Center Of Media studies

Institute of Professional Studies

University of Allahabad

Dissertation

On
POVERTY IN INDIA PHOTO FEATURE
M.Voc in media studies

Semester 4st

Submitted by: Submitted to:

Anamika Tripathi Mr. Vidaya Sagar Mishra

Roll No.- 21481421

Poverty in India
(the picture was taken at a construction site in Prayagraj,where
poor parents were working as lsbours and there small
childrens,semi dressed,were playing with mud )

This picture depicts the poor condition of the people below poverty
line,their condition is pityfull,one can’t even stand near their houses because of
odor and garbage dumps
Parents do not even have this ,uch money to cover their
children’s body with clothes ,they cant even afford to buy clothes
for their kids.isnt it pittyful?

Poverty in India is growing economy at the rate of

around 4.2%.Isn't it the case where rich people are
getting richer and poors are getting poorer day by day?.
Look around you. Do you see beggars on the streets?
What about rickshaw-pullers fighting with a customer
for an extra ten rupees? Do you hear news of crimes
and drug abuse even by children? Poverty in India is the
cause and also a consequence of all the above
problems.
Look around. Do you see beggars on the streets? What
about rickshaw-pullers fighting with a customer for an
extra ten rupees? Do you hear news of crimes and drug
abuse even by children? Poverty in India is the cause
and also a consequence of all the above problems.

A sad picture of a 6 year old kid who has to sell the balloons
even in rain otherwise he has sleep with empty stomach.Thia
was what he told me in a 5 minutes short conversation
with him.

There are multiple things that cause poverty. However,

in India, the first major factor was the exploitative
British colonial rule. Throughout the process of
colonising India, the British plundered the wealth of
India, by taking away raw materials for cheap and
selling it back to India at very high prices. This led to the
shut down of indigenous factories and mills in India and
India became heavily economically dependent.

Even after they left, India was plagued with illiterate

masses and a huge population. In rural areas, there was
a huge problem of lack of land resources, per person as
the population was in excess. These led to almost no
economic growth till the 1980s. Even today, there are
many schemes for anti-poverty but poverty is still a
problem due to the lack of implementation of these
schemes.

What government is doing?

(This is very common in India, in just a walk of 15
minutes one can see this situation of people who are
homeless are sitting on side streets and begging for
food and money)

The government has come up with various schemes to

reduce poverty. Two of the important ones are-

1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Scheme: This scheme is for employment.
 It guarantees 100 days of wage labour to rural
dwellers.

2. PMRY (Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojna) Scheme: This is

also an employment scheme for literate people in
urban and rural areas, where they can generate ways
of self- employment.

Government efforts to alleviate poverty in India cannot

be overlooked while discussing poverty. It needs to be
brought to the forefront that whatever marginal drops
that has been observed in the poverty ratios have taken
place due to the government initiatives aimed at
uplifting people from poverty. Though, a lot still needs
to be done as far as the corruption levels are
concerned.

PDS– The PDS distributes subsidized food and non-food

items to the poor. Major commodities distributed
include staple food grains, such as wheat, rice, sugar,
and kerosene, through a network of public distribution
shops established in several states across the country.
But, the grains provided by the PDS are not enough to
satisfy the consumption needs of a family. Under PDS
scheme, each family below the poverty line is eligible
for 35 kg of rice or wheat every month, while a
household above the poverty line is entitled to 15 kg of
food grain on a monthly basis.
Being the most important system, the system is not
without its flaws. Leakages and diversions of grains
from the PDS are high. Only 41% of the grains released
by the government reach the poor. The alternative
against the PDS that has been suggested is that of a
cash transfer along with food support, but this will not
fulfill the need of the buffer food stocks.

MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act)– This aim guarantees the right to work
and ensure livelihood security in rural areas by
providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage
employment in a financial year to every household
whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual
work. Employment generation under this act has been
higher as compared to other schemes.
RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana) - This is a health
insurance for the poor. It provides for cashless
insurance for hospitalization in public as well as private
hospitals. Every below poverty line family holding a
yellow ration card pays 30 rupees registration fee to get
a biometric-enabled smart card containing their
fingerprints and photographs.
Most of the schemes are clouded with
implementation challenges. Programs are plagued by
leakages on subsidies that limit its impact on the poor.
These programs need to be centralized under one
organization so that leakages can be
(ZZZZZZZA SAD PICTURE WAS TAKEN FROM INFRONT
OF THE PVR MALL WHERE A KID WAS SELLING A
BALLOON IN THE RAIN)

The World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions to

their poverty calculation methodology and purchasing
power parity basis for measuring poverty worldwide. It
was a minimal 3.6% in terms of percentage. As of 2020,
the incidence of multidimensional poverty has
significantly reduced from 54.7% in 2005 to 27.9% in
2015–2016. According to United Nations Development
Programme administrator Achim Steiner, India lifted
271 million people out of extreme poverty in a 10-year
time period from 2005–2006 to 2015–2016. A 2020
study from the World Economic Forum found "Some
220 million Indians sustained on an expenditure level of
less than Rs 32 / day—the poverty line for rural India—
by the last headcount of the poor in India in 2013.

CAUSES OF POVERTY IN INDIA

According to the international economist Ragnar
Nurske, “a country is poor because it is poor” pointing
towards the unfortunate reality that poverty is a vicious
trap. This trap consists of the low level of savings which
reduce the scope of investments which then leads to a
low level of income.

A major reason of the existing poverty in India is the

weather condition of the country. The non-conducive
climate reduces the capacities of people to work in the
farms. Floods, famines, earthquake and cyclones
disrupt the production. Population is another factor
which contributes to the menace. Population growth
reduces the per capita income.

