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Poverty and the Indian story of the numbers below the poverty line. What are the solutions?

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Essay Contest for UPSC Exam for IAS

According to world bank, poverty is pronounced deprivation in well being and comprises many dimensions. It includes low income and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity.poverty, condition or situation in which a person or community lacks the basic resources ofor a minimum standard of living. Unable to buy essential things.Poverty can be a cyclic trap for people to rise above poverty, they need education, proper health care and sanitation access to clean water, job opportunities that can help them improve their financial situation.

Due to the growing  population in urban areas, India's poverty rate is rising. Unfortunately people in poverty often live in areas low on these resources. Each country has its own threshold of defining poverty. For some developed ones like Sweden or norway ownership of a car or house may be the prerequisite, whereas for developing and poor countries even availability of a two square meal is treated as being above the poverty line. Poverty, often characterized with income disparity and unequal distribution of national wealth between the rich and poor.

Poverty estimation in india carried out by NITI Aayog's task force through the calculation of poverty line based on the data captured by the national sample survey office under Ministry of statics. According to NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional poverty index, india's population living in multidimensional poverty was 14.96%. The rular areas of india experienced multidimensional poverty of 19.28%. Various committees have worked on poverty such as National Planning Committee(1938),YK Algah Committee(1979),Suresh Tendulkar committee(2005) and Rangrajan committee(2011).The NITI Aayog has accepted Tendulkar Methodology for estimation of poverty line. There are numbers of causes of poverty in india which are fast growing population has reduced the per capita income of India hence the standard if living has also fallen considerably. Unemployment is one of the most important reason, the widening gap between the rich and poor, inflation also leads to poverty because income earned by poor people is not sufficient to buy basic necessities of life. A rise in price of a commodity forces them to remain in poverty, unequal distribution of wealth.

Poverty line defines its is an imaginary linr developed by economist in order to define a poor person using certain standard measure or criteria such that all poor people lie below the poverty line and any one above the poverty line is not poor.the economic diparity is evident when we exmine the poverty rates across the states and union territories. The poverty line in India is based on a method known as the Tendulkar methoda with considers expenditures on food,education, health, electricity and transport.As of 2023 states such as Bihar, jharkhand,uttar pradesh and madhya pradesh have some of the highest percentage of their population living below the poverty line.

Poverty exists in india it does not mean that the government is ignoring this issue rather various poverty alleviation programs have been started by the government. Such as integrated rural development scheme(1980),Employment assurance scheme(1993),pradhan mantri Rojgar yojna(1993),National social Assistance programme (1995),Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act(2005),pradhan Mantri Ujjawala yojna(2016),pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan yojna(2006). According to the 2023 release" United Nation Praises a remarkable achievements by India."A total of 415 million people moved out of poverty in India within just 15 years from 2005/2006 to 2019/2021.

As we have discussed above the government is launching schemes, programs, campaigns etc. to remove poverty from the society. Apart from this, the government also has other solutions to eliminate poverty.

  1. Education will help to bring out the best in human body mind and spirit.
  2. Establishment of small scale industries
  3. Equal distribution of wealth and resources
  4. Land reforms
  5. Social and political atmosphere
  6. Government should develop cottage, handicrafts industries in backward
  7. Boosting agriculture
  8. Promoting skill development, strengthening social security
  9. Ground level inspection by government officials.
  10. Labour intensive rathe than capital intensive techniques
  11. Minimum needs programme (In the fifth five year plan this programme was introduced for the first time) 

However, our India has capable to bounce back from any unique challenge. Eliminating poverty overnight is not an easy task. But looking at the way the government other agencies doing its work, it seems that in the near future the poverty rate in India will reduce completely.

-MUDRA PADMASHALI

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