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    POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE

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    POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE

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    POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE

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    kkramesh555

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE

    Introduction

    • Poverty can be defined as lack of daily requirements of livelihood like food,


    clothing, education etc.

    • The poor could be landless labourers in villages or people living in


    overcrowded jhuggis in urban areas.

    • Every 4th person in India is poor. India has the largest single concentration
    of the poor in the world.

    Poverty as seen by Social scientists

    (i) Social Exclusion


    (ii) Vulnerability

    • Social exclusion: For analysis of poverty, social exclusion is very useful. As


    per this concept poverty must be seen in terms of the poor liviving only in a
    poor surrounding with other poor people.

    • Vulnerability: Vulnerability describes the greater probability of being more


    adversely affected than other people, which is done due to earthquake or
    simply a fall in the availability of jobs.
    • Measurement of vulnerability to poverty describe the greater probability of
    certain communities i.e., members of a backward caste or individuals i.e. a
    widow or a physically handicapped person.

    • Poverty Line: Poverty line is a way which is used to identify the poor. It is a
    method used to measure poverty. In this method poverty is measured with the
    help of consumption and income level of the people.

    • If the level of income and consumption falls below the minimum level of
    income and consumption of this line, then the person is considered to be poor.

    Poverty Estimates

    • Economic Survey 2011–12, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

    The poverty ratio in the year 1973 is 55 per cent and 30 per cent in 2009-10
    which shows decline in the poverty ratios. Poverty ratios further came down to
    about 26 per cent in 2000 and 36 per cent in 1994.

    Therefore, the poverty ratio is continuously decreased from 1974 to 2000.

    Vulnerable Groups

    • In India, proportion of people below poverty line is also not same for all
    social groups and economic categories.

    • Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households are vulnerable to poverty


    in social groups.
    • In same direction rural agricultural labour households and the urban casual
    labour households are vulnerable to poverty in economic categories.

    Global Poverty Scenario

    World Development Indicators 2012, The World Bank.

    • Through huge investments in human resource development and rapid


    economic growth poverty is substantially decreased in China and Southeast
    Asian countries.

    • In china number of poors has come down from 85 per cent in 1981 to 14 per
    cent in 2008.

    • In Asian countries i.e India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan
    despite decline in the percentage of the poor the decline has not been rapid.

    • In India, poverty is higher than the national estimates. It is done because of


    different poverty line definition.

    • In Latin America the ratio of poverty has declined from 11% in 1981 to 6.4
    per cent in 2008.
    Causes of Poverty

    (i) Low growth rate

    During the British colonial administration, the rate of growth was very low
    which was the basic cause of poverty.
    (ii) Discouragement of development of industries and handicrafts
    Products

    • Discouragement of development of industries and handicrafts Products is


    one historical reason of poverty. The policies of the colonial government
    discourage development of industries, like textile industries which is the basic
    source of income of the poor. An uneducated person can easily get job in this
    type of industries as labour and sustains his livehood.

    • Discouragement of handicrafts Products is also a major causes of poverty,


    during the British colonial administration. The households can easily earn
    money by the way of to produce handicrafts products.

    (ii) High growth rate of population


    The population is increasing instead of low level of income. Which becomes
    cause of poverty.

    (iii) Huge income inequalities

    There are huge income inequalities between have or have not. For this term,
    huge income inequalities makes it difficult to properly implement the poverty
    elimination policies of government. Therefore , it is the major cause of poverty.

    (iv) Lack of land resources

    Lack of land resources is the also major cause of poverty. Incomes of the
    villagers are fully based on agriculture income and lack of land resources
    creates low level of agriculture income which becomes the major cause of
    poverty.

    Anti-Poverty Measures

    • Anti-poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on two plank:

    (i)Promotion of economic growth


    (ii)Targeted anti-poverty programmes

    (i)Promotion of economic growth

    • According to official poverty estimation, the growth rate jumped from the
    average of about 3.5 percent a year in the 1970s to about 6 percent during the
    1980s and 1990s. With the help of high rate of growth, reduction of poverty is
    possible.

    • It shows a link between poverty reduction and economic growth. Therefore,


    promotion of economic growth helps to reduce poverty.

    (ii)Targeted anti-poverty programmes

    • National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA)

    It was launched in September 2005 and it provides 100 days assured


    employment every year to every rural household in 200 districts. Later, the
    scheme will be extended to 600 districts. One third of the proposed jobs would
    be reserved for women. In this Act if an applicant is not provided employment
    within fifteen days, then he/she will be entitled to a daily unemployment
    allowance. The central government and state governments will also establish
    National Employment Guarantee Funds and State Employment Guarantee
    Funds for implementation of the scheme.

    • Prime Minister Rojgar Yojana (PMRY)

    Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana (PMRY) was launched on 2nd October, 1993.
    The objective of the programme is to create self-employment opportunities for
    educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns. It also helped in
    setting up small business and industries.

    • Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

    This programme was launched on 1st April, 1999. The objective of this
    programme is to help rural people to organise themselves into self help
    groups by the way of promoting enterprises at the village level. This
    programme helps to exist poor families above the poverty line. In this
    programme the government provides subsidy and bank credit to the rural
    people for generating the income.

    • Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP)

    This programme was launched in 1995. The target of this programme is to


    provide 25 lakh new jobs to the rural and small towns persons under the Tenth
    Five Year plan.

    • Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yozana (PMGY)


    This programme was launched in 2000. The objective of this programme to
    develop standard of living of the rural people by the way of focus in five critical
    areas i.e primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water
    and rural electrification.

    • Sampoorna Grameen Rojgar Yojana (SGRY)

    This programme was launched in september , 2001.The Employment


    Assurance Schemes and JGSY would be merged with SGRY.The aim of the
    programme is to provide wage employment and to create durable community,
    social and economic assets.

    The Challenges Ahead

    • Poverty reduction remains India’s most compelling challenge despite the


    progress. Because of unequal distribution of income, increase in population
    etc.

    • The positive situation can be done by the way of higher economic growth,
    increasing stress on universal free elementary education, declining population
    growth, increasing empowerment of the women and the economically weaker
    sections of society, providing health care, education and job security.

    • Unemployment: Unemployment is a situation where a person have not job


    despite of he/she able to do job. It is a big cause of poverty. Unemployment is
    also a situation of being joblessness when people are in condition of without
    job and in situation of seeking job during recession.
    • It is a sign of poverty, where an individual is unemployed. It is a loss of
    human resourses to the nation and stigma to the society.

    • Child labour: Child labour is a situation where a child is employed for


    earning money. Which is mentally, physically and socially dangerous and
    harmful for the childern. Child labour is a basic problem of poverty. Because of
    doing work, child can not be lliterate and he/she is unable to make his/her
    future.

    • The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 defines a child as
    any person who has not completed his fourteenth year of age.

    • According to International labour Organization (ILO), the term ‘child labour’ is


    often defined as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential
    and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.

    • Illiteracy: Illiteracy is the condition where a person unable to read and write.
    In India Illiteracy is a major problem of poverty.

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