POVERTY

Poverty is the inability to fulfill the

basic requirements of life. The
minimum requirements include food,
clothing, housing, education and
health facilities.
Relative poverty : It refers to poverty
across different classes, regions or
countries. The country or class of
people whose level of living is low is
treated as poor or relatively poor in
comparison to the country or class of
people having high level of living.

Absolute poverty: In India, the concept

of poverty line is used as a measure of
absolute poverty. Poverty Line refers to
the cut-off point (in terms of per capita
expenditure) that divides peoples of a
region as poor and non-poor.
In India, persons who spend rupees
816 on consumption in rural areas and
rupees 1000 in urban areas per month
are treated as those below the poverty
line.

What is poverty line?

It refers to a cut of point which divides
people of a region as poor and non-
poor. Percentage of population below
poverty line is called ' headcount ratio'
or 'poverty incidence ratio'.
Fixation of calorie norms for the
rural and urban household

Average calorie requirement is

determined to be 2400 and 2100
respectively for the rural and urban
population. It is higher in the case of
rural population, because hard working
male population is found to be higher in
rural areas.
In 2011-12 their were 26.93 crore
people (21.9 percent of population)
living below the poverty line.
Rural poverty was 25.7 percent and
urban poverty was 13.7 percent in
2011-12
Causes of poverty
I) Low level of National Product
ii) Low rate of growth
iii) Heavy pressure of population
iv) Inflationary spiral
v) Chronic unemployment and
underemployment
vi) Capital deficiency
vii) Lack of able and efficient
entrepreneurs
viii) Outdated social institutions
ix) Lack of infrastructure
x) Due to unequal distribution of
income
 Measures to remove poverty
I) combating poverty through GDP
growth
ii) Combating poverty by improving the
distribution of income (through physical
and legislative measures)
iii) Combating poverty through
population control.
iv) By enhancing quality of life of the
poor.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment refers to a situation when
people are willing to work at the existing
wage rate ,and are able to work ,but are
not getting work.
Extent of Unemployment in India
It is very difficult to find out the exact number
of unemployed people in India. the estimates
made from time to time regarding
unemployment in the country are neither
accurate not reliable due to the various types
of unemployment, different concepts and non
availability of correct data. Though it is very
difficult to get a perfect estimation about the
extent of unemployment in India, various
attempts have been made from time to time
by individual researchers and other
organisations to estimate the extent of
unemployment in India.
According to NSSO estimate
1983 1993-94 1999-00 2004-05 2011-12 2018

Unemployment 9.22 6.06 7.31 8.28 5.6 6.9

rate
No. of 24.34 20.27 26.68 34.74 24.7 29.5
unemployed
 Nature of unemployment in India
(a) Rural unemployment : Unemployment
is more pronounced in the rural areas of
India. In rural areas seasonal unemployment
and disguised unemployment widely exist
several unemployment.

(i) Disguised unemployment: it occurs

when the number of workers engaged in a
job is much more than actually required to
accomplish it.
(ii)Seasonal unemployment: it occurs
simply because agriculture is a seasonal
occupation during off season often the farm
workers are out of job. They have no work to
do.
(b) Urban unemployment : urban
unemployment in India is also divided into
two groups.
(i) Educated unemployment : educated
unemployment refers to the unemployment
among the educated people which include
matriculates and higher educated. Some of
these people do not find any job.

(ii) Industrial Unemployment : It refers to the

unemployment among the illiterates who
wish to work in industries, mining, transport
,trade and construction activities but are not
getting jobs because of insufficient demand
for labour.
 Other types of unemployment

Visible underemployment: It is a situation

in which a worker does not get a full time
work although they are prepared to do full
time work.
Invisible underemployment: Those labours
are underemployed who get work but their
efficiency and capability are not utilised at
their optimum and as a result they contribute
in the production less than what they could.

Open unemployment: when people have to

live without any work and they don't find any
work to do they come under the category of
open unemployment.
 Causes of Unemployment in India

(i) high population growth

(ii) slow rate of growth
(iii) agriculture backwardness
(iv) low rate of capital formation
(v) backward technology
(vi) rapid growth of population
( vii) decay of cottage and small industries
(viii) low savings and investment
 Measures to reduce unemployment

