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Poverty As A Challenge Notes

The document discusses various aspects of poverty in India including causes, dimensions, indicators used to measure poverty, vulnerable social groups, government strategies and programs to alleviate poverty. It notes that major causes of poverty in India include lack of land ownership, indebtedness, unemployment, illiteracy, poor health and large family sizes. The government uses poverty lines based on minimum calorie needs and income/consumption levels to measure poverty. Targeted programs aim to promote economic growth and provide employment, education and healthcare to reduce poverty, though some schemes have faced issues with implementation and targeting.

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Irene Abhilash
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68 views

Poverty As A Challenge Notes

The document discusses various aspects of poverty in India including causes, dimensions, indicators used to measure poverty, vulnerable social groups, government strategies and programs to alleviate poverty. It notes that major causes of poverty in India include lack of land ownership, indebtedness, unemployment, illiteracy, poor health and large family sizes. The government uses poverty lines based on minimum calorie needs and income/consumption levels to measure poverty. Targeted programs aim to promote economic growth and provide employment, education and healthcare to reduce poverty, though some schemes have faced issues with implementation and targeting.

Uploaded by

Irene Abhilash
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chapter-3 POVERTY AS A CHALLENGE

1. What are the issues related to poverty which in turn become its causes?
The following issues are related to poverty:
• Landlessness
● Indebtedness
• Unemployment
• Size of families
• Illiteracy
• Poor health/malnutrition
• Child labour
• Helplessness

2.What does poverty mean to different people in different situations? OR What


are the different dimensions of poverty?
i)Poverty means hunger and lack of shelter. It also is a situation in which parents are not
able to send their children to school or a situation where sick people cannot afford
treatment.
ii)Poverty also means lack of clean water and sanitation facilities.
iii)It also means lack of a regular job at a minimum decent level.
iv)Above all it means living with sense helplessness. Poor people are in a situation in
which they are ill-treated at almost every place , in farms, factories, government offices,
hospitals, railway stations etc.

3. What did Mahatma Gandhi say about poverty?


Mahatma Gandhi always insisted that India would be truly independent only when
the poorest of its people become free of human suffering.

4. What are the indicators of poverty as seen by the social scientists?


Usually the indicators used relate to the levels of income and consumption. But
now poverty is looked through other social indicators like illiteracy level, lack of
general resistance due to malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare, lack of job
opportunities, lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation etc.

5. What is meant by social exclusion?


i)According to this concept, poverty must be seen in terms of the poor having to
live only in a poor surrounding with other poor people, excluded from enjoying
social equality of better -off people in better surroundings.

A typical example is the working of the caste system in India in which people
belonging to certain castes are excluded from equal opportunities.

6. What do you mean by vulnerability of poverty and how is it determined?


i) Vulnerability to poverty is a measure, which describes the greater probability of certain
communities or individuals of becoming, or remaining, poor in the coming years.
7. What is the poverty line? How is it determined?
While determining the poverty line in India, a minimum level of food requirement,
clothing, footwear, fuel and light, educational and medical requirement etc. are
determined for subsistence. These are multiplied by their prices in rupees.
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. The poverty line fixed for a person in a villages was Rs 816
and for cities it was Rs1000 for a month in the year 2011-12.

8.Name the agency in India that calculates the poverty line.


In India it is the National Sample Survey Organization that calculates the
poverty line.

9. Why is the poverty line different from country to country?


a.What is necessary to satisfy basic needs is different at different times and in
different countries. Therefore, the poverty line may vary with time and place.
b.Each country uses an imaginary line that is considered appropriate for its
existing level of development and its accepted minimum social norms. For
For example, a person not having a car in the United States may be considered poor. In
In India, owning a car is still considered a luxury.

10. Name the social groups that are vulnerable to poverty.


i) Social groups which are most vulnerable to poverty are scheduled caste and
scheduled tribe households.
ii) Similarly among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the rural
agricultural labor households and the urban casual labor households.

11. Give an account of inter-state disparities of poverty in India


i) Recent estimates show that in 20 states and union territories, the poverty ratio is less
than the national average.
ii) Orissa and Bihar continue to be the two poorest states.
Along with rural poverty urban poverty is also high in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar
and Uttar Pradesh.
Iii) In comparison, there has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Jammu and
Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.
iv) States like Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty
with the help of high agricultural growth rates.
v) Kerala has focused more on human resource development.
vi) In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty.
vii) In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, Public Distribution of food grains could have
been responsible for the improvement.

12. Explain inequality of incomes within a family


There is inequality of incomes within a family. In poor families all suffer, but some suffer
more than others.
Women, elderly people and female infants are systematically denied
equal access to resources available to the family. Therefore women, children (especially
the girl child) and old people are poorest of the poor
13. Describe the global poverty trends.

i) The proportion of people in developing countries living in extreme economic poverty—


defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day. Although there has
been a substantial reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional
differences.
ii) Poverty declined substantially in China and Southeast Asian countries as a result
of rapid economic growth and massive investments in human resource development.

In the countries of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh,
Bhutan) the decline has not been as rapid. Despite decline in the percentage
of the poor, the number of poor has declined marginally.
Because of different poverty line definitions, poverty in India is also shown higher than
the national estimates.

14. Discuss the major reasons for poverty in India.


i) One historical reason is the low level of economic development under the British
colonial administration. The policies of the colonial government ruined traditional
handicrafts and discouraged development of industries like textiles.
ii) The low rate of growth persisted until the nineteen eighties. This resulted in less job
opportunities and a low growth rate of incomes.
iii) This was accompanied by a high growth rate of population. The two combined to
make the growth rate of per capita income very low. The failure at both the fronts:
promotion of economic growth and population control perpetuated the cycle of poverty.
iv) Unequal distribution of land and other resources is a major cause for poverty in India.
The lower castes were not allowed to posses land for centuries.
v) Major policy initiatives like land reforms which aimed at redistribution of assets in
rural area have not been implemented properly and effectively by most of the state
governments.
vii) In order to fulfill social obligations and observe religious ceremonies, people in India,
including the very poor, spend a lot of money.

vii)Small farmers need money to buy agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizer, pesticides
etc. Since poor people hardly have any savings, they borrow. Unable to repay because
of poverty, they become victims of indebtedness. So the high level of indebtedness is
both the cause and effect of poverty.

15. Describe current government strategy of poverty alleviation.


The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on two planks
(1) Promotion of economic growth
2) Targeted anti-poverty programmes.

16. Explain the various poverty alleviation measures adopted by the government
in India.
1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,
2005 (MGNREGA)– It aimed to provide 100 days of wage employment to
every household to ensure livelihood security in rural areas. It also aimed at
sustainable development to address the cause of drought, deforestation and soil
erosion. One-third of the proposed jobs have been reserved for women.
2. In 1993, Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) was started. The main aim of
the programme is to create self-employment opportunities for educated
unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns.
3. In 1995, Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) was launched.
The aim of the programme is to create self-employment opportunities in rural
areas and small towns.
4. In 1999, Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched.
The programme aims at bringing the assisted poor families above the poverty line
by organizing them into self-help groups, through a mix of bank credit(loan)
and government subsidy.
● 5. In 2000, the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) was launched.
Under this programme, additional central assistance is given to states for basic
services such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking
water and rural electrification.

17. What were the reasons for becoming anti poverty measures less effective?
1. Lack of proper implementation and right targeting.
2. Lot of overlapping of schemes.
3. Benefits of these schemes are not fully reached to the deserving poor

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