Here is a compilation of essays on ‘Poverty in India’ for class 9, 10, 11 and 12. Find paragraphs, long and short essays on ‘Poverty in India’ especially written for school and college students.
Essay on Poverty in India
Essay Contents:
- Essay on the Meaning of Poverty
- Essay on the Extent and Magnitude of Poverty in India (Estimates)
- Essay on the Estimate of Planning Commission of India (Expert Group Estimates)
- Essay on the Causes of Poverty in India
- Essay on Poverty Alleviation Programmes by Indian Government
- Essay on the Suggested Measures for Poverty Alleviation
Essay # 1. Meaning of Poverty:
Poverty is one of the major problems which India has been suffering from since long. There is no common definition of poverty which can be accepted all over the world. Poverty is a relative term. Therefore definition of poverty keeps on changing with the changes in the economic conditions of the concerned country.
For a developing country like India poverty can be defined as “that situation in which an individual fails to earn income sufficient to buy him bare means of subsistence.” It can also be explained as a situation where a section of the society, having no fault of their own is denied of even basic necessities of life.
In India, the definition of poverty lays more emphasis on minimum level of living rather than on reasonable level of living. The problem of poverty is becoming a problem of concern for the whole world now. The concept of poverty in U.S.A. is different because an average person is able to afford a much higher level of living. In India the concept of poverty emphasises more on minimum level because it is difficult to provide even a minimum quantum of basic needs.
Before discussing the extent and magnitude of poverty the meaning of poverty can be better understood after studying the two terms:
(i) Absolute Poverty and
(ii) Relative Poverty
(i) Absolute Poverty:
People suffering from absolute poverty are not able to meet even the fundamental cost of living as a human being. The World Bank has fixed one dollar one person per day for this purpose. Absolute poverty can be expressed as poverty below bread line which can be defined in terms of ‘per capita intake of calories’ and ‘minimum level of consumption’.
According to the Planning Commission an individual in rural areas must get 2400 calories and in urban areas 2100 calories per day. In 1979-80 in rural areas 51 per cent and in urban areas 40 per cent of the people were living below the poverty line according to this concept.
According to ‘minimum level of consumption’ criteria Planning Commission of India is of the opinion that persons spending Rs. 152 on consumption in urban area and Rs. 132 on rural area per month (at 1988-89 prices) should be treated as falling within poverty line. According to NSSO in 1993-94 prices, the persons whose per capita consumption per month is less than Rs. 229 in rural areas and Rs. 264 in urban areas will be treated as living below poverty line.
The 66th Round NSSO data (2009-10) says anyone who has Rs. 28 to spend daily is above poverty line.
(ii) Relative Poverty:
According to this concept of poverty the definition of poverty keeps on changing with the changes in regions and economic conditions of the different countries. The country where subsistence level is low is treated as relatively poor in comparison with a country with people having high level of subsistence. Concept of poverty in USA is different from that in India because the average person is able to afford a much higher level of living in U.S.A.
India has quite less per capita income as compared to other countries. India is ranked 86th in the world and is poor nation.
Essay # 2. Extent and Magnitude of Poverty in India (Estimates):
To measure the extent of poverty the concept of ‘poverty line’ has been used by the economists from time to time. In a country like India poverty can be defined as a situation where an individual fails to earn the income sufficient to buy him bare means of subsistence. Poverty line represents the capacity to satisfy the minimum level of human needs.
The ‘Task force on projections of Minimum Needs and Effective Consumption Demand’ offered an alternative definition of poverty which has been adopted by Planning Commission in recent years. It has defined poverty line as the mid-point of the monthly per capita expenditure class which have a daily calorie intake of 2,400 per person in the rural areas and 2,100 in urban areas of the country. Accordingly, the minimum desirable standard was worked out at Rs. 76 for the rural areas and Rs. 88 for urban areas at 1979-80 prices.
