A Short Note on Poverty

With the increase in the general level of prices and chronic inflation stemming from the government’s financial policies, as well as the pressure of unemployment and underemployment on people’s livelihoods, the discourse on poverty has again taken center-stage in newspapers. Economic, social and occupational groups are also putting forward the poverty line to increase their bargaining power for getting higher wages and lower prices. Unfortunately, in the absence of independent research institutions, poverty studies are being carried out in a scattered, disorderly manner, and therefore ambiguities regarding poverty threshold continue to linger. These ambiguities exist in the theoretical concepts and methods employed to measure poverty and the poverty line. These were stated by Davoud Souri, an economist, in an article for the Persian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad. A translation of the text follows: