From top-left to bottom-right or top to bottom (mobile): a mother with her malnourished child in a clinic near Dadaab, Kenya; a homeless man in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; a disabled man begging in the streets of Beijing, China; waste pickers in Lucknow, India
Poverty is the scarcity or the lack of a certain (variant) amount of material possessions or money. Poverty is a multifaceted concept, which may include social, economic, and political elements. Absolute poverty, extreme poverty, or destitution refers to the complete lack of the means necessary to meet basic personal needs such as food, clothing and shelter.[1]

The threshold at which absolute poverty is defined is considered to be about the same, independent of the person's permanent location or era. On the other hand, relative poverty occurs when a person who lives in a given country does not enjoy a certain minimum level of "living standards" as compared to the rest of the population of that country. Therefore, the threshold at which relative poverty is defined varies from country to another, or from one society to another.[2]