Further, larger the size of a family, lower is the per

capita income. Unequal distribution of land and assets
is another problem which deters the concentration of
lands in the hands of the farmers equally.
(Picture captured from hanuman mandir(temple) in
Prayagraj, many of the poor families use to spend their
whole day outside the temple begging)

It needs to be taken into account that although the

economy has shown some visible signs of progress in
the last two decades, this progress been uneven across
various sectors or areas. The growth rates are higher in
Gujarat and Delhi as compared to Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh.
Nearly half of the population doesn’t have proper
shelter, access to a decent sanitation system, villages do
not have a nearby water source, and villages also do not
have a secondary school and lack of proper roads. Some
sections of the society like the Dalits are not even
included in the poverty list maintained by the
concerned authorities assigned by the government.
They’re groups that are marginalized in the society.

THIS KID IN PICTURE IS NOT ONLY UNHEALTHY BUT

DISSABLE TOO, HE CANT SEE PROPERLY,HE CANT
WALK PROPERLY ETC. THIS IS ONE OF THE EXAMPLES
OF HOW MALNUTRITION HAS EFFECTED THE KIDS IN
INDIA
Effects of Poverty: Poverty is like a disease that has
devastating effects on an individual and his family. The
major effects are as follows:

1. Effect on Health – The biggest effect of poverty is

poor health. Those who suffer from poverty do not
have access to enough food, adequate clothing,
medical facilities, and clean surroundings. The lack of
all these basic facilities leads to poor health. Such
individuals and their families suffer from malnutrition.
Further, when these people get ill, they do not have
enough money to visit a doctor and buy medicines.
Many such poor people die daily due to prolonged
illness etc. Further, these people are unable to afford
a clean house for themselves, which also makes them
prone to diseases.

2. Effects on Society – The effects of poverty on

society are as follows:
a. Violence and crime rate – The occurrence of
violence and crime is geographically coincident. Due
to unemployment and marginalization, poor people
often indulge in wrong practices such as prostitution,
theft, and criminal activities such as chain snatching,
etc.

b. Homelessness – Poor people are usually homeless.

They sleep on the roadsides at night. This makes the
entire scenario very unsafe for women and children.

c. Stress – Due to lack of money, poor people suffer

from a lot of stress which leads to are duction in the
productivity of individuals, thereby making poor
people poorer.

d. Child labor – Poverty forces poor people to send

their children to work instead of sending them to
schools. This is because the families fail to bear the
burden of their child/ children. Among the poor
families, children start earning at an average age of 5
years only.

e. Terrorism – Youngsters from poor families are

usually targeted and involved in terrorist activities.
These people are offered a huge amount of money
instead of which they are assigned with a destructive
task of terrorism.

3. Effect on Economy –Poverty is directly proportional

to the success of the economy. The number of people
living in the poverty is reflective of how powerful is
the economy.
Poverty prevalence and estimates
The 19th century and early 20th century saw increasing
poverty in India during the colonial era. Over this
period, the colonial government de-industrialized India
by reducing garments and other finished products
manufactured by artisans in India. Instead, they
imported these products from Britain's expanding
industry due to the many industrial innovations of the
19th century. Additionally, the government
simultaneously encouraged the conversion of more
land into farms and more agricultural exports from
India. Eastern regions of India along the GANGA river
plains, such as those now known as eastern UTTAR
PRADESH, BIHAR JHARKHAND were dedicated to
producing poppy and opium. These items were then
exported to southeast and east Asia, particularly China.
The East India Company initially held an exclusive
monopoly over these exports, and the colonial British
institutions later did so as well. The economic
importance of this shift from industry to agriculture in
India was large by 1850, it created nearly 1,000 square
kilometres of poppy farms India's fertile Ganges plains.
This consequently led to two opium wars in Asia, with
the SECOND WAR fought between 1856 and 1860. After
China agreed to be a part of the opium trade, the
colonial government dedicated more land exclusively to
poppy. The opium agriculture in India rose from 1850
through 1900, when over 500,000 acres of the most
fertile Ganges basin farms were devoted to poppy
cultivation. Additionally, opium processing factories
owned by colonial officials were expanded in Banaras
and Patna shipping expanded from Bengal to the ports
of East Asia such as Hong Kong, all under exclusive
monopoly of the British. By the early 20th century, 3
out of 4 Indians were employed in agriculture, famines
were common, and food consumption per capita
declined in every decade. In London, the late 19th
century British parliament debated the repeated
incidence of famines in India, and the impoverishment
of Indians due to this diversion of agriculture land from
growing food staples to growing poppy for opium
export under orders of the colonial British empire.

Poverty was intense during colonial era India.

Numerous famines and epidemics killed millions of
people each. Upper image is from 1876-1879 famine in
South of British India that starved and killed over 6
million people, while lower image is of child who
starved to death during the Bengal famine of 1943.

These colonial policies moved unemployed artisans into

farming, and transformed India into a region
increasingly abundant in land, unskilled labour, and low
productivity. This consequently made India scarce in
skilled labour, capital and knowledge. On an inflation
adjusted 1973 rupee basis, the average income of an
Indian agrarian labourer was Rs. 7.20 per year in 1885,
against an inflation adjusted poverty line of Rs. 23.90
per year. Thus, not only was the average income below
the poverty line, but the intensity of poverty was also
severe. The intensity of poverty increased from 1885 to
1921, before being reversed. However, the absolute
poverty rates continued to be very high through the
1930s. The colonial policies on taxation and its
recognition of land ownership claims of zamindars and
mansabdars, or Mughal era nobility, made a minority of
families wealthy. Additionally, these policies weakened
the ability of poorer peasants to command land and
credit. The resulting rising landlessness and stagnant
real wages intensified poverty.

The National Planning Committee of 1936 noted the

appalling poverty of undivided India.

(...) there was lack of food, of clothing, of housing and

of every other essential requirement of human
existence... the development policy objective should be
to get rid of the appalling poverty of the people.
The National Planning Committee, notes
Suryanarayana, then defined goals in 1936 to alleviate
poverty by setting targets in terms of nutrition (2400 to
2800 calories per adult worker), clothing (30 yards per
capita per annum) and housing (100 sq. ft per
capita). This method of linking poverty as a function of
nutrition, clothing and housing continued in India after
it became independent from British colonial empire.

