Poverty

Poverty

Poverty is one of the major problems in India. It is the root cause of many socio-economic problems including population explosion, unemployment, and child labour and rising graph of crimes. Poverty alleviation should be the main target of the nation so as to make it a prosperous and developed country.

Poverty implies a condition in which a person finds him unable to maintain a living standard adequate for his physical and mental efficiency. He even fails to meet his basic requirements. Poverty is in fact a relative concept. It is very difficult to draw a demarcation line between affluence and poverty. According to Adam Smith, “Man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, the conveniences and the amusements of human life.”

Total of 2.2 crores of Indian population, which constitutes 22 % of the total population, is poor, as per the findings of the National Sample Survey Organization. This makes India home to the world’s largest proportion of the poor. The problem of poverty is more in villages where more than 75% people live.

The factors which lead to poverty are many. Since India is an agricultural country and sometimes due to uncertainty and irregularity of weather, Food grains production declines which adversely affect the income generation prospect. People do not have other means of livelihood leading them to poverty.

Illiteracy constitutes a major cause of poverty. Illiteracy is one of the constraints which deprive one from opportunities to seek other forms of livelihood. It in fact forces people to stick to ancestral jobs and prevents them from having job flexibility. Growing population is a great contributor to poverty. The average size of Indian family is relatively bigger, consisting of 4.2 members. All these factors make a vicious cycle of poverty and aggravate the problems related to poverty.

Poverty is a great pollutant. Poverty makes education, balanced diet, health care facilities, etc. inaccessible. All these deprivations immensely affect the personality development of a person, thus creating wide gaps between haves and have-nots.

Since 1970s for poverty alleviation policies have been framed on improving standard of living of the people by ensuring them food security, promoting self- employment through greater access to assets, increasing wage employment and improving access to basic social services. It is with this aim that Public Distribution System was launched in 1965 to provide foodgrains to the poor at subsidised rates.

The Government of India launched the Integrated Rural Development Programme, the largest credit-based government poverty reduction programme in 1979 to provide rural households below the poverty line with credit to purchase income-generating assets. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana was launched in 1989 to provide unemployment at the statutory minimum wage for unskilled manual labour, besides low-cost housing and to supply free irrigation well to poor and marginalised farmers. Besides, a number of other programmes for poverty alleviation are being carried on by government-Central and State.

However, much more needs to be done, for India is the home to the largest poor population in the world. Basic necessities of life such as drinking water, health care facilities, etc. are still inaccessible to majority of population. In this regard community participation and awareness campaign can make a difference. The media and the NGOs, besides other institutions have crucial role to play. The machinery involved in poverty alleviation need to be accountable, sensitised and sincere. New laws have to be evolved to ensure more accountability. The lack of transparency and accountability should be there. By this way the situation is bound to change and society will be free from deprivation.

 Poverty

Poverty can be defined as the lack of adequate income to buy the basic goods for subsistence living. Poverty is of two kinds- ab­solute poverty and relative poverty.

Absolute Poverty of a person means that his income or consumption expenditure is so less that he lives below the minimum subsistence level. Because of his absolute poverty condition, he is not able to maintain his health and efficiency and, in fact he may be starving.

On the other hand, Relative Poverty merely indicates the large inequalities of income. Those who are in the lower income brackets receive less than those in the higher income groups. The people with lower incomes are relatively poor compared with those with higher incomes, even though they may be living above the minimum level of subsistence. It is absolute poverty which is a more concern of poverty in India.

Facts and Figures

As per the survey conducted in 2011-2012, the percentage of persons below the Poverty Line in India for the year 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7% in rural areas, 13.7% in urban areas and 21.9% for the country as a whole.

The respective ratios for the rural and urban areas were 41.8% and 25.7% and 37.2% for the country as a whole in 2004-05. It was 50.1% in rural areas, 31.8% in urban areas and 45.3% for the country as a whole in 1993-94.

