Indian Streams Research Journal
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‘Rural Poverty and Indian Economy-A systematic and Critical Evaluation’
Abstract -
In this paper we describe the rural poverty in India
for the representation of a systematic and critical evaluation in
the context of Indian Economy. In the modern period (21st century),
our country faces so many difficulties due to the cause of over population.
Poverty eradication programes are helpful to reduce rural poverty by all means. For the betterment of our N.I, over
population control & poors upliftment will be an extent to rural
development. The poverty line indicates the low income level of the poor Indian
inhabitant, just after independence to up to 5th Five Year Plan
period, but at the moment it is moderately improving on behalf of the Govt.
existing policies.
Indian economy has been on the
stir upwards since independence. Its achievements in the course of the last two
decades have been rationally impressive. In India, poverty has been defined as
that situation in which an individual fails to earn income sufficient to buy
goods for him. It means that subsistence which consists of minimum physical
quantities of cereals, pulses, milk, butter, etc. to provide the minimum
nutritional level. Rural population in 2010 was 818,485,662.0 and number of rural poor
(in million- approximate) calculated 231,631,442.3.
At the beginning of the new
millennium, 260 million people in the country did not have incomes to access a
consumption basket which defines the poverty line. Of these, 75 % were in the
rural areas. India is home to 22 % of the
world’s poor. Such a high incidence of poverty is a matter of concern in view
of the fact that poverty eradication has been one of the major objectives of
the development planning process. Indeed, poverty is a global issue. Its
eradication is considered essential to humanity’s mission for sustainable
development. Reduction of poverty in India,
is therefore, critical for the
attainment of international goals.
The
number of poor people in India,
according to the country’s Eleventh
National Development Plan, amounts to more than 300 million. The country
has been successful in reducing the proportion of poor people from about 55 %
in 1973 to about 27 % in 2004. But
almost one third of the country’s
population of more than 1.1 billion continues to live below the poverty line,
and a large proportion of poor people
live in rural areas. Poverty
remains a chronic condition for almost 30
% of India’s
rural population. The incidence of rural poverty has declined somewhat
over the past three decades as a result of rural to urban migration.
Poverty
is deepest among members of scheduled castes and tribes in the country's rural
areas. In 2005 these groups accounted for 80
% of poor rural people, although their share in the total rural population
is much smaller. On the map of poverty in India,
the poorest areas are in parts of Rajasthan,
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Large numbers of India's poorest
people live in the country's semi-arid tropical region. In this area shortages
of water and recurrent droughts impede the transformation of agriculture that
the Green Revolution has achieved
elsewhere. There is also a high incidence of poverty in flood-prone areas such as those extending from Eastern Uttar Pradesh to the Assam plains, and especially in Northern Bihar.Poverty affects tribal
people in forest areas, where loss of entitlement to resources has made them
even poorer. In coastal fishing communities people's living conditions are
deteriorating because of environmental degradation, stock depletion and
vulnerability to natural disasters. A major cause of poverty among India’s rural people, both individuals and
communities, is lack of access to productive assets and financial resources.
High levels of illiteracy, inadequate
health care and extremely limited access to social services are common
among poor rural people.
Different sectors of the Indian
economy like agriculture, industry, trade, banking, insurance, transport, communication,
etc have made modest to good progress. A lot of many structural changes have
also taken lace. India
economy has made significant evolution in moving from underdevelopment to
development, from poverty (mainly rural poverty) to prosperity. However despite
this, the Indian economy still exhibits certain features which discriminate an
underdeveloped economy. One such features is low level of income. Per capita
income of India
is one of the lowest in the world. China
and Sri Lanka have higher
per capita income than India.
Low per capita income indicates low economic welfare of the people and
existence of massive rural poverty
in the country.
Problem of poverty in India
-
Poverty is as old as mankind.
