Poverty in Karachi: Incidence, Location, Characteristics, and
      Upward Mobility

The paper examines the incidence and spatial distribution of poverty in Karachi, Pakistan. Based on a survey of 6000 households, it locates the clusters of poverty and presents a profile of the poor in the city. Just over one-third of the households in Karachi can be classified as poor, based on an absolute poverty line derived from standard consumption norms. Poverty is concentrated in six geographical clusters, which account for 60 percent of the sample households but 90 percent of the very poor households. Analysis of residential movement is used to derive some indirect evidence of socioeconomic mobility. This suggests that, historically, the incidence of upward mobility amongst the poor in Karachi, based partly on the acquisition of skills and education, has been quite high. Poverty in Karachi has not been endemic as a continuous influx of migrants at the bottom replaced those who moved up the economic ladder. The little evidence of downward mobility also identifies it as a more recent occurrence as compared to upward mobility. Data on education show that generational inequalities in educational attainments across different groups among the poor are not being perpetuated over time. At the same time, an analysis of investment in the education of children suggests some very tentative evidence of a possible loss of faith in education as a mechanism for upward mobility. Such indicative evidence is of considerable value given the absence of panel data for most cities in developing countries.

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Social minimum living standard in Russia: estimation methods

Level of Life of the Population of Regions of Russia ◽

10.19181/lsprr.2021.17.2.3 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

pp. 192-203

Author(s):

Lyudmila Migranova ◽

Irina Korchagina

Keyword(s):

Social Role ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Poverty Rate ◽

Normal Function ◽

Estimation Methods ◽

Living Standard ◽

Median Income ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

Poor Households ◽

Per Capita

The minimum living standard of the population in Russia since 1992 is subsistence minimum (SM). It plays a significant social role as a criterion for the assessment of the need of households for social assistance. The methods for SM calculating were periodically changed, but the rate of absolute poverty was always measured by the share of the population with income below SM. The article considers in detail the methods for estimating SM, adopted in 2013 and based on normative-statistical approach. Analysis of the food consumption and the structure of consumer spending of poor households, based on Household Budget Survey 2012-2019, revealed their non-compliance with the SM that was effective up to and including 2020. Since 2021 estimation of poverty is made by statistical methods without calculating minimum consumer basket (Law № 473-ФЗ as of 29.12.2020). The poverty line is determined by the ratio to median income per capita, and the poverty rate is of relative character. Retrospective analysis of the dynamics in the per capita and median incomes of the RF population and the SM per capita for 2013-2020 makes it possible to estimate the difference in the rates of absolute and relative poverty and to understand what guided the developers of the law in determining the SM per capita at 44.2% of the median income and the value of SM for the main sociodemographic groups of the population for the year 2021. In addition, on concrete examples, by means of the logarithmic normal function used by Rosstat for calculation of the population income distribution, it is shown, at what ratio of the median income to the average, the rate of absolute poverty may be reduced by half as compared to 2019

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Measuring Poverty: Context-Specific but not Relative

Journal of Public Policy ◽

10.1017/s0143814x10000103 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 30 (3) ◽

pp. 241-262 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

KRISTIAN NIEMIETZ

Keyword(s):

Low Cost ◽

National Level ◽

Well Being ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Median Income ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

The Poor ◽

Context Specific

AbstractPoverty in developed countries is commonly defined in relative terms. It is argued that a relative definition formalises the insight that poverty is a context-specific phenomenon, and that the understanding of what constitutes poverty changes with overall economic development. Yet this article argues that tagging a poverty line to mean or median incomes does not automatically anchor it in its social context. Relative measures rely on the implicit assumptions that social norms are formed at the national level, and that median income earners set social standards. A comparison with studies on ‘Subjective Well-Being’ (SWB) shows that these assumptions are rather arbitrary. At the same time, relative indicators do not take account of changes in the product market structure that disproportionately affect the poor. If low-cost substitutes for expensive items become available, the poor will be relatively more affected than median income earners. Conventional ‘absolute poverty’ indicators will be equally dismissed for not solving these problems either. A combined ‘Consensual Material Deprivation’ and ‘Budget Standard Approach’ indicator will be proposed as a more robust alternative.

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Locating the “poverty threshold” in Russia

Voprosy Ekonomiki ◽

10.32609/0042-8736-2018-1-104-127 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 104-127 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

E. D. Slobodenyuk ◽

V. A. Anikin

Keyword(s):

Family Income ◽

The Elderly ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Median Income ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

Subsistence Level ◽

Relative Poverty ◽

Economic Determinants ◽

Poverty Threshold ◽

The Poor

The present paper focuses on identification of relative “poverty line” and a threshold of high poverty risks. The paper also studies key poverty factors in contemporary Russia. It demonstrates that the relative approach to poverty which is widely used in Western countries is applicable in Russia too. However, the relative poverty thresholds set at 0.5 and 0.75 medians per capita family income identify quite different groups of the poor. The threshold of 0.5 median income indicates deep poverty happened mostly to the unemployed workforce. The relative poverty threshold equal to 0.75 median income identifies the poverty of the elderly who are not considered as the poor by the absolute approach because pensions of Russians have been recently equalized to the subsistence level. Above all, the paper provides econometric estimates of socio-economic determinants of both absolute and relative poverty. It was revealed that the relative deep poverty of the working population was primarily caused by “bad” jobs rather than by “bad” human capital. Absolute poverty of workers is more or less determined by both factors.

