Poverty And Developmental Issues – General Studies Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.

One of the sarcasm of technical developing world is the poverty which remains prevalent and uncontrolled. Poverty is old age observable fact suffered by countries at global scale. It is a very indistinct concept with varied implications and facades. Bhalla Surjit stated “there is a rich history of formal definitions of poverty, going back to the mid nineteenth century. It is an attempt to capture the bottom-half of the population, the have-nots, and the poor (2000:1). Traditionally, poverty is defined in terms of one dimensional approach of income and food intake capabilities. Dandekar and Rath determined the minimum acceptable income level in terms of ‘nutritional deficiency’ (1971). The concept of poverty thus goes beyond income and basic services. People who are under empowered, who are unable to participate in making the decisions, who are deprived of elementary education, health care, nutrition, water and sanitation, employment and wages and who pass many different inabilities and adversities like inequality of asset, unequal distribution, ignorance, corruption, lack of political power, lack of political will, natural calamities, inadequate governance, lack of opportunities of development, inappropriate public policies and programmes, lack of access to entitlements and many hurdles in the wellbeing of human beings are included in the group of poor.Continue Reading Poverty And Developmental Issues – General Studies Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.

Poverty: International Concerns

Poverty is not limited to national boundaries. It is a worldwide concern for policy makers and researchers. It is very difficult to measure and assess the world poverty. “For the purposes of measuring poverty in the world as a whole, the World Bank’s “$1 a day” measures have aimed to apply a common standard, anchored to what “poverty” means in the world’s poorest countries” (Chen, Shaohua and Ravallion Martin:2008:2). Today, all over world, billions of people go hungry. Everyday millions of people experience extreme forms of deprivation that inflict suffering and reduce or terminate their future prospects of having a good life and being productive. Early generations of human beings claim that global poverty was inevitable because there were not enough resources nor technology to transform resources to meet the needs of all people internationally. But presently, world has resources and advanced technology to offer basic services like primary education, health services, finance services. Main cause of increasing poverty at global level is that world is organized in such a way that billions of people do not have access to these advanced technology and resources. Tough leaders and powerful people promised that they will reduce the poverty but it still persists among populace (Hulme, 2010). In the least developed countries such as Africa, both the income and non-income aspect poverty is prevalent due to problem stretching from corrupt governance and mishandling, poor economic growth, unemployment and underemployment, lack of access to social services, low level of investment, high degree of indebtness.

South Asia also has huge population in poverty group. While the incidence of poverty as defined by head-count ratio has shown some decline in all South Asian countries over the years, large proportion of the population in all the countries still live in poverty. In spite of a reasonable growth in current period, per capita GNP (with Purchasing Power Parity or PPP) of all countries and for the region as a whole remains low and in a small fraction of that of middle-income countries (Poverty and Vulnerability in South Asia, The World Bank, June 2002).

Poverty in India

India is a developing country and it is apparent that poverty is widespread and is a matter of serious concern for policy analysts and academic scholars because of its scope and intensity. The prime objective of a country’s policy and planning is to increase the standard of living and improve the productive capabilities of its people. As population of India is exploding year by year, this challenge is particularly intimidating for nation. When reviewing the past record of poverty, it is said that from 1951 to 1974, India’s first quarter-century of independence, the percentage of its population living in poverty rose from 47 to 56 percent. During the next quarter-century, that rate fell suddenly, and reached to 26 percent by 1999–2000. Between 1974 and 1999-2000, the poverty rate dropped by 53%, exceeding the millennium development goal of a 50% reduction over a 25-year period. The number of poor people rose gradually from 171 million in 1951 to a 321 million in 1974, before falling to 260 million in 1999-2000. (Fox James W.:2002)

Many surveys and Economic reports after 1970s demonstrated that there is continuous decline in rural poverty from 55 percent in the early 70s to less than 35 percent by the late 80s.Various program conducted by government such as Green revolution, poverty reduction programmes, political will and better policy framing along with many other factors assisted in deceasing poverty. Jayaraman and Lanjouw (1999: 1-30) stated that, despite decline in poverty rate there is considerable movement in and out of poverty. Some of this movement can be accredited to the year-to-year fluctuations in harvest quality, and can also be associated with momentary factors such as illness. Reports indicated that India still is a country with huge people living in poverty line and it has a third rank of the world’s poor. World Bank report of 2015 estimates, 42% of India’s population falls below the international poverty line of $1.25 a day; having reduced from 60% in 1980. According to the principle used by the Planning Commission of India, 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2015, reduced down from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and 36% in 1993-1994. The planning commission report estimated BPL population to 27.5% in 2004. The URP-consumption distribution data of the NSS 61st Round signified that a poverty ratio was 28.3 percent in the rural areas, 25.7 percent in the urban areas and 27.5 percent for the country as a whole in 2004-05 (Government of India Press Information Bureau (2007:2): Poverty Estimates for 2004-05 New Delhi). Poverty in rural India has dropped considerably in current period.

