poverty

Question 1

What are the basic aims of independent India?

Answer 1

• To provide the basic minimum needs to all and ensure a basic standard of living
• To uplift the poorest of the poor and integrate them into the mainstream
• Reduction of poverty

Question 2

What is poverty?

Answer 2

It is the situation where the people are unable to fulfill even the basic necessities of life

Question 3

Who are the urban poor?

Answer 3

ragpickers, bangal makers, construction workers, women who string flowers, beggars, casual laboures
largely the rural outflow looking for alternative employment

Question 4

Who are the rural poor

Answer 4

cutivators
landless agricultural labourers
landless labourers others

Question 5

What are the challenges that the poor face?

Answer 5

Low levels of literacy
lack of education healthcare maternal care
lack of access to electricity
no access to clean safe drinking water
lack of toilet facilities and proper sanitation
extreme gender inequality
malnutrition, starvation
low economic opportunities
ill health physical ailments
economic exploitation
chronic indebtedness - high rates charged by moneylenders

Question 6

Where do the poor live?

Answer 6

slums
streets
kutcha huts with baked mud walls and roofs of thatch, grass, wood, bamboo

Question 7

What was the first attempt at a poverty line in pre-independent india?

Answer 7

Dadabhai Naoroji
jail cost of lliving
hoever only adults in jail
children too
1/3rd of population half eat negligible half eat half of adults therefore 2/3rd full + 1/6th negligeble + 16th half + 3/4th full - of jail cost of living

Question 8

What is absolute and relative poverty?

Answer 8

Absolute poverty - situation where person is unable to meet their basic demands

• measured throught the poverty line
• cannot be completely eradicated
• found in developing countries
• the standards remain constant

Relative poverty - Refers to the situation where the person is unable to meet the average standard of living basically poverty in comparison to other people countries social groups etc.
=- can be completely eradicated
- found in developed countries
- measured througt the gini coefficient and lorenz curve
- standards are different for different places social groups times

Question 9

What were some post independence measures at identifying the poor?

Answer 9

1962 - Planning Commisiion - study group
1979 - task Force on Prohjections of Minimum needs and effective consumption demand
1989 and 2005 - expert groups for the same purposes

Question 10

What are the different categories of poor and non-poor?

Answer 10

Chronic poor - always poor + usually poor
Transiet poor - Occasionaly porr + Churning poor
Non-poor - never poor

Question 11

What is the monthly per capita expenditure method for the poverty line?

Answer 11

first minimum calorie intake - 2400 for rual 2100 for urban - rural do more ohysical labour
per monthly capita expenditure - 816 Rs - rural 1000 rupees urban
many criticisms - gorups all different types of poor together
cannot identify which poor needs most help
does not take into account other factors such as access to sanitation, education water, food civil and political freedoms, discrimination, ill health, illetracy

therefore alternative measures - amartya sen - nobel laureate - sen index - poverty gap index squared poverty gap

Question 12

has the number of poor decreased?

Answer 12

The government claims that the number of poor has decreased due to the economic reforms agricultural growth poverty alleviation and work rural programmes and high agricultural production
however many people criticise this statement as they believe the way of findong these estimates - the commoditoies included in the basket the methodology used number of poor manipulated to get these figures

Question 13

What is the poverty line?

Answer 13

It is a cut off point on the line of distribution of people as poor and non-poor

Question 14

What is head count ratio

Answer 14

The proportion of people below the poverty line

Question 15

By whom is the official data of poverty made available to the public by ? What is it estimated on the basis on?

Answer 15

NITI Aayog
consumption expenditure information collected by the National Sample Survey organisation or the National Statistical organisation’s data
ratio declining slower trate than absolute
gap between urban and poor decreasing absolute gap stable 1993-4 increased ratio
west bengal odisha, tamil nadu bihar mp up
tamil nadu and west bengal progress but other four stuill high above poverty line

Question 16

What are the causes off poverty?

Answer 16

Gloablisation
Macroeconomic 
- low demand
- low NNP
- lack of infrastructure
- Lack of social/welfare nets
- insufficient capital stock and capital formation

Indebtedness - high rate sof interest
British Rule
- deindustrailisation
high taxes
replacement of local goods like cotton from Lancashire\
drain of wealth
depletion of natural resources
export of food grains commercialisation p food shortages

Lack of access to healthcare and education

Social isolation social inequalities in access to resources and wealth
discrimination

capitalism - inequalities in wealth and income
unemployment - lack of alternative employment opportunities inability of industry an dservice sectors to absorb agricultural sector
population explosion
inflation
ineffectiveness of land redistribution programmes
- loopholes and exploitation
- small farmers unable to acquire resources or financial help need to use it productively
- small areas of land - less productive low agricultural output

Question 17

What was the first approach to poverty alleviation?

Answer 17

1950s and 1960s 1st and 2nd five year plans
increase in economic growth increase in gdp and per capita income - trickle down to all sections of society however high rate of population growth low per capita income
development of industrial sector green revolution - developing and backward areas however it increased disparities unwillingness to redistribute land
wealth did not trickle down

Question 18

What is the 2nd approach to reducing poverty?

Answer 18

creation of income and employment throught creation of additional assets + work generation

National food for work programme
2004
 100% centrally sponsored
supplementary wage employment
construction of infrastructure 
comensatuion part cash part food
later integrated with the MNREGA

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Emplotment guarantee act
- guarantees 100 days of unskilled manual work to every adult volunteer of a rural housejld if unable to provide work unemployment allowance
creation of infrastructre
- minimum wage
1/3rd reserved for women
2008
Rural Employment Generation programme
financial assisatnce in the form of amll loans for setting up dmall industries in rural areas
khadi and village commission implemet it
self employment opportunities rural india

Prime Minister’s Rozgar YOjana
- financial assistance to educated unemployment in rural and urban areas for setting up any enterprise that would generate employment

Swarna jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana
- self and wage employment opportunities for urban poor
Prime Minister’s employment generation act

Self help groups - 1990s
Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana - restructured as national rural livelihoods mission renamed as deendayal upadhyaya antyodaya yojana - similar ntuonal urban livelihoods mission
encourage to save lend out small loans to each other later government part finaancial assistance through loans bt banks and then the self help grou can decide amongst themselves who is in need of it

Question 19

what is the third approach to poverty alleviation?

Answer 19

supplement basic consumption of poor
public expenditure on social consumption needs – improvement in living standard
Provide basic education and healthcare
Improve employment opportunities
Public Distribution Scheme – Food Distribution – Food grains at low affordable prices
Integrated Child Development Scheme – food, pre primary education, primary healthcare, health check-ups, immunization for children under 6 years of age pregnant women new mothers
Midday Meal Scheme
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana – Infrastructure all weather road connectivity in rural areas
Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana – improving housing facilities for urban slum dwellers, creation of public toilets
National Social Assistance Programme – pensions given to elderly who have no one to care for themselves, poor destitute women, poor widows
Healthcqre insurance programmes
2014 – Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana – creation of bank accounts – encourage savings habits + directly providing benefits of schemes and subsidies + 1 lakh rupees accident insurance + Rs. 30000 life insurance cover

Question 20

why is there no radical change in ownership of assets, process of production and provsion of basic nessecities?

Answer 20

lack of activation from local level institutions
lack of active participation from the poor
government officials- corrupt ill motive - prssure from local elite groups - ineffecient manage and se of resources
resources not sufficent for magnitude of poverty
inability to hep thos on or just above the line
inequality in assets and other resources appropriated by non-poor