Poverty lines
Insights from people's self-initiatives in Bangladesh and the poverty and development discourse
Why traditional measures of poverty are inadequate
Authors:
A. Rahman
Publisher:
Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee , 2007
This paper outlines grass-roots experiences in Bangladesh of creative self-reliant initiatives of disadvantaged people to promote their lives independent of government and NGO programmes. It argues that the customary “poverty line”, besides being demeaning for human beings, has no empirical validity. It is inconsistent with the actual behaviour of disadvantaged people in facing their poverty that follows systemic rather than linear logic. It is further argued that the customary “poverty line” does not have any normative validity.
In terms of poverty reduction strategies, collective economic co-operation among the disadvantaged is considered a promising direction, and the importance of access of such people to means of collective thinking is emerging as a new insight. Promotion of technical co-operation among the disadvantaged people themselves is especially suggested.
The paper concludes by suggesting a review of Sen’s philosophy of promoting “individual freedom” as the foundational view of development, from the point of view of organic identities of individuals with various levels of “collectives”, and also of the need for individual freedom to be subject to ethical considerations. Revision of the UNDP’s Human Development Index is also suggested to include a component representing human care for each other.