According to Fan Shenggen, Hazell Peter, Thorat Sukhadeo ( 2000:1038 ), “the percentage of the rural population living below the poverty line fluctuated between 50 and 65% prior to the mid-1960s, but then declined steadily to about one-third of the rural population by the early 1990s.” The occurrence of poverty hit rural as well as urban areas. But nature, extent and conditions of poverty in rural and urban areas are dissimilar in many ways. The urban and rural poor have differential access to physical, financial assets and many other services as well as infrastructural and human capabilities. Rahman, M. A. (1981:3) described the rural poverty as that section of the rural population whose basic minimum needs for life and existence with human dignity are unfulfilled. Such condition of poverty is considered by low income, generally related with various forms of subjugation under social structure through which overriding social groups dictate their terms.

At the regional level, the marginality of central and eastern India is explained largely by adverse agrarian relations. Poverty has persisted in these areas though there are good endowment of natural resources and a relatively strong focus of Indian development planning on “backward areas”. It was estimated in previous reports that more than seventy per cent of India’s poor population reside in six states that include Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. In four of these states, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, and Assam there is high levels of poverty (Mehta and Shah 2003).

The Planning Commission of India occasionally estimates poverty lines and poverty ratios for each year for which Large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure have been conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. According to the survey conducted in 2011-2012, the percentage of persons below the Poverty Line in India for the year 2011-12 has been estimated as 25.7% in rural areas, 13.7% in urban areas and 21.9% for the country as a whole. The corresponding ratios for the rural and urban areas were 41.8% and 25.7% and 37.2% for the country as a whole in 2004-05. It was 50.1% in rural areas, 31.8% in urban areas and 45.3% for the country as a whole in 1993-94. In the year of 2011-12, India had 270 million persons below the Tendulkar Poverty Line as compared to 407 million in 2004-05, that is a reduction of 137 million persons over the seven year period.

It is clear from various surveys and poverty reports that Most of the rural population in India and in other developing countries is living in deprived way because they do not own assets like land, they work as agricultural labourers, get insufficient and insecure employment and less salary. Degrees of inaccessibility, development stage of the region, low level of social capital are major correlative aspects that causes rural poverty. Though small farmers having some access to land, but they are dependent on unpredictable natural conditions, markets and chances of income generation. Poverty in rural India also has dimensions of caste, ethnicity and gender. Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes of India’s rural areas are the poorest people that constitute about 40 to 50 percent of its population.

When assessing the urban poverty in India, it is also a major worry for policy makers and researchers as number of poor is increasing due to fast urbanization. The Urban Poverty Report 2009 has shown that India has entered the Eleventh Plan period with an impressive record of economic growth. However, the incidence of decline of urban poverty has not augmented with GDP growth. In fact, urban poverty will become a major challenge for politicians in India as the urban population is growing which leads to urban poverty. The poverty rates as estimated in, “the MRP-consumption distribution data of the 61st Round are 21.8 percent in the rural areas, 21.7 percent in the urban areas and 21.8 percent for the country as a whole” (Poverty Estimates For 2004-05 2007:2).

There have numerous efforts been made by government to alleviate poverty. Poverty is inter-related to other problems of underdevelopment. In rural and urban societies, the nature of poverty can be very different. In urban areas, people often have access to health and education but more the problems faced by people due to poverty like overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, pollution, insecure houses. When appraising the factors lead to rural poverty, it is found that there is often less access to education, health and many other services but people usually live in healthier and safer environments. Since the mitigation of poverty is major aim of development work, it is necessary to understand the way to measure poverty. Development means that there has been some improvement and improvements must be measurable. Government expenditure in India is divided into non-development and development spending, and the latter is further subdivided into spending on social and economic services. Social services include health, labour, social welfare and other community services, while economic services include such sectors as agriculture, industry, trade and transportation.

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