Poverty In India Essay

Introduction
Poverty in India is one of the main issues, attracting the attention of sociologists and economists. It
indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for a comfortable
lifestyle.
Though India boasts of a high economic growth, it is shameful that there is still large scale poverty
in India. Poverty in India can be defined as a situation when a certain section of people are unable to
fulfill their basic needs. India has the world's largest number of poor people living in a single
country. Out of its total population of more than 1 billion, 350 to 400 million people are living
below the poverty line. Nearly 75% of the poor people are in rural areas, most of them are daily
wagers, landless...show more content...
NREGA is designed as a safety net to reduce migration by rural poor households in the lean period
through a hundred days of guaranteed unskilled manual labour provided when demanded at
minimum wage on works focused on water conservation, land development & drought proofing.
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, (NREGA) was notified on September 7, 2005.
Implemented by the Ministry of
Get more content on HelpWriting.net

"Poverty and hunger in India: A socio–economic analysis of policies of the government(s)"
Meril Mathew Joy
2009/BALLB/028
IIIrd Semester
____________________________________________________________
INTRODUCTION OF POVERTY AND HUNGER
"Poverty"has reduced but still remains a major concern for Nation. Poverty is not only the scarcity of
resources, but is set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. "Hunger" and
"Poverty" are powerful but familiar terms. Everyone knows what they mean, yet, they evoke
different descriptions for everyone. Even major international organizations mandated to alleviate
hunger and poverty use a variety of interpretations. The Hunger Project board member Mohini Giri
said, "To me, hunger is rape,...show more content...
Since 1950s, Indian government has introduced various planning schemes to help the poor attain
self sufficiency in at least the case of food. The most important initiative that has been taken was the
supply of basic commodities, particularly food. Modern day society comprises two general classes:–
1. Those that have more food than appetite.
2. Those that have more appetite than food.
People falling under the second category are hungry people & remain hungry. Generally, the
word "Hunger" has three meanings according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Food is like a
moral right of all who are born into this world. Poverty is the principal cause of hunger. The hunger,
about which we are talking here, is the scarcity of food in a country. If hunger is to be eliminated,
poverty has to be dealt with simultaneously. The causes of poverty include poor people's lack of
resources, an extremely unequal income distribution and conflict between specific countries and
obviously, hunger itself. Hunger is primarily a problem of general poverty, and thus overall
economic growth and its distributional pattern cannot but be important in solving the hunger
problem. It is particularly critical to pay attention to employment opportunities, other ways of
acquiring economic means, and also food prices, which influence people's ability to

India A Developing Country
India is a developing country. The factors hindering development of the country are many. Some of
them can be attributed to the low per capita income and larger chunk of the population living under
the poverty line. India is a country with poor people but with rich natural resources. It can be said
that the country's potential is either the human resource or the natural resources are not adequately
utilized to the maximum extent and that resulted in low per capita income. India is an agrarian
economy. The economy is marred with unemployment and under employment. Since the economy is
basically agrarian, disguised unemployment is also rampant among the farmer community. Apart
from the reasons mentioned, the money market as well as capital market witnessed the presence of
private moneylenders, landlords etc. They have acted as bankers for centuries and have amassed
major wealth from people of India that adversely affected capital formation. The need for a better
financial institution and credit infrastructure was thus felt necessary by the planning commission
when the five–year plans were initiated. An efficient banking system and well functioning capital
market, capable of mobilizing the savings &channeling them to productive uses, are essential if the
efforts at economic restructuring are to succeed. While both the banking systems and capital markets
have shown impressive growth in the volume of operations. Unless major reforms were initiated it
was difficult to

