Hidden faces of poverty

Poverty alleviation has become development's catchword. Most of the efforts are focused on improving economic conditions and achieving a few allied social targets. Poverty is measured in numbers, not identifying the poor as human beings.

Lots of advice, counseling and orientation and training are used as weapons of mass alleviation of poverty. Even participatory processes are intensely tried to inspire the poor to change their lives. These efforts are somewhat effective only with those who are ready to change and are not trapped in extreme poverty (the poorest of the poor).

A poor person is one who lacks resources, but enjoys at least the basic needs of life like food, housing, and shelter, while the poorest of the poor is deprived of even the basic needs.

Absolute poverty is likely to transform an individual into an almost mindless entity. Despair and hopelessness is but a constant mental status. Their mind is absolutely gripped in poverty and everything else is blank. They thrive almost without any aspiration, or devoid of any sense of protest or direction, or they hardly display any urge to learn or initiate change in their life.

The ultra-poor (poorest of the poor) constitute about twenty percent of the population in Bangladesh, i.e., about 25 million individuals. Every individual survives through a continuous struggle, and hardship and their suffering is just part of their life.

Development can be meaningful, only when one is released of the extreme grievances of poverty or when one is free to think beyond the miseries (food and shelter) of poverty. The poorest of the poor are drugged by poverty. It does not let them look beyond poverty. These are the men and women who come and gather around the development strategists or their change agents in the villages, standing silently and always trying to hide their faces behind somebody. Possibly they hide themselves from their own lives. One does not actually know why they hide -- is it fear or complete despair, which stimulates such behaviour? In either of the cases, they lose the strength of encountering life's struggle and initiate a change.

Do they even dream to turn around their miseries from an asset less (hardcore poor) status to a life that of a poor? The basic difference between a poor and a hardcore poor is that the former at least affords shelter and basic minimum support for life including food every day. A poor can be possibly motivated to participate and initiate developmental endeavours, while a member of the hard core poor unless released from dire poverty can hardly be part of developmental initiatives. One should seriously ponder before suggesting or inducing participation of the hardcore poor, trapped in extreme poverty, to put their efforts on development, as he or she would hardly find such involvement relevant unless he/she is free from the sustained miseries of poverty.

How long shall we go on counting poverty in numbers and percent and wage poverty alleviation efforts without recognising the poorest of the poor as human beings? All the development strategies are targeting the ultra poor as part of a group comprising poor and non-poor. This proves that either we do not have adequate understanding of the ultra poor and/or we hesitate to face them as a single group, as we may not be able to communicate effectively with them as a homogenous group. Consequently, the chances of failure to meet the targets (consisting of averages) of improving the socio-economic conditions of the poor would remain uncertain.

Have we really taken a challenge or are we distantly dreaming that one day poverty will be removed no matter how the planners or development strategists wage their efforts on the same? It is now imperative that we develop our understanding about the ultra poor. So far, all the developmental literatures are filled with data and information on the poor. This is also interesting that ultra-poor as a group is peculiar mostly to low-income developing countries; the developed countries hardly need to be concerned with ultra poor. Effective developmental strategies to address the needs of the ultra poor are yet to emerge. Development planners in Bangladesh, however, cannot be complacent about the needs and priorities of the hardcore poor, as the very size of the group (25 millions) is overwhelming in terms of management and the needs for resource mobilisation and investments.

Communicating with the ultra-poor is often misleading as the ultra-poor while attending a session or interacting with the change agents hardly negate any agenda for action, instead they play the role of passive and silent observers. The ultra poor while hiding their faces behind an average poor also hide their opinions and eventually reconfirm their beliefs that no body can change their lives. They possibly take their destiny to be omnipotent and irreversible. Meanwhile, shall we sit with this gigantic problem and let the country add the numbers of hardcore poor in millions due to sheer effects of demographic momentum only? No projection can tell us that how fast the number of the ultra poor is soaring and or doubling. One can easily surmise that their number is doubling at a much faster pace than doubling of the overall population.

One definite identity of the ultra-poor that has emerged is that they are completely assetless and some of them (the floating population -- not those living in slums) even pass their lives beneath the open sky, particularly in the cities. Beyond that, even the poets dare not write their stories as this is a group which is like a shadow and has been created due to pursuit of long imbalanced developmental policies and strategies. Efforts are not in dearth, as many development interventions claim launching of awareness building through participatory means targeting the poor. But are these really reaching the ultra-poor, who prefer to hide than to rise and challenge their destiny for a positive change? The time is ripe to seriously ponder whether the group that we are concerned with can participate in the discourse of developmental jargons. Merely sitting in a group or standing around a discussion is hardly participatory, thus the presence of a few members of the poorest of the poor in the forum is not a valid indicator of their participation.

Their basic behaviour remains unchanged, i.e., to hide or shy away from any initiative beyond survival. Anybody dragging them to address development without first changing or helping them to come out of the grinding poverty may prove to be futile.

Over and above, it would be possibly misleading to treat them as part of a broader group and counting them (as numbers), not treating them as human beings characterised by their unique socio-cultural and economic context. Possibly, this is the reason poverty has been justifiably termed a trap, and this implication of poverty is a hard reality for an individual facing its consequences.

How would one bring the ultra poor from their hiding gesture and make them really set their mind for some minimum achievement-possibly this will remain always a myth as long as poor is counted as numbers not treated as individuals. And until we know them and their life stories, reaching them (in their mind set) would remain a far cry. Can we really change the ultra-poor without even reaching their mind?

Dr Syed Jahangeer Haider is Managing Director, Research Evaluation Associates for Development.