Poverty has degraded human lives for centuries. But one of the great
achievements of the 21th century
is its vivid reduction. Although poverty has been greatly reduced in many parts
of the world, countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are still characterised by the existence of heightened
poverty. One - third of the population of these developing countries still
remains in severe poverty. Although pockets of poverty exist even in the
developed countries of Europe and America also. Poverty is in large
shape in all the Third
World Countries.
The Indian economy is also affected by this plague of poverty.
Problem of poverty is considered
as the biggest challenge to development planning in India. Higher poverty level is
synonymous with poor quality of the life, deprivation, malnutrition, illiteracy
and low human resource development. The slogan of poverty eradication has been
adopted by all political parties in one from or another. Despite various
schemes and programmes adopted to achieve the objectives of eradicating poverty,
high problem of poverty continues to preoccupy the Indian economy.
Poverty can be taken in two
senses, e.g. ‘absolute’ and ‘relative’ poverty. Absolute poverty is
defined as a phenomenon when a section of the society is unable to get even its
basic requirements of life and thereby it is unable to have a minimum level of
living. Thus absolute poverty is defined in terms of some absolute minimum standard
of living can be expressed in terms of minimum income level or minimum
consumption expenditure. On the other hand, relative poverty refers to the
phenomenon when the income for consumption expenditure of a section of the
society. It refers to a situation of failing behind most other members of the
community. It is related to distribution of income or distribution of
consumption expenditure in the society.
The poverty line (or poverty-level) indicates the income level which is
just sufficient to buy the basic minimum quantity of food required. The determination
of the poverty line involves following steps -
1. The Planning Commission of
India
had defined the poverty line in terms of nutritional requirement of 2,400 calories per person per day for rural areas and 2,100 calories for urban areas. Calories requirements for rural people are higher because people who
are engaged in more physical work.
2. Poverty line is identified in terms of per capita consumption
expenditure required to get the minimum calories intake.
3. BPL card holder
peoples are also identified as poor.
According to the Expert Group of
the planning Commission, under the Chairmanship of Prof. D.T. Lakdawala for the estimation of poverty in India, the
earlier estimates of the planning commission have been revised as per the
methodology recommended by the Expert Group.
A -
Table
Number
and percentage of population below Poverty Line 
Source - GoI survey-2001- 02
It is clear from this table that
the incidence of poverty declined steadily at the base of percentage of persons for both rural sectors & urban sectors at
all India
level.
Interstate Variations of Rural Indian Poverty-
A recent state level study shows
that more than 90 % of India’s rural
poor live in 10 major states. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal. What is more shocking is that 54 % of India’s
poor lived in the states of Bihar , Madhya
Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh
in 2004-05. This indicates the concentration
of the bulk of the poor in these
states . As against this, the poverty ratio is, low in states like Gujarat, Kerala , Haryana and Punjab. In fact, states like Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Delhi,
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and West Bengal have achieved
a significant reduction in poverty in the course of economic development. But
the States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar
Pradesh have experienced a slower rate of poverty reduction during the last
two decades. This has led to widening of interstate inequalities.
According to R. Nurkse, “vicious circle
of poverty implies a circular
constellation of forces tending to act and react upon one another in such a way
as to keep a poor country in a state of
poverty”. Vicious circle of poverty refers a kind of trap in all the developing
economic countries in depressed condition.
Causes of poverty at a glance – are
so many as laid down below-
(i)
Rapid population growth among the rural poors.
(ii)
Low growth rates in the economy & unemployment in
wide range.
(iii)
Inequalities among the rural poors & little trickle
down effect of economic development.
(iv)
Agricultural backwardness & inadequate anti-poverty
measures.
(v)
Low education level among the rural poors & socio-cultural
factors & political factors etc.
Eradication Measures of Poverty - all are as given below-
(i)
Economic growth & agricultural development.
(ii)
Development of small & cottage scale industries, population
control & land reforms.
(iii)
Public distribution system & so many poverty alleviation
programmes etc.
