ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts covered in subsequent chapters of this book. For international development organizations, the poor are measured in absolute terms, using economic indices, on the basis of which a population group is identified that falls beneath some 'international' poverty line. The importance of addressing the inequality that seems to be a growing feature of economic growth in developing Asia is political, as much as it is moral and humanitarian: 'Rising inequalities in Asia pose a clear and present danger to social and political stability, and the sustainability of the growth process itself'. The role of the state is to create and preserve an institutional framework appropriate to political economic practices. The experience of being poor is related to lack of income but it also encompasses vulnerability to ill-health and natural hazards, lack of empowerment and having a 'voice' in society, and lack of opportunity.
