Full transcript of “Tutorial 1: Poverty and the types of Poverty”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 Hello students, this is the first of a series of tutorial videos that are to be done on module 3, specifically the topic of poverty. In this video, we are going to be focusing on a workable definition of poverty. Likewise, the types of poverty that we ought to cover in this module. Now let's begin with a definition of poverty tabled by the Caribbean Development Bank CD CDB. It says poverty exists when individuals or groups are unable to satisfy their basic needs for survival and
0:46 development, lack access to essential services, and are excluded from participation in society. This definition merely focuses on poverty as a concept that is used to describe the situation of people or groups who are unable to satisfy their basic needs, are unable to meet whatsoever things or essential necessities to their survival and likewise aren't able to comfortably or any at all participate in society as the layman should uh and this definition as I said focuses on basic needs, access to services and social
1:32 inclusion. Now let us look on the types of poverty as there are several types and in this tutorial video we're going to be looking on five. The first type of poverty we're looking at is absolute poverty. This is also called subsistence poverty or basic needs poverty. And I want you to relate these types of poverty to the definition we looked at prior. Now absolute poverty is a condition where a person cannot meet their basic needs which you know your basic needs food water as a matter of fact clean water shelter health care.
2:20 Now if you're living in a situation where you cannot meet these basic needs, you are defined by definition as absolutely poor. You are experiencing absolute poverty or subsistence poverty. And this one literally only concerns your ability to meet your basic needs. So once you can't meet your basic needs, you know it's absolute poverty that you're experiencing. Now let's move to another type of poverty. This one is called relative poverty. And you should be able to draw a distinction between this one
3:06 and the one we looked on prior. Now relative poverty on the other hand is a situation of being poor compared to the average standard of living in a society. So what this one concerns is you are able to meet your basic needs but when you look at the standard of living uh having a a relatively comfortable home having a relatively comfortable amount of access to your basic needs. You you consider yourself not well off and as such you are relatively poor. It does not mean that you lack the things that you need to survive as is the case in absolute poverty, but you can lack the things you need to survive comfortably
3:53 and as such you're relatively poor. And an example is of a work in Trinidad earning much less than others. He is earning something, right? but he's unable to afford things like education or internet access which aren't within the scope of basic needs. Right? So what he's working may allow him to access his basic needs but nothing in addition to that. And as you see in the example, education or internet access would be an addition to basic needs. You can survive without those. So if you have your basic needs but you can't live comfortably with other additions then you could define yourself as being relatively poor
4:40 and I think within the context of Jamaica a majority of our populace is relatively poor and that is an opinion from somebody who isn't a scholarly reference. Now we move to the third type of poverty and it is subsistence povert subjective rather poverty and subjective poverty is when individuals feel poor due to their own expectations and pressures for example what you see on social media or what your peers have. So, an excellent example of subjective poverty would be you live in a two room house or a twostory house.
5:29 Your friends live in a five-story house. Because all of your friends live in a five-story house and you live in a two-story house, you feel subjectively poor when you compare your living situation to them. It's not a case where you lack basic needs. It's not a case where you lack the access to living comfortably, but you aren't as lavish as you you're those references around you are and you feel as though you have fallen below the mark. And an example here is that a teenager in Barbados feeling deprived because they can't afford the latest smartphone. Now, a smartphone is not a basic need. It's not necessarily something you need to live comfortably, but it is something that uh
6:14 is beyond your scope and your inability to access it could cause you to feel subjectively poor. And in Jamaica, we call this one red eye. I hope you can relate. We move on to urban poverty. And this is one that is not as represented as it should be. Urban poverty refers to poverty experienced in cities or urban centers. So for example, Kingston is a urban area. Uh Montego Bay has been considered or reputed as an urban area. So these are areas where as we looked at in class, people normally move to work. But have you ever thought of urban poverty? So this is experienced in the
7:00 urban areas and it's often characterized by overcrowding in formal settlements and high living costs. Now if you recall any of what we looked at in class concerning urbanization and people moving into urban spaces for jobs, one of the things that we would have come across is how that contribute to overpopulation or overcrowding. And what that can create is a lot of informal settlements. people are just moving in to squat and work and that can create serious implications where poverty is concerned. Key characteristics of urban poverty, it involves inadequate housing, poor sanitation and limited access to public services. And this is really because urban areas are focused mainly
7:45 on producing. It's focused on work and earning and it it concerns very minimally your living conditions. You only move there to work. So you'll find that people will leave their comfortable homes in the rural areas to live uncomfortably in urban areas to earn money and it doesn't always work out for everybody. So this is urban poverty. When you move to a urban area and because of how fastpaced urban areas are. You can't keep up. You can't get a a proper house. You can't get a piece of land because things are so expensive and it's so work oriented. That's called urban poverty. It's seen in rapidly growing cities like
8:32 Kingston, Jamaica, linked to rural urban migration where people move to cities seeking after better opportunities but end up in a urban slum. And by the way, a slum refers to a area where there are a lot of people squatting, right? Challenges include urban unemployment and that is because if everybody pack up your style, look a job, it's possible that some people just won't get any and urban undermployment as well, which is having to work beneath your qualifications, right? Other things include poor infrastructure in inner city communities and this is how ghettos are created. The last type of poverty we're
9:19 going to look on today is chronic poverty. Yeah. And chronic poverty refers to long-term and persistent poverty experienced over an extended period often across generations. So your great great grandmother and grandfather were poor. Your greatgrandmother and grandfather who came after them were poor. Your grandparents were poor. Your parents were poor and now you are poor. That is chronic poverty. That is trans well passed down through generations. And key characteristics of this type of poverty is intergenerational transmission of poverty. And we need to factor in now
10:05 what are things that could possibly contribute to generations experiencing this poor inheritance of poverty being passed down. And some of the factors include persistent lack of access to quality education. So for example, you were from a your great grandparents were simple. They didn't prioritize education as a way forward. Your grandparents came just the same and socialized their children likewise. So your parents didn't prioritize education or healthcare or employment as ways to escape poverty and as such you inherit that culture of poverty and this type of poverty is referred to as chronic poverty and it's common in rural areas as I just
10:52 explained being simple where it's not infrastructure based it's not work based it's just to survive you Uh right. So that takes us to the end of our lesson on what poverty is and what the types of poverty are. I trust that you learned something. Remember to take your time. You can do this.
