Published on 12 Feb 2025
Poverty can be defined as a state of deprivation characterized by the inability to access essential resources and opportunities required for a decent standard of living, encompassing inadequate income, lack of access to basic services, limited educational and employment opportunities, and social exclusion.
|
Basic statistics related to poverty ✔ At the time of independence in 1947, poverty in India was 70%. ✔ As per Suresh Tendulkar Committee report, in India 21.9% of the population lives below national poverty line in 2011. ✔ As per census 2011, persons below poverty line in rural areas is 25.7% and in urban areas it is 13.7%. ✔ As per World Bank Paper on India’s poverty, extreme poverty was 12.3% points lower in 2019 compared with 2011. |
Types of Poverty
✔ Absolute poverty: A condition characterised by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.
✔ Relative poverty: Relative poverty arises when individuals do not experience a designated minimum standard of living set by the government or enjoyed by the majority of the population. This threshold varies from country to country.
✔ Situational poverty: Situational poverty occurs when an unexpected crisis, such as a job loss, illness, or natural disaster, temporarily plunges an individual or family into economic hardship. Unlike chronic poverty, it's often reversible with time or intervention.
✔ Generational poverty: It involves the transmission of poverty-related conditions and circumstances from parents to their children. The cycle may be perpetuated by a combination of systemic issues, social structures, and individual challenges that make it difficult for successive generations to escape poverty.
✔ Rural poverty: This occurs in rural areas, where there are less job opportunities, less quality education opportunities and less access to services.
✔ Urban poverty: Urban poverty is characterized by challenges such as inadequate housing, limited access to education and healthcare, high unemployment rates, and insufficient infrastructure for the people lives in cities and towns.
Causes of Poverty
✔ Economic Factors
● Low agriculture productivity: It reduces the income of farmers, leading to widespread poverty in rural areas.
o Example: Nearly 80% of the world’s extreme poor live in rural areas, with most relying on farming for their livelihood (World Bank)
● Inflation and food price: This disproportionately impact low-income households by reducing their purchasing power and making it harder to afford essential goods and services.
o Example: 71 million more people around the world experienced poverty as a result of soaring food and energy prices that climbed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine (UNDP Report).
● Unemployment and underemployment: High levels of unemployment or underemployment result in insufficient income to meet basic needs, leading to poverty for individuals and families.
o Example: A 2020 OECD Report found that individuals unemployed for more than a year are 5 times more likely to be living in poverty compared to those in employment.
● Poverty trap: A vicious poverty cycle reinforces the conditions of poverty and trapping individuals in a persistent state of economic hardship locking in poverty across generations.
✔ Social and Cultural Factors
● Discrimination and social exclusion: Marginalized groups like women, disabled face discrimination in accessing employment, and essential services, increasing their vulnerability to poverty.
o Example: Female Labour Force Participation rate is only 37% (Ministry of Women and Child Development)
● Large population: Due to rapid population growth reduced the per capita availability of land, leaving households without adequate access to land to generate sufficient output and income.
o Example: On an average, 17 million people are added every year to its population in India
● Size of family: In larger families, resources must be stretched to support more members creating difficulty in meeting basic needs, thus perpetuating the cycle of poverty within the family.
● Law of inheritance: Outdated inheritance laws prevent individuals, majorly women and marginalized groups, from accessing property rights, limiting their economic opportunities.
● Caste: Due to the rigid caste system, the “lower caste” are mostly trapped in caste based economic opportunities which are mostly low income generating.
o Example: Figure shows that Dalits are the least likely to start their own enterprises and most likely to work as labourers for others, with SCs having the lowest relative share in the self-employed category and the highest share in casual labourers.
✔ Political Factors
● Corruption: It diverts resources away from essential services and development, exacerbating poverty by impeding equitable access to opportunities and hindering effective governance.
o Example: Despite being Africa's top oil producer, Nigeria's persistent ranking among the most corrupt nations according to Transparency International leads to its high poverty rate of 40% of its population.
● Failure to enact land reforms: It left a significant portion of land concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy landowners, while many small farmers or landless labourers lack access to productive land.
