POVERTY State of being poor Lack of the means of providing material, needs or comfort.

Socio economic problem Poverty is a social phenomenon in which society is unable to satisfy basic necessities of life. Mass Poverty Various definition of poverty Third World is a term originally used to distinguish those nations that neither aligned with the West nor with the East during the Cold War. These countries are also known as the Global South, developing countries, and least developed countries in academic circles. Development workers also call them the two-thirds world and The South. Some dislike the term developing countries as it implies that industrialization is the only way forward, while they believe it is not necessarily the most beneficial. Many "third world" countries are located in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. They are often nations that were colonized by another nation in the past. The populations of third world countries are generally very poor but with high birth rates. In general they are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as the first world. The majority of the countries in the world fit this classification. Poverty is undesirable, it exists all over country Absolute Poverty: minimum per capita calorie requirement per day to live at the min subsistence level. Calorie intake 2400 for rural person 25-30 yrs. weighing 55kgs working for 8 hrs. Not able to manage are called absolutely poor. Relative Poverty : Comparing the poverty on the different income groups of the same country. Poverty is widespread in India, with the nation estimated to have a third of the world's poor. According to a 2005 World Bank estimate, 41.6% of the total Indian population falls below the international poverty line of US$ 1.25 a day ( 21.6 a day in urban areas and 14.3 in rural areas). According to a new UN Millennium Development Goals Report, as many as 320 million people in India and China are expected to come out of extreme poverty in the next four years, while India's poverty rate is projected to drop to 22% in 2015.The report also indicates that in Southern Asia, however, only India,

where the poverty rate is projected to fall from 51% in 1990 to about 22% in 2015, is on track to cut poverty in half by the 2015 target date. There has been no uniform measure of poverty in India. The Planning Commission of India has accepted the Tendulkar Committee report which says that 37% of people in India live below the poverty line. The Arjun Sengupta Report (from National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector) states that 77% of Indians live on less than 20 a day .The N.C. Sabena Committee report states that 50% of Indians live below the poverty line. Causes of Poverty 1. Corruption: This is the main cause of poverty in India. According to Wikileaks, crime money (corruption money) held by Indians in Swiss banks (and other banks with secrecy laws) is more than that of rest of the world put together amounting to several trillion dollars. Widespread and huge levels of corruption in most of the India ensures weak governance and basic facilities like health and education being denied to poor. Even though India is a democracy, the media and election process have been corrupted which makes it hard for people to throw away the corrupt politicians. Since Independence, a single party has ruled for 60 out of 65 years.

2. Caste System: Casteism is widespread in rural areas, and continues to segregate Dalits. Others, however, have noted the steady rise and empowerment of the Dalits through social reforms and the implementation of reservations in employment and benefits. Caste explanations of poverty fail to account for the urban/rural divide. Using the UN definition of poverty, 65% of rural forward castes are below the poverty line.

3.

Explosion of population Lack of awareness of health detoriation has given a rise to excess population especially in rural area. Rural parents know that without children to care for them in old age, they will have nothing. They also realize that none of these possible benefits will be theirs unless they have many children, since hunger and lack of health care will kill many of their offspring before they reach adulthood. The World

Health Organization has shown that both the actual death and the fear of death of a child will increase the fertility of a couple, regardless of income or family size

4. Over-reliance on agriculture: There is a surplus of labor in agriculture. Farmers are a large vote bank and use their votes to resist reallocation of land for higher-income industrial projects. While services and industry have grown at double digit figures, agriculture growth rate has dropped from 4.8% to 2%. About 60% of the population depends on agriculture whereas the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is about 18% 5. Liberalization policies and their effects Economies across India have collapsed, or on the verge of collapse due to the neoliberal policies of the government of India since the 1990s. human cost of the "liberalization" has been very high 6. Losses in farming Huge wave of farm suicides in Indian rural population from 1997 to 2007 totaled close to 200,000, according to official statistics. That number remains disputed, with some saying the true number is much higher. Commentators have faulted the policies pursued by the government which, according to Sainath, resulted in a very high portion of rural households getting into the debt cycle, resulting in a very high number of farm suicides. As professor Utsa Patnaik, Indias top economist on agriculture, has pointed out, the average poor family in 2007 has about 100 kg less food per year than it did in 1997 Government policies encouraging farmers to switch to cash crops in place of traditional food crops, has resulted in an extraordinary increase in farm input costs, while market forces determined the price of the cash crop. Sainath points out that a disproportionately large number of affected farm suicides have occurred with cash crops, because with food crops such as rice, even if the price falls, there is food left to survive on. He also points out that inequality has reached one of the highest rates India has ever seen. In a report by Chetan Ahya Executive Director at Morgan Stanley it is pointed out that there has been a wealth increase of close to US$1 Trillion in the time frame of 2003-2007 in the Indian stock market while only 4-7% of the Indian population hold any equity. During the time when Public investment in agriculture shrank to 2% of the GDP, the nation suffered the worst agrarian crisis in decades, the same time as India became the nation of second highest number of dollar billionaires. Farm incomes have collapsed. Hunger has grown very fast. Public investment in agriculture shrank to nothing a long time ago. Employment has collapsed. Non-farm employment has stagnated. (Only the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act has

brought some limited relief in recent times.) Millions move towards towns and cities where, too, there are few jobs to be found. In one estimate, over 85 per cent of rural households are either landless, sub-marginal, marginal or small farmers. Nothing has happened in 15 years that has changed that situation for the better. Much has happened to make it a lot worse. 6. Rich Indians not generous Since 2000, the elite group has grown an average of 11 per cent annually. Between 2006 and 2007, the number of wealthy individuals in India surged by 23 per cent, which is the highest growth rate in the world. However, the wealthiest have the lowest level of giving at 1.6% of their household income for charitable purposes. "While the 'high class', which is ranked one level below the 'upper class' on the income and education scale, donates 2.1% to charity, the middle class gives 1.9% of household income to philanthropy. The percentage of India's GDP that is spent for charitable purposes is only 0.6 where the percentage is 2.2 in the United States. 7. Illiteracy 8. Lack of employment 9. Poor infrastructure facilities POVERTY ALLIEVATION : Earlier Phase : Adhoc phase Rural development and rural employment Fifth plan worked on the poverty alleviation Special Programs for the rural poor were introduced SFDA (Small Farmers Development agency), MFAL(Marginal Farmers and Agricultural Laborers Development Agency, DPAP(Drought prone Areas program) It covered few areas of country, not a comprehensive program No effectiveness of the program

Comprehensive Program Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP) Sixth Plan, small and marginal farmer. People who did not posses any specific skills nor any assets. Provided with essentials of farming. Helped people for self employment

National Rural Development Program (NRDP) Sixth Plan : wage employment , people who did not have source of income during lean agricultural period Rural landless Employment Programme(RLEGP) opportunities for the rural landless Limitations of the Poverty Alleviation Programs : expansion of employment

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Increasing the income of poor not the welfare ,nutrition ,social security Didnt covered handicapped, sick, disabled Additional income to poor without taking inflation into consideration House hold approach focuses on group power: developing lamnd and water resources, preventing explotative practices and channelizing purchasing power in avour of low income house holds Should focus on standard of living rather than reducing absolute povert as additional money is misused by the poor in drinking, ambling Poverty alleviation program is insensitive to the group falling below the povert lie Avoidance of natural resources for the laws and policies . Govt considered poverty in a homogeneous category. Whereas poverty is affected by skill/assets/ any other factor