Poverty and Underdevelopment of India
Health– education linkages inequality in distribution of stock of human capital means
underinvestment on the one hand and mal–investment on the other, as total and per capita stocks of
human capital figures in women and backward castes indicate. Perhaps, the main reason lies in the
failure of human investment revolution in economic thought to really revolutionize common
thinking. individuals as well as state policy makers still perceive education expenditure as
'consumption' and as a burden on the state which reduces public savings. it is misleading to treat
public expenditures of backward castes and women as 'welfare' but must be treated as 'capital
formation'.
Poverty and underdevelopment of India does not permit adequate investment in general, including
education. From the private angle, weaker sections who should invest more in education have their
present consumption needs focusing on survival where education is perceived as luxury. Even if
people took loans, they prefer investment in more tangible and resale able assets which yield higher
ROR in short gestation periods to investment in human capital. The state is constrained by its
available resources and by its welfare expenditure approach to education. Further, the capital market
is too poorly organized to provide funds for investment in education. Thus to bring equity in
distribution of human capital between different groups serious efforts have to be made towards
reducing discrimination in schooling, improving

Ethical Issues On India And Poverty
Poverty is a major global problem, with over 4 billion people currently living in it. The poverty
level is set at people living on $2 a day. Yet, like most people, they too need to buy the essentials
and other items for daily uses. Companies realize that there is a market out there for these
impoverished people. Some of them might take advantage of them, and some have a little humanity
in them. There are several ethical ways to target them without putting a hefty price on their budget
and at the same time, companies can make a profit on these products. Hammond's and Prahalad's
article "Selling to the Poor" clearly defines that people in poverty are just as capable of conducting
business as anyone else in their respective sectors. It is just that they do not have access to
technology and information. In the beginning of the article it states that Indian farmers use
"e–Choupals", computers connected to the internet in rural India created by the company ITC, to
track market prices and futures on soy crops. They used to technology to avoid paying a
middle–man in local auction markets and were able to make $6 more per ton on their crops. The
internet is allowing them to increase their productivity and benefit both parties. India and China
are two examples of developing countries that have most of their population in poverty: 171
million households in India, 286 million households in China, but with the same access as
everyone else, they can earn a decent living. Combine the annual income of the two, and it
reaches over $1 trillion. It is up to the private sector to tap into this market. However, traditional
methods will not work. Hammond and Prahalad point out how three examples of different items:
cell phones, table salt, and cosmetics, have changed a company's business process and marketing
strategy to accommodate the needs and the budgets of the lower class. The major trend to market
cell phones in the poorer countries is to sell more prepaid phone cards, as people pay from them as
needed instead of paying a monthly plan, which could overwhelm some people's budgets. In India,
iodine salt is an important nutritional supplement, yet only four out of 10 households use it due to a
large portion of the salt

Causes Of Poverty In India
Nelson Mandela once said, "As long, as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our
world, none of us can truly rest." In today's world, poverty is a big issue which needs to be solved
for the world to function properly. A country which faces extreme poverty is India, with over 194
million people facing it. India is a beautiful country known for its rich culture, having the third
largest ocean, and the world's tallest mountain called the Himalayas. India faces poverty due to social
issues, demographic factors, and economic constraints of the country.
To start off, the main reason why India faces a lot of poverty is due to discrimination among different
groups. People in India get discriminated by their caste. The caste–based segregation system was
developed back in the days by the Hindu religion. The caste–based system has four levels. Which
consist of the Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudras. In the hierarchy, the Brahman are ranked
first, which consists priest and teachers. After, Kshatriya falls under, this consists warriors or rulers.
Then, Vaishya comes third which is made up of farmers, traders, and merchants. Lastly, Shudras fall
under which consists of laborers. The caste–based system dictates Hindu religion and people's social
life for many centuries. The main problem with this is the people who were ranked low from the
caste system would never get the opportunity to change their fate and climb a higher mountain. In
today's generation, it's still