It is quite essential to make an appropriate estimate of incidence of poverty in India in order to make strategy for eradication of poverty. But reliable data is not available as people tend to exaggerate their expenditure and do not give the real picture of their income.
Different findings have been made for estimation of extent of poverty in India, which are as follows:
Estimates of P.K. Bardhan- Bardhan considered Rs. 15 per capita per month at 1960-61 prices for the rural poverty line and Rs. 18 for the urban line this study revealed that in 1968-69 about 55 percent of rural population and 41 percent of urban population of the country were laying below poverty line.
Estimates of M.S. Ahluwalia- His study revealed market fluctuation over time (1956-57 to 1973-74) in incidence of poverty. Taking the same concept of poverty line of Rs. 15 per month at 1960-61 prices for rural areas and Rs. 20 per head per month for urban areas is estimated that 54.1 percent of rural population in 1956-57 was laying below the poverty line which declined to 38.9 per cent in 1960-61 and again rose to 56.5 per cent in 1967-68. In 1973-74, about 46.1 per cent of rural population was below poverty line.
He concludes, “The Indian experience over the past two decades cannot be characterised as showing a trend increase in incidence of poverty in India as a whole. In general the time series shows a pattern of fluctuation with the incidence of poverty falling in periods of good agricultural performance and rising in periods of poor performance.”
Estimate of B.S. Minhas- Taking the annual per capita minimum expenditure of Rs. 240 as minimum standard (on the basis of NSS data), he found that the proportion of people below the poverty line declined from 64 per cent in 1956-57 to 50.6 per cent in 1967-68.
Essay # 3. Estimate of Planning Commission of India (Expert Group Estimates):
The Planning Commission has been estimating the incidence of poverty at the national and State level using methodology contained in the report of the Expert Group on Estimation of Proportion and number of Poor (Lakdawala Committee) and applying it to consumption expenditure data from the large sample surveys on consumer expenditure. These surveys are conducted by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) approximately at an interval of five years.
The above data shows that poverty ratio in rural areas declined from 56.4 per cent in 1973-74 to 45.7 per cent in 1983 and then to 37.3 per cent in 1993-94. It also declined in urban areas from 49.0 per cent in 1973-74 to 40.8 per cent in 1983 and then 32.4 per cent 1993-94 & 23.6 per cent in 1999-2000.
Poverty ratio of the country as a whole has also declined from 54.9 per cent in 1973-74 to 44.5 per cent in 1983 & 26.1 finally in 1999-2000. In 2009-10 33.8 per cent of total population in rural area and 20.9 per cent in urban area was living below poverty line.
Estimates of S.P. Gupta- Prof. S.P. Gupta have made a recent study on economic reforms and their impact on the poor. The study revealed that the trend in the number of people below the Poverty Line has been halted. His study showed that the population below poverty line rose from to 39.0 in 1988-89 to 40.69 percent in July-Dec. 1992 in India.
UNDP’S Estimates- Another recent study made by the United National Development Programme (UNDP) on the incidence of poverty in some selected countries revealed that total number of people lying below the poverty line in India was around 350 million and thus 40 percent of India’s population is lying below poverty line as compared to that of 9 percent in China 28 percent in Pakistan, 25 percent in Indonesia and 47 percent in Brazil.
Poverty Differentials:
In India some states are quite rich while other is very poor.
The following table shows the poverty differentials among some major states of the country in 2009-10.
The above table shows problem of poverty is more serious In Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. There has been marginal decrease in poverty in these states.
Summary of Various Estimates of Poverty:
The various estimates shown above by different economists may vary in magnitude because economists have adopted different methodologies. But all economists agree on one point that percentage population below poverty line has started declining as a result of indirect benefit of higher ‘growth rate’ and impact of different programmes of poverty alleviation. But the absolute number of poor has definitely increased over the years. This can be seen and analysed from the following table.
The people whose consumption expenditure at 1993-94 prices was Rs. 229 per capita per month in rural areas and Rs. 264 per capita per month in urban areas are considered as living below the poverty line.
