vol. 15 núm. 23 (2013)

This article approached the relationship between education and poverty index components proposed by Amartya Sen for the Colombian case. Poverty is a problem whose discussion assumes a global relevance as critical element of social impact, so it is necessary to design processes consistent measuring its magnitude. Absolute poverty measures may leave out of consideration associated with its emergence in different contexts or social factors. This study approaches to Amartya Sen´s conceptions about poverty in relation to measures that are not only associated with the income poverty line or basic needs but also connected with the development and freedom within the capabilities human. This paper took in account considerations of poverty in Latin America and Colombia, the theory of capacity and its relation to freedom and education as instrumental freedom, in order to present a method for measuring poverty and its relationship with human capabilities. For statistical analysis, we worked with the variables of the Encuesta Continua de Hogares (DANE, 2010) and a total of 226.302 households were analyzed in a population of 44'216 .992,26 inhabitants, with these data it was established the Sen´s human poverty index for 2010 and it was provided conceptual bases to measure the correlations with the education from this explanatory model for the Colombian case.