Poverty in India

India has the largest concentration of poor people in the world.
Dimensions of poverty:
1. Landlessness
2. Unemployment
3. Large size of families
4. Illiteracy
5. Poor health/malnutrition
6. Child labour
7. Helplessness
8. Unhygienic conditions
Poverty is measured using social indicators:
1. Illiteracy level
2. Lack of access of access to healthcare/sanitation
3. Social exclusion: Poor having to live only in poor surroundings with other poor people excluded from enjoying social equality.
4. Vulnerability: Greater probability of certain communities remaining poor in future. Influenced by option available to find an alternative living in terms of assets, education, health etc.
Poverty line:
1. A person is considered poor if his/her income falls below a given 'minimum level' necessary to fulfill the basic needs.
2. For calculating poverty line, a min level of food requirement, clothing, fuel, educational, medical requirements are determined for subsistence and then multiplied by their prices in rupees. Rs. 816 (rural) and Rs. 1000 (urban) in 2011-12. World Bank use a uniform standard for the poverty line : $1.90 per person per day.
3. Poverty has been decreasing in India. 45% (1993-94) to 37.2% (2004-05) to 22% (2011-12)
4. Poverty line is not same for all social groups. 43% ST, 29% SC, 34% labour are poor. Average Indian poverty ratio is 22% (2000)
5. Poverty in India has a inter-state spread. Bihar and Orissa are the most poor states. Punjab and Haryana have reduced poverty by high agricultural growth rates. Kerala by HR development. AP and TN by public distribution of food grains.
6. Global poverty line has also fallen. Rapid industrialization has helped China and Southeast Asian countries in rapid improvement.
Causes of Poverty in India:
1. Low level of economic development during British colonial administration
2. High growth rate of population
3. Failure at promotion of economic growth
4. Income inequalities and unequal distribution of land and other resources.
5. Other socio-cultural factors.
Anti-poverty measures:
1. Focused mainly at:
  1. Promotion of economic growth
  2. Targeted anti-poverty programmes
2. Growth rate jumped from 3.5% in 70s to 6% in 80s and 90s.
3. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005: 100 days of employment to every household
4. Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana,1993: Create self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural and small towns.
5. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana,1999: Organise working self-help groups by providing easy credit.
6. Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana,2000: Additional assistance for primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water, rural electrification.
7. Antoydaya Anna Yozana
Human Poverty: Expand the definition of poverty by including other socio-cultural factors.
Food security means availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times. The poor households are more vulnerable to food insecurity whenever there is a problem of production or distribution of food crops. Food security depends on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and government vigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened.
System has two components:
1. buffer stock
  Buffer Stock is the stock of foodgrains, namely wheat and rice, procured by the government through the Food Corporation of India (FCI). The FCI purchases wheat and rice from the farmers in states where there is surplus production. The farmers are paid a preannounced price for their crops. This price is called Minimum Support Price (MSP). The MSP is declared by the government every year before the sowing season to provide incentives to farmers for raising the production of these crops. The purchased foodgrains are stored in granaries. This is done to distribute foodgrains in the deficit areas and among the poorer strata of the society at a price lower than the market price also known as Issue Price. This also helps resolve the problem of shortage of food during adverse weather conditions or during the periods of calamity.
2. public distribution system
  The food procured by the FCI is distributed through government regulated ration shops among the poorer section of the society. This is called the Public Distribution System (PDS).
Food security means something more than getting two square meals. Food security has following dimensions
1. availability of food means food production within the country, food imports and the previous years stock stored in government granaries.
2. accessibility means food is within reach of every person.
3. affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet one's dietary needs.
Hunger has chronic and seasonal dimensions.
1. Chronic hunger is a consequence of diets persistently inadequate in terms of quantity and/or quality. Poor people suffer from chronic hunger because of their very low income and in turn inability to buy food even for survival.
2. Seasonal hunger is related to cycles of food growing and harvesting. This is prevalent in rural areas because of the seasonal nature of agricultural activities and in urban areas because of casual labourers.
There are three kinds of ration cards:
1. Antyodaya cards for the poorest of the poor
2. BPL cards for those below poverty line
3. APL cards for all others.
The introduction of Rationing in India dates back to the 1940s against the backdrop of the Bengal famine. In the wake of the high incidence of poverty levels, as reported by the NSSO in the mid-1970s, three important food intervention programmes were introduced: Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains (in existence earlier but strengthened thereafter); Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) (introduced in 1975 on an experimental basis) and Food-for-Work** (FFW) (introduced in 1977–78).
Hunger alleviation programs:
1. Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS)
2. Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS)
3. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY)
4. Annapurna Scheme (APS)
5. Subsidy is a payment that a government makes to a producer to supplement the market price of a commodity. Subsidies can keep consumer prices low while maintaining a higher income for domestic producers.
Problems with MSP
1. The increased food grains procurement at enhanced MSP is the result of the pressure exerted by leading foodgrain producing states, such as Punjab, Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Moreover, as the procurement is concentrated in a few prosperous regions (Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and to a lesser extent in West Bengal) and mainly of two crops— wheat and rice— increase in MSP has induced farmers, particularly in surplus states, to divert land from production of coarse grains, which is the staple food of the poor, to the production of rice and wheat. The intensive utilisation of water in the cultivation of rice has also led to environmental degradation and fall in the water level, threatening the sustainability of the agricultural development in these states.
2. The rising Minimum Support Prices (MSP) have raised the maintenance cost of procuring foodgrains by the government. Rising transportation and storage costs of the FCI are other contributing factors in this increase.
Problems with PDS:
1. PDS dealers are sometimes found resorting to malpractices like diverting the grains to open market to get better margin, selling poor quality grains at ration shops, irregular opening of the shops, etc.
2. Earlier every family, poor and non-poor had a ration card with a fixed quota of items such as rice, wheat, sugar etc. These were sold at the same low price to every family. The three types of cards and the range of prices that you see today did not exist. A large number of families could buy foodgrains from the ration shops subject to a fixed quota. These included low income families whose incomes were marginally higher than the below poverty line families. Now, with TPDS of three different prices, any family above the poverty line gets very little discount at the ration shop. The price for APL family
Role of cooperatives:
The cooperative societies set up shops to sell low priced goods to poor people. For example, out of all fair price shops running in Tamil Nadu, around 94 per cent are being run by the cooperatives. In Delhi, Mother Dairy is making strides in provision of milk and vegetables to the consumers at controlled rate decided by Government of Delhi. Amul is another success story of cooperatives in milk and milk products from Gujarat. It has brought about the White Revolution in the country. The
The National Food Security Act, 2013
This Act provides for food and nutritional security life at affordable prices and enables people to live a life with dignity. Under this act, 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population have been categorised as eligible households for food security.