In 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below the Tendulkar Poverty Line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05, that is a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period.

This makes India home to the world’s largest proportion of the poor. The problem of poverty is more in villages where more than 75% people live.

 

Causes of Poverty in India

1. Climatic factors: Climatic conditions constitute an important cause of poverty. The hot climate of India, Frequent flood, famine, earthquake and cyclone cause heavy damage to agriculture. Moreover, absence of timely rain, excessive or deficient rain affect severely country’s agricultural production.

2. Demographic factors: The following demographic factors are accountable for poverty in India.

(i) Rapid growth of population: Rapid growth of population aggravates the poverty of the people. Population growth not only creates difficulties in the removal of poverty but also lowers the per capita income which tends to increase poverty. Population growth at a faster rate increases labour supply which tends to lower the wage rate.

(ii) Size of family: The larger the size of family, the lower is the per capita income, and the lower is the standard of living.

3. Economic causes:

(i) Low agricultural productivity: Farmers even today are following the traditional method of cultivation. Hence there is low agricultural productivity resulting in rural poverty.

(ii) Unequal distribution of land and other assets: There has been unequal distribution of land and other assets in our economy. The size-wise distribution of operational holdings indicates a very high degree of concentration in the hands of a few farmers leading to poverty of many in the rural sector.

(iii) Decline of village industries: Due to industrialization new factories and industries are being set up in rural areas. Village industries fail to compete with them in terms of quality and price. As a result they are closed down. The workers are thrown out of employment and lead a life of poverty.

(iv) Lackadaisical approach of villagers: The ruralites are mostly illiterate, ignorant, conservative, superstitious and fatalistic. Poverty is considered as god-given, something pre­ordained. All these factors lead to abysmal poverty in rural India.

(v) Lack of employment opportunities: Unemployment is the reflection of poverty. Because of lack of employment opportunities, people remain either unemployed or underemployed.

4. Social causes:

(i) Education: Education is an agent of social change and equality. Poor education leads to unskilled manforce. Excessive unskilled manpower has also lead to increase in poverty.

(ii) Caste system: Caste system in India has always been responsible for rural poverty. The subordination of the low caste people by the high caste people caused the poverty of the former. Due to rigid caste system, the low caste people could not participate in the game of economic progress.

(v) Growing indebtedness: In the rural sector most of the ruralites depend on borrowings from the money-lenders and land-lords to meet even their consumption expenses. Indebted poor farmers cannot make themselves free from the clutches of moneylenders. Their poverty is further accentuated because of indebtedness. Such indebted families continue to remain under the poverty line for generations because of this debt-trap.

5.  Political Causes: Being under foreign rule, India was exploited under the British regime. Due to this India remained poor. Since Independence, other political factors have adversely affected economic pro­gress. We have political leaders who have placed self before service and who do not hesitate to enrich them­selves at the cost of the country. The Indian administra­tion is known to be corrupt and inefficient. The legisla­tors would not pass laws which may help the poor but which may hit their interests

The effects of poverty may also be causes, as listed above, thus creating a "poverty cycle" operating across multiple levels, individual, local, national and global.

Characteristics of Poverty

Health: Those living in poverty suffer disproportionately from hunger or even starvation and disease. Those living in poverty suffer lower life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, hunger and malnutrition are the single gravest threats to the world's public health and malnutrition is by far the biggest contributor to child mortality, present in half of all cases. Almost 90% of maternal deaths during childbirth occur in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, compared to less than 1% in the developed world. Those who live in poverty have also been shown to have a far greater likelihood of having or incurring a disability and Infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis within their lifetime.

Hunger: Poverty brings hunger and starvation. Inability to produce food and with little or no income poor people have no option then to live in hunger. Poor people don’t have the tendency to save, neither they want to save something for bad times. In case of sudden price rise their problem starts. Still, death due to starvation makes news from African and Asian continents. In India also death due to starvation happened in drought hit Kalahandi district of Orissa.

