Understanding poverty through a qualitative approach

Wednesday, February 18, 2009 1:15 AM

Indraswari , Bandung | Tue, 01/20/2009 | Opinion

Enrico Mulawarman in his article Understanding global trends: Culture matters which was published in this paper on Jan. 3, 2009, provides good insight on how anthropology and its qualitative approach contribute to understanding global trends.

He writes on how anthropology's unique tool — participant observation — helps anthropologists to obtain a deeper and more experienced insight into the activities performed in a society and how people think and it also allows them to gain a good overview of how and why a society functions.

The writer is correct about the importance of a qualitative approach in understanding global trends and other social phenomena. There was a time when researchers believed that the only phenomena that counted in social sciences were those that can be measured, regardless of the fact that not all phenomena in the world group themselves naturally into quantities. A qualitative approach fills the gap.

With regard to poverty, despite its importance, the qualitative evaluation comes in second when discussing poverty — which is more about quantitative measures.

The latter defines poor people as those with an income of less than US$ 1 or $2 per day. The government's commitment to eradicate poverty is determined by the amount of money spent in various poverty alleviation programs.

Whether or not a country has succeeded in combating poverty is measured by the percentage of poor people relative to the nation's population. Such an approach is wrong, but we cannot rely on a single method only as it does not reveal the entire picture.

Findings from my research on Bandung's urban poverty show how a lack of income combined with other deprivations affect poor people. The research used a qualitative approach with a combination of in-depth interview, observation and participant observation to collect field data.

As space here is limited for a detailed explanation of my findings, I will only discuss one case history — just call her Ati — who told me a story on how poverty has severely affected her life and her family.

Married, Ati is in her early 30s and had a four-month-old baby. Her husband sells newspapers, getting on and off Bandung's city buses daily, and earns Rp 10,000 (less than US$ 1) a day.

Ati previously worked as a maid but stopped working because of her baby. One day she told me that she had just sold three of her five batik clothes (kain) used for carrying her baby for Rp 10,000 each to buy food.

I thought this was the worst picture of poverty but then the other day I was in her mother's home when she arrived, which is about 3 kilometers away from hers, carrying her baby in her arms.

She had been forced to return as she said, "I can no longer bear fasting". She had been "fasting" for three days, eating nothing and drinking only plain water, as she had no money to buy food.

During these days her baby was "fasting" too, as he only drank plain water mixed with coconut sugar.

Because of stress and lack of food and drink, her body had stopped producing breast milk. She was forced to walk home as she had no money to use public transportation, stopping every four to five steps due to a headache.

Another of Ati's miserable stories was when I visited her on a late afternoon. It was a hot day and was already dark when I arrived at her home — a three-meter room with sheets of newspaper and cardboard attached to the bamboo walls and leaking roof to prevent cold and rain from seeping in — and Ati apologized for receiving me while not yet having had a bath.

I thought nothing of it at the time but only told her that I did not mind waiting if she and her baby wanted to bath first. A moment later I was speechless when she replied that she could not take a bath because her husband was not yet home, meaning that she had no money to buy water for bathing.

At this point I discovered that she and others in the neighborhood rely heavily on buying water from a local vendor. Ati may end up spending Rp 6,000, or 60 percent of her husband's daily income of Rp 10,000, for water only.

There are many other Atis in the community whom I studied. Ati's case describes the qualitative dimensions of poverty. It is about how poor people struggle not only with a lack of income but also with a chronic deprivation of resources, capabilities, choices, security and power which all work to keep them from reaching an adequate standard of living.

It is also about the failure and inability to have dignity, civic, cultural, economic, political and
social rights. The story gives a deeper insight into what poverty is and shows the human face of poverty which is much more important than just numbers.

Therefore, the qualitative approach should be included in poverty analysis. The richness of qualitative data will give a more balanced view on poverty.

Programs to alleviate poverty should be designed not just from numbers and from behind a desk, but from the field where researchers and policymakers should go to listen and capture the picture for themselves.


The writer completed a PhD in Anthropology in 2006 from The Australian National University, Canberra, specializing in gender and poverty. She is a lecturer at the School of Social and Political Science, Parahyangan Catholic University, Bandung.