4.5.1 Poverty

Meaning: inability to attain a minimum standard of living. Types:absolute (below a fixed minimum — food + non-food basket; the World Bank's international lines; Nepal's national poverty line) vs relative (deprivation against the society's average — meaningful in rich countries); chronic vs transient; and now the multidimensional framing (health, education, living standards — the MPI). Nepal's record (hedged facts): roughly a fifth of Nepalis below the national poverty line in recent rounds — down dramatically from the 1990s (when it approached half); multidimensional poverty falling faster still — among the developing world's better stories, carried by remittances, roads, electricity, schooling and social allowances. Policies (write as afour-layer list):1. Growth-led — broad-based growth, jobs, farm productivity (the rising tide);2. Targeted/protective — the social-security allowances (old-age, single women, disability, child grants), targeted programmes, food/cash transfers;3. Promotional/empowerment — microfinance, cooperatives, skills, education, health investment (micro-credit; the Community Forestry model — Nepal's celebrated pro-poor institution);4. Legal-institutional — rights-based legislation, inclusion quotas (Sociology Unit 7.2), and the constitutional guarantee of a dignified life as the framework.