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Inequality, poverty and living conditions in Greece: Recent developments and prospects

Social Cohesion and Development ◽

10.12681/scad.9088 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 8 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Theodore Mitrakos

Keyword(s):

Household Income ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Living Conditions ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

Significant Deterioration ◽

Income Sources ◽

The Poor ◽

Recent Developments ◽

Recent Trends ◽

The Eu

This paper presents the recent trends and the characteristics of inequality, poverty and living conditions in Greece, emphasising on the distributional effects of the austerity measures adopted during the current economic crisis. Moreover, the decomposition analysis of the study examines the structure of inequality and the contribution of various income sources in overall inequality, while the main characteristics of the Greek social solidarity system and the poor distributional impact of social benefits are also discussed. For this purpose, the household income from the Greek Household Budget and the EU Statistics of Income and Living Conditions surveys are used. The available data indicate that income inequality and relative poverty increased, yet not dramatically, during the current crisis, although the composition of the poor population changed considerably. However, the sharp decline in disposable income and the dramatic increase in unemployment led to a significant deterioration in economic prosperity and absolute poverty, i.e. when the poverty line in real terms remains stable in the pro-crisis levels.

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One Method to Improve the Official Poverty Line in Indonesia

Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences and Humanities ◽

10.14203/jissh.v6i1.58 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 39-52

Author(s):

Carunia Mulya Firdausy

Keyword(s):

Research Question ◽

Group Discussion ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Absolute Poverty ◽

Subjective Poverty ◽

The Poor ◽

Per Capita ◽

The Government ◽

Policies And Programs ◽

Depth Interviews

Poverty is one of the long standing problems in Indonesia. Using the national absolute poverty line, itwas estimated that the proportion of the poor has declined from 40.1% in 1976 to 10.5% in 2014. However,many people claim that the above percentage of the poor is only true in terms of statistics. The poor argue thatthe amount of rupiah expenditure set as the ofcial poverty line is inadequate to fulfl their basic needs. Thispaper, based on a feld survey of 360 respondents of the poor and the non-poor in three villages in three different provinces located in the Eastern, Western and Central parts of Indonesia, aims at examining a methodto improve the national poverty line and to determine the minimum rupiah expenditure of the poverty lineusing a subjective approach. The method used to examine this research question is by - using questionnaires,Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in depth interviews. Sample respondents were asked their perceptions onvariables, dimensions and indicators that should be accommodated in formulating the subjective poverty line.They were also questioned about the minimum rupiah expenditure threshold to defne the subjective povertyline. The study found that the ofcial poverty line that has been determined by the government was far belowthe subjective poverty line that was defned by the respondents. Also, the variables, dimension and indicatorsthat should be accommodated in the national poverty line should not only be food items, but also access toemployment, housing, health and education for children. The minimum rupiah expenditure of the povertyline was argued to be more than Rp 500 000 equal to US$40 per capita per month. This minimum rupiahexpenditure of the subjective poverty line is almost double that of the ofcial poverty line set at the average ofRp 300 000 or US$24 per capita per month. Therefore, the government not only needs to revise the presentpoverty line, but also needs to revise policies and programs to eliminate poverty by taking into account thedimension and variables of poverty viewed by the poor and the non-poor. If not, the incidence of poverty willremain with us.

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Measuring Access of Microfinance on Poverty in India: Towards a Comprehensive Index

International Journal of Financial Management ◽

10.21863/ijfm/2015.5.1.003 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Arindam Laha ◽

Pravat Kumar Kuri

Keyword(s):

Tamil Nadu ◽

Andhra Pradesh ◽

Composite Index ◽

Well Being ◽

The Poor ◽

Comprehensive Index ◽

Poor Households ◽

Cross Country ◽

Economic Well Being

The outreach of micro-finance programme is considered to be a means enhance the economic well-being among the member means to enhance households through poverty alleviation. A wide cross-country variation in the outreach of micro-finance programme to the poor households is observed in the world. Despite the significant growth of micro-finance institutions and its active borrowers, the penetration of micro-finance lending services to the poor households in India is observed to be limited. In addition, there is a wide inter-state disparity in the achievement of micro-finance outreach in India especially among the poor households. A composite index has been constructed using the penetration, availability and usage indicators of micro-finance outreach to examine the interstate variations in the level of its achievement. Subsequently, attempt has been made to analyse the role of micro-finance in alleviating poverty across the states of India. The result shows that out of 27 states and Union Territories, only in seven states (Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, and Karnataka) outreach of micro-finance programme has made a significant impact on the reduction of poverty.