Education: Children who are from low-income housing circumstances don’t get proper education. Such children don’t go to schools because they also had to earn bread for the family. Poverty often drastically affects children's success in school. Parents ignorance, illiteracy about their children education also devoid the education to poor.  Poor children have a great deal less healthcare and this ultimately results in many absences from the academic year.

Housing: Poverty increases homelessness. Slum-dwellers, who make up a third of the world's urban population, live in poverty. In 2012 it was estimated that there are over 100 million street children worldwide. Poor people cannot afford a house because their all income goes in managing food.  

Basic Needs:  Poverty leads to the non availibility of basic needs such as clean drinking water, clean and safe environment, sanitation, electricity, cooking fuel etc. They don’t know about the government policies and are not benefitted from the policies made for them.

Violence and crime: Due to poverty, rate of crime is increasing in alarming rate. Though not all crimes are result of poverty but poverty is also responsible for increasing crime in society. Specially in urban areas theft, robbery, dacoity, shoplifting are common now. Social crimes like Prostitution, women and child trafficking are also the result of poverty.

Poverty Eradication: The various policies and measures that should be adopted as parts of the strategy to eradicate poverty in the country are-

(i) Acceleration of Economic Growth. The first and foremost element in the strategy for removal of poverty is the acceleration in the rate of economic growth. The greater the growth rate, the larger are the employment opportunities. And the expansion in employment opportunities will help in removal of poverty. Giving higher priority to agriculture and cottage and small industries will boost rapid economic growth and will help in eradication of poverty.

(ii) Rural Public Works. To provide employment to the rural people rural public works should be started on an extensive scale. The unemployed rural poor should be employed on the construction of roads, wells, irrigation tanks, canals, bunds, etc. With the help of rural public works, not only can the idle man­power be given employment and their poverty removed but capital assets and infrastructural facilities for agri­culture will also be built up, which will help in raising agricultural productivity.

(iii) Rural Industrialisation. Rural industries with their small-scale and simple technology offer much larger opportunities for employment. Besides, they do not cre­ate such difficult problems as housing, transport, over­crowding, atmospheric pollution, which the urban indus­trial centres arc already finding impossible to solve.

 (iv) Land Reforms. This is also a significant measure for the removal of poverty. By the imposition of ceilings on landholdings and their effective implemen­tation, a good amount of land can be acquired to be distributed among the landless labourers. On obtaining land, the landless labour will be able to employ them­selves and will produce subsistence for themselves.

 (vii) Provision of Common Services and Social Security. Provision of free or subsidised housing sites or houses to the poor can also relieve poverty. A network of fair price shops, especially in the rural areas, may be set up, where the necessaries of like like foodgrains, cloth, edible oils, sugar, etc., are made available to the weaker sections of society at subsidised or controlled rates. This will also have the effect on improvement of of their living standard.

(viii) Population Control. A basic ele­ment in Indians antipoverty strategy has to be population control. Unless that is done, additions to wealth produc­tion will continue to divide among fresh population. Although national income in India during the last 5 years increased at the annual average rate of 3.5 per cent, the per capita income rose at an average rate of 1.3 per cent only. This was so because of the rapid rate at which, population continued to grow. The country must intensify its family planning campaign if it is desired that all other measures suggested above for the removal of poverty should succeed.

Conclusion

The eradication of mass poverty in India is a stupendous challenge. It will require vigorous and sus­tained efforts on the above lines on the part not only of the Government but also of the people before perceptible improvement occurs. In this regard community participation and awareness campaign can make a difference. The media and the NGOs, besides other institutions have crucial role to play. The machinery involved in poverty alleviation need to be accountable, sensitised and sincere. New laws have to be evolved to ensure more accountability. The lack of transparency and accountability should be there. By this way the situation is bound to change and society will be free from deprivation.

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