Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Culture of poverty
Option (1) Poverty cycle — Incorrect. The poverty cycle explains why poverty tends to continue among the same sections of society. Low income leads to poor health and nutrition and lack of education and skills, these lead to few jobs and so to low income again, and falling motivation keeps the cycle going. It is a chain of conditions, not a belief system.
Option (2) Culture of poverty — Correct. According to this view, it is not the individual but a belief system, a way of life and values in which she/he is brought up that cause poverty. This belief system, called the culture of poverty, convinces the person that she/he will continue to remain poor, and it passes from one generation of the poor to the next.
Option (3) Poverty pyramid — Incorrect. The causes of poverty are explained through ideas such as social disadvantage, the culture of poverty and the poverty cycle; a ‘poverty pyramid’ is not one of them, and the term does not name a belief system in which the poor are brought up.
Option (4) Social disadvantage — Incorrect. Social disadvantage sums up the economic, social and political factors behind poverty: because of discrimination, some sections of society are denied the opportunities needed even for the basic necessities of life, and suffer injustice, deprivation and exclusion. The cause here lies in how society treats the poor, not in a belief the poor are brought up in.
Note: The idea of the culture of poverty was there in the chapter ‘Psychology and Life’ of the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2022, and is not there in the NCERT book (2025-26).
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Major Causes of Poverty … Apart from these causes, other factors responsible for poverty have been mentioned below.
“Major Causes of Poverty … The poverty cycle is another important cause of poverty that explains why poverty tends to continue among the same sections of society. Poverty begets poverty.…” |