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• Definition of Poverty:
Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs
including food, clothing and shelter. It is the state of one who lacks a
certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute
poverty or destitution refers to the deprivation of basic human needs,
which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter,
health care and education. Approximately, 1.7 million people are living
in absolute poverty in the present world. Relative poverty is defined
contextually as economic inequality in the location or society in which
people live.
However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough
money.
The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way:
“Poverty is hunger. Poverty is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick
and not being able to see a doctor. Poverty is not having access to
school and not knowing how to read. Poverty is not having a job, is
fear for the future, living one day at a time.”
According to Oxford Dictionary:
1. The state of being extremely poor: thousands of families are living
in abject poverty
2. The renunciation of the right to individual ownership of property
as part of a religious vow.
3. The state of being inferior in quality or insufficient in amount: the
poverty of her imagination
Despite the many definitions, one thing is certain; poverty is a complex
societal issue. No matter how poverty is defined, it can be agreed that
it is an issue that requires everyone’s attention. It is important that all
members of our society work together to provide the opportunities for

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all our members to reach their full potential. It helps all of us to help
one another .
• Classification of Poverty:
Different people think about poverty in different ways. Some people
think that poverty is about being able to buy and sell but other people
think about getting a fair share of education and health care or about
being given respect, and having some influence over what happens in
their life. Because of these differences it is useful to think about two
main types of poverty - income poverty and non-income poverty
Income Poverty: Income poverty happens when a household takes in
less than one US dollar per day. This means that people will not have
enough food or medicine and they will have poor clothes and houses.
Income poverty is due to people not having access to money or other
assets. If people do not have any other assets like land to grow their
own food, then income poverty can result in stunted growth and early
death.
Non-income Poverty: Non income poverty happens when people may
have a little bit of money but otherwise the quality of their life is not

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good. They do not have access to affordable social and physical services
(schooling, health care, medicines, safe water, good sanitation, good
transport) and they may not feel safe in their homes either because
they cannot trust the authorities or because they belong to some
particularly vulnerable group.
• Poverty in Bangladesh:
Condition of poverty in Bangladesh is not so good. Now, We would like
to delineate the present situation of poverty in Bangladesh. Around
31% of the rural population presently suffers the indignity of chronic
poverty low consumption, hunger and under-nutrition, lack of access to
basic health services, illiteracy and other deprivations for more than a
decade. About 24% of the total population currently lives in extreme
income-poverty. About 19% of rural households cannot have 'full three
meals' a day; about 10% subsist on two meals or less for a number of
months every year. While Bangladesh has come out of the "shadow of
famine", the problem of starvation still persists. However, 47% people
are staying below poverty line and 28% of our population lives under
the extreme poverty line. About 40 million people go to bed without
meal every night. This observation shows that Bangladesh is a country

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of poor. Although, several international organizations like IMF, World
Bank; Government and Non Governmental organizations have been
working for the alleviation of poverty but the success in the field is very
negligible i.e. 1% or 1.8% at best each year. Statistics show reduction of
poverty in the years (1995---2007) from 51.00% to 38.66%. But
according to the principles of Millennium Development Goals (MDG),
we have to reduce poverty by 1.15% every year.
Figure: Poverty rate in various district of Bangladesh.
• Reasons of Poverty:
There are many reasons of poverty in Bangladesh. Now, the reasons
that are working effectively behind the poverty of Bangladesh are
stated below:
1. Rapid growth of population.
2. Corruption of top level personnel of the society.