From above table we can see that even after the completion of the Ninth Five Year Plan there are 26 crore people who are still living below poverty line. The extent of poverty in rural areas is more alarming than in urban areas in India.
Essay # 4. Causes of Poverty in India:
Poverty in rural India and Urban India has been a cause of concern since independence.
The reasons for poverty in India can studied under following points:
1. Population Explosion:
Increasing rate of population has been one of the major causes of poverty in India. Population in India was 102 crore in 2001 as against 84.63 crore in 1991 which shows that the rate of growth of population is very high. Though there is increase in total production but per capita wealth is decreasing and this results in decrease in standard of living as well. Rate of growth of population was 1.0 per cent in 1950-51 and in 2001 it was 1.8 per cent.
2. Growth Rate of Economy:
Growth rate has been very low as compared to rate of growth of population in India. It is an established fact that growth rate helps to reduce poverty as it helps in creating gainful employment, generates revenues for states and provides incentives to the poor. Fast economic growth can play a very important role in eradication of poverty in a low-income and densely-populated agricultural economy like India.
3. Unemployment and Under-Employment:
In India there has been a direct relationship between population and unemployment. The disguised unemployment in rural areas is more serious a problem in India. Also the pressure of shift over of population from rural to urban areas has resulted in problem of unemployment in urban area as there are not enough employment opportunities in urban sector as well.
4. Weak Development Strategy for Agriculture:
The growth strategy in agricultural sector aimed at large & rich farmers than at small and poor farmers. As a result there is tremendous under-utilisation of land, labour and capital from rational point of view.
India being agriculture dominated country there has not been much of absorption of workers in agricultural sector.
5. Inequalities in Income Distribution:
There exist ‘inequalities of income’ in urban as well as rural sectors of the economy in India. The main reason of such inequalities is differences in ownership of land in rural areas and material assets in urban areas. Though number of effort has been made from time to time to remove such inequalities like through taxation policies etc. but there seems to be continuous increase in the uneven distribution of income. As stated in ‘Economic Research Council’ in one of its report that 20 percent of people in the country own 41 percent of the national income. According to Monopolies Enquiry Commission, 1536 companies of the country are controlled by 75 families only.
6. Inefficient Management of Natural Resources:
Natural resources like wood, coal, iron water etc. which are available in abundance, have not been properly utilised in India. India is one of the richest countries as far as the natural resources are concerned but all these have not been efficiently managed.
Different kinds of fertile soil which are available in India can be utilised for growing a variety of crops and manpower engaged in such work can solve the problem of poverty and unemployment to a great extent. Also continuous increase in the demand for fuel wood, timber, meat from different income segments including urban areas has been a major cause of degradation of ecology and deforestation.
7. Common Property Resources:
Rural poor have been affected to a great extent with the concept of privatisation of Common Property Resources (CRPs).
“Common Property Resources are collectively owned by a community with access rights to community members which includes tanks, ponds, community wells, grazing grounds, canals, water reservoir, irrigation channels.” According to Tony Beck and Madan G. Ghosh in ‘Common Property Resources and the Poor’ Vol. XXXV Jan. 2000, “CPRs currently add some $5 billion a year to the incomes of poor rural households in India or about 12 percent to household income of poor rural households. This is about two and a half times of the total Work Bank lending to India in fiscal 1996, about twice the foreign direct investment in India in 1996.” Privatisation of CPRs is directly affecting weaker sections of the society who find that they have to buy things which they formerly used to receive in the form of traditional claims.
8. Backward in Agriculture:
In India almost 70 percent of its population is dependent upon agriculture but its contribution is only 35 percent to the National Income. In America only 4 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, in Britain 3.3 percent and in Australia only 2.5 percent. This reflects that India being an agricultural country is still backward even in production of basic agricultural products.
