The Government has decided to introduce the new scheme for the upliftment of poor.
Should it be "of the poor" or not?
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Without the definite article, poor does not refer to anything in particular, certainly not the poor people as should be.– KrisCommented Sep 19, 2012 at 11:39
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Upliftment? How about "...for uplifting the poor." (I'm not going down the no-such-word road, but it does seem rare or unusual at best).– J.R.Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 15:00
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1 Answer
Yes, the poor is correct.
The reason is that poor on its own is an adjective, which invites the question "poor what?". To turn it definitively into a noun it needs to be the poor.
Having said that, I did find a quote where just poor is used, in the Hindustan Times:
The Delhi government does not have an estimate of the number of poor living in the metropolis.
This indicates that it may be an acceptable Indian-English idiom.
As an aside, upliftment is awkward. Uplift is better; improvement or betterment better still.
answered Sep 19, 2012 at 10:59
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The number of poor is acceptable everywhere, I'd say. Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 11:09
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Yes, because it implies 'people' - the number of poor people, which is evidently correct.– Guy F-WCommented Sep 19, 2012 at 11:16
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2However @GuyF-W, "... for the upliftment of poor." definitely doesn't work in BrEng. Poor is an uncountable noun there, so it needs an article or to be turned into an adjective. Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 11:25
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+1 for pointing out that upliftment is an awkward word (espoused by Indian English in particular?). Agreed, betterment is much better. Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 12:54
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for uplift of the poor or for uplifting the poor are OK, but with improve or better you need something more: the scheme does not improve or better the poor, but their condition. Commented Sep 19, 2012 at 14:24