POVERTY

CLASS IX

KRISHNAKUMAR C S
DAV-BHEL SCHOOOL, RANIPET
Poverty is a situation in which an individual is unable
to fulfill the basic necessities of life such as food,
shelter, clothing, basic education and healthcare.
 PEOPLE WHO ARE VULNERABLE TO
POVERTY

LANDLESS PEOPLE IN
LABOURERS SLUMS(JUGGIS)

WORKERS IN BEGGERS CHILD WORKERS IN

CONSTRUCTION SITES DHABAS
 POVERT SITUATION IN INDIA
• India has the largest number of poor
people in the World.

• Every fourth person in India is poor.

• 270 million (or 27 crore) people in India

lived in poverty in 2011-12.
 CASE STUDIES
URBAN POVERTY – STORY OF RAM SARAN
• Ram Saran is a daily wage worker in a flour mill
near Ranchi in Jharkhand.
• He earns Rs. 1500 per month.
• He has to support a family of six – four children
and his wife apart from him.
• He has to send money to his parents living in
native place.
• He lives in a one room thatched hut in the
outskirts of the city.
• His wife works as a house maid and earns Rs.
800 per month.
• His son works in a tea stall and earns Rs. 300.
• Children do not go to school.
• The family does not have enough food and proper
clothes.
RURAL POVERTY – THE STORY OF LAKHA SINGH
• Lakha Singh is a landless agricultural worker
living near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
• He earns Rs. 50 per day when he has work in
farm.
• Sometimes, he is paid in kind – Wheat, dal or
vegetables.
• His family of eight people does not get adequate
food.
• He lives in a hut in the outskirts of the village.
• Women of the family collect fire wood and fodder.
• His father passed away due to TB. He did not get
medical attention.
• His mother suffers from the same disease.
• Lakha did not study
 CHARACTERISTICS OF POOR PEOPLE
(MANIFESTATIONS OF POVERTY)
They live in huts. Some of them do not have any
shelter.
In villages, they are landless. Some of them have
small pieces of land.
They do not get sufficient food. Starvation is
common among them. Children suffer from
malnutrition.
They are uneducated and unskilled. So, it is
difficult to get employment.
Many of them suffer from diseases. Health
condition is poor.
They do not get safe drinking water and sanitation
facilities.
The children do not get education.
They borrow money from money lenders and fall
in to debt trap.
 GANDHIJI’S WORDS ABOUT POVERTY

India would be truly

independent only when the poorest of its
people become free of human suffering
Income and consumption
are the indicators of poverty.
However, social scientists
consider many other
indicators such as illiteracy,
malnutrition, lack of access
to healthcare, lack of job
opportunities, lack of
access to safe drinking water,
sanitation etc. Analysis of
poverty based on social
exclusion and vulnerability
is now becoming very common
SOCIAL EXCLUSION AND POVERTY
• Poor people generally live together in the areas
without sanitation and drinking water facilities.
• In the outskirts of the cities we find large slums
where thousands of poor people live.
• The rich people live together in posh areas with all
needed facilities.
• So, poor are socially excluded.
• Social exclusion is both a cause and a consequence
of poverty.
 VULNERABILITY TO POVERTY

NON VULNERABLE VULNERABLE

 VULNERABILITY
• Vulnerability to poverty refers to the possibility to
get affected by poverty.
• Some sections of the society are more vulnerable to
poverty.
• Backward castes, widows and handicapped people
are more vulnerable to poverty.
• They have lesser opportunities to get education,
health care and jobs.
• They are more likely to get affected by natural
disasters.
POVERTY LINE
• The minimum income required for a person to
satisfy his basic necessities of life is termed Poverty
Line. It is used to identify the poor people.
 Estimation of Poverty line
The minimum food required for a person is
calculated in calories. Then it is converted to equivalent
money value. A minimum amount is added for shelter
and clothing. The total amount is called Poverty Line.

If a persons income or expenditure is less than

poverty line, he is considered poor (Below Poverty Line).
India uses Monthly Per capita Expenditure(MPCE) to
identify BPL families.
 CALORIE REQUIREMENT IN INDIA
• 2400 calories per person per day is the calorie
requirement in rural areas.

• 2100 calories per person per day is the calorie

requirement in urban areas.

• Calorie requirement is higher in rural areas because

village people do more manual work than the urban
people.
 POVERTY LINE
• The poverty line for a person was fixed at Rs 816 per
month for rural areas and Rs 1000 for urban areas in
2011 – 12.
• If a family of 5 spends less than Rs. 4340 per month, it
can be considered as a BPL family.
• If a family of 5 spends less than Rs. 5000 per month, it
can be considered a BPL family.
• Poverty line is fixed higher in urban areas because cost
of living is more in urban areas than in rural areas.
• Poverty line is fixed periodically on the basis of the data
collected by National Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO).
• $1.90 per person per day is the Poverty Line fixed by
World Bank.
POVERTY TRENDS IN INDIA
 POVERTY TRENDS IN INDIA
• Proportion of people below poverty line is called
Poverty Ratio.