9. Transport and Communication:
Though a great proportion of the rural population is migrating to urban areas but they are not finding suitable employment opportunities in the urban sectors and thus unemployment and in turn lead to poverty. Transport system, especially road transport is not properly developed in the country. This makes availability of raw material for industries difficult and distribution of finished goods and agricultural goods more difficult. This leaves the owners to satisfy themselves with very less price for their goods.
10. Regional Imbalances:
There has been reduction in people below the poverty line in states having faster rate of output growth. This is possible when demand for labour generated by fast growth rate of agriculture results in rise in real wages like it has happened in Punjab and Haryana State.
If growth of agriculture itself is slow as compared to growth of labour force then the impact on wage rate may not be appreciable. Agricultural productivity and output may be different in different states due to differences in availability of agricultural infrastructure in different states.
11. Lack of Technical Training:
Industrial education and technical training in India has been inadequate, which results in shortage of skilled and trained labour, despite there being adequate supply of labour. This also results in increase in casual labourers in rural and urban areas and incidence of poverty has been highest in the category of casual workers among all Indian workers.
12. Inflation:
Inflation aggregates the problem of poverty. Inflationary financing of either public or private investment or expenditure should be brought to an end as inflation only worsens distribution without even necessarily increasing production. Governor of RBI said, “There can be no better anti-poverty programme than inflation control.”
13. Poor Saving Habits:
The rich segment of the society does not desire as such to save and invest substantial proportion of their income in the local economy. Thus they do not add to the nation’s productive resources. Hence capital deficiency is there for establishment of industry, transport irrigation and other means of development. This ultimately affects the growth of the economy. Investment has to be encouraged in agricultural infrastructure and on cost reducing technology.
Essay # 5. Poverty Alleviation Programmes by Indian Government:
‘Poverty alleviation’ has been accepted as one of the major objectives of economic planning of the country since fifth plan only, number of anti-poverty programmes have been introduced over the years to generate additional employment, create productive assets, impart technical and entrepreneurial skills and to raise the income, level of the poor. ‘Minimum Needs Programme’ was introduced during Fifth Plan.
During seventies the following programmes were introduced by the government for the benefit of poor:
(i) Small Farmers Development Agency (SFDA)
(ii) Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Labourers Development Agency (MFAL)
(iii) Drought-Prone Area Programme (DPAP)
(iv) Crash Scheme for Rural Employment (CSRE)
(v) Plot Intensive Rural Employment Project (PIREP)
(vi) Food for Work Programme (FWP)
The above programme could not prove to be very effective for a number of reasons like – None of these programmes comprehensively covered the whole country, these were reduced to only subsidy-giving programmes ultimately and lacked planned approach to enable rural poor achieve a high level of income. So there was a need for more comprehensive programmes.
The following programmes were further introduced:
(A) Employment Generation Programmes:
The government has been implementing the following employment generation schemes from time to time with the purpose of providing productive employment to the poor to help them increase their income. This ultimately will result in reducing the people below poverty line.
Following employment generation programmes are:
(i) The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
(ii) The National Rural Employment Programme (NREP)
(iii) The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP)
(iv) Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS)
(v) The Swaran Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) (Golden Jublee Urban Employment Scheme)
(vi) Swarajanyanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY)
(vii) Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY)
(viii) Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)
(ix) Jai Prakash Rozgar Guarantee Yojana (JPRGY) (2002-2003)
(B) Other Programmes:
(i) National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP):
This programme was introduced on 15th Aug. 1995 to help the aged people and poor families below the poverty line.
This programme consists of the following three schemes:
(a) National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS):
According to this scheme a pension of Rs. 75 per month to destitute and to persons above the age of 65 years and living below poverty line. This scheme is expected to benefit 54 lakh people.
(b) National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS):
This scheme makes a provision of lump sum benefit on the death of the primary bread winner, Rs. 10,000 in case of accidental death and Rs. 5,000 in case of unnatural death. It includes 4.5 lakh families a year.
(c) National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS):
It provides maternity benefit of Rs. 300 for expecting mothers per pregnancy upto first two births. A sum of Rs. 725 crore has been allocated for the above three schemes in 2000-2001 budgets.
