Details about the poverty in great India

1. BY GOKULNATH.P

2. The concept of poverty and poverty line
 Poverty may be defined as the inability to secure the
minimum consumption requirements for life, health and
efficiency. It is the hopelessness resulting from lack of basic
necessities.
 A person who fails to get square meal day is said to be poor.
 Lord Boyd- Orr, the first director general of FAO, was the first
to introduce the concept of poverty on the basis of starvation
line in 1945.
 According to him an intake of less than 2300 calories per
person per day was considered the line of starvation and this
idea has been transformed into povertyline.

3.  The India planning commission has defined poverty line on the
basis of nutritional requirements of 2400 calories per person per
day for rural areas and 2100 calories per person per day for urban
areas.
 Extent of poverty
 In India no serious efforts were made by the government in this
direction. Some private people and economists have made an
attempt to estimate poverty.
 1.Estimates of Dandekar and Rath:
According to Dr. V.M. Dandekar and Nilkanth Rath in 1960-61
roughly 40 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of the
urban population were living below poverty line.

4.  2.Estimates of P.K.Bardhan:
By fixing the poverty line at Rs 15 per person per month in
rural areas and 18 Rs per person per month in urban areas at
1960-61 prices, he found 55 percent in rural and 41 percent in
urban areas were living below poverty line in 1968-69.
 3.Estimates of B.S.Minhas:
Dr.Minhas estimated that about 65 percent of population
in1956-57and 50.6 percent of population in 1967-68 in rural
India were lived below poverty line.
4.Planning Commission estimates:
The estimates of poverty in the country are made at national
and state level by planning commission at interval of
approximately five years from the large sample survey data on
consumer expenditure conducted by the national sample
survey office(NSSO).comparable estimates based on consistent
methodology and data set are available until 2004-05.

5.  The NSSO from its 61st round survey (2004-2005) and Suresh d.
Tendulkar committee report .
The estimates of poverty ratios in India (percent)
Earlier
estimates(URP)
based on the
lakdawala
methodology
Estimates(MRP)ba
sed on the
Tendulkar
methodology
Planning
commission
(MRP)
1993-94 2004-05 1993-94 2004-05 2009-10
RURAL 37.3 28.3 50.1 41.8 33.8
URBAN 32.4 25.7 31.8 25.7 20.9
TOTAL 36.0 27.5 45.3 37.2 29.8

6.  Under uniform reference period (URP), The consumer
expenditure data for all the items are collected from a 30 day
recall period.
 where as under mixed reference period(MRP),the consumer
expenditure data for five non food items ,namely clothing ,
footwear ,durable goods ,education and institutional medical
expenses are collected from a 365 day recall period and for the
remaining items from a 30 day recall period.
 As per the Tendulkar committee report the national poverty line
at 2004-05 prices was a monthly per capita consumption
expenditure of Rs 446.68 in rural and Rs 578.80 in urban areas .
 Now the poverty is estimated not on the basis of calorie intake
but on the basis of per capita expenditure data on basic needs
like food , clothing , housing , and services like health and
education as suggested by Suresh d Tendulkar committee on
poverty estimation.

7.  NUMBER OF PERSONS LIVING BELOW POVERTY LINE IN
DIFFERENT STATES (2011-12)
 Percentage of population below poverty line is the highest is
Orissa(57%) followed by Bihar (54%) , Chhattisgarh (49%) ,
Jharkhand(45%) , Madhya Pradesh (49%) and Uttar Pradesh
(41%).
 Percentage of population below poverty line is low At
Punjab (21%) followed by Himachal Pradesh (23%) ,
Haryana(24%) , Kerala(20%) and Andhra Pradesh (30%),
Karnataka (33%).

8.  Causes of poverty
 1.high growth the rate of population
 2.inequality in income
 3.low per capita income
 4.Backwardness of the economy
 5.low consumption expenditure
 6.regional imbalances
 7.unemployment
 8.Inflation
 9.backward agriculture
 10.Poor development
 11.backward technology and shortage of technology
 12.social and political factors

16.  The Major Poverty Alleviation & Employment Generation
Programmes In Rural & Urban areas Are As Follows:
 1.Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojona(PMGY)
 PMGY was launched in 2000-2001 in all states and union
territories in order to achieve the objective of sustainable human
development at the village level.
 The PMGY envisages allocation of additional central assistance to
states and Uts for selected basic minimum services in order to
focus on certain priority areas.PMGY initially had five
components like primary health , primary education , rural
shelter , rural drinking water and nutrition.rural electrification
was added as an additional component from 2001.

