, and other forms
of earnings received in a specific period. Income disparity is the unequal
distribution of household income or individual income in an economy or the gap
between the wealthy and needy persons in the marketplace. (Appendix 02)
What is the difference between income disparity and poverty?
Ex: In a land where everyone lives in
muddy huts. They haven’t income disparity. But they suffer from poverty. There is
no clear linkage between debt and income disparity. Reducing poverty doesn’t
lead to reduce income disparity, and reducing income disparity doesn’t go to directly
alleviate poverty. In some cases, people
suffer from income disparity in life, sometimes they also live in poverty. Some
countries that have higher income disparity often have many people live in
poverty.
We can measure poverty, only one
person. We can say that a person living in poverty. Inequality requires
multiple people and measure different between those persons. But we wouldn't know
that a person is living difference.
What are the factors that cause poverty?
Most analysts
Were agreed that there is no single section to affect poverty. Because
Poverty is the multidimensional concept.
1.
History
of the country
2.
Civil
War and political conflicts of the country
3.
Gender
inequality
4.
Natural
disaster
5.
Lack
of education, training, and skills
6.
Overpopulation
7.
Unemployment
Measurements of poverty (Appendix 03)
Absolute poverty measurements
1.
Poverty line- The lowest incomes level that
minimum standard of living for an individual. If someone below the official
poverty line, that person cannot fulfill their basic needs. Therefore that
person considered as a most miserable person. Using the headcount ratio, we can define
the poverty line. (Appendix 04)
2.
Human Development Index
The
Human Development Index (HDI) was introduced by the United Nations development
Program in 1997. The HDI measures the three primary dimensions. There are along
and healthy life, knowledge, and lack of essential services.
Relative poverty measurements
1. Lorenz curve
Lorenz curve was
introduced by American economist Max Lorenz in 1995. The Lorenz curve explains
the graphical representation of the income disparity in the economy. If the
near the perfect equality line, income disparity is decreasing. If the
deviation from the ideal equality line, income disparity is increasing. (Appendix
05)
2. Gini coefficient
Gini
coefficient used to measure the inequality of income and wealth in the country.
If the Gini coefficient is equal to zero, there is perfect equality. Everyone
has the same income in the economy.
(Appendix
06)
Poverty Alleviation
Poverty cannot be stopped entirely. The main
objective of the Poverty alleviation is to increase the quality of life for
poorest people in the country. It involves the tools which reducing poverty
such as education, economic development, health, and income redistribution.
What are poverty alleviation methods?
Ø Increasing
Supply of basic needs. Ex: clean water, food, and shelter
Ø Increasing the
health care facilities
Ø Giving quality
education
Ø Providing skills
and training programs
Ø Income
redistribution
Ø Increasing
personal income for low-income people
Major poverty alleviation programs in Sri Lanka
·
The Janasaviya programme.
This program was introduced in October
1989 of the Premadasa’s government (UNP). The primary objective of the Janasawiya
poverty alleviation program was to transform impoverished households into
sustainable economic units through increase cash and credit facilities.
How it was implemented? Each poor
family received a monthly grant per months. The Samurdhi program was launched
in 1995, replacing the Janasawiya program. Several factors affect the declining Janasawiya program.
Ø
Characteristics
of political actors: Janasawiya program which was introduced by the supporters
Who was close to the president Premadasa. Therefor created a political
situation to measure the poverty alleviation.
·
The Samurdhi program
Samurdhi means prosperity, the Samurdhi
program was started in 1995 as the national poverty reduction program and
according to the central bank of Sri Lanka. Today nearly 1.6 million families
are covered. The vision is prosperous Sri Lanka with minimized poverty. The
Samurdhi programs are divided into six major areas. There
are Social welfare, social, insurance, infrastructure development, microcredit, income generation, and socio-cultural development.
No of the beneficiary family has declined in
the recent year. However, the overall budget for the Samurdhi program has
increased in the last year. (Appendix 07) But there are lots of advantages
to this Samurdhi program. This program includes several strategies to
alleviate poverty. Ex: social security’s funds provide for reducing risks for
life cycle events such as death, marriage, illness, childbirth. And under this
Samurdhi program contain the individual subprograms. There are Samurdhi
housing, rural infrastructure, and Samurdhi bank. However According to changing
the political parties to improve the beneficiary families. Due to the
poor targeting who really felt poverty unable to receive the benefit.
·
Divineguma national program
Divineguma national program is the
latest poverty alleviation program introduced by the Mahinda Rajapaksha
Government. The mission of this program is to establish 2.5million healthy
and economically empowered household units, covering all the villages in the
Sri Lanka. The Divineguma program includes activities such as the cultivation of fruits,
vegetables and home gardening.
·
Gamidiriya community development and live hood
improvement
Program
This program was initiated in 2004.
Gamidiriya has funding received from the World Bank for 12 years. This
program includes several poverty alleviation tools. There are establishing buildings,
community infrastructure development, and livelihood development.
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