Page 19 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 2

CPS1407 D.Dilshanie Deepawansa et al.
carried out showed that 88 percent of the poor that we found were deprived
along social dimensions were also poor in terms of material deprivation.
Further, we found that household expenditure and income were negatively
correlated with social factor deprivation, suggesting that wealthier households
are less likely to be deprived along the social dimensions studied here.
However, the correlation coefficient is -0.1841 is very low and statistically
significant at 5 percent significance level.

4. Discussion and Conclusion
Building on the theoretical and empirical advances made in the literature
on measuring multidimensional poverty, this study applied a new
methodology to measure deprivation along three dimensions; social capital,
autonomy and dignity. Using primary data from a household survey
conducted in Uva Province in 2016, he studies found that the average
deprivation in social factors is 53.5 percent in Sri Lanka’s Uva Province. The
study also found that 86.3 percent of people are deprived and
multidimensionally poor in social factors, whereas the consumption poverty
ratio for 2016 based on the official poverty line and data from the household
income and expenditure survey of the Department of Census and Statistics,
found only 6.5 per cent to be consumption poor. Further, average social
deprivation among multidimensionally poor people is 55.5 percent. The
percentage share of deprivation experienced by a multidimensionally poor
person if all people were deprived in all possible dimensions is 20.1 percent.
This last indicator – please name it again here - is the most important measure
of multidimensional poverty as it satisfies many axioms of an ideal poverty
index (Sen A. , 1976). The analysis also shows that deprivation in social factors
in poverty is higher in the plantation sector than elsewhere and declines with
the education level of the respondent. People who work in the government
sector are less deprived while those who work as own account workers are
highly deprived. Deprivation in social capital is far higher than deprivation in
dignity and autonomy. Finally, the analysis found the association between
deprivation in social factors and material deprivation to be very high at 88
percent. There is a very small but negative correlation between social
deprivation and household expenditure.
These results confirm that multidimensional poverty measures present a
more accurate and comprehensive perspective of poverty and that social
dimensions are an important aspect of the phenomenon of poverty. Further,
it can be suggested that the living standard of the individual can be improved
by development of social dimensions of people. In spite of the fact that social
characteristics of individuals are determined by different social policies to
reduce poverty.

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