POVERTY BOOMS - A DEEP ANALYSIS ABOUT POVERTY IN INDIA

Poverty booms 
Problems & Analysis of poverty in India

--by Abhishek Shukla

-ABSTRACT-

Not only an exiguous Organizations, researchers, philosophers, etc. has given the definitions of the poverty, all are seeming to be futile. Some of the definitions by the enormous organizations, philosophers and philanthropist are - 

·    The most commonly used way to measure the poverty is based on incomes. A person is considered poor if his or her income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the “poverty line”. What is necessary to satisfied basic needs varies across time and societies. Therefore, poverty lines vary in time and place, and each country uses lines which are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values.    --- The World Bank Organization

·    Poverty is defined relative to the standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society.  --- Scottish Poverty Information Unit

·    The test of our progression is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.                                     --- Franklin D. Roosevelt

All the definitions make poverty in India a more imperative issue and defect in the system. Poverty, in India has many facets like- social, economic, ideological, relational, and practical etc. Due to proliferating population in India, poverty has become conspicuous and perspicuous for all the citizen. Poverty in India has been focal point by many economist and others because it directly co-relate with the economic condition of the country. According to brooking reports, 5.5% of its population still live in extreme poverty who are totally deprived to drinking water, full day meal, sanitation, education, and even worse health care. Also, data released by the Planning Commission of India and National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) in July 2013, the population still living below poverty line is 22% (29cr approx. assuming total population to be 133cr) as of 2011-12 records in which Chhattisgarh have highest 39.9 percentage in poverty and Goa has least percentage of 5.1%.

Introduction:-

The world is developing very rapidly in many aspects like technological aspects, social aspects, economic aspects etc. But perhaps these all aspects of the development are all inexorable, and also an important aspect of it is lagging behind due to unreasonable circumstances and it has already become an interminable process, which is poverty. According to Oxfam and  Global Wealth Report 2016 compiled by Credit Suisse Research Institute, India is the second most unequal country in the world with the top 1% of the population holds 73% of the total wealth while approximately 51.53% citizens of India, comprising the country’s poorest half, and till now their wealth rise by just 1%.This all is the consequence of  monopoly, duopoly, and inadequate policies etc. Appalling data on poverty collected from many sources are sufficient to know and clarify the statics of the deaths happening in the country. Later on, we’ll go in the deeper part of these erudite data which will reveal the intimidated condition of the people.  

"Poverty is the worst form of the violence. --- Mahatma Gandhi.

 

   

Poverty: A Chronology-

From time to time the poverty is rate is decreasing but, the rate of decreasing is immensely scanty. Government is adopting and launching many possible measures/schemes/steps, and according to my point of view those steps are feasible although there is not much difference in the rate of decrease in the poverty rate. It means there is a strong failure somewhere in circulating these schemes. These failures are pretty straight forward but need a deep analysis to understand the actual problem and solution of these problem.

1.      SCHEMES FOR THE POVERTY REDUCTION: -

Chronically, there are many steps taken to victory poverty in independent India, but a major change has been brought after year 2010. Here is the list of some important schemes launched by the government of India -

·    The Fight Hunger First Initiative (FHFI) Program (2011):  The Fight Hunger First initiative was taken up by the government in 2011 to improve access of communities to the entitlements and rights accrued to them by the government schemes like employment, nutrition of child, basic education and food supplies.  This scheme was launched to focus more on Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal, and Karnataka. It was to help to the organizations who are already helping the needy and also to provide them authority and the powers for the flexible functioning of the organization.

·    National Rural Livelihood Mission: Aajeevika (2011): This scheme was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development in the year 2011 to provide the employment for unemployed rural persons so that they can have their fixed income on monthly basis.

·    Food Security Bill (2011-2013): This bill was passed by the parliament to provide the food to everyone including children above 6 months. Under this scheme, families who are eligible for this scheme will be provided 5Kg rice, wheat and coarse per person at the price of Rs. three per kilogram for rice, wheat at Rs. two per kilogram and coarse grains at Rs. one per kilogram. This was the largest food security bill in the world which was proposed in parliament in 2011 and became the act in July 2013. And later in the July 2017 the government of Chandigarh and Puducherry had decided to stop this scheme and they started new scheme of direct cash transfer to the families underlying this scheme.

