Minimalist IAS
CSAT 2022 paper

UPSC CSE CSAT 2022 · Question 13 · Reading comprehension

Why is income poverty only one measure of counting the ‘poor’?

Passage—2

The poverty line is quite unsatisfactory when it comes to grasping the extent of poverty in India. It is not only because of its extremely narrow definition of ‘who is poor’ and the debatable methodology used to count the poor, but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power. One can better categorize it by calling it income poverty. If poverty is ultimately about deprivations affecting human well-being, then income poverty is only one aspect of it. Poverty of a life, in our view, lies not merely in the impoverished state in which the person actually lives, but also in the lack of real opportunity given by social constraints as well as personal circumstances—to choose other types of living. Even the relevance of low incomes, meagre possessions, and other aspects of what are standardly seen as economic poverty relate ultimately to their role in curtailing capabilities, i.e., their role in severely restricting the choices people have to lead variable and valued lives.

CSAT 2022 · Q13

Reading comprehension Easy

Why is income poverty only one measure of counting the ‘poor’?

Answer & explanation

Answer: (a) It talks of only one kind of deprivation ignoring all others.

If poverty is about all the deprivations that affect well-being, income poverty captures only one of them: “income poverty is only one aspect of it”. Other deprivations, such as the lack of real opportunity, are left out.

  • ✓ (a) “If poverty is ultimately about deprivations affecting human well-being, then income poverty is only one aspect of it” — one kind of deprivation, ignoring others such as lack of real opportunity.
  • ✗ (b) Too extreme. The passage links low incomes to “curtailing capabilities”; it never says other deprivations are unrelated to purchasing power.
  • ✗ (c) Whether income poverty is temporary or permanent is not discussed.
  • ✗ (d) “Only at a point of time” is not in the passage; the author’s point is about the narrow range of what is counted, not about timing.

Remember · Distrust absolute words like ‘nothing to do with’; passages rarely support such extremes.

Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper II (2022, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify). ·

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