These poverty alleviation goals were theoretical, with

administrative powers resident in the British Empire.
Poverty ravaged India. In 1943, for example, despite
rising agricultural output in undivided South Asia,
the Bengal femine killed millions of Indians from
starvation, disease and destitution. Destitution was so
intense in Bengal, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh,
Jharkhand and Orissa, that entire families and villages
were "wiped out" of existence. Village artisans, along
with sustenance farming families, died from lack of
food, malnutrition and a wave of diseases.[14] The 1943
famine was not an isolated tragedy. Devastating
famines impoverished India every 5 to 8 years in the
late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century.
Between 6.1 and 10.3 million people starved to death in
British India during the 1876-1879 famine, while
another 6.1 to 8.4 million people died during the 1896-
1898 famine.The lancet reported that 19 million people
died from starvation and the consequences of extreme
poverty in British India between 1896 and 1900. Sir
MacDonnell observed the suffering and poverty in
1900, and noted, "people died like flies" in Bombay.
Other estimates

According to a 2011 poverty Development Goals

Report, as many as 320 million people in India and
China are expected to come out of extreme poverty in
the next four years, with India's poverty rate projected
to drop from 51% in 1990 to about 22% in 2015. The
report also indicates that in Southern Asia, only India is
on track to cut poverty by half by the 2015 target date.
In 2015, according to United Nations Millennium
Development Goals (MGD) programme, India has
already achieved the target of reducing poverty by half,
with 24.7% of its 1.2 billion people in 2011 living below
the poverty line or having income of less than $1.25 a
day, the U.N. report said. The same figure was 49.4% in
1994. India had set a target of 23.9% to be achieved by
2015.

According to Global Wealth Report 2016 compiled by

Credit Suisse Research Institute, India is the second
most unequal country in the world with the top one per
cent of the population owning 58% of the total wealth.

Global Hunger Index

Global hunger index (GHI) is an index that places a third

of weight on proportion of the population that is
estimated to be undernourished, a third on the
estimated prevalence of low body weight to height ratio
in children younger than five, and remaining third
weight on the proportion of children dying before the
age of five for any reason. According to 2011 GHI
report, India has improved its performance by 22% in
20 years, from 30.4 to 23.7 over 1990 to 2011 period.
However, its performance from 2001 to 2011 has
shown little progress, with just 3% improvement. A
sharp reduction in the percentage of underweight
children has helped India improve its hunger record on
the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2014. India now ranks 55
among 76 emerging economies. Between 2005 and
2014, the prevalence of underweight children under
the age of five fell from 43.5% to 30.7%.

Poverty: 2011-2012 Percentage of people by Caste

Findings below are based on a survey conducted during

2011–12. Total population of India then: 1,276,267,631

Caste-wise population distribution:

Caste % of total population No. of People

FC 28.0% 357M

OBC 44.1% 563M

SC 19.0% 242M

ST 8.9% 114M

Total 100% 1276M

Poverty in India based on caste:

 % of Poverty No. of % of Poverty in
Caste
(intra-caste) People total population

FC 12.5% 44.6M 3.5%

OBC 20.7% 116.5M 9.1%

SC 29.4% 71.2M 5.8%

ST 43.0% 49.0M 3.8%

Total - 281M 22%

From the above 2 tables, we could derive the following

to see if the distribution of poverty follows as that of
the total population:

% of total Poverty % over poverty

Caste
population population
FC 28.0% 15.9%

OBC 44.1% 41.4%

SC 19.0% 25.3%

ST 8.9% 17.4%

Poverty in India based on Social and Religious

Classes: The Sachar Committee looked at the Poverty by
Social and Religious Classes

Social and Religious Percentage of Living in

Class Poverty

Urban Hindus 20.4%

Urban Hindu General 8.3%

Urban Hindu OBC 25.1%

Urban Hindu SC/ST 36.4%

Urban Muslims 38.4%

Urban Other Minorities 12.2%

Rural Hindus 22.6%

Rural Hindu General 9.0%

Rural Hindu OBC 19.5%

Rural Hindu SC/ST 34.8%

Rural Muslims 26.9%

Rural Other Minorities 14.3%

Reduction in poverty

Main poverty alleviations program in India

Since the 1950s, the Indian Government and non-

governmental organisations have initiated several
programs to alleviate poverty, including
subsidising food and other necessities, increased access
to loans, improving agricultural techniques and price
supports, promoting education, and family planning.
These measures have helped eliminate famines,
cut absolute poverty levels by more than half, and
reduced illitracy and malnutrition.

Although the Indian economy has grown steadily over

the last two decades, its growth has been uneven when
comparing social groups, economic groups, geographic
regions, and rural and urban areas. For the year 2015–
16, the GSDP growth rates of Andhra
Pradesh,Bihar and MADHYA PRADESH was higher tha
MAHARASHTRA ORISSA AND PUNJAB Though GDP
growth rate matters a lot economically, the debate is
moving towards another consensus in India, where
unhealthy infatuation with GDP growth matters less
and holistic development or all-inclusive growth
matters more. While India may well be on the path to
eradicating extreme poverty, it still lags well behind in
other important development indicators, even in
comparison to some of its neighbouring countries,
especially in regard to health and education.
Despite significant economic progress, one quarter of
the nation's population earns less than the
government-specified POVERTY THRESHOLD of ₹32 per
day (approximately US$ 0.6).

According to the 2001 census, 35.5% of Indian

households used banking services, 35.1% owned a radio
or transistor, 31.6% a television, 9.1% a phone, 43.7% a
bicycle, 11.7% a scooter, motorcycle or a MOPED, and
2.5% a car, jeep or van; 34.5% of the households had
none of these assets. According to Department of
Telecommunications of India, the phone density
reached 73.34% by December 2012 and as an annual
growth decreased by −4.58%.This tallies with the fact
that a family of four with an annual income
of ₹137,000 (US$1,900) could afford some of these
luxury items.