(i) Shift to multiple cropping

(ii) Diversification of farming activities
(iii) Development of village and small
industries
(iv) Educational reforms
(v) Increase in productivity
(vi) Help to self employed persons
(vii) Technique of production
(viii) Importance to employment programmes
in plans
 POVERTY
ALLEVATION
PROGRAMMES
Measures adopted by the government to
remove poverty and unemployment
I) Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar
Yojana (SGSY) : To remove poverty
from the rural areas,' Swarnajayanti
Gram Swarozgar Yojana' was launched
in the villages in April 1999. under this
program a large number of small
enterprises were established in rural
areas. the small enterprises were
organised as individual enterprises as
well as on collective basis as self help
groups. in 2011-12 SGSY scheme was
restructured into National Rural
Livelihood Mission.
2) National Rural Livelihood Mission
(NRLM) : This scheme is also known
as 'Aajeevika'. In the first phase, this
scheme was implemented in 150
districts in the year 2012-13. the
scheme was expanded to another 150
districts by 2014-15 and by the end of
2016-17, this scheme was extended to
whole of the country. NRLM is
expected to provide self employment to
90 lakh persons. The program is now
renamed as Deendayal Antyodaya
Yojana.
3) Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar
Yojana (SGRY) : It was launched on
1st September 2001. Jawahar gram
samridhi Yojana and employment
assurance scheme were integrated into
a single Yojana. The main objective of
this Yojana are:
(I) to provide employment opportunity to
the surplus workers.
(ii) to focus on the development of
regional economic and social conditions.
(iii) to focus on the development of
infrastructure.
This Yojana has set a target of creating 100
crore men days for labour. However, it has
now been subsumed in MGNREGA.
4) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana: It
was launched in 2001. It aims at improving
the standard of living of the rural people by
developing five important areas health ,
primary education , drinking water, housing ,
roads.

5) Prime minister's rozgar Yojana (PMRY) :

The scheme is for providing employment to
educated unemployed. The scheme provides
a loan of up to rupees 1lakh for opening his
own enterprise and rupees 2 lakhs for other
activities.
6)Swarna jayanti shahari rozgar Yojana :
This Yojana was launched on December 1,
1997. Nehru rozgar Yojana and prime
minister's integrated urban poverty
eradication programme has been merged
with us Yojana. The objective of this Yojana
is to provide self employment or wage
employment to urban unemployed or
underemployed persons. It includes the
following two programmes:
I) urban self employment programme
(USEP),
ii) urban wage employment programme
( UWEP).
7) Development of small and cottage
industries: Special measures have been
taken by the government to develop small
and cottage industries with a view to
removing poverty and unemployment
through the spread of cottage and small
scale industries.

8) Minimum needs programme: To raise

the standard of living of the poor, minimum
needs programme was launched during the
fifth plan. the program covers primary
education, adult education ,Rural health,
rural water supply, rural roads, rural
electrification, rural housing and ecological
improvement of the urban slums. This is
expected to improve the quality of life of poor
section of the society.
9) Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
employment guarantee act (MGNREGA) :
This act was launched on February 2, 2006.
Under this act, all those who are willing to
undertake unskilled manual work at the
minimum wage are offered employment for a
minimum period of 100 days. Those seeking
employment are to report in those rural areas
where the employment program e is being
launched. This program is becoming
extremely popular in the rural areas.
According to one estimate, the total number
of individuals who have benefited from this
program has risen from 6.22 crore in 2014-
15 to 7.77 crore in 2018-19.
10) Micro units development refinance
agency Bank (Mudra Bank) : The
government has set up Mudra Bank in April
2015. Its objective is to meet credit needs of
micro enterprises and self employed
persons. Under Mudra Yojana micro
enterprise is entitled for loan upto rupees 10
lakhs per unit.
 A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF PAP’s
PAPs have failed to deliver the desired
results. Causes are:
(i) The administration and concerned staff
were inefficient and could not work
effectively because of complex processes
involved. Also there was no one to
monitor the follow up action.

(ii) Those in charge of the programs

favoured the educated, rich and
resourceful person as against the poor.
(iii) Remote areas and poor households
located in the interiors of the villagers
were neglected, owing to the constraints
of accessibility.

(iv) Institutions that were needed to

provide facilities like credit, marketing
etc. , were not very supportive.

(v) Power groups in the villages started

exercising control over the delivery
mechanism of the PAPs. As a result, there
was a large scale leakage in the delivery
package and the poor received only a
fragment of the aid earmarked for them.
(vii) The PAPs were largely Government
sponsored programs and the lacked the
participation of the people.

(viii) The strategy of PAPs was not linked

with the overall development strategy and
did nothing to modify the overall
functioning of the economy, which is the
root cause of poverty.

There is an urgent need to make PAPs

more effective and meaningful.