·    Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (2015): This scheme was launched in march 2015 with the partnership of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship via the National Skill Development Corporation to train the youth who were unable to afford good skill trainings for their development. This scheme mainly focuses on the working labor who were 10^th and 12^th dropout.

               

 

 

2.      ACTUAL CHANGE IN DATA TILL NOW: - If we go through the data provided by the ministries and the survey agencies then there is a major change in the data of poverty from the year 1990 to 2015. According to a 2011 poverty Development Goals Report, India's poverty rate projected to drop from 51% in 1990 to about 22% in 2015. Also, in 2015, according to United Nations Millennium Development Goals program, Government of India succeeded in achieving the target of reducing poverty by half. And according to United Nations report 24.7% of its 1.2 billion people in 2011 living below the poverty line or having income of less than $1.25 a day. According to 2011 Global Hunger report for India, India has improved its performance by 22% in 20 years of the people aged between 30.4 to 23.7 over 1990 to 2011 period. But these data showed a little change in the year 2001 to 2011 i.e. the improvement rate in between these years was only 3%. In year 2014 Global Hunger Index, there were a sharp decrement in the percentage of underweight children and this actually helped India improve its hunger record. This helped India to rank on 55 among 76 emerging economies in the world. The prevalence of underweight children under the age of five fell from 43.5% to 30.7% in the year 2005 to 2014.

3.      Actual Facts (writers’ point of view on poverty): - Obviously the data provided by the high ranked agencies and government are very much crystal clear and perhaps we may have no questions on this. But there may be many aspects for these data, and lets us analyze these data with a different aspect.

·    If we start studying the data from the year from the population point of view then, India’s population in the year 1960s were 439234771 and at that time the poverty rate was 44% (i.e. 193263299.24 people were in the below poverty line.). And in the year 1970s, India’s population was 548159652 and at that time the poverty was approximately 53% (i.e. 290524615.56 people were in poverty in the below poverty line). And now let’s move to the 1980s, the population at that time was 683329097 and at the same time the poverty rate was nearly 44.5% (i.e. 297248157.195 people were in the list of below poverty line.). Also, in the 1990s, the population of India was 846427039 and the rate of poverty at that time was 36% approximately (i.e. 304713734.04 people were in the list of below poverty line.).

·     Now let’s enter in the most developing era in the Indian history, the era of 20^th century. 20^th century made India as very fast developing country in nearly every aspect. So, let us analyze the data for the fast-developing era from the beginning of the 20^th century. India’s population in 2000s were approximately 1146257000 and the same time India’s poverty rate was 41.6% approximately (i.e. 476842912 people were living in below poverty line at that time.). And now we’ll just analyze the data of the year 2015, the population in the year 2015 was approximately 1310152392 and the rate of poverty at that time was 28% (i.e.  366842669.76 people were living in the below poverty line at that time).

·     So, if we try to understand these historical data then these data are giving a deep meaning. It shows that poverty in India is constantly increasing with rapid increase in the population. The things related to poverty was always same at all the time after the independent India except way to tackle the poverty. In last 10-20 year many measures were taken to win the poverty, but it is not showing the major impacts.

·     Year 2020 was not good very good for every citizen in all the country. And the researchers are already foretelling about the Corona’s negative effect on the poverty. Perhaps the poverty boom will be the major event happening during and after the corona pandemic.

 

THERE ARE MANY MORE ASPECTS TO ANALYSE THE POVERTY WHICH CLEARLY REVEALS THAT POVERTY GRAPH IS CONSTANTLY INCREASING. AND IF YOU(READER) HAVE ANY, THEN PLEASE LET US KNOW SO THAT WE CAN SPREAD YOUR OPINION TO THE MANY OTHERS. AND THIS ALL WILL LEAD US TO A FEASIBLE SOLUTION TO WIN THE POVERTY.

 

 

 NOTE- All the points mentioned in this article are based on the writer’s personal research and for   more many other researches and article follow www.apnidigitalpathshala.blogspot.com