Poverty
The
ultimate objective of development planning is human development. Increased
social welfare of the people requires a more equitable distribution of
development benefits along with better living environment. Development process
needs to continuously strive for broad- based improvement in the standard of
living and quality of life of the people through an inclusive development
strategy that focuses on both income and non income dimension. The development
of human resources contributes to sustained growth and productive employment.
The
biggest challenge to develop planning in India is posted by the problems of
poverty, inequality and unemployment. The poor are those who live below the
poverty line. The poverty line is defined in terms of per capita household
expenditure. Poverty manifests itself in the form of both absolute poverty as
well as relative poverty.
Absolute Poverty: - when people do not have enough money to meet the basic
threshold to buy food, shelter, clothing etc that is needed for survival, it is
known as Relative poverty. It is also defined in terms of insufficiency of
basic needs. In India, these basic needs are measured in terms of calorie
intake of 2400 in rural areas per person per day and 2100 in urban areas.
Relative Poverty: this concept is related to the general standard of
living in a society when people are poor in comparison to other around them,
but may still have enough money to survive. Relative poverty relates to
inequalities in a society. India is characterized by both in extreme measures
i.e. absolute and relative poverty.
Poverty and inclusive Growth
The
Human Development Report 2010 measures poverty in terms of a new parameter,
namely multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which replaced the human poverty
index (HPI) used since 1997. The MPI indicates the share of the population that
is multi- dimensionally poorly adjusted by the intensity of deprivation in
terms of living standards, health and education. The differences in population
below poverty line (BPL) widens substantially in case of india when this
indicator is used instead of the national poverty line indicator while for
other countries, there is less difference and in some cases even a fail.
A
very significant development on poverty- estimation front in India has been the
role of the Supreme Court which directed the Union government to clear the mess
surrounding the issue of identification of the poor.. in response to this
directive, the planning Commission has come out with revised monthly
expenditure data to define the poor in urban and rural areas. In its affidavit
to the Supreme Court in September 2011, the Planning Commission has stated that
anyone with a monthly expenditure below Rs. 965 in urban areas and Rs. 25 a day
in rural areas. The above numbers are an improvement over Tendulakar Committee
members of Rs. 579 per month in urban areas and Rs. 447 per month in rural
areas (at 2004-05 prices). The revised figures set a shamefully low bar for
determining poverty and make a mockery of the whole exercise.
Cause
of Poverty: the extent of poverty in an economy is due to a wide range of
factors as follow:
(i)
Underdeveloped nature of economy.
(ii)
Rapid growth of population in an overpopulated country; even if the national
income increases, the per capita income remains the same due to increase in
population.
(iii)
Large inequalities in the ownership of earning assets such as land, buildings,
industry etc.
(iv)
Low level of productivity in agriculture and industry.
(v)
Large scale unemployment and under- employment.
(vi)
Inequality of opportunity in acquiring education and skills.
(vii)
State Policy.
(viii)
Regional disparities.
The
main determinants of poverty in a country like India are generally reflected in
terms of:
(i)
Lack of income due to a lack of productive employment and under- employment.
(ii)
Increasing prices of food grains which constitute the major item in the
consumption basket.
(iii)
Inadequate social infrastructure affecting the quality of life of the people
and their ability to take up gainful employment.
Among
various factors contributing to poverty alleviation, economic growth in terms
of its trickledown effect has always been regarded as an important factor.
However, it is not economic growth but also the sectoral composition of growth.
If growth is concentrated more in agriculture and rural sectors, it may lead to
much large alleviation of poverty in India than if it is concentrated say, in
large scale industries. Similarly, factors like physical and social infrastructure,
focus on increasing productivity of small farmers, generation of employment
opportunities, control of population, expenditure on human development etc.
help alleviate poverty to a large extent. The main focus of poverty to a large
extent. The main focus of poverty alleviation in the first two decades of
Planning was on achieving a high rate of growth of GDP. It was assumed that a
high rate of growth would bring about what was known as the trickledown effect
and thereby take care of the trickledown effect and thereby take care of the
poor and the downtrodden. However, by early 1970s it became clear that
trickledown effect had not taken place and poverty alleviation would require
redistribution policies. Hence, from mid 70’s anti- poverty strategy has
focused on direct attack on poverty in the form of special Poverty Alleviation
and Employment generation Programmes.
Anti-poverty
strategy has three broad components-
Promotion
of economic growth.
Promotion
of human development and target programs of poverty alleviation.
Employment
generation to address multi-dimensional nature of poverty.
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