What
is poverty? Ask six different people and you will get six different
definitions. There is relative poverty - being poor in relation to those
around you. There is the poverty line - an income level below which
one lives in poverty.
The World Bank defines poverty as "income poverty" living on less
than a dollar a day. And the United Nations Development Programme talks
about human poverty as "a denial of choices and opportunities for living
a tolerable life. And it is interesting to note that although there
are several ways of defining the poor, there is very little time and
effort devoted to defining the rich.