Poverty in India Essay
Poverty has been a serious and a long–lasting issue in India. India is set to become a global
economic power in decades to come. The hype of this booming economy causes great
socio–economic concerns for this country and is being ignored by the government. This paper will
argue the recent rapid increases in population, growth of cities, the burgeoning economy and
government corruption in India. These factors all combine to create growing inequities in the
provision of the basic needs of society; food, water, shelter, health care and education result in an
increased gap between rich and poor in the country. Poverty is a condition in which a person fails to
maintain a standard living adequate for a comfortable lifestyle. India has the...show more content...
Inflation plays a major role towards the economy of the nation. These concerns raise problems
within the Indian democracy that have always been challenged by market prices. In addition, it
poses serious threats to welfare of the population and for those living below the poverty line. The
education sector of India has been atrociously affected by inflation rates as they play an important
factor for ones' financial educational plans. There are two expectations among the workforce state
of education, the amount of workers in India unable to graduate with college degrees hence
creating a decline in the number of workers with specialized and technical skills. Secondly, the
ones graduated seek employment outside of the country. (Nesmith, K. 2005) India will overtake
China for the most populated country title in a couple of decades. A boost in the nation's
population increases burden on natural resources like land and shelter. More people share wealth
and land is becoming scarce, especially for one to either own or construct a property. This leads to
poverty and is truly the case with India. Despite all the hype about fast growing economy and a
phenomenal GDP, the government and the citizens will suffer from growing poverty. Around
350–400 million people in India remain below the poverty line. It is worth mentioning that poverty
line will raise the percentage of poor people to greater numbers.

Poverty Line Essay
What causes India to be below the poverty–line? "The proximate causes of the increased extent of
rural poverty in India and in other low–income developing countries are obvious: the growth of
population and the continued dominance of agriculture in their labor force and because of limited
expansion of non–farm job opportunities. Those that fall below the poverty level make anywhere
from 42 to 51 cents a day. Anyone that makes 40 cents and higher are not considered to be in
poverty, but they would have to be going through the same challenges daily" (Kaur, 2013). Could
any of us live with so little?
India's rate of population growth of some 2.2 per cent has been relatively slow as compared to
other developing countries" (Johnston & Clark, n.d., p. 405). "High population growth rate is one
of the major reasons for poverty in India and the lack of success to financial resources" (Kaur, 2013).
Therefore, "There are a number of people in India who still live on the street and beg the whole
day to eat a meal. Underprivileged children are unable to attend school and those that have the
opportunity drop out after a year or so. People below the poverty line live in unhygienic conditions
and are prone to many health problems. With this, the vicious cycle of poor health, lack of
education and more poverty keeps on increasing" (Kaur, 2013, para. 3).
Also, "High population growth affects the per capita income and makes the per capita even lower"
(Kaur, 2013, para. 10). With the

Despite the corruption involved in dispersing of funds in poverty alleviating programs, the
Government, the World Bank and the U.S. are helping India eradicate poverty through dispersing
funds to build the economy, battle disease and also improve infrastructure. Corruption can occur
through bribes and red tape from low level government levels to high levels. Even though there is
corruption detected by politicians and bureaucrats. The Government of India has presented strategies
to alleviate poverty through subsidies and other programs to help the rural poor. The Government
offered programs like the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), Training of Rural Youth
for Self Employment and Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas...show more content...
These wasteland maps can provide information to NGOS and State Forest and Agriculture
Departments. This can generate employment in rural areas and also in other rural development
programmes. Desert Development Programme and Drought Prone Areas Programme can benefit
from wasteland mapping. "Driven by public policies and institutional interventions, economic and
spatial integration of markets occurs and several new marginal income–earning opportunities
become available in the informal sector of the economy. Consequently, the dependence of the poor
on the natural resource base for livelihood may actually get reduced." (Srivastava) Better education
followed by improving infrastructure can shift the poor to non farm activities.
One of the states poverty alleviation programmes in India is Integrated Rural Development
Programme (IRDP). "The basic objective of IRDP is to enable identified rural poor families to
augment their incomes and cross the poverty line through acquisition of credit based productive
assets."(Ministry of Rural Area and employment) This program has shown problems like unskilled
workers, low investment, lack of technology, lack of credit in banks, corruption, overcrowding in
lending of dairy commodities. Another program is Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment
(TRYSEM) which helps youths from poor rural areas with training skills and entrepreneurship skills
as well.

