Poverty Line and Vulnerable Groups Video Lecture - Class 9

the government has launched several
welfare schemes for the poor to ensure
that these benefits reach the correct
people it is important to have a way to
identify them the poverty line is a
commonly used way to identify the poor
it is a measure based on levels on
income and consumption by people
the concept of poverty line is based on
the fact that a person must have a
minimum level of income and consumption
to satisfy the basic needs of food
clothing clean water education and
healthcare when the income or
consumption of a person falls below this
minimum level the person is considered
to be poor
poverty exists in all countries of the
world however the minimum levels of
requirement to determine the poverty
line are different in different
countries
while in the rich developed nations
a person may be considered poor for not
owning a vehicle or a house in the
developing nations not being able to buy
two meals a day may be the criterion for
poverty
in India the determination
the poverty line takes into
consideration the minimum requirements
of food clothing footwear fuel power
education and healthcare for the
subsistence of an individual
food consists of many different types of
items so how does one decide what is the
minimum requirement of food
this is done by taking the minimum
calorie requirement into consideration
in India the minimum daily requirement
is fixed at 2400 calories per person in
rural areas and 2,100 calories per
person in urban areas
the difference in the daily calorie
requirement in rural and urban areas is
because people in rural areas do more
physical labor and therefore need more
calories the cost of each item in the
minimum requirements of food
clothing footwear fuel power education
and healthcare is added up to find the
minimum income required for a person to
survive
in the year 2000 the monthly poverty
line income was fixed at 328 rupees per
person in rural areas and 454 rupees per
person in urban areas
note that though the calorie requirement
for the people in rural areas is more
their poverty line income is less than
the people in urban areas
this is because things are usually less
expensive in villages than in big towns
and cities
also note that the
Deline income is fixed on a per person
basis
thus to find the poverty line for a
family this monthly income is multiplied
by the number of members in the family
the poverty line is revised periodically
to accommodate rising prices and the
changing requirements of people this
work is done through nationwide surveys
conducted by the National Sample Survey
organization
poverty line income is different in
different countries
however to draw comparisons between
nations the World Bank uses the standard
poverty line income of one u.s. dollar
per person per day in all the developing
countries the graph here shows the
change in the percentage of population
living under the poverty line in India
from 1973 to 2000
the percentages have come down yet the
percentage of poor in rural areas
continues to be higher than in urban
areas
here's another graph that shows the
number of poor people living under the
poverty line in India for the period
1973 to 2000
observe that though the combined poverty
ratio came down from 54.9 to 36% between
1973 and 1994
the total number of poor people in India
remained almost unchanged
this is due to the poor economic growth
in addition to the rise in India's
population during the period
some groups and communities are more
vulnerable to poverty than others some
of the group's most vulnerable to
poverty are people belonging to the
Scheduled Castes and tribes casual
laborers in urban areas and landless
farm laborers in rural areas
the graph here shows that 51 people out
of every 100 people belonging to the
sheduled tribes lived below the poverty
line
similarly fifty out of every 100 casual
laborers in urban areas are poor this
figure is 47 and 43 for farm laborers
and people belonging to the Scheduled
Castes respectively all these figures
are much higher than the national
average
we're 26 out of every 100 people live
below the poverty line
the situation is worse for people
belonging to more than one of these most
vulnerable groups
for example a landless farm labourer who
belongs to a sheduled tribe is usually
poorer than other farm laborers
belonging to higher castes
the sheduled tribes continue to be the
most vulnerable group as studies show no
decline in the poverty of these people
the other three groups however have
shown some decline in poverty in the
last decade
even within a family some people are
more vulnerable and suffer more than the
others due to poverty
these include the elderly women and
children especially girls children these
people received the least amount of care
and share in the limited resources of
the family one of the biggest social
evils associated with poverty is
negligence towards the girl child
girls are often considered a liability
and are not given the same nourishment
or opportunities for education as the
boys