(ii) Janashree Bima Yojana (JBY):
This scheme was announced on June 20, 2000 for group insurance of people who are below poverty line and are in the age group of 18 to 60 years. The beneficiaries will get upto Rs. 20,000 in case of natural death, Rs. 25,000 in case of partial disability due to accidents and Rs. 50,000 in case of death or permanent disability due to accidents.
(iii) Swayam Sidha:
This integrated scheme for women’s empowerment was introduced on November 29th, 2001. It aims at economic empowerment of women through awareness generation. Women will also be involved in planning at local level.
(iv) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY):
This scheme, which was introduced in 2000-2001 aimed at village level development in five areas i.e. health, primary education, rural roads, drinking water and housing.
The following three schemes are the base of this yojana:
(a) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (Gramin Awas)
(b) Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (Rural Drinking Water Project)
(c) Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
(v) Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY):
The main objective of this scheme, which was introduced on June 23, 1999, was creation of demand driven community village infrastructures including durable assets. The centre & state will share expenditure of this scheme in the ratio of 75:25. The scheme aims at implementation by the village panchayats.
(vi) Annapurna:
This scheme was launched on 1st April 2000 to provide food grains at subsidised rates especially with the purpose of providing food security to senior citizens and pensioners.
(vii) Shiksha Sahayog Yojn:
According to these scheme children studying from 9th to 12th standard and of parents living below poverty line will be given educational allowance of Rs. 100 per month.
(viii) Self-Employment Programme for Urban Poor (SEPUP):
Critical Evaluation of Poverty Alleviation Programmes:
Besides best efforts on the part of planner, economists and government from time to time there have been following shortcomings of different poverty alleviation programmes.
They are:
(a) Allocation of funds and determination of targets were made without considering the size of the population.
(b) The selection of schemes was also not done in a rational manner.
(c) These measures fail to realise the crucial importance of increased flow of social inputs through nutrition, family welfare and social security.
(d) These programmes neglected disabled, sick and socially handicapped persons.
(e) The present approach of 2002-2003 was almost blind about the existence of secondary poverty.
Millennium Development Goals to be achieved by 2015:
Goals for development and poverty eradication set at the UN General Assembly in 2000:
(1) Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger:
(a) Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day.
(b) Halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger.
(2) Achieve Universal Primary Education:
(a) Ensure that children everywhere-boys and girls alike-complete a full course of primary education.
(3) Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women:
(a) Eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education by 2015.
(b) Reduce infant and under-five mortality rates by two-thirds.
(5) Improve Maternal Health:
(a) Reduce maternal mortality ratios by three-quarters.
(6) Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other Diseases:
(a) Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
(b) Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases.
(7) Ensure Environmental Sustainability:
(a) Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources.
(b) Halve the proportion of people without sustainable safe drinking water.
(c) Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers.
(8) Develop a Global Partnership for Development:
(a) As per Human Development Report 2002 of UNDP.
Essay # 6. Suggested Measures for Poverty Alleviation:
Success of poverty alleviation programmes not only depends on launching of wage employment and self-employment programmes, but it also depends on the improvement of land relations in favour of cultivators and redistribution of income in favour of the rural poor.
Thus the approach of 10th plan observed that employment is the surest way to enable the vast number living below the poverty line but steps must also be taken in following direction:
1. Imposition of ceiling on land and redistribution of ceiling-surplus land among other landless small and marginal farmers.
2. Making provision for proper security for the tenant cultivators and sharing of crops.
3. To provide employment to huge number of landless unemployed workers by developing agro-based small scale industries in the Wage Good Sector.
4. To provide minimum amenities of life in rural areas and also in urban slums through Minimum Needs Programme.
Prof. Sukhamoy Chakraborty rightly observed that, “the solution to the problem of rural poverty will require that small farmers must also be given access to land-augmenting innovation along with a programme of well-conceived public works. Many of the specific tasks will need to be done on a decentralised basis.”