Review of Literature for Poverty Measurements
Literature Review
From the time of independence, India has been suffering from acute poverty, most of it is chronic
in nature. If we look at the percentage of people below the poverty line, we do notice a sharp fall,
but the absolute number remains increasing at a high rate.
The situation keeps aggravating despite of several poverty alleviation programs that are implemented
every year. The main reason for such failure, apart from the implementation issues, would be the
measurement and numbers on which these programs are based. Appropriate measurement is central
to analyzing and understanding poverty and its alleviation.
Joshi P.D. (1997) identifies the methods and indices used for measuring the magnitude and extent of
poverty are not...show more content...
(Ghosh J, 2010)
The qualitative measures of poverty and wellbeing are also widely criticized by researchers who
follow positive research paradigm on the ground that the relation between participatory exercises and
the project or plans to alleviate poverty is often remote. Also there are factors like heterogeneity,
ambiguity in responses, truthfulness etc.
Hayati D. Et al., ( 2004) however recognizes that there is yet another group of researchers who think
that both qualitative and quantitative approaches can be used simultaneously to answer a research
question. For example, Poverty Measurement Index (PMI) is one such index. The PMI explicitly
accommodates the multidimensionality of poverty. In the PMI construction process, poverty is
viewed as a multidimensional and complex socio–economic state that relates to many aspects of
household living.
Bailey J. makes out that in adopting such an approach, it is necessary to extend the net so as to
cover wider dimensions of well–being using non–conventional indicators of psychosocial and mental
health, and environmental, relational and subjective components. In addition to this there should be
an appropriate use of econometric and mathematical tools in order to quantify the variables.
Tiwari M, (2008) argues that some researchers emphasizes on the qualitative and holistic approach to
measure poverty.A more holistic understanding of poverty and wellbeing will have important

I"If a country has widespread government corruption, then poverty will increase."
Country Chosen: India
Introduction
As India celebrated its 65th Republic Day in January 2014, President of India Pranab Mukherjee
warned the country of corruption "as a cancer...that weakens the foundations of our state"
(Mukherjee, 2014) and " If Indians are enraged, it is because they are witnessing corruption and
waste of national resources"(Ibid.) Indeed, corruption is an endemic problem in India, with
anti–corruption watchdog Transparency International (2013) ranking the country 94th out of 177
countries in the Global Corruption Perception Index. Tens of billions of dollars of taxpayer revenue
have been wasted as a result of such corruption, and many fear this is only the tip of the iceberg.
Some reports suggest that as much as fifty percent of government money intended for welfare
programs and subsidies ends up in the pockets of politicians, bureaucrats, and influential
businessmen instead. Such corruption scandals have rocked the entire country, bringing the current
coalition government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh under serious criticism.
Despite the Indian economy set to becoming the 3rd largest in the world (Khanna ,2013), poverty in
India is widespread, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. and with growth
being uneven across social and economic groups. In 2010, the World Bank reported that 32.7% of
all people in India fall below the international

Causes of Poverty
There are many causes of poverty and inequality in both India and Afghanistan including the poverty
circle, problems with population, poor governance and a lack of access to international markets
The poverty cycle is one cause of poverty. Low income can lead to low savings, poor health, low
levels of education and low demand which causes low capital investment, low productivity which
can lead to further low income. For example in India and Afghanistan a large percentage of the
people living below the poverty line are illiterate. 45% of people living below the poverty line in
India are illiterate compared to 26% of population. Additionally, in Afghanistan, 75.6% of poor
people are illiterate. This means that poor people in Afghanistan face higher unemployment (8%)
and underemployment (41%) and are more likely to work in agriculture (43.6%) or in the informal
sector (84.3%) where they earn low and inconsistent wages.
Another cause of poverty is inequality which can reinforce relative self–perpetuating poverty. One
reason is that when there is a big wealth gap between the richest section of the population than the
poorest section. There may be more investment in urban areas for the wealthy urban population
than the poorer rural population. In India 80% of their poor population lived in rural areas while in
poverty in Afghanistan is concentrated in rural areas as four out of five people live in rural areas.
Population can be both a barrier and a

