THE ROLE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN POVERTY AND CRIME ALLEVIATION

Abstract

There is no universal definition of poverty. At same time, there is always the difficulty in deciding where to draw the line between the “poor” and the so-called “non-poor”. According to the World Bank Report (2002), poverty is the inability to attain a minimum standard of living. According to Hettne (2012), poverty is classified into five types. The first is absolute poverty; this occurs when human beings live in a state of deprivation due to meagre income or lack of access to basic human needs, which include food, safe water, shelter, health, and education. Secondly, relative poverty, it defines poverty from a comparative point of view, i.e. poverty is not absolute but relative. Relative refers to the position of household or individual compared. It is measured in three ways: through income; through the low-income family statistics and through disposable income. The third is chronic/structural poverty, which means that poverty could be persistent on long term. It causes are more permanent and depend on many factors such as limited productive resources, lack of skill for gainful employment, endemic socio-political and cultural factors. Fourthly is hypothetical transitory :-which means poverty is temporary and cause mainly by natural or man-made disasters, structural changes induced by policy reforms or wars and environmental degradation which result in loss of employment, loss in value of real income assets, etc. The Fifth type of poverty is spatial/location means depending on geographical or regional spread and occurrence. It involves urban filth/poverty characterized by the existence of ghettos, slums and shanties in metropolitan cities and characterized by environmental degradation, low per-capita income, inadequate welfare services and social deprivations, over-crowded accommodation, engagement in informal business, rural poverty characterized by poor conditions of living. There is a common thread in all these varieties of poverty, they points out that poverty is a general condition of deprivation and that relegates its victims to the level of their societies (UNDP HDI:2012).