CSAT Solved Papers/ 2022/Q12
2022 CSAT — Q12
Passage
The poverty line is quite unsatisfactory when it comes to grasping the extent of poverty in India. It is not only because of its extremely narrow definition of ‘who is poor’ and the debatable methodology used to count the poor, but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power. One can better categorize it by calling it income poverty. If poverty is ultimately about deprivations affecting human well-being, then income poverty is only one aspect of it. Poverty of a life, in our view, lies not merely in the impoverished state in which the person actually lives, but also in the lack of real opportunity given by social constraints as well as personal circumstances—to choose other types of living. Even the relevance of low incomes, meagre possessions, and other aspects of what are standardly seen as economic poverty relate ultimately to their role in curtailing capabilities, i.e., their role in severely restricting the choices people have to lead variable and valued lives.
Why is the methodology adopted in India to count the ‘poor’ debatable?
Thinking pathway
Locate. This is a locate-the-detail question: find the line that answers the exact question — “why debatable?” The passage gives a layered answer and flags the deepest reason: “not only because of its extremely narrow definition of ‘who is poor’ and the debatable methodology… but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power.”
Test (find the line, then match it). The fundamental flaw the passage identifies is the exclusive income/purchasing-power basis. (d) “based on the proposition of poverty as meagre income or buying capacity” maps onto this directly. (a) “confusion about what constitutes the poverty line” is a different, definitional point. (b) rural/urban diversity and (c) absence of a global standard are not in the passage at all.
Eliminate by anatomy. (b) and (c) are not in the passage — neither appears in the text. (a) is half right, half wrong and not fully in the passage — it shifts the critique from the income-only assumption (the passage’s “fundamental” reason) to a vaguer poverty-line confusion. The transferable rule: when a passage explicitly labels one reason “more fundamental,” that is the answer the question wants. Key: (d).
Evidence in the text
“…but also because of a more fundamental assumption underlying it. It exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power.” — the passage names the fundamental reason the methodology is debatable: it treats poverty only as insufficient income/purchasing power. (d) restates exactly this (“based on the proposition of poverty as meagre income or buying capacity”). (b) rural/urban diversity and (c) global standard are not in the passage; (a) confuses the methodology critique with a poverty-line definitional quibble → (d).
Worked rationale
The passage says the methodology is unsatisfactory not just for its narrow definition but for a “more fundamental assumption” — that it “exclusively relies on the notion of poverty as insufficient income or insufficient purchasing power.”
- (d) restates that income-only basis. Correct.
- (a) points at poverty-line definitional confusion, a lesser/separate strand.
- (b) rural/urban diversity — not stated.
- (c) no global standard — not stated.
Answer: (d).
Why the other options miss
- A half right, half wrong: the passage does mention a “narrow definition of ‘who is poor’,” but the question asks for why the methodology is debatable, and the passage’s own “more fundamental” reason is the income-only basis, not poverty-line confusion.
- B not in the passage: rural/urban diversity is real in the world but absent from this passage.
- C not in the passage: a global-standard argument the passage never makes.
Specialist insight
The passage hands you a signpost — “but also because of a more fundamental assumption.” That phrase tells you which reason the examiner is targeting. The income-only assumption is the load-bearing critique; (d) restates it. Distractors (b)/(c) import real-world poverty debates the passage doesn’t raise, and (a) settles for the lesser definitional point. Follow the passage’s own ranking of its reasons. (d).
The passage's "more fundamental" reason is the income-only basis of poverty — that is (d); (b) and (c) are real-world points the passage never makes.