The World Bank's Global Monitoring Report for 2014–

15 on the Millennium Development Goals says India has
been the biggest contributor to poverty reduction
between 2008 and 2011, with around 140 million or so
lifted out of absolute poverty. Since the early 1950s, the
Indian government has initiated various schemes to
help the poor attain self-sufficiency in food production.
A few examples of these initiatives include ration cards
and price controls over the supply of basic
commodities, particularly food at controlled prices,
available throughout the country. These efforts
prevented famines, but did little to eliminate or reduce
poverty in rural or urban areas between 1950 and 1980.

India's rapid economic growth rate since 1991 is one of

the main reasons for a record decline in poverty.
Another reason proposed is India's launch of social
welfare programs MAHATMA GANDHI NATIONAL
RULAR EMPLOYEMENT GUARANTEE (MGNREGA) and
the MIDDAY MEAL SCHEME in government schools. In a
2012 study, Klonner and Oldiges, concluded that
MGNREGA helps reduce rural poverty gap (intensity of
rural poverty) and seasonal poverty, but not overall
poverty. However, there is a disturbing side, as
deprivation has tended to increase, and that too among
the most deprived sections. According to the latest
statistics published by the Census of India, among
scheduled tribes, 44.7% of people were farmers
working on their own land in 2001; however, this
number came down to 34.5% in 2011. Among
scheduled castes, this number declined from 20% to
14.8% during the same period. This data is
corroborated by other data from the census, which also
says that the number of people who were working on
others' land (landless laborers), increased from 36.9% in
2001 to 44.4% among scheduled castes SC and from
45.6% to 45.9% among scheduled tribes.

India has achieved annual growth exceeding 7 percent

over the last 15 years and continues to pull millions of
people out of poverty, according to the World Bank.
The country has halved its poverty rate over the past
three decades and has seen strong improvements in
most human development outcomes, a report by the
international financial institution has found. Growth is
expected to continue and the elimination of extreme
poverty in the next decade is within reach, said the
bank, which warned that the country's development
trajectory faces considerable challenges.

The pandemic has worsened

India’s poverty crisis
Our estimates show that around 150-199 million
additional people will fall into poverty this year. It
means an overall increase in poverty by 15-20 per
cent, making around half of the country’s
population poor
The outbreak of the novel coronavirus last year led
to mass havoc, fuelling a global health and
economic crisis, the death of millions, lockdown
of industries, large-scale job cuts, and catastrophic
income shocks. It pushed the world into a deep
recession, which for the first time after the Great
Depression, is creating economic downturns in
terms of job, income and consumption loss. Across
the globe, around 3.9 million people have died,
and millions have been pushed into poverty. India
is no exception to this.
In India, the official death toll is 3.98 lakh (the
unofficial figure is many times more than the
official one). The Indian economy contracted by
7.3 per cent last year; the greatest contraction since
independence. As per the CMIE report, there was a
net loss of 7 million jobs between February 2020
and February 2021. Households experienced an
average of 12 per cent loss in income during the
last fiscal year. A point to note here is that it is an
average loss. The loss for the poor and middle
class ought to be higher. Besides, the CMIE survey
is criticised for being biased towards the richer
households, and hence the actual loss for poorer
households tends to be higher than the reported.
Our estimates show that 218 million additional
people (168 million in rural and 50 million in
urban areas) would have been pushed into poverty
at 12 per cent contraction in their monthly per
capita consumption in the year 2020-21.
In the year 2021, the onset of the second wave
of Covid-19 and its subsequent misery raised
further uncertainty regarding the health of the
Indian economy. Although at this time, the
lockdown was not imposed at the national level in
the manner it was imposed last year, yet the impact
in terms of loss of life and livelihood is severe.
This time, both rural and urban areas are severely
affected. Soumya Kanti Ghosh and Sachchidanand
Shukla (IE, June 5) reported that the rural districts
accounted for 2.28 million new cases in the
August-September 2020, while for this year April-
May period, the caseload rose to 7.61 million.
Covid deaths also went up from 28,101 to 83,863
during the same period.
FICCI’s (2021) survey shows that around 58 per
cent of businesses reported high impact and
another 38 per cent reported moderate impact of
the state-level lockdown of April-May 2021. The
report states that, unlike last year, the weak
demand for goods and services has not just been
confined to urban areas, as rural India too reported
compression of demand this time. Around 71 per
cent of businesses reported a significant dip in
their sales in rural markets. As per the CMIE’s
(June 2021) consumer pyramid household survey,
there was a loss of 22.3 million jobs during April
and June 2021, of which daily wage-earners were
the worst hit.
Further, given other challenges that the businesses
and people face,, the economy is most likely to
experience a lower GDP growth rate than expected
at the beginning of the year. Therefore,
considering the impact of the second wave of the
Covid-19 crisis, most multilateral and international
agencies have revised their 2021-22 growth
predictions for India.
The World Bank revised its estimates of Indian
GDP forecast to 8.3 percent from their earlier
estimates of 10 per cent for the year 2021-22. RBI
has also revised its estimate of GDP growth at 9.3
per cent from its earlier forecast of 10.5 per cent.
Due to the fear of revised downward predictions,
economic slowdown, increasing job informality
and rising OOP health expenditure, a loss of 5-10
per cent on the income estimates of 2019-20 is
expected. Our estimate using the Periodic Labour
Force Survey (2018-19) data at an assumed level
of 5-10 per cent of contraction in
income/consumption shows that the impact of
Covid-19 on poverty is humongous. We have used
the Rangarajan committee’s estimates of the
poverty line for the year 2011-12 for estimating
Covid-induced increase in poverty. Consumer
price indices for the rural and urban area (base
year, 2011-12) are used separately for updating the
poverty line of the year 2011-12, for the year
2019-20 and 2021-22. Assuming that there are no
substantial changes in income and its distribution
in the year 2019-20, we estimated Covid-induced
poverty at the aggregate and disaggregated level.
Our estimates show that around 150-199 million
additional people will fall into poverty this year. It
means an overall increase in poverty by 15-20
percent, making around half of the country’s
population poor. The increase is higher in rural
areas as compared to urban areas.
In pre-Covid times, around 35 per cent (265
million people) of the rural population was poor.
However, this number is expected to rise to
roughly 381-418 million, with the total headcount
ratio reaching 50.9-55.87 per cent in 2021-22.
Under the same levels of contractions, urban India
expects 36 to 46 million additional people to fall
under poverty, with the total headcount ratio
reaching 39.08- 42.4 per cent. Across social
categories, a higher percentage of people from
marginalised groups are expected to fall into
poverty than the other groups. For instance, at an
all-India level, around 13-20 per cent of additional
SC/ST people are expected to fall into poverty as
compared to 12-16 per cent of upper caste people
making total HCR for the group reaching a
whopping 60-70 per cent. The Covid-19 induced
poverty, therefore, leads to widening disparity
between SC/ST and non-SC/ST groups.
Across major occupations, our analysis reveals
that self-employed agriculture, non-agriculture,
and casual labourers bear the highest impact in
rural areas. In urban areas, casual labourers
disproportionately bear the brunt of the crises. The
ongoing farm distress, rural indebtedness, lack of
infrastructures, small, marginal scattered
landholdings, adverse terms of trade, and
corporatisation of agriculture contribute to
vulnerability for such labourers in rural areas. In
the urban area, it is mostly the informal nature of
jobs, depressed earnings, and little to no social
security that place the casual workers at the brink
of vulnerability. Low-income states (Uttar
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and Bihar) bear the highest
incidence of poverty followed by the middle-
income states (Karnataka, West Bengal and
Uttarakhand) due to the crises. The marked income
inequity in the low-income states will increase
post-Covid-19 contractions. In the high-income
states (Maharashtra and Gujarat), the brunt of
Covid-19 is seen mainly in rural areas, possibly
because of the concentration of large populations
in the area living near the poverty line, and
because the area lacks employment and livelihood
opportunities.
A rising number of poor can lead to demand
shocks in the economy, which will further lead to
the contractions in GDP growth. Therefore, the
identification of poor and vulnerable groups is
need of the hour so that directed interventions like
national food security, direct cash transfer and
other social security programmes prevent these
groups from further falling deeper into penury and
impoverishment. A large fiscal stimulus along
with intermediate informal employment
insurgency through MGNREGA and other
employment generation programmes are urgent to
rein the adverse impact of covid-19 on the welfare
of the masses.
POVERTY IN INDIA: FACTS AND FIGURES ON
THE DAILY STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL

Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8%

of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a
day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day
available - they are considered extremely poor. This
makes the Indian subcontinent one of the poorest
countries in the world; women and children, the
weakest members of Indian society, suffer most.

India is the second most populous country after

China with about 1.2 billion people and isthe seventh
largest country in the world with an area of
3,287,000 km². The highly contrasted country has
enjoyed growth rates of up to 10% over many years
and is one of the largest economies in the world,
with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1,644 billion
US dollars. But only a small percentage of the Indian
population has benefited from this impressive
economic boom so far, as the majority of people in
India are still living in abject poverty.

Poverty in India: from the

village to the slum
More than 800 million people in India are considered
poor. Most of them live in the countryside and keep
afloat with odd jobs. The lack of employment which
provides a livable wage in rural areas is driving
many Indians into rapidly growing metropolitan
areas such as Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore or
Calcutta. There, most of them expect a life of
poverty and despair in the mega-slums, made up of
millions of corrugated ironworks, without sufficient
drinking water supply, without garbage disposal and
in many cases without electricity. The poor hygiene
conditions are the cause of diseases such as cholera,
typhus and dysentery, in which especially children
suffer and die.

Poverty in India impacts children, families and

individuals in a variety of different ways through:

• High infant mortality

• Malnutrition
• Child labour
 • Lack of education
• Child marriage
• HIV / AIDS

THE HIGH INFANT MORTALITY

1.4 million children die each year in INDIA before

their fifth birthday. In addition to NIGERIA,
PAKISTAN the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF
THE CONGO and CHINA, India is one of the
countries with the highest child mortality
rates. Pneumonia, malaria and diarrheal diseases as
well as chronic malnutrition are the most frequent
causes of death.

MALNUTRITION- NOTEVEN A BOWL OF RICE

A DAYIndia is one of the world’s top countries
when it comes to malnutrition: More than 200
million people don’t have sufficient access to food,
including 61 million children. 7.8 million infants
were found to have a birth weight of less than 2.5
kilograms - alarming figures for a country commonly
referred to as the emerging market.

Child labour - no time to play and learn

Although child labour for children under the age of

14 in India is prohibited by law, according to official
figures, 12.5 million children between the ages of 5
and 14 are working. Aid agencies assume that in
reality, there are many more estimating that 65
million children between 6 and 14 years do not go to
school. Instead, in order to secure survival, it is
believed that Indian children contribute to the
livelihood of their families; they work in the field, in
factories, in quarries, in private households and in
prostitution.

Lack of education - no opportunities without

education
According to UNISEF , about 25% of children in
India have no access to education. The number of
children excluded from school is higher among girls
than boys. Although women and men are treated
equally under Indian law, girls and women,
especially in the lower social caste, are considered
inferior and are oppressed by their fathers, brothers
and husbands. Without education, the chance of
finding a living wage from employment in India is
virtually hopeless.

Child marriage - the early end of childhood

In spite of banning minors from marrying in 2006, it

is still widespread in many regions of India. The
main leaders in this practice are young girls, who are
still children themselves and become mothers too
early. Many of them die at birth. According to an
investigation by the medical journal The Lancet,
44.5% of girls are still married in India before they
are of legal age.

Due to poverty, many parents encourage early

marriages for their daughters in hopes of better lives
for them.