● Colonial exploitation: Through the exploitation of resources, labour, and markets in colonized regions for the benefit of colonial powers, often leaving local economies weakened and dependent.
o Example: Colonialism transformed India into mere market for the goods from European countries. It also disrupted textile and traditional handicrafts industry in India.
✔ Environmental factors
● Climatic variations affecting agriculture: Climatic variations, such as droughts, floods, and extreme weather events, lead to crop failures and loss of livelihoods for farmers, thereby exacerbating poverty.
o Example: Over 5 million hectares of agricultural area was affected due to heavy rains during 2021 (Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
● Natural disasters: It destroy homes, infrastructure, and livelihoods, forcing affected communities to spend their limited resources on recovery efforts instead of long-term development.
o Example: In 2018 Kerala floods, more than 1000 houses were destroyed or damaged and more than 300 people lost their lives.
Methodologies for Calculation of Poverty
✔ Pre-Independence Estimation of Poverty
● The book “Poverty and Unbritish Rule in India” by Dadabai Naoroji: The estimation was based on cost of subsistence or minimum basic diet by establishing the baseline using 1867-68 prices.
● National Planning Committee (1938): The committee set up under chairmanship of Jawaharlal Nehru considered the essential minimum income to be between Rs.15 and Rs.25 per person per month, calculated at pre-war prices.
● The Bombay Plan (1944): Advocates of the Bombay Plan proposed a poverty line of Rs.75 per person annually.
✔ Post-Independence Estimation of Poverty
● Planning Commission (1962): Planning commission working group decided two different poverty lines of urban and rural areas as income limits of Rs.25 and Rs.20 capita per year respectively.
● VM Dandekar and N Rath (1971): The poverty estimation was based on expenditure that was adequate for 2250 calories per day in both rural and urban areas. It was the first systematic assessment of poverty in India based on National Sample Survey data.
● Y.K Alagh Committee (1979): It established a poverty threshold for both rural and urban areas (at 49.09 and Rs.56.64 per capita per month respectively at 1973-74 prices) by considering nutritional needs and associated consumption expenses.
● Lakdawala Committee (1993): It advocated for a state specific poverty line, and it should be updated using Consumer Price Index- Industrial workers (CPI-IW) in urban areas and Consumer Price Index- Agricultural labourers (CPI-AL) in rural areas.
● Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2005): The committee recommended a shift from measuring calorie intake to nutritional intake. The new poverty line considered monthly spending on education, health, electricity and transport. The Tendulkar committee set a standard daily per capita spending of Rs.27 for rural areas and Rs.33 for urban areas.
● C Rangarajan Committee (2012-2014): The committee estimation was based on survey of households by Center for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). Persons spending below ₹47 a day in cities and ₹32 in villages are considered poor. But it failed to examine in a multidimensional view of poverty.
● NITI Aayog Task Force Task Force (2015): The committee was formed to identify the people living Below Poverty Lines (BPL). It proposes tracking the progress of the bottom 30% of the population over time in areas of poverty such as nutrition, housing, drinking water, sanitation, electricity, and connectivity.
Challenges of Poverty Estimation
✔ Not a holistic measurement: Due to its reliance on a consumption-based model, it might not encompass all dimensions of poverty, including access to healthcare, education, and other essential social services.
✔ Variation of price differentials: Price varies from state to state or commodities thus it creates difficult to select a Poverty Line Basket (PLB).
✔ Unchanged poverty line measurements: Current poverty line rely on the Tendulkar poverty line set at daily expenditures of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas, are considered too low for present conditions.
✔ Lack of consensus among states: States like Odisha and West Bengal favour the Tendulkar Poverty Line, others such as Delhi, Jharkhand, and Mizoram support the Rangarajan report.
✔ Limited coverage: Poverty line measurement excludes households which are marginally above the line yet still encountering considerable difficulties in fulfilling their fundamental requirements.
Redefining Poverty Measures
✔ Redefining poverty lines: The poverty thresholds need to be adjusted periodically to reflect shifts in income, consumption behaviours, and price levels.