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In Need

10.1093/oso/9780198814214.003.0005 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jordanna Bailkin

Keyword(s):

Welfare State ◽

The State ◽

Ethnic Identities ◽

Refugee Camps ◽

Downward Mobility ◽

The Poor ◽

The Welfare State

This chapter asks how refugee camps transformed people as well as spaces, altering the identities of the individuals and communities who lived in and near them. It considers how camps forged and fractured economic, religious, and ethnic identities, constructing different kinds of unity and disunity. Camps had unpredictable effects on how refugees and Britons thought of themselves, and how they saw their relationship to upward and downward mobility. As the impoverished Briton emerged more clearly in the imagination of the welfare state, the refugee was his constant companion and critic. The state struggled to determine whether refugees required the same care as the poor, or if they warranted their own structures of aid.

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Social health insurance for the poor: lessons from a health insurance programme in Karnataka, India

BMJ Global Health ◽

10.1136/bmjgh-2017-000582 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. e000582 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Neeraj Sood ◽

Zachary Wagner

Keyword(s):

Health Insurance ◽

Financial Burden ◽

Tertiary Care ◽

Substantial Reduction ◽

Unmet Need ◽

Social Health Insurance ◽

Well Being ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Social Health ◽

The Poor

Life-saving technology used to treat catastrophic illnesses such as heart disease and cancer is often out of reach for the poor. As life expectancy increases in poor countries and the burden from chronic illnesses continues to rise, so will the unmet need for expensive tertiary care. Understanding how best to increase access to and reduce the financial burden of expensive tertiary care is a crucial task for the global health community in the coming decades. In 2010, Karnataka, a state in India, rolled out the Vajpayee Arogyashree scheme (VAS), a social health insurance scheme focused on increasing access to tertiary care for households below the poverty line. VAS was rolled out in a way that allowed for robust evaluation of its causal effects and several studies have examined various impacts of the scheme on poor households. In this analysis article, we summarise the key findings and assess how these findings can be used to inform other social health insurance schemes. First, the evidence suggests that VAS led to a substantial reduction in mortality driven by increased tertiary care utilisation as well as use of better quality facilities and earlier diagnosis. Second, VAS significantly reduced the financial burden of receiving tertiary care. Third, these benefits of social health insurance were achieved at a reasonable cost to society and taxpayers. Several unique features of VAS led to its success at improving health and financial well-being including effective outreach via health camps, targeting expensive conditions with high disease burden, easy enrolment process, cashless treatment, bundled payment for hospital services, participation of both public and private hospitals and prior authorisation to improve appropriateness of care.

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The Caste-Class Association in India

Asian Survey ◽

10.1525/as.2012.52.2.395 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 52 (2) ◽

pp. 395-422 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Divya Vaid

Keyword(s):

Upward Mobility ◽

Caste System ◽

Downward Mobility ◽

Scheduled Castes ◽

Over Time

Abstract This paper empirically analyzes the association between caste and class in India. I find a tentative congruence between castes and classes at the extremes of the caste system and a slight weakening in this association over time. Although Scheduled Castes have low upward mobility, higher castes are not entirely protected from downward mobility.

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SOCIO-ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH MICRO CREDIT: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

10.36106/ijar/0313846 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 58-60

Author(s):

T. Indumathi ◽

G. Savaraiah

Keyword(s):

Rural Women ◽

Poverty Reduction ◽

Rural Poverty ◽

Poverty Line ◽

Economic Empowerment ◽

Political Empowerment ◽

The Poor ◽

The Government ◽

The Impact ◽

Micro Credit

The World Bank's Andhra Pradesh Rural Poverty Reduction Project supports the self helf groups of the women members. It promotes women's social, economic, legal and political empowerment to reduce poverty among the poor and the poorest of the poor. The important object of this article is to examine the impact of micronance on the socio economic empowerment of the rural women supported by the national reputed NGO- Rashtriya Seva Samithi (RASS). 184 women members of the SHGs promoted by Rasthriya Seva Samathi (RASS) an NGO which located in Tirupati town. 184 samples are selected randomly from 15 SHGs scattered throughout the Tirupati rural mandal (Taluk) from the area of the study have been considered to conduct the present research study. The study reveals that 87.71 percent of the sample women were below the poverty line before joining the SHGs. As a result of SHG, about 40 percent of the sample women crossed the poverty line. The highest intensive value indicates that more women have participated in social agitations for the welfare of the children and the society. The second highest intensity reveals that considerable numbers of women of SHGs have participated in the government sponsored schemes. The 1st point secured 3rd rank with total intensity value of 605 which status that the micro credit has resulted in increased social status and empowerment.

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