HIV,AIDS – A TABBOO IN INDIAN SOCIETY

2.7 million Indians are infected with the HIV

virus; about 220,000 of them are children, with the
tendency rising. The lack of education and the lack
of condoms mean that the virus is spreading faster
and faster and more and more people are dying of
AIDS - especially in the slums of the growing
cities. More and more children are living there as so-
called AIDS orphans , often being infected with the
virus as well.

SOS Children's Villages -

fighting poverty in India
Since 1963, the SOS Children's Villages have been
involved in India. In a total of 41 SOS Children's
Villages across the vast country, around 18,000
children and young people find a new home - the
majority of them are girls. Nearly 5,000 girls and
boys receive access to education at the 16 SOS
Hermann Gmeiner schools in the Indian
subcontinent. In the nine SOS Vocational Training
Centres, over 1,300 young people are completing a
qualified vocational training. Medical and
psychological help is available to needy families in
the 34 SOS Social Centres and the two SOS Medical
Centres. The SOS Children's Villages is working
together with other aid organizations and the
population to fight poverty in India.

SPONCER
CHILDREN IN
INDIA
SOS relies on the kindness and generosity of
Canadians to be able to provide a home for the most
vulnerable children of India.

For just $36/month you can sponsor a child in

India and help provide an orphaned or
abandoned child with:

• A safe and nurturing home

• A loving SOS mother
• Quality education
• Healthcare
• Nutritious food
• Clothing and toys
• All the things necessary for a bright futureIndia’s
homemakers being wooed by political
parties is path-breaking

The socio-political message of

parties promising cash value to homemakers
is a recognition of women’s work in a typical
male-dominated society
India’s homemakers have emerged as the
new electoral constituency for the ongoing
elections in five states.

Some months ago, cinestar Kamal Haasan —

who is about to debut his political outfit
Makkal Needhi Maiam in Tamil Nadu —
floated the idea of monetising the works of a
typical Indian homemaker. His party’s
manifesto, released in the last week of March,
has promised a monthly Rs 3,000 to
homemakers as “value rights assistance”.

All political parties, national and regional,

promised similar monetary assistance to
homemakers during the same period. Of late,
political parties have been offering specific
and tangible benefits in their manifestos
instead of articulating broad policy measures,
each targeting an electoral constituency.

Women in India have, for long, featured

prominently as one such electoral
constituency to be wooed by political parties.
This coincides with their rising turnout in
elections. In the 2014 general elections, only
six states saw more women vote than men.
This number increased to 16 in the 2019
general elections.

Many parties have women specific

manifestos. The list of electoral promises
(most of which do get fulfilled through a large
number of welfare schemes) is exhaustive —
it ranges from cash incentives for institutional
birth to monetary support for education and
marriage and even “gifting” household
appliances like grinders.
Such targeted support to homemakers serves
two purposes: First, it reiterates the
importance of women to a political party.
Second, monetising a homemaker’s works
add to the cash income of a family.

In a tightly contested constituency, any

additional promise may favour the electoral
fate of a party. But the focus on a
“homemaker”— out of the overall women of
the constituency — as an electoral priority is
not only surprising but also drives one deep
into the role of women in India’s electoral
politics.

Why are political parties specifically targeting

homemakers? Is there an immediate context
to this? Besides, why promise cash support to
this segment when general income support
schemes to households are already an oft-
repeated point in manifestos?

India has an estimated 160 million

homemakers. We know how big their
contribution is to managing a family. The
share of women in the overall workforce has
been dipping in India in recent years, more so
during the novel coronavirus disease
pandemic.

But consulting agency Deloitte says 95 per

cent of the country’s women are “employed” in
household chores as well as agricultural
works. Every day, each woman spends nearly
five hours on various household chores (in
comparison, men spend 30 minutes). These
works are neither paid for nor valued in
monetary terms.
The 2011 Census of India termed those
engaged in household works as “non-
workers”. There has been a global campaign
to fix a value for women’s unpaid works. The
Indian government, in fact, did a pilot study to
measure the value of homemakers’ works.
This is to recognise women’s contribution
which otherwise is ignored as ordinary jobs
reserved for women in a typical male-
dominated society.

Political parties promising cash value to

homemakers, thus, is a leap forward in this
deliberation. Its socio-political message is
wider, and to some extent, path-breaking. The
results of the state elections will answer
whether homemakers in the country bought
this electoral carrot.
Poverty in India Statistics 2021

• Post category:Uncategorized
India is one of the world’s fastest growing
major economy. According to International
Monetary Fund (IMF), at the growth rate of
11.5%, India is going to be the fastest growing
economy in 2021. The world’s only country to
register a double-digit growth in 2021. This
growth clearly indicates that poverty rate in
India is on the decline.
India is no longer the country with the most
extreme poverty, states the Brookings report. In
the global poverty ranking, India is sliding
down. As per the real time data from World
Poverty Clock, 6% of the Indian population are
living in extreme poverty and 30 Indians are
escaping extreme poverty every minute.

Indian government’s spending on rural welfare

schemes was helping in a big way to reduce
national poverty. By 2030, the target of
government is to eradicate extreme poverty for
all people everywhere, currently measured as
people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Measuring Poverty in India

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index –
India

The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index was

launched in 2010 by the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford
Poverty and Human Development Initiative
(OPHI). Each year, it measures the complexities
of poor people’s lives, individually and
collectively and focuses how the
multidimensional poverty has declined. India is
among the four countries to have halved their
MPI value. During the period from 2006 to
2016, India had the biggest reduction in the
number of multidimensionally poor people. 273
million of them moved out of this poverty in
over 10 years time.

The MPI is a measure of multidimensional

poverty covering more than 100 developing
countries. It tracks deprivation across three
dimensions and 10 indicators as indicted
below:
 • Education, where years of schooling
and child enrolment comes into effect
(1/6 weightage each, total 2/6);
• Health, the child mortality and
nutrition comes into this (1/6
weightage each, total 2/6);
• Standard of living, includes electricity,
flooring, drinking water, sanitation,
cooking fuel and assets
Global MPI 2020 Report indicates that India is
62nd among 107 countries with an MPI score of
0.123 and 27.9% population identified as multi-
dimensionally poor, the number was 36.8% for
rural and 9.2% for urban India. There were
wide variations across states.