✔ Holistic measurement: Addition of dimensions like education, access to healthcare and essential social services in poverty line determination
✔ Hybrid of Absolute and Relative Measurement of Poverty: This would assess poverty based on a universal global standard of living while also considering relative poverty levels within individual countries.
✔ Rethinking Poverty Measures: Policies have to reflect the fact that poverty does not mean living at the edge of hunger but, rather, lack of income to take advantage of the opportunities thrown up by a growing economy.
Multidimensional Poverty
Multidimensional poverty is a more comprehensive understanding of poverty by considering multiple dimensions of well-being simultaneously.
✔ Global Multidimensional Poverty Index: It is the major index for measuring this is global multidimensional poverty and is released by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) to determine the degree of poverty among population across more than 100 developing countries.
✔ National Multidimensional Poverty Index: It is published by NITI Aayog in harmony with global methodology by measuring education, health and standard of living in equal weightages.
Parameters of Measuring Multidimensional Poverty Index
✔ Education: Its subcomponents are years of schooling and school attendance.
✔ Health: Its subcomponents include child and adolescent mortality, nutrition and maternal health
✔ Standard of living: Electricity, housing, drinking water, sanitation, cooking fuel, bank account and assets constitutes standard of living.
Findings of Global Multidimensional Poverty Report 2023
✔ Globally, 18% of the total population are acutely in multidimensional poverty.
✔ 18.7% of Indian population falls under multidimensional poverty.
✔ India’s Progress in Poverty Reduction:
● India is among 25 countries that successfully halved their global MPI values within 15 years.
● Incidence of poverty in India declined from 55.1% in 2005-2006 to 16.4%in 2019-2021.
✔ Improvement in deprivation indicators:
● The proportion of individuals experiencing multidimensional poverty and lacking proper nutrition declined from 44.3% in 2005-2006 to 11.8% in 2019-2021.
● Reduction in child mortality rates from 4.5% to 1.5%.
Effects of Poverty
✔ On Social Parameters
● Infant death: Poverty limits access to adequate healthcare, nutrition, and sanitation, thus increasing the risk of preventable illnesses and complications during pregnancy, childbirth, and infancy.
o Example: Infant Mortality Rate in India is 26 among 1000 live births (World Bank Report 2021). The rate is more in Indian states with lower score in National Multidimensional Poverty index.
● Malnutrition: Poverty limits access to nutritious food leading to malnutrition, food insecurity, and stunted growth, particularly among children which affects their overall health.
o Example: 35.5% of children under five had stunting, 19.3% is wasted and 32.1% is underweight (National Family Health Survey-5).
● Poor overall health: Poverty limit access to healthcare, nutritious food, clean water, and sanitation, it can lead to malnutrition, infectious diseases, chronic illnesses, and shorter life expectancies.
o Example: South Sudan having one of the highest poverty rates, 82.3% have life expectancy of only 55 years.
● Lack of education: Poverty often restricts access to quality education, as families may struggle to afford school fees, uniforms, and supplies thus leading to vicious cycle of poverty.
o Example: Children from the poorest 20% of families are eight times as likely to be out of school as children from the richest 20% in lower-middle-income countries (UNESCO, 2020 Global Education Monitoring Report).
✔ On Economy
● Poor Purchasing Power: Poverty diminishes the purchasing power of the poor by restricting their ability to afford basic necessities and access essential goods and services.
o Example: The poorest half of the global population owns just 2% of the global total, while the richest 10% own 76% of all wealth (World Economic Forum).
● Overall economic growth: Poverty hampers overall economic growth by reducing consumer spending, limiting human capital development, and exacerbating social inequality and instability.
● Internal migration: Economic desperation pushes rural populations towards cities, resulting in an expansion of the informal sector and the proliferation of slums.
o Example: 450 million people or 37% of the population are internal migrants (2011 census)
✔ On Vulnerable Sections
● Child labour: Poverty can push children into exploitative labour to contribute to household income, hindering their development and perpetuating a cycle of poverty.
o Example: 3.9% of total child population (10.1 million children) is working as child labour in India (International Labour Organisation- 2017 Report)
● Child marriages: Poverty often drives families to arrange child marriages as a coping mechanism to alleviate financial burdens or secure resources.
o Example: India has one third of global total of child marriages which accounts to 223 million child brides in India (UNICEF 2021 Report).