• Poverty ratio in India has decreased from about 45

per cent in 1993-94 to 37.2 per cent in 2004–05.

• In 2011 – 12, it has come down to 22%.

• the number of poor people declined from 407

million in 2004–05 to 270 million in 2011–12
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Inter-state disparities of poverty in India
 Inter-state disparities of poverty in India

• Poverty is a serious problem in Orissa, Bihar, Assam,

Tripura and Uttar Pradesh.

• Orissa and Bihar are the poorest states of India.

• Poverty has declined significantly in Kerala, Jammu

and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat
and west Bengal.

• Punjab and Haryana are the richest states of India.

• Agricultural development helped Punjab and
Haryana to reduce poverty.

• Human Resource Development resulted in decline

of poverty in Kerala.

• Land reforms contributed to reduction in Poverty in

West Bengal.

• Excellent Public Distribution System is the reason

behind less poverty in Tamil Nadu and Andhra.
 GLOBAL POVERTY SCENORIO
• $1.90 per day is global poverty line fixed by the
World Bank.
• The proportion of people below poverty line in the
World decreased from fallen 36 per cent in 1990 to
10 per cent in 2015.
• Poverty declined sharply in China and Southeast
Asian due to economic growth and human capital
formation.
• In South Asian countries like India, Pakistan and
Srilanka, poverty decreased from 34 per cent in
2005 to 16.2 per cent in 2013.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty declined from 51 per
cent in 2005 to 41 per cent in 2015
• In Latin America, the ratio of poverty declined from
10 per cent in 2005 to 4 per cent in 2015.

• Poverty has also reappeared in some of the former

socialist countries like Russia.

• The new sustainable development goals of the

United Nations (UN) proposes ending poverty of all
types by 2030.
 CAUSES OF POVERTY
• Colonial Exploitation: Policies of the British government in
India led to the decline of Indian handicrafts. Economic
growth rate was very low during the British rule.
• Rapid growth of population: Indian population grows at the
rate of more than 2%per annum. It leads to poverty and
unemployment.
• Drawbacks of the Green Revolution: Green Revolution was
limited to few states and few crops. It did not take place in
states like Bihar and Orissa.
• Economic Inequality: Most of the resources of India
are owned by a small group of rich people.
Inequality between the rich and the poor is one of
the main causes of poverty.

• Indebtedness: Many people have taken loans from

moneylenders for unproductive purposes. They are
not able to reply the loans. So, they are in debt trap.
 Government strategy of poverty alleviation

Promotion of Anti-Poverty
Economic Growth Programmes
 Promotion of Economic Growth

• India’s economic growth is one of the fastest in the

world.

• Economic Planning is adopted for achieving quick

economic growth.

• Economic growth will create employment

opportunities and reduce the problem of poverty.
 Anti-Poverty Programmes:
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Act [ NREGA] :

It was passed in 2005. It provides 100 days assured

employment every year to every rural household in
200 districts.

• National Food for Work Programme (NFWP):

It was launched in 2004 in 150 most backward

districts. Unskilled workers are given employment.
Wage is paid in the form of food grains.
• Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yozana:

It was launched in 1993. It aims at creating self

employment for educated unemployed youth in rural
areas.

• Rural Employment Generation Programme:

It was launched in 1995. It aims at creating self

employment in rural areas.
• Swarna jayanti Gram Swarozgar yojana (SGSY):
It was launched in 1999. It aims at helping the BPL
families to come above poverty line. Bank credit and
government subsidy are made available to them
through the self help groups.
• Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY): It was
launched in 2000. States are given help to provide
basic services like health, education, drinking water
e.t.c. to the poor people.
 REASONS BEHIND THE FAILURE OF POVERTY
ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES
• Poverty Alleviation Programmes are not properly
implemented in India. Many of the programmes are
only in paper.
• There are several schemes for poverty alleviation. We
find an overlapping of schemes.
• Corruption at the political level and also at the officers’
level makes these schemes ineffective. The real poor
are not benefited.
Challenges in the way of poverty alleviation in India.
• Number of poor people are more in the rural areas.
So, village development should be given
importance.
• Some States of India are extremely poor. Special
development projects should be undertaken for
them.
• Illiteracy and ignorance are two challenges in the
path of development of the villages.
THANK YOU