Poverty Definition in Sri Lanka: Beyond Traditional Binary Classification

Abstract

Despite poverty being a multi-dimensional concept, binary poor/non-poor classifications and money-metric poverty measures remain prominent in calculating official poverty figures. This article highlights that conventional two-way poverty classifications ignore the huge disparities within ‘poor’ and ‘non-poor’ groups. The study thus argues for a new approach in the context of Sri Lanka to recognise four poverty types, namely ‘extremely poor’, ‘poor’, ‘vulnerable non-poor’ and ‘non-poor’, along with calculations of poverty incidence based on these new criteria. This allows for the development of policies to alleviate poverty in general, while paying special attention to the ‘vulnerable non-poor’ category, which has not been addressed in most development policies.