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Economy11 4 POVERTY PDF
Economy11 4 POVERTY PDF
UNIT
III
CURRENT CHALLENGES FACING
INDIAN ECONOMY
THE
4
POVERTY
No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater
part of the members are poor and miserable.
Adam Smith
4.1 INTRODUCTION
In previous chapters, you have
studied the economic policies that
India has taken in the last five and a
half decades and the outcome of
these policies with relation to the
various developmental indicators.
Providing minimum basic needs to
the people and reduction of poverty
have been the major aims of
independent India. The pattern of
development that the successive five
year plans envisaged laid emphasis
on the upliftment of the poorest of
the poor (Antyodaya), integrating the
poor into the mainstream and
achieving a minimum standard of
living for all.
While addressing the Constituent
Assembly in 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru
had said, This achievement
(Independence) is but a step, an
opening of opportunity, to the great
triumphs and achievements that
await us the ending of poverty and
ignorance and disease and inequality
of opportunity.
However we need to know where
we stand today. Poverty is not only a
challenge for India, as more than onefifth of the worlds poor live in India
alone; but also for the world, where
more than 260 million people are not
able to meet their basic needs.
Poverty has many faces, which
have been changing from place to
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4.2 WHO
ARE THE
POOR?
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B e s i d e s t h e s e b o d i e s, m a n y
individual economists have also
attempted to develop such a
mechanism.
For the purpose of defining
poverty we divide people into two
categories; the poor and the non-poor
and the poverty line separates the
two. However, there are many kinds
of poor; the absolutely poor, the very
poor and the poor. Similarly there are
various kinds of non-poor; the
middle class, the upper middle class,
the rich, the very rich and the
absolutely rich. Think of this as a line
or continuum from the very poor to
the absolutely rich with the poverty
line dividing the poor from the nonpoor.
Categorising Poverty: There are many
ways to categorise poverty. In one such
way people who are always poor and
those who are usually poor but who
may sometimes have a little more
money (example: casual workers) are
grouped together as the chronic poor.
Another group are the churning poor
who regularly move in and out of
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OF
POOR
IN
INDIA
66
Chart 4.4: Population Below Poverty Line in Some Large States, 1973-2000 (%)
Note: Uttar Pradesh includes the present Uttaranchal; Madhya Pradesh includes
Chhattisgarh and Bihar includes Jharkhand
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4. 6 P O L I C I E S A N D P R O G R A M M E S
T OWARDS POVERTY A LLEVIATION
The Indian Constitution and five
year plans state social justice as
the primary objective of the
developmental strategies of the
government. To quote the First Five
Year Plan (1951-56), the urge to
bring economic and social change
under present conditions comes from
the fact of poverty and inequalities in
income, wealth and opportunity.
The Second Five Year Plan (1956-61)
also pointed out that the benefits of
economic development must accrue
more and more to the relatively less
privileged classes of society. One can
find, in all policy documents,
emphasis being laid on poverty
alleviation and that various
strategies need to be adopted by the
government for the same.
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4.7 POVERTY A L L E V I A T I O N
PROGRAMMES A CRITICAL
ASSESSMENT
Efforts at poverty alleviation have borne
fruit in that for the first time since
independence, the percentage of
absolute poor in some states is now well
below the national average. Despite a
variety of approaches, programmes
and schemes to alleviate poverty;
hunger, malnourishment, illiteracy
and lack of basic amenities continue
to be a common feature in many
parts of India. Though the policy
towards poverty alleviation has
evolved in a progressive manner,
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4.8 CONCLUSION
We have travelled about six decades
since independence. The objective of
all our policies had been stated as
promoting rapid and balanced
economic development with equality
and social justice. Poverty alleviation
has always been accepted as one of
Indias main challenges by the
policy makers, regardless of which
g o v e r n m e n t w a s i n p o w e r. The
absolute number of poor in the country
has gone down and some states have
less proportion of poor than even the
national average. Yet, critics point out
that even though vast resources
have been allocated and spent, we
are still far from reaching the goal.
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Recap
Reducing poverty has been one of the major objectives of Indias
developmental strategies.
The per capita consumption expenditure level which meets the average
per capita daily requirement of 2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100
calories in urban areas, along with a minimum of non-food expenditure,
is called poverty line or absolute poverty.
When the number of poor and their proportion is compared, we will have
an idea of different levels of poverty of people and their distribution between
states and over time.
The number of poor in India and their proportion to total population has
declined substantially. For the first time in the 1990s, the absolute
number of poor has declined.
Majority of poor are residing in rural areas and engage themselves in
casual and unskilled jobs.
Income and expenditure oriented approaches do not take into account
many other attributes of the poor people.
Over the years, the government has been following three approaches to
reduce poverty in India: growth oriented development, specific poverty
alleviation programmes and meeting the minimum needs of the poor.
Government initiatives are yet to transform the ownership of assets,
processes of production and meet the basic amenities of the poor.
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EXERCISES
1.
Define poverty.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Suppose you are from a poor family and you wish to get help from
the government to set up a petty shop. Under which scheme will
you apply for assistance and why?
10.
11.
12.
1.
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2.
Collect information and fill in the following table with the amount of
money spent in terms of rupees by four low income families on
various commodities. Analyse the research and find out which
family is relatively poor in comparison to the other families. Also
find out who are absolutely poor if the poverty line is fixed at an
expenditure of Rs 500 per month per person.
Commodities
Family A
Family B
Family C
Family D
Wheat/Rice
Vegetable Oil
Sugar
Electricity/
Lighting
Ghee
Clothes
House Rent
2.
Items
Rice and wheat
Pulses and their products
Milk and milk products
Vegetables and fruits
Meat, fish and eggs
Sugar
Salt and spices
Other food items
Total: All food
Expenditure on food
items as a % of all items
80
Rural
25.0
5.7
17.4
15.1
6.3
3.3
10.8
16.5
100
62.9
Urban
35.9
6.1
14.1
12.7
5.3
3.8
10.8
11.3
100
72.2
Delhi Slums
28.7
9.9
10.3
19.6
13.1
4.0
8.1
6.4
100
72.8
REFERENCES
Books
D ANDEKAR, V.M. and NILAKANTHA RATH . 1971. Poverty in India, Indian School
of Political Economy, Pune.
D REZE, JEAN. AMAR TYA SEN & AKTHAR HUSAIN (Eds.). 1995. The Political Economy
of Hunger. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
N AOROJI, D ADABHAI . 1996. Poverty and Un-British Rule in India, Publications
Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of
India, Second Edition, New Delhi.
SAINATH, P. 1996. Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from Indias
Poorest Districts. Penguin Books, New Delhi.
SEN , A MAR TYA. 1999. Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and
Deprivation. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
SUBRAMANIAM , S. (Ed.). 2001. Indias Development Experience: Selected
Writings of S. Guhan. Oxford University Press, New Delhi.
Articles
K UMAR , N AVEEN and S.C. AGGAR WAL . 2003. Pattern of Consumption and
Poverty in Delhi Slums. Economic and Political Weekly, December
13, pp. 5294-5300.
M INHAS, B.S., L.R. JAIN and S.D. T ENDULKAR. 1991. Declining Incidence of
Poverty in the 1980s Evidence versus Artefacts, Economic and
Political Weekly, July 6-13.
Government Reports
Report of the Expert Group of the Estimation of Proportion and Number of
Poor, Perspective Planning Division, Planning Commission Government
of India, New Delhi, 1993.
Economic Survey 2004-05. Ministry of Finance, Government of India.
Tenth Five Year Plan 2002-2007, Vol. II: Sectoral Policies and Programmes,
Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi.
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