Q.Distinguish between absolute poverty and relative poverty.

Poverty can be understood in two different ways depending on whether we compare a person's income to a fixed minimum need or to what others around them have. …

Absolute poverty refers to a condition in which a person or household's income or consumption expenditure falls below a defined minimum threshold required to meet basic subsistence needs. This threshold is most commonly derived from a minimum calorie-intake norm, converted into the market value of a basic basket of food and non-food items — the poverty line. Anyone whose consumption falls short of this line is classified as poor in the absolute sense, irrespective of how well-off or badly-off others around them are.

Relative poverty, on the other hand, is defined by comparison rather than by a fixed minimum. A person is considered relatively poor if their income or consumption is significantly lower than the average or median income prevailing in their society, even if that income is technically sufficient to meet basic subsistence needs. Relative poverty is therefore closely linked to the broader issue of income inequality within a society, and it can persist — and even widen — even as absolute poverty declines, because it is a comparative rather than an absolute measure. …

Students often treat 'poverty' as a single, obvious concept and miss that relative poverty can persist even where nobody is below the absolute subsistence threshold — …