Finish Line & Beyond

Social Science Class 9th

Poverty as a Challenge
Social exclusion

Vulnerability

Poverty Line

Poverty Estimates

Vulnerable Groups

Inter-State Disparities

Global Poverty Scenario

Causes of Poverty

Anti-Poverty Measures

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Introduction

In our daily life, we come across many people who we think are poor. They could be
landless labourers in villages or people living in overcrowded jhuggis in cities. They
could be daily wage workers at construction sites or child workers in dhabas. Roughly
260 million (or 26 crore) people in India live in poverty. India has the largest single
concentration of the poor in the world. This illustrates the seriousness of the
challenge.

Following issues are related to poverty:

• Landlessness
• Unemployment
• Size of families
• Illiteracy
• Poor health/malnutrition
• Child labour
• Helplessness

Poverty as seen by social scientists

Since poverty has many facets, social scientists look at it through a variety of
indicators. 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.
Analysis of poverty based on social exclusion and vulnerability is now becoming very
common

Social exclusion

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. Social exclusion can be both a
cause as well as a consequence of poverty in the usual sense. Broadly, it is a process
through which individuals or groups are excluded from facilities, benefits and
opportunities that others (their “betters”) enjoy.

Vulnerability

Vulnerability to poverty is a measure, which describes the greater probability of

certain communities (say, members of a backward caste) or individuals (such as a
widow or a physically handicapped person) of becoming, or remaining, poor in the
coming years. Vulnerability is determined by the options available to different
communities for finding an alternative living in terms of assets, education, health
and job opportunities. Further, it is analysed on the basis of the greater risks these
groups face at the time of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunami), terrorism etc. In
fact, vulnerability describes the greater probability of being more adversely affected

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than other people when bad time comes for everybody, whether a flood or an
earthquake or simply a fall in the availability of jobs!

Poverty Line

A common method used to measure poverty is based on the income or consumption

levels. A person is considered poor if his or her income or consumption level falls
below a given “minimum level” necessary to fulfill basic needs. What is necessary to
satisfy basic needs is different at different times and in different countries.
Therefore, poverty line may vary with time and place. Each country uses an
imaginary line that is considered appropriate for its existing level of development and
its accepted minimum social norms. 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. 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. However, for making comparisons
between developing countries, many international organisations like the World Bank
use a uniform standard for the poverty line: minimum availability of the equivalent of
$1 per person per day.

Poverty Estimates

There is substantial decline in poverty ratios in India from about 55 per cent in 1973
to 36 per cent in 1993. The proportion of people below poverty line further came
down to about 26 per cent in 2000. If the trend continues, people below poverty line
may come down to less than 20 per cent in the next few years. Although the
percentage of people living under poverty declined in the earlier two decades (1973–
1993), the number of poor remained stable around 320 million for a fairly long
period. The latest estimates indicate a significant reduction in the number of poor to
about 260 million.

Vulnerable Groups

The proportion of people below poverty line is also not same for all social groups and
economic categories in India. Social groups which are most vulnerable to poverty are
scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households. Similarly, among the economic
groups, the most vulnerable groups are the rural agricultural labour households and
the urban casual labour households. 51 out of 100 people belonging to scheduled
tribes are not able to meet their basic needs. Similarly, 50 per cent of casual workers
in urban areas are below poverty line. About 50 per cent of landless agricultural
workers and 43 per cent of scheduled castes are also poor. Apart from these social
groups, there is also 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.

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Inter-State Disparities

Poverty in India also has another aspect or dimension. Recent estimates show that in
20 states and union territories, the poverty ratio is less than the national average.
On the other hand, poverty is still a serious problem in Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Tripura
and Uttar Pradesh. Orissa and Bihar continue to be the two poorest states with
poverty ratios of 47 and 43 per cent respectively. Along with rural poverty urban
poverty is also high in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In
comparison, there has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Jammu and
Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, TamilNadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. States like Punjab
and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high
agricultural growth rates. Kerala has focused more on human resource development.
In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty. In Andhra
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu public distribution of food grains could have been
responsible for the improvement.

Global Poverty Scenario

The proportion of people in developing countries living in extreme economic poverty

— defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1 per day—has fallen from 28
per cent in 1990 to 21 per cent in 2001. Although there has been a substantial
reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional differences. Poverty
declined substantially in China and Southeast Asian countries as a result of rapid
economic growth and massive investments in human resource development. Number
of poors in China has come down from 606 million in 1981 to 212 million in 2001. 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 from 475 million in 1981 to 428 million in
2001. Because of different poverty line definition, poverty in India is also shown
higher than the national estimates. In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty in fact rose from
41 per cent in 1981 to 46 per cent in 2001. The Millennium Development Goals of
the United Nations calls for reducing the proportion of people living on less than $1 a
day to half the 1990 level by 2015.

Causes of Poverty

1. Less job opportunity & low growth rate of incomes.

2. High growth rate of population.
3. Huge income inequalities.
4. Unequal distribution of land & other resources.
5. Lack of proper implementation of policy

Anti-Poverty Measures

Removal of poverty has been one of the major objectives of Indian developmental
strategy. The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on
two planks

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(1) promotion of economic growth

(2) targeted anti-poverty programmes.

Although there are so many schemes which are formulated to affect poverty directly
or indirectly, some of them are worth mentioning.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005

was passed in September 2005. The Act 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. The central government will also establish National Employment Guarantee
Funds. Similarly state governments will establish State Employment Guarantee
Funds for implementation of the scheme. Under the programme if an applicant is not
provided employment within fifteen days s/he will be entitled to a daily
unemployment allowance.

National Food for Work Programme(NFWP),

was launched in 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country. The programme
is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desire to do
manual unskilled work. It is implemented as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored
scheme and foodgrains are provided free of cost to the states. Once the NREGA is in
force, the NFWP will be subsumed within this programme.

Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana (PMRY)

was started in 1993. The aim of the programme is to create self employment
opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns. They
are helped in setting up small business and industries.

Rural Employment Generation Programme(REGP)

was launched in 1995. The aim of the programme is to create selfemployment
opportunities in rural areas and small towns. A target for creating 25 lakh new jobs
has been set for the programme under the Tenth Five Year plan.

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

was launched in 1999. The programme aims at bringing the assisted poor families
above the poverty line by organising them into self help groups through a mix of
bank credit and government subsidy.

Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yozana (PMGY)

launched in 2000, additional central assistance is given to states for basic services
such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and
rural electrification.

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The Challenges Ahead

Poverty has certainly declined in India. But despite the progress, poverty reduction
remains India’s most compelling challenge. Wide disparities in poverty are visible
between rural and urban areas and among different states. Certain social and
economic groups are more vulnerable to poverty. Poverty reduction is expected to
make better progress in the next ten to fifteen years. This would be possible mainly
due to 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. Eradication of poverty is always a
moving target. Hopefully we will be able to provide the minimum “necessary” in
terms of only income to all people by the end of the next decade. But the target will
move on for many of the bigger challenges that still remain: providing health care,
education and job security for all, and achieving gender equality and dignity for the
poor. These will be even bigger tasks.

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