● Impact on women: Poverty affects women by hindering their human resource development which increase vulnerabilities such as exploitation, discrimination, and lack of decision-making power.
o Example: As per UN Women study, in lower and upper middle-income countries, adolescent girls fare far worse than adolescent boys in poverty, with the exception of sub-Saharan Africa.
● On decision making: Poverty can influence decision-making among the poor by prioritizing short-term survival over long-term goals, leading limited opportunities for advancement.
✔ On Crime Levels
● Addiction and criminal activities: Due to economic inequality and resource scarcity, individuals may resort to illegal activities in order to survive or as a result of limited economic opportunities.
● Terrorism: In conditions of economic desperation and social disenfranchisement, extremist groups exploit to recruit individuals who feel marginalized and seek a sense of belonging or purpose.
Effect of COVID on poverty
✔ Rapid increase in extreme poverty: The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on global poverty, pushing millions back into extreme poverty.
● Example: World Bank Report estimated that the pandemic pushed about 70 million people into extreme poverty in 2020, the largest one-year increase since global poverty monitoring began in 1990.
✔ Increased inequality: The pandemic widened the global wealth gap, enriching the rich while impoverishing the poor. Uneven recovery further fuels this divide, pushing prosperity further out of reach for many.
● Example: The top 1% have captured nearly twice as much new wealth as the rest of the world during pandemic period (Oxfam Annual Inequality Report, 2023).
✔ Fall of GDP: Shutdowns during COVID and disrupted supply chains slammed India's economy, causing a dramatic fall in GDP due to plummeting consumer spending and business activity.
● Example: India’s GDP fell by 7.5%in FY 2020-21 (National Statistical Office)
✔ Migrants: COVID's lockdowns trapped many migrant workers away from jobs and families, leading to widespread unemployment, hunger, and difficult journeys home.
✔ Lost jobs and shut business: Forced closures of businesses led to massive job losses and income reductions, particularly in sectors like hospitality, travel, and retail.
● Example: The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting lockdown caused 114 million people to lose their jobs over 2020 (World Economic Forum)
✔ Poverty line: Population below poverty line have increased after COVID-19 pandemic.
● Example: The poverty rate in India is estimated to have surged to 9.7% in 2020, marking a significant increase from the earlier forecast of 4.3% made in January 2020 (Pew Research)
✔ Sluggish state of economy: COVID pandemic halted economic activity, leading to job losses and dampened investments. While recovery is underway, the pandemic's scars pose enduring challenges.
Government Initiatives during COVID-19
✔ Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY): During pandemic, the early existing scheme offered various financial and social assistance measures to vulnerable populations. These included free food grains, cash transfers, insurance coverage, and other essential services.
✔ Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana: To provide food security to the poor and vulnerable sections of the society during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce hunger and malnutrition.
✔ Atmanirbar Bharat: It aimed bolster self-reliance through economic stimulus packages, shaping measures for creating investor friendly environment and to promote domestic production.
✔ RBI’s COVID-19 relief Economic Package: RBI made adjustments in Repo, Reverse repo, Cash Reserve Ratio etc., moratorium on repayment of loans, liquidity infusion during the pandemic.
Measures to be taken to Reduce Long Term Impact of COVID
✔ Public Health
● Strengthen healthcare systems: Invest in healthcare infrastructure and research to improve preparedness for future pandemics and better address ongoing health needs.
● Long COVID Management: Develop research centres and specialized clinics for individuals facing long COVID symptoms like fatigue, cognitive impairment, and respiratory issues.
● Promote vaccine equity: Ensure global access to safe and effective vaccines and boosters to achieve widespread immunization and prevent future outbreaks.
✔ Economic recovery
● Reinvigorate small businesses: Offer grants, loans, and mentorship programs to help small and medium-sized enterprises recover and adapt to changing economic conditions.
