Why is the methodology adopted in India to count the 39 poor 39 debatable ...

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English Comprehension Reading Comprehension (C) Add to Study Deck

Directions(): Read the following two passages and answer the items that follow the passages. Your answers to these items should be based on the passages only.

The poverty line is quite unsatisfactory when it comes to grasping the extent of poverty in India. It is not only because of its extremely narrow definition of 'who is poor' and the debatable methodology used to count the poor, but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power. One can better categorize it by calling it income poverty. If poverty is ultimately about deprivations affecting human well-being, then income poverty is only one aspect of it. Poverty of a life, in our view, lies not merely in the impoverished state in which the person actually lives, but also in the lack of real opportunity given by social constraints as well as personal circumstances–to choose other types of living. Even the relevance of low incomes, meagre possessions, and other aspects of what are standardly seen as economic poverty relate ultimately to their role in curtailing capabilities, i.e., their role in severely restricting the choices people have to lead variable and valued lives.

Why is the methodology adopted in India to count the 'poor' debatable?

There is some confusion regarding what should constitute the 'poverty line'.

There are wide diversities in the condition of the rural and urban poor.

There is no uniform global standard for measuring income poverty.

It is based on the proposition of poverty as meagre income or buying capacity.

Explanation:

Option (a) is incorrect
Option (b) is incorrect:
Option (c) is incorrect:
Option (d) is correct: This is the main message being stressed by the author, who explains through the various lines of the passage that measuring poverty through the lens of income or purchasing power (buying capacity) is only a narrow way of looking at poverty. We must look at other factors that restrict choices and opportunities for individuals, income being just one part of it. Various lines in the passage indicate the same- For example, “extremely narrow definition of 'who is poor' and the debatable methodology used to count the poor, but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power.”