Poverty Line in India

Official Release of Poverty Line Estimates
The Planning Commission used to release the
estimates of poverty as number of persons
below poverty line as a percentage of Indian
population. This was followed for the years
1973-74, 1977-78, 1983, 1987-88, 1993-94,
1999-2000, 2004- 05, 2009-10 and 2011-12.
For 2011-12, the Planning Commission released
poverty data in July 2013, based on the
Tendulkar poverty line.

Poverty Percentage in India

• According to Global MPI Reports 2019 and

2020, 21.9% of the population was poor
in the country or the number of poor was
pegged at 269.8 million
• According to World Poverty Clock in 2021,
roughly 6% or 86,799,498 (86.8 million)
of the population are living in poverty.
World Bank Poverty Line

The World Bank Poverty Line defines extreme

poverty as living on less than $1.90 a day,
measured in 2011 purchasing power parity
prices.
As an alternative way of measuring the poverty
of people, World Bank developed the ‘poverty
gap index’ that measures the intensity of
poverty, by calculating the amount of money
required by a household in order to reach the
poverty line. That means, it calculates the
income or consumption shortfall from the
poverty line.
International Poverty Line

According to the World Bank collection of

development indicators, the Poverty gap for
India is reported at 4.3% in 2011 down from
20% in 1977.

World Poverty Clock (WPC)

World Poverty Clock is a systematic analytical

framework to measure progress towards SDGs
by World Data Lab. It is a global model that
tracks real-time poverty estimates until 2030
for every country in the world. Here publicly
available data on income distribution,
production and consumption are used and they
bridge the common decade gaps between large-
scale surveys and censuses.
The percentage of the world’s population living
below the extreme poverty line has reduced
from 36% to 10% in 2015 for the last quarter
century according to World Poverty Clock. That
means a reduction from about 1.9 billion people
living in extreme poverty to about 736 million
in 2015.

Causes of Povertyin India

The main causes of poverty in India are due to

famines, malnutrition, illiteracy and
unemployment.

After the independence, the Indian government

initiated many welfare schemes like subsidizing
food through ration cards, increased access to
loans, promoting education, improving
agricultural methods and family planning.
These measures helped greatly to eradicate
poverty by eliminating famines, malnutrition,
illiteracy and unemployment.
A record decline in poverty by more than half is
only since 1991 after India’s rapid economic
growth.

Ministry of Rural Development’s programmes

like MNREGA, NRLM, PMAY, DDUGKY focused
on alleviating the poverty of Indian households.

India’s dominant economic growth over the last

30 years continued to pull millions of people
out of poverty. Obviously, due to the
unexpected impact of COVID-19, India will also
be experiencing a likely spike in its poverty
rate. Moving forward, the elimination of
poverty in India over the next decade is within
reach in spite of challenges ahead.
(Source: Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
(MPI)- UNDP,
International Monetary Fund,
World Poverty Clock,
Niti Aayog’s SDG India Index)

Disclaimer: The data research report we present

here is based on information found from various
sources on the internet. We are not liable for any
financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that
may result from the use of the information
herein. We acknowledge that though we try to
report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute
facts of everything that has been represented.
Poverty in India Statistics 2021

India is one of the world’s fastest growing

major economy. According to International
Monetary Fund (IMF), at the growth rate of
11.5%, India is going to be the fastest growing
economy in 2021. The world’s only country to
register a double-digit growth in 2021. This
growth clearly indicates that poverty rate in
India is on the decline.

Poverty in India
India is no longer the country with the most
extreme poverty, states the Brookings report. In
the global poverty ranking, India is sliding
down. As per the real time data from World
Poverty Clock, 6% of the Indian population are
living in extreme poverty and 30 Indians are
escaping extreme poverty every minute.

Indian government’s spending on rural welfare

schemes was helping in a big way to reduce
national poverty. By 2030, the target of
government is to eradicate extreme poverty for
all people everywhere, currently measured as
people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Measuring Poverty in India

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index –

India
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index was
launched in 2010 by the United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) and the Oxford
Poverty and Human Development Initiative
(OPHI). Each year, it measures the complexities
of poor people’s lives, individually and
collectively and focuses how the
multidimensional poverty has declined. India is
among the four countries to have halved their
MPI value. During the period from 2006 to
2016, India had the biggest reduction in the
number of multidimensionally poor people. 273
million of them moved out of this poverty in
over 10 years time.

The MPI is a measure of multidimensional

poverty covering more than 100 developing
countries. It tracks deprivation across three
dimensions and 10 indicators as indicted
below:

• Education, where years of schooling

and child enrolment comes into effect
(1/6 weightage each, total 2/6);
• Health, the child mortality and
nutrition comes into this (1/6
weightage each, total 2/6);
• Standard of living, includes electricity,
flooring, drinking water, sanitation,
cooking fuel and assets
Global MPI 2020 Report indicates that India is
62nd among 107 countries with an MPI score of
0.123 and 27.9% population identified as multi-
dimensionally poor, the number was 36.8% for
rural and 9.2% for urban India. There were
wide variations across states.
Poverty Line in India
Official Release of Poverty Line Estimates

The Planning Commission used to release the

estimates of poverty as number of persons
below poverty line as a percentage of Indian
population. This was followed for the years
1973-74, 1977-78, 1983, 1987-88, 1993-94,
1999-2000, 2004- 05, 2009-10 and 2011-12.
For 2011-12, the Planning Commission released
poverty data in July 2013, based on the
Tendulkar poverty line.
Poverty Percentage in India

• According to Global MPI Reports 2019 and

2020, 21.9% of the population was poor
in the country or the number of poor was
pegged at 269.8 million
• According to World Poverty Clock in 2021,
roughly 6% or 86,799,498 (86.8 million)
of the population are living in poverty.
Effects of Poverty in
Indian females
The main causes of poverty in India are due to
famines, malnutrition, illiteracy and
unemployment.
After the independence, the Indian government
initiated many welfare schemes like subsidizing
food through ration cards, increased access to
loans, promoting education, improving
agricultural methods and family planning.
These measures helped greatly to eradicate
poverty by eliminating famines, malnutrition,
illiteracy and unemployment.
A record decline in poverty by more than half is
only since 1991 after India’s rapid economic
growth.