● Support vulnerable groups: Implement targeted financial aid, social safety nets, and job training programs to assist vulnerable sections like informal workers and marginalized communities.
✔ Social Justice and Education
● Address learning gaps: Provide educational support and resources to students who faced disruptions during the pandemic, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
● Promote mental health awareness and support: Invest in mental health services and awareness campaigns to address the long-term psychological impacts of the pandemic.
✔ Global Cooperation
● Address climate change: Recognize the link between pandemics and environmental degradation and invest in sustainable development to mitigate future environmental risks.
● Strengthen international collaboration: Foster international cooperation and partnerships for research, resource sharing, and joint efforts towards pandemic preparedness and response.
✔ Technology and Innovation
● Invest in digital infrastructure: Bridge the digital divide and expand access to technology to create opportunities for remote learning, remote work, and tele-health services.
● Data driven decision making: Utilize data effectively to inform public health strategies, economic policies, and social development initiatives.
Feminisation of Poverty
The feminization of poverty refers to the disproportionate representation of women among the world's poor population. This phenomenon underscores systemic inequalities and gender-based discrimination that perpetuate poverty among women, impacting their economic security and well-being.
Causes of Feminisation of Poverty
✔ Economic Factors
● Informalization of work: Women are disproportionately represented in the informal economy, which lacks job security, social protection, and benefits.
o Example: Approximately 88% of women working in industries and 71% in services are engaged in informal employment (ILO, 2018 Report).
● Unequal access to resources: Women often lacks access to land, credit, and other productive assets, hindering their ability to generate income and build wealth.
o Example: In India, credit penetration in women was only at 12% (Economic Survey, 2021)
● Burden of caring for families and children: Women shoulder a significant burden of unpaid care work for children, elderly, and sick family members, limiting their time and energy for paid work.
o Example: In a day women spend on an average three times as many hours on unpaid domestic work and care work as men (UN Women 2020 study)
● Wage discrimination: Wage discrimination systematically undervalue and underpay women's labour, thereby perpetuating economic disparity based on gender.
o Example: As per World Economic Forum, women are paid 34% less than men in India
✔ Social and cultural factors
● Early marriage and childbearing: Early marriage and childbearing can limit girl’s education and employment opportunities, trapping them in poverty cycles.
o Example: 40% of the girls from the lowest quintile were married before they turned 18 years of age wherein contrast only 8% of girls from the highest quintile got married before 18 (UN Population Fund 2022 Analysis)
● Gender norms and stereotypes: Societal expectations often restrict women's mobility, participation in public life, and access to education and training.
● Violence and discrimination: Women face violence and discrimination based on their gender, leading to physical and emotional harm, hindering access to opportunities, and perpetuating poverty cycles.
o Example: 32% of ever married Indian women experienced spousal physical, sexual or emotional violence (National Family Health Survey-5)
✔ Intergenerational impact
● Poverty cycles: Mothers living in poverty are more likely to have children who also experience poverty, creating a cycle that is difficult to break.
● Malnutrition and health disparities: It is experienced by mothers can have long-term negative consequences for their children's health, education, and future earning potential.
o Example: One-fourth of women in India aged in reproductive years have inadequate nutrition, as indicated by a body mass index (BMI) below 18.5 kg/m² (NFHS-4 2015-16).
✔ Lack of representation and decision-making power: With lack of representation, women's needs and challenges often go unheard, leading to policies and programs that don't address their specific struggles.
● Example: Currently, only around 15% of the total members of the 17th Lok Sabha (2019-2024) are women.
✔ Vulnerability to shocks: Women are often more vulnerable to natural disasters, violence, and economic crises.
Measures to address Feminisation of Poverty
✔ Empowering women
● Education and skill development: Invest in quality education for girls, focusing on STEM fields, entrepreneurship skills, offer vocational training and skill development programs.
● Financial Literacy and Inclusion: Bridge the gap with access to banking, credit, microfinance, and financial literacy education to fuel income-generating activities and unlock economic potential.
● Digital Literacy and Access: Provide women access to technology, training them in digital skills, and encouraging participation in online platforms for education, commerce, and information sharing.