Problem Of Poverty In India
INDIA: PROBLEM OF POVERTY AND REMEDIES
*Renu Assistant Professor (Sociology) C.R.K. College, Jind Haryana.
Renu10392@gmail.com
Introduction– India was called a 'Sparrow of Gold' in the past. Indians were prosperous. Many
outsiders attacked and looted it. Some of them went back while the remaining settled here.
Britishers came here and looted it. They spread their colonies all over India. They ruled over India.
At that time the condition of Indian economy and society was very worse. When India got freedom
from Britishers in 1947 it tried to develop. The main focus of Indian policies makers was on the
eradication of poverty. Five years plan was made for the purpose of eradication of poverty. But still
there are so many problems in the elimination of poverty. Some important barriers are as follows–
1.Over population– As per census of 2011 Indian total population is 1,210,193,422. India's ranking
is second in population. Is assumed by 2026 India would be first in high population in the world
and it defeat China in population. Day by day our population is growing more and more but we are
unable to provide employment to our citizens in a good ratio. A large part of our population is
illiterate and engaged in un–skilled sector, which is cause of poverty.
2.Unemployment– Due to overpopulation India suffers from the problem of unemployment which
is related with the problem of poverty. Millions of young are jobless. Millions of young are beaten
on very low

Poverty In India
The issue of poverty has blighted India for several decades. It seems to be a vicious cycle that
simply doesn't seem to go away despite continuous and constant efforts of the government and the
general public.The main argument opposing Indians make is that the programs to bring people out
of poverty are far too expensive to be paid for by the government. The government already gives out
millions in subsidies, however poverty remains.
After, much research and analysis, the truth regarding the severity of the situation and the efforts
made to ameliorate it, come to the forefront of the argument regarding this topic. There have been
several extremely relevant studies that have been conducted to try and address poverty in India ,
its causes and its solutions. Chronic Poverty in India which is an overview study assesses chronic
poverty in India by looking at the seriousness, duration and multidimensional deprivation that have
led to the current poverty stricken state of the country. For the purposes of this paper, the aim will
be to address poverty alleviation measures as well as the effectiveness of Government policies that
specifically target poverty. Next, the book Red tape: bureaucracy, structural violence, and poverty in
India will be explored to analyze topics such as corruption, education and population policies which
will also provide insight into why, despite rapid industrial and economic growth, the country remains
poor. After, the book, The state and poverty in

Food Scarcity In India
Causes of Food Scarcity in India are:
– Needed of enhanced strategies of cultivation through science and technology
– Poverty and obliviousness of Indian formers
– Tillers are not in feasts and picnics
– Wastage of food in feasts and picnics
– Wastage of food in wrong procedure of cooking
– Wastage of food for ignorance of protecting strategy
– Need of cold storeroom
– Defective food habit
– Dishonesty of suppliers
– Extreme development of populace
The sorts of factors influencing agriculture yields are physical, economic, government and other
factors. Physical factors incorporate atmosphere, soils and topography. Economic factors incorporate
market, transport facilities, capitals and labour. Government factors including land utilization and
developing specific yields. Other factors incorporate specific and technological development.
There are numerous natural factors that limit food security. The challenges to food security in India
are crop diversification, bio–fuel and medical plant development, climate change, water accessibility,
creation of high yielding varieties, agricultural costs and crop insurance issues. Food security is
severely influenced by environmental change. The changing climate will impact the grain generation
in various ways. For instance, the temporal and spatial varieties in precipitation incorporating rainfall
may result in shortage of moisture stress. i.e drought season or excess moisture stress condition.
These elements would likewise

