Poverty as Capability Deprivation - Research Paper Example

It looks at poverty as it is experienced all over the world as the result of a great many factors which result in the deprivation of opportunities and skill sets for people. He refers to this as “capability deprivation” (Sen). This can then be seen in conjunction with the ideas of Martha Nussbaum and her elaboration of the ten aspects that are needed for a life that can be called a decent one where the person is able to maintain his or her dignity. This is important as it looks at different aspects of development and does not perform a dehumanizing action as many other theories do.

People are looked upon as beings with emotions and the need for having lives that made them feel a certain sense of belonging. This is a situation that is different from the one that makes each advancement in standards of living figure of statistics. Improving the numbers of growth rates then becomes the primary imperative rather than the actual improvement of the lives of people. Sen’s ideas are important as they look at development as the comprehensive development of an individual. According to Sen, there is more than one kind of poverty.

Income poverty is the kind of poverty that results when a person does not receive the remuneration in terms of money that would enable him or her to sustain a dignified existence. It is also the kind of poverty that sustains itself without allowing the person who is the victim of it to extricate himself or herself from it. This can then be referred to as the vicious cycle of poverty. Poverty that arises out of capability deprivation is the kind that arises out of the deprivation of opportunities and skill sets that a person faces.

This does not exist in isolation from income deprivation always but it is important to understand the conceptual difference between the two. Capability deprivation is caused by the inability of a person to acquire a certain degree of proficiency in some skills that may enable him or her to lead a better life (Sen). This is also connected to Sen’s notion of a dignified mode of living that is based on a person’s understanding of himself or herself. This can then be related to Nussbaum’s notion of dignified living as well.

She looks at the different aspects of life that need to be taken care of so as to provide a person with a certain standard of living that can be considered to be acceptable. Nussbaum looks at not only the development of certain factors that are considered to be a part of classical economics but also those that are considered to be generally outside the purview of it. This would include the emotional development of a person as well. This is an area that has often gone unnoticed by economists in the past.

This can also be connected to the idea of capability deprivation. The inability to express certain emotions and experience them in daily life can be a debilitating factor as far as economic choices are concerned. This then brings one back to Sen’s notions of development. For him, development is the overall development of an individual and the lifestyle that that person is able to lead. Nussbaum advocates the right of people to lead lives where they have a right to their own bodies and the environment that they are a part of (Nussbaum).

This would also mean that people would not be seen as merely parts of the state’s machinery. People would then be looked upon as individuals who need to have a