✔ Addressing gender equality
● Equal Pay and Workplace Policies: Enforce laws and policies for equal pay for equal work, flexible work arrangements, childcare solutions, and combat workplace discrimination and harassment.
● Land Rights and Inheritance: Implement reforms guaranteeing women's equal access to land ownership and inheritance rights, empowering them with assets and resources for securing livelihoods.
● Political Participation and Leadership: Encourage women participation in decision-making processes at all levels, fostering their involvement in local governance and policy issues affecting their lives.
✔ Strengthening Social Safety Nets
● Maternal and Child Health Services: Expand access to quality and affordable healthcare services for women and children, including reproductive health and nutrition programs.
● Combating Violence: Implement effective measures to prevent and address gender-based violence, providing support services and legal aid to victims, and fostering a culture of zero tolerance.
✔ Investing in women’s economic potential
● Supporting women-led business: Encourage and support women-led entrepreneurship through dedicated funding, incubation centres, mentorship programs, and access to markets.
● Promoting Women's Cooperatives: Facilitate the formation and growth of women-led cooperatives in agriculture, handicrafts, and other sectors, fostering collective bargaining power and market access.
● Promoting innovation and technology: Promoting technology solutions that address women's specific needs and challenges, like access to agricultural tools, financial services, and information.
✔ Additional measures
● Data Collection and Analysis: Invest in collecting gender-disaggregated data to understand the specific dimensions and drivers of feminization of poverty in different contexts.
● Gender-responsive Budgeting: Allocate resources strategically within government budgets to ensure they effectively address the needs and priorities of women and girls.
● Community based approaches: Building networks and support systems for women to increase their access to resources and opportunities.
Government Initiatives to Control Poverty
✔ Food related programmes
● Public Distribution System (PDS): It aims to provide essential food and non-food items to low-income and vulnerable households at subsidized prices.
● Antyodaya Anna Yojana: It is a public distribution system scheme launched in 2000. It provides subsidized food and other essential commodities to poorest of the poor in India.
● Annapurna Scheme: It was launched in 2000. This program bridges the food security gap for eligible seniors by offering food aid to those excluded from the National Old Age Pension.
● Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS): In 1997, TPDS was initiated with the objective of narrowing its coverage to supply food grains to individuals below the poverty line (BPL)
● National Food Security Act, 2013: The act made a paradigm shift from welfare to rights-based approach. It legally entitles up to 75% of rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains under Targeted Public Distribution System.
✔ Incentives/Subsidies related programmes:
● Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY): It was launched in 2016 with an objective to make clean cooking fuel such as LPG available to the rural and deprived households.
● Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana: The objective of this scheme is to offer cashless insurance for hospitalization in both public and private hospitals to those belonging to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) category.
✔ Employment related programmes
● Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA): It ensures that adult members of any rural household who are willing to engage in unskilled manual labour related to public works receive a guarantee of 100 days of employment each financial year.
● National Urban Livelihoods Mission: Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY-NULM): Its objective is to improve the lives of urban poor individuals by providing sustainable livelihood prospects through skill enhancement.
● National Rural Livelihoods Mission: Deen Dayal Antidaya Yojana (DAY-NRLM): The main goal is to diminish poverty by fostering diverse and profitable self-employment as well as wage employment options for rural households, with a particular focus on women.
● Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojaana: To foster and incentivize skill development nationwide, the initiative offers complimentary short-term skill training and rewards youth with monetary incentives upon certification of their skills.
✔ Other Initiatives
● Disha committee: The main aim of the Disha Initiative is to enhance coordination and monitoring of programs among the central government, state government, and local government levels.
● Mission Antyodaya: The central focus of the mission is on integrating diverse schemes, thereby turning gram panchayats into centres of holistic development.
● Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: Scheme aims to provide financial inclusion services at an affordable cost to the vast sections of the disadvantaged and low-income groups.
Way Forward
✔ Promotion of Inclusive Economic Growth
● Agriculture growth: Improving agriculture productivity, public investment in irrigation and other infrastructure and ensuring adequate access to credit to small farmers will help to reduce poverty.
o Example: Adoption of high yielding technology in agriculture in Punjab and Haryana during the green revolution helped to reduce poverty.