Govt. Programmes of Poverty & Unemployment
Alleviation -
The important programmes are NREGP/S,
Rural Landless and Employment Guarantee
Programme, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, Integrated Rural Development Programme,
Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment, Self Employment Programme for Urban
Poor, Nehru Rozgar Yojna, Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana, and Prime Minister’s
Integrated Urban Poverty
Eradication Programme etc.
Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana - was introduced in April 1999 by restricting the Jawahar
Rozgar Yojana. It has two main objectives -
i.
The primary objectives are to create durable productive community assets and infrastructure
at the village level.
ii. The
secondary objectives are to generate wage employment for unemployed poor in the rural areas.
Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana- was launched
on 1 April - 1999 by restricting
and combining a number of previous programmes like IRDP, TRYSEM
and other allied
programmes.
Up to December 31, 2010, about
154 .87 lakh persons have been assisted with a total outay of Rs. 37,927 crore.
Pradhan Mantri Gramodya Yojana - was introduced in the Budget of 2000-01 . Its objectives are
to focus on village level development in five critical areas, i.e., health,
primary education, drinking water, housing and rural roads.
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana – was launched in September 2001. The
objectives of the scheme are –
i. To provide
wage employment along with food security in the rural areas to people who live
in the below poverty line.
ii. To create
durable community, social and economic fresh environment.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme -
(MGNREGS)This scheme aims at
increasing livelihood security to rural households. With the NREG Act
being passed in 2005 , the NREGS was
implemented from February, 2006 in 200 most backward districts
of the country with the objectives
of providing at least 100 days of guaranteed unskilled
wage employment in a year to each rural
household opting for at
the minimum wages of Rs. 120 per day. The NREGS was renamed as MGNREGS
on 2 October 2009.
A study conducted in Ajmer, Udaipur,
Pali and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan
for the period 1995-2001 observed that,
Employment Assurance Scheme,
Jawahar Rozgar Yojana and Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana, funds were
utilised mainly to create school buildings, health infrastructure or economic
infrastructure such as roads shops etc.
In Uttar Pradesh a study was conducted in 20 villages in 10 districts
viz., Bareilly, Aligarh, Meerut/ Baghpat, Deoria, Jaunpur, Allahabad / Kaushambi, Fatehpur, Unnao,
Hamirpur & Pithoragarh. The study revealed that during 2000-2010, some
work was found to have been done in each of the villages under the employment
generation programmes although the quantum varied.
Conclusions of the proposed systematic
& critical evaluation –
Rural poverty and Indian economy
is a wide study with its systematic & critical evaluation in the special
reference to 21st century
rural poors.
The success of the anti-poverty
strategy can be gauged from the decline in poverty levels from 37.27 % in
1993-94 to 27.09 % in 1999-2000 in the rural
areas. Indian economy is more than better now due to the uplifting
conditions by all means, for all the Indian
rural poors.
References-
(i) Countering Uncertainties–Strategies for Sustainable Livelihood : An
assessment of the impact of poverty reduction programmes on the poor in
Rajasthan-Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur.
(ii) Anti-Poverty Programmes in Uttar
Pradesh: An Evaluation-Institute of Human Development, New Delhi.
(iii)
Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India.
(iv) National Scheduled Caste Finance and
Development Corporation.
(v) Govt. of India Survey.
Author -
S.L.Soni (Research Scholar)
(Deptt. of Economics & Rural Development
Dr. R.M.Lohiya Avadh University Faizabad - U.P)
(M)
- 09415766626
Email:
soni_lko06@yahoo.co.in
Corresponding
address –
S.L.Soni
(Lecturer in Economics)
C/o
Principal,
Sherwood Academy, Sec-25, Indira Nagar - Lucknow - U.P.
(M) – 09415766626
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Full Name :
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S.L.Soni
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Article Name :
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‘Rural Poverty and Indian Economy-A systematic and Critical Evaluation’
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Designation :
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Lecturer in
Economics in Sherwood
Academy Lucknow-
Uttar Pradesh - India
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E-Mail ID :
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soni_lko06@yahoo.co.in
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Contact No. :
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09415766626
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