ABSTRACT
The paper brings out in-depth qualitative information of 10 families of pavement dwellers staying in Pune city, focusing on the question as to what does poverty mean to the poor. Or alternately, how do the poor define poverty. Using a case study method, we have interviewed 5 female-headed and 5 male-headed households, selected randomly from one area of Pune. As they are pavements dwellers, we hypothesize that they are poorest of the poor (i.e. they do not even live in a slum).
We found that being illiterate most of them sell balloons, toys, etc on the roads and lead a hand-to-mouth existence. Most of the children have to work to help their parents with incomes. The families have to pay very high prices for the basic services like public toilets forcing them to practice open defecation. Moreover, all the families have very high dependency ratios and are not even insured against any uncertainties. Demolitions and evictions make them highly vulnerable to poverty. The respondents felt that lack of ownership of land in the village has led to intergenerational transmission of poverty. They have defined poverty as staying on pavements and the lack of employment, ownership of assets, ancestral property and insurance against uncertain future. Some of the ways in which they think they can get out of the poverty trap is by saving and educating their children.