Ministry of Rural Development’s programmes

like MNREGA, NRLM, PMAY, DDUGKY focused
on alleviating the poverty of Indian households.

India’s dominant economic growth over the last

30 years continued to pull millions of people
out of poverty. Obviously, due to the
unexpected impact of COVID-19, India will also
be experiencing a likely spike in its poverty
rate. Moving forward, the elimination of
poverty in India over the next decade is within
reach in spite of challenges ahead.
(Source: Global Multidimensional Poverty Index
(MPI)- UNDP,
International Monetary Fund,
World Poverty Clock,
Niti Aayog’s SDG India Index)

Disclaimer: The data research report we present

here is based on information found from various
sources on the internet. We are not liable for any
financial loss, errors, or damages of any kind that
may result from the use of the information
herein. We acknowledge that though we try to
report accurately, we cannot verify the absolute
facts of everything that
 Poverty Lines in India:
Estimations and Committees

• POVERTY LINES IN INDIA

• The poverty line defines a threshold
income. Households earning below
this threshold are considered poor.
Different countries have different
methods of defining the threshold
 income depending on local socio-
economic needs.
• Poverty is measured based on
consumer expenditure surveys of
the National Sample Survey
Organisation. A poor household is
defined as one with an expenditure
level below a specific poverty line.
• The erstwhile Planning Commission
was the nodal agency in the
Government of India for estimation
of poverty. It estimates the
incidence of poverty at the national
and state level separately in rural
and urban areas.
 • The incidence of poverty is
measured by the poverty ratio,
which is the ratio of number of poor
to the total population expressed as
a percentage. It is also known as
head-count ratio.

Time Line of Poverty Estimation in

India
The first Poverty line was created in
India by the Erstwhile Planning
Commission in the mid 1970s. It was
based on a minimum daily requirement
of 2400 and 2100 calories for an adult
in Rural and Urban area respectively.

YK Alagh Committee (1979):

• In 1979, a task force constituted by

the Planning Commission for the
purpose of poverty estimation,
chaired by YK Alagh, constructed a
poverty line for rural and urban
areas on the basis of nutritional
requirements.
 • Table 3 shows the nutritional
requirements and related
consumption expenditure based on
1973-74 price levels recommended
by the task force. Poverty
estimates for subsequent years
were to be calculated by adjusting
the price level for inflation.

Poverty Estimation Committees in

India

Tendulkar
Lakdawala Rangarajan
Committe
Committee Committee
e
The The The
committee Committee Committee
was was was
constituted constituted constituted
in the year in the year in the year
1993. 2004-05 2012.

The criteria The The

suggested committee Rangarajan
by the estimated Committee
committee poverty by goes back
was Calorie using to the idea
intake basic of
based on requireme Lakdawala
consumptio nt of the committee
n poor such method of
expenditure. as calculating
housing, Rural and
clothing, Urban
shelter, Poverty
education, Separately.
sanitation, The
travel Rangarajan
expense group took
and health the view
etc., to that the
make consumptio
poverty n basket
estimation should
realistic. contain a
The food
committee component
suggested that
to do away satisfied
with the certain
calorie- minimum
based nutrition
criteria. requirement

The s, as well as

committee consumptio
also n

suggested expenditure
to have a on essential
uniform non-food

poverty item groups

line across (education,
rural and clothing,
urban conveyance
India. and house
rent)
besides a
residual set
of
behaviourall
y
determined
non-food
expenditure.
 The C
Tendulkar Rangarajan
committee expert
stipulated group
The a report,
committee benchmar recommend
recommend k daily per ed a
ed for state- capita monthly per
specific expenditur capita
poverty e of RS 27 consumptio
lines. and RS 33 n
in rural expenditure
and urban of RS 972 in
areas, rural areas
respectivel and RS
y, and 1,407 in
arrived at urban areas
a cut-off of as the
about 22% poverty line
of the at the all-
population India level.
below Assuming
poverty five
line. members
for a family,
this will
imply a
monthly per
household
expenditure
of RS 4,860
in rural
areas and
RS 7,035 in
urban
areas.

The
Rangarajan
committee
estimated a
daily per
capita
expenditure
of RS 32
and RS 47,
 in rural and
urban areas
respectively
as the
poverty line,
and worked
out poverty
line at close
to 29.5%.

As per As per The

Ladkawala Tendulkar Rangarajan
committee report, the expert
the percentag group
percentage e of estimates
of people that 30.9
population living percent of
living below below the rural
poverty line poverty population
in the year line in the and 26.4
2004-05 year 2004- percent of
was: 05 were the urban

Rural: as follows: population

28.3% Rural:41.8 were below

the poverty
Urban: Urban:
line in 2011-
25.7% 25.7
12.
All India: Total 37.2
The all-India
27.5% In the year ratio was
2011-12,
 Rural:25.7 29.5

Urban: percent.

13.7

Total: 21.9

Conclusion
The project taught me a lot, at first I found the
dissertation topic so interesting and tried to work
as better as I could, When I went deep into this
topic and went to places where poor people live for
their whole life I found and felt the difficulties they
might be facing everyday ,,,it was really difficult for
me to spend a little bit of time ,and I could imagine
the tough life of those poor people there everyday.

Government is doing a lot for poverty eradication

but still there much mire has to be done in this field.

And what else has added to the difficulties they are

already facing is the pendamic that has worsen the
situation of poverty in India.