The Caste System: Effects on Poverty in India
Global Majority E–Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2 (December 2010), pp. 97–106 The Caste System: Effects
on Poverty in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka Jasmine Rao Abstract Though mostly outlawed, the caste
system continues to be one of the key drivers of poverty and inequality in South Asia. This article
reviews the linkage between poverty and the caste system in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It also
discusses the situation of the so–called Dalits (untouchables), which are typically considered to fall
outside of the caste system. In addition to secondary evidence based on recent literature analyzing
the relevance and impact of the caste system on poverty, the article is also based on an interview
with a young male Indian, who experienced the...show more content...
He discussed what the Hindu scriptures say about caste as well as what the caste system actually
turned out to be. The Gita, which is one of the Hindu scriptures, states that caste is not determined
by birth but by behavior. However, today people's castes are determined as soon as they are born
signifying an outside influence on the modern day caste system. With regards to Nepal and Sri
Lanka, the literature on linking poverty and caste is very thin. Shrestha (2002) offers some
insights on how Dalits in Nepal are discriminated against. Heitzman (1990) discusses the history
of the caste system in Sri Lanka and how the Portuguese and the British played a part in shaping it
into what it is today in Sri Lanka. Heitzman also describes the impacts of caste on the lives of low
caste citizens in Sri Lanka. III. Empirical Background South Asia is one of the most poverty ridden
regions in the world. Although the poverty rate (defined as the percent of people living below
$1.25–a–day) has decreased from about 60 percent in 1980 to 51.7 percent in 1990 and to 40.3
percent in 2005 (see Figure 2), there were still about 600 million poor people trying to make a living
in South Asia. Specifically in India, there are still 350 million people who live on less than one
dollar–aday (Waldman, 2005). As of 2005, the country ranks 127th out of 177 countries on the
United Nations Human Development Index (HDI), which measures life span,

Boleking And Poverty In India
India is home to over 1.2 billion people with 4 percent of the population being orphans.
India is overloaded with orphans and statistics show that the problem is not going to be getting any
better anytime soon. There are many factors that contribute to the reasoning behind the amount of
orphans, like poverty and some kids being forced into sex trafficking and prostitution.
There are over 20 million orphans in in India because the country is very poor, some families
simply can't support a child so they abandoned them, and some children are unfortunately forced
into sex trafficking. There are many reasons that India alone has 20 million orphans in their country
but by far the most dominant factor is poverty. Around 67 percent of India's population lives below
the poverty line (10 Facts about Poverty in India). Parents simply cannot afford to provide for
themselves or for their children. Many children lack basic life necessities like nutrition, shelter, and
care from their parents, not because their parents don't love them, but because most of the time
parents cannot afford anything. (5 terrible causes of the Orphan Crisis). 46 percent of children under
the age of 5 are malnourished. 31 percent of infants are born with low birth–weight. All children in
India are underweight by 18 percent or more (Facts on Children in India). Theses truly statistics
show how badly the country is suffering, and even worse how the children are suffering. Although in
some rare cases parents

Pros And Cons Of Poverty In India
Across India, the millions of citizens living on less than two dollars a day are barely able to afford
some of their most basic necessities. The range in types of homes they live in, to access to services,
such as, electricity, water and sanitation varies from city to city. India, is the most populous nation
on the planet and yet an astonishing number of citizens are living below the poverty line. There are
differentiations in poorness, however, evidently, those living on less than two dollars a day are
living in much dire circumstances. As the population increases, the poverty level inflates as well.
With a population of well over one billion, and rising at, some would say, alarming rates, India is the
leading nation in regards to population growth. Currently, India holds the title of the world's most
populous country, beating out it's most dominant competitor, China. It is estimated that, according to
World Bank, in 2007, 80% of India's population was living on less than $2 a day. Comparatively, in
2009, two–thirds of India's population lived on less than $2 a day. There is no denying that the
population of India draws a connection to poverty, more specifically the poverty trap. A poverty trap
is a self reinforcing mechanism which makes it extremely difficult for people to escape poverty.
Usually, it persists from generation to generation, and the situation does not change unless extreme
measures are taken. However, usually these poverty–stricken citizens do not have

Poverty In India Essay

Empfohlen

Empfohlen

Weitere ähnliche Inhalte

Ähnlich wie Poverty In India Essay

Ähnlich wie Poverty In India Essay (17)

Mehr von Paper Writer Services

Mehr von Paper Writer Services (20)

Kürzlich hochgeladen

Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)

Poverty In India Essay