Poverty as a Challenge

  • India is the largest single concentration of the poor in the world.

Two Types of Poverty

  • Urban Poverty 
  • Rural Poverty

Issues Related to Poverty:-

  • Landlessness
  • Unemployment
  • Size of Family
  • Illiteracy
  • Poor health / Malnutrition
  • Child Labour
  • Helplessness

POVERTY means lack of Basic Needs

Poverty as seen by social scientists:-

Indicators are

commonly - levels of income & consumption

others- illiteracy, malnutrition, no access to healthcare, lack of job opportunities, lack of sanitation and denial to safe drinking water [ basic needs ]

SOCIAL EXCLUSION-

  • both a cause as well as a consequence of poverty
  • people belonging to a certain caste are excluded from being given equal opportunities.

Social Exclusion may lead to [may cause more damage than] having a low income

VULNERABILITY-

  • describes the probability of a backward community or a certain individual [ widow, sick people, handicapped] to stay or become poor in the future.
  • analyzed at the risks these groups face during natural disasters.

The probability of being more adversely adversed than other people when bad time comes for everybody - whether a flood or an earthquake.

POVERTY LINE-

  • A common method used to measure poverty is based on the "income or consumption level" of a person. 

    If a person, income or consumption level falls below the "minimum level" he is said to be poor.

  • An imaginary line is used by each country that is considered appropriate for its current level of development.

  • A person having a car in the United States may be considered poor. In India, owning a car is considered a luxury.

  • The present formula for food requirement while estimating the poverty line is based on the desired calorie requirement.

  • The calorie needs vary depending on age, sex and the type of work that a person does.

  • The accepted average calorie requirement in India is 2400 calories per person per day in rural areas and 2100 calories per person per day in urban areas.

  • 2011-12 example - poverty line for a person - RS 816 for rural areas and RS 1000 for urban areas.

  • The poverty line is estimated periodically(normally every five years) by conducting sample surveys that are carried out by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO).

  • many international organizations like the World Bank use a uniform standard for the poverty line - $1.90 per person per day.

POVERTY ESTIMATES-

  • poverty ratios inIndia from about 45 per cent in 1993-94to 37.2 per cent in 2004–05 and 20 per cent in 2011-12
  • the number of poor declined from 407 million in 2004–05 to270 million in 2011–12 with an average annual decline of 2.2 percentage points during 2004–05 to 2011–12.

VULNERABLE GROUPS-

  • Social groups which are most vulnerable to poverty are Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe households.
  • Economic groups which are  the most vulnerable groups are the rural agricultural labour households and the urban casual labour households
  • recent studies have shown that except for the scheduled tribe households, all the other three groups have seen a decline in poverty in the 1990s.
  • Inequality of incomes within a family, i.e, women, elderly people and female infants are denied equal access to resources available to the family.

INTER-STATE DISPARITIES-

  • The proportion of poor eople is not the same in every state.

  • the all India HeadCount Ratio (HCR) was 21.9 per cent

  • states like Madhya Pradesh,Assam, Uttar Pardesh, Bihar and Odisha had above all India poverty level.

  • Bihar and Odisha continue to be the two poorest states with poverty ratios of 33.7 and 32.6 per cent

  • Along with rural poverty,urban poverty is also high in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh

  • There is a significant decline in poverty in Kerala,Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, TamilNadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.

  • States like Punjab and Haryana have succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates.

  • Kerala has focused on Human Resource Development

  • West Bengal has taken on Land Reform Measures

  • Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu have Public Distribution of food grains which could have been responsible for the improvement.

GLOBAL POVERTY SCENARIO-

~~[ALL NUMBERS STUDY FROM TEXTBOOK]~~

CAUSES OF POVERTY-

  • low level of Economic Development under the British colonial administration \n

    • The policies of the colonial government ruined traditional handicrafts and discouraged the development of industries like textiles.
    • The low rate of growth persisted until the nineteen-eighties.
    • This resulted in fewer job opportunities.
    • This was accompanied by a high growth rate in the population.
    • The two combined to make the growth rate of per capita income very low.

  • The effects of the Green revolution and agricultural developments were limited to some parts of India only. \n

    • The job seekers turned to rikshaw pullers, vendors, construction workers, domestic servants, etc.

    • These jobs did not satisfy basic needs as income was extremely low

    • They started living in slums on the outskirts of the cities.

    • The problems of poverty, largely a rural phenomenon also became a feature of the urban sector.

    • \

    • Major policy initiatives like land reforms aimed at the redistribution of assets in rural areas have not been implemented properly and effectively by most of the state governments.

    • Since lack of land resources has been one of the major causes of poverty in India, proper implementation of policy could have improved the lives of millions of rural poor.

  • S__ocio-cultural & Economic Factors__ \n

    • In order to fulfil social obligations and observe religious ceremonies, people in India spend a lot of money.
    • Farmers need money to buy agricultural inputs, but don't have enough funds. Therefore, they turn to loans. Unable to repay the loans, they fall into (or become victims of) the debt trap.

ANTI-POVERTY MEASURES-

The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on two planks

(1) promotion of economic growth

(2) targeted anti-poverty programmes.

  • India's Growth rate has been one of the fastest in the world from 3.5% in 1970 to 6% in 1980. ---- The higher growth rates have helped significantly in the reduction of poverty.
  • Therefore, it is becoming clear that there is a strong link between economic growth and poverty reduction.
  • Economic growth widens opportunities and provides the resources needed to invest in human development.

Anti poverty programmes-

  1. MahatmaGandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act, 2005 - \n

    1. provides 100days of wage employment to every household to ensure livelihood security in rural areas.
    2. One-third of the proposed jobs have been reserved for women.
    3. The share of SC, ST, Women person days in the scheme are 23 per cent, 17 percent and 53 per cent respectively.

  2. Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana (PMRY), 1993 - \n

    1. creates self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns
    2. They are helped insetting up small business and industries.

  3. Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP), 1995- \n

    1. creates self employment opportunities in rural areas and small towns.
    2. A target for creating 25lakh new jobs has been set for the programme under the Tenth Five Year plan

  4. Swarnajayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY), 1999- \n

    1. organizes them into self help groups through a mix of bank credit and government subsidy.

  5. Antyodaya AnnaYozana (AAY)

  6. PradhanMantri Gramodaya Yozana (PMGY), 2000- \n

    1. additional central assistance is given to states for basic services such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinkin gwater and rural electrification.