Poverty of India - Economics, UPSC, IAS. | Indian Economy (Prelims) by Shahid Ali PDF Download

Poverty of India

Poverty of India

• Poverty is a social phenomenon in which a section of society is unable to fulfill even its basic necessities of life.
• Poverty in India is widespread, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. In 2010, Bank stated, 32.7% of the total Indian people fall below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day (PPP) while 68.7% live on less than US$ 2 per day.
• According to 2010 data from the United Nations Development Programme, an estimated 37.2% of Indians live below the country's national poverty line.
  Several economists and organisations have given different estimates of poverty. Most of them estimated the number of persons below poverty line on the basis of an average calories intake of 2550 calories per day.
• According to the report of Task Force on Minimum Needs and Effective Consumption Demand – an expert group of Planning Commission, defined poverty one on a nutritional norm of per capita daily intake of 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories for urban areas.
• A person who fails to obtain this minimum level of calories is treated as being below the poverty line.
• The identification process of persons below die poverty line has been put to a controversy for the last few years. Planning Commission adopted the survey of NSSO as a basis for defining poverty line and determining the number of persons below it.
• On the basis of these criteria, Planning Commission estimated 28.96% of total population below poverty line for the year 1993 – 1994.
• The expert group under the chairmanship of Professor DT Lakadawala (appointed by Planning Commission which submitted the report in July, 1993) found earlier estimates of poverty unreliable and suggested an alternate approach for identifying poor in which different poverty line was determined for different states on the basis of price level of that particular state.
• Lakadawala expert group suggested that it will be most suitable to rely on the disaggregated commodity indices for Consumer Price Index for Agricultural labourers (CPIAL) to update the rural poverty line and a simple average of suitably weighted commodity indices of Consumer. Price Index for Industrial Worker (CPIIW) for updating urban poverty line. Adopting this approach the expert group suggested 32 different poverty lines for all different states.

Latest Poverty Trends in India

• Presently, 28% Indians are living Below Poverty Line (BPL). The survey to measure this is conducted by National Sample Survey (NSS) Organization.
• NSS determines poverty line using the mixed recall period method in which consumer spending for five items such as clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical expenses are collected from a 365 day period.
• Orissa is the poorest state with 39.9% people living below povert line. It is followed by Jharkhand, Bihar and MR Poverty is lowest in Chandigarh (3.8%), Jammu and Kashmir (4.%) and Punjab (5.%).

Poverty : Rural and Urban

1. Rural Poverty in India

• Main Reasons

1. Rapid Population Growth
2. Lack of Capital
3. Lack of Alternate Employment Opportunities Other than Agriculture
4. Excessive Population Pressure on Agriculture
5. Illiteracy
6. Regional Disparities
7. Joint Family System
8. Child Marriage Tradition
9. Indifferent attitude towards Investment
10. Lack of proper implementation of Public Distribution System

Government Efforts

• Legal Elimination of Bonded Laborers
• Preventing the Centralization of Wealth by modifying the Law
• Antyodaya Plan
• Small Farmer Development Program (SFDP)
• Drought Area Development Program (DFDP)
• Twenty Point Program
• Food for Work Program
• Minimum needs Program (MNP)
• Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)
• National Rural Employment Program (NREP)
• Rural Labor Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP)
• Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojana (JGSY) (Formerly known as Jawahar Rozgar Yojana)
• TRYSEM Scheme
• Family Planning / Welfare Program for Population Control
• Employment Assurance Scheme
• Scheme for Rural Artisans / Craftsmen
• DWCRA Program
• Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
• Mahila Samriddhi Yojana
• National Social Assistance Program (NSAP)
• Group Life Insurance Scheme for Rural Areas
• Rural Housing Program
• Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY)
• Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
• Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana
• Indira Awaas Yojana
• Samagra Awaas Yojana
• Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana
• Agriculture Income Insurance Scheme
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme

II. Urban Poverty India 

• Migration of Rural Youth towards Cities
• Lack of Vocational Education / Training
• Limited Job Opportunities of Employment in the Cities
• Rapid increase in Population
• Lack of Housing Facilities
• No proper Implementation of Public Distribution System

Government Efforts

• Emphasis on Vocational Education
• Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY)
• Self – Employment Program for the Urban Poor (SEPUP)
• Financial assistance for Constructing Houses
• Self – Employment to the Educated Urban Youth (SEEUY) Program
• Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (Also implemented in rural areas)
• National Social Assistance Program
• Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP) Program
• Prime Minister’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Program (PMIUPEP)
• Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana

POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN INDIA

Overview

1. Poverty is widespread in India.
2. India has about 33% of the world’s poor 
3. 42% of India’s population falls below the poverty line (BPL) of $1.25 per day, having reduced from 60% in 1980
4. Over the past decades the Government has initiated multiple poverty alleviation programmes that have helped substantially reduce poverty, prevent famines and increase literacy in the country

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) 

1. Launched 2006
2. The NREGA aims at two objectives: employment and rural development
3. Provides a legal guarantee for employment of 100 days every year to adult members of rural households, who are willing to do unskilled manual labour for public works
4. Provides statutory minimum wage of Rs 60 per day 
5. Applies to all rural households, whether or not they are BPL
6. The NREGA stipulates that works must be targeted towards a specific set of rural development activates like water conservation, afforestation, flood control, etc

Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) 

1. Launched in 1978
2. Aims to provide self employment in various activities in primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the economy. Supported activities include sericulture, animal husbandry, weaving, handicrafts, services, businesses etc
3. Merged with the Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana in 1999

Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana 

1. Introduced 1993
2. Aims to provide self employment for educated unemployed youth by setting up microenterprises
3. Under the scheme, every selected educated unemployed youth 18-35 years old and having family income below Rs 24,000 is given loan up to Rs 1 lakh for opening his own enterprises

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarjgar Yojana (SGSY) 

1. Launched 1991
2. The SGSY is a self employment programme that focuses on poverty alleviation 
3. Promotes self help groups, development of micro enterprises by providing bank credit and government subsidy
4. Includes 50% benefit to SC/ST, 40% for women and 3% for disabled

Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY) 

1. Launched 2001
2. Provides wage employment in rural areas, thereby ensuring food security, creation of durable community, social and economic infrastructure
3. Implementation through Panchayati Raj system

Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) 

1. Launched 1997
2. Aims to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed poor through encouraging the setting up self employment ventures or provision of wage employment 
3. Contains two special schemes
4. The Urban Self Employment Programme
5. Urban Wage Employment Programme
6. SJSRY is a merged programme consisting of erstwhile schemes like Urban Basic Services, Nehru Rozgar Yojana, and PM’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme
7. Provides reservations for women (30%), disabled (3%) and SC/ST on the strength of local population

Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) 

1. Launched 1996
2. The IAY is a scheme that provides for construction of houses and money to be given to poor