● Accelerating economic growth: Promotion of policies that stimulate economic growth and create more job opportunities. Economic growth should be focused on labour-intensive technologies.
● Growth of non-farm employment: Improved non-farm employment opportunities in rural areas like in rural tourism, transportation, animal husbandry, will help people to earn more money.
● Self-employment schemes: It offer pathways to sustainable livelihoods, empowering individuals to build their own income sources and escape poverty.
● Access to institutional credit: It provides financial resources to the impoverished, helping them to invest in income-generating activities, improve productivity, and ultimately break the cycle of poverty.
● Infrastructure development: It will help in creating jobs, enhancing productivity, improving market access, enhancing essential services, attracting investments, and fostering overall economic growth.
✔ Investing in Social Safety Nets
● Human resource development: Education, skills, health, and community development, unlock individual potential, improving their quality of life and fostering broader societal progress.
● Affordable housing: It reduces poverty by providing stable shelter, lowering housing costs for low-income individuals, freeing up funds for other necessities, and fostering economic stability.
● Financial inclusion: It involves making banking and credit services more accessible to underserved populations, including women and marginalized communities.
✔ Addressing Specific Vulnerabilities
● Access to assets to vulnerable sections: Enforcement of tenancy reforms to guarantee secure land tenure and establishing fair rent rates will help to alleviate rural poverty.
● Gender equality: Implementing policies for gender equality involves empowering women through economic, social, and educational initiatives, thereby fostering a more inclusive and equitable society.
● Rural Development: Enabling self-sufficiency and increased income potential in rural areas with infrastructure, education, and economic opportunities.
● Dealing urban poverty: Urban development to create decent jobs, accessible social services, and improved living conditions, to lift urban dwellers out of poverty.
✔ Empowering communities and Strengthening institutions
● More citizen partnership: Involving local communities in the planning and implementation of poverty alleviation initiatives will ensure relevance and effectiveness.
✔ Technological Innovation
● Leveraging digital technologies: Utilizing digital tools for financial inclusion, e-commerce, education, and remote work can expand opportunities and access to services.
✔ Government transparency and accountability: Ensure transparent and accountable governance to prevent corruption and ensure the effective implementation of poverty alleviation programs.
Best Practices on Poverty Alleviation
✔ Odisha Liveable Habitat Mission (Jaga Mission): It aims to transform the slums into liveable habitat with all necessary civic infrastructure and services at par with the better off areas within the same urban local body (ULB). This programme got World Habitat Award 2019 for sustainable transformation of lives of urban poor.
✔ Bolsa Familia Program in Brazil: It offers conditional cash transfers to families, in which families should comply in improving child health, education and social assistance.
✔ Universal healthcare system, Thailand: Every Thai citizen is entitled to essential preventive, curative and palliative health services at all life stages, thus providing affordable and accessible healthcare to all citizens.
✔ Participatory budgeting process in Porto Alegre, Brazil: Porto Alegre is one of the most populous cities of Brazil which included participatory budgeting process, empowering citizens to decide on local investments.
As India progresses, it has made significant strides in reducing poverty among its populace. Aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), SDG1 targets the eradication of poverty in all its forms, while SDG2 aims to end hunger, ensure food security, improved nutrition, and sustainable agriculture practices. The ambitious goal of eradicating poverty in India and unlocking its true potential for shared prosperity can only be achieved through concerted collaboration at the individual, community, and national levels.
Previous Year Questions (PYQs)
1. COVID-19 pandemic accelerated class inequalities and poverty in India. Comment. (2020)
2. ‘Despite implementation of various programmes for eradication of poverty by the government in India, poverty is still existing’. Explain by giving reasons. (2018)
3. “An essential condition to eradicate poverty is to liberate the poor from the process of deprivation.” Substantiate this statement with suitable examples. (2016)
Society
Poverty
Development
Multidimensional Poverty
Poverty Estimation
Feminisation of Poverty
General Studies Paper 1
Social Empowerment