17. 2.Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY)
After a review and restructuring of the integrated rural
development program and allied schemes ,SGSY was launched in
April 1999 and is the only self employment programme currently
being implemented.
The objective of the SGSY is to bring the assisted swarozgaris
above poverty line by providing them income –generating assets
through bank credit and govt subsidy.
the schemes are being implemented on a 75:25 cost sharing
between centre and the states.(168 lakh)

18.  3.Sampoorna Grameena Rozgar Yojana(SGRY)
 The SGRY was launched in September 2001, by merging the
ongoing schemes of jawahar gram samridhi yojana (JGSY) AND
Employment Assurance Schemes (EAS).The objective of the
programme is to provide additional wage employment in the rural
areas as also food security, along with the creation of durable
community, social and economic infrastructure in rural areas.
 The SGRY is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage
employment and desire to do manual and unskilled work in and
around the village.
 The scheme is implemented through panchayat raj institutions.

19.  4.Indira Awaas yojana (IAY) the non-sc:
 IAY aim at providing dwelling units , free of cost , to the poor
families of the scheduled castes , scheduled tribes , freed
bonded labourers and also the non-SC/ST persons below poverty
line in the rural areas .the scheme is funded on a cost sharing
basis75:25 between the centre and states.
 5.Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY)
 The PMGSY was launched in December 2000 to provide road
connectivity to 1.6 lakh unconnected habitations with population
of 500 persons or more in the rural areas by the end of the tenth
plan period. it is being executed in all states and 6 Uts.Upto Jan
2012 a total length of about 3,41,257 kms of road works has been
completed with cumulative expenditure of Rs 96,952 crore.

20.  Drought prone Areas Program (DPAP) , Desert Development
Program (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Program
(IWDP)
 Are being implemented for the development of
wastelands/degraded lands.DPAP was launched in 1973-74 to
tackle the special problems faced by those ares constantly
affected by drought conditions.
 DDP was launched in 1977-78 to mitigate the adverse effects of
desertification.
 IWDP has been under implementation since 1989-90. these
programs were implemented on a sectoral basis till 1994-95.since
April 1995, these programs are being implemented on watershed
basis.
 programs projects funds
DPAP 2535 295 Cr
DDP 1562 215Cr

21.  7.Antyodaya Anna Yojana(AAY)
 AAY was launched in dec 2000.Under the scheme 1 crore of the
poorest among the BPL families covered under the targeted
public distribution system are identified. Twenty five kilograms of
food grains were made available to each eligible family at a
highly subsidised rate of 2 Rs per kg for wheat and RS 3 per kg for
rice. This quantity has been enhanced from 25 to 35 kgs with
effect from 2002.at present this scheme is covering about 6.52
crore poor families.
 8.Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana(SJSRY)
 The urban self employment program and the urban wage
employment program are two special schemes of the SJSRY
initiated in december 1997,which replaced various programs
operated earlier for urban poverty alleviation.

22.  9.Valmiki Ambedkar Awas yojana(VAMBAY)
 The VAMBAY was launched in December 2001 to ameliorate the
conditions of the urban slum dwellers living below poverty line
without adequate shelter. the scheme has the primary objective
of facilitating the construction and up gradation of dwelling units
for slum dwellers and providing healthy and enabling urban
environment through community toilets under nirmal bharat
abhiyan,a component of the scheme.
10.Rural Employment Generation programme (REGP)
 REGP launched in 1995 with objective of creating self
employment opportunities in the rural areas and small towns, is
being implemented by the khadi and village industries by availing
of margin money assistance from KVIC and bank loans, for
projects with maximum cost of Rs 25lakh.

23.  11.National Food for Work Programme (NFWP)
 NFWP was launched on November 14 most backward districts of
the country 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country
with the objective to intensify the generation of supplementary
wage employment. Programme is open t
 The Programme is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage
employment and desire to do manual unskilled work. It is
implemented as a 100 percent centrally sponsored scheme and
the food grains are provided to states free of cost. however the
transportation cost handling charges and taxes on food grains are
the responsibility of the states. The collector is the nodal officer
at the district level and has the overall responsibility .
 For 2005-2006 Rs 4500 crore have been allocated for the
programme in addition to 15 lakh tones of food grains.

24.  12.Prime Ministers Rozgar Yojana (PMRY)
 PMRY started in 1993 with the objective of making available self-
employment opportunities to the educated unemployed youth by
assisting them in setting up any economically viable activity. so
far about 20 lakh units have been setup under the PMRY, creating
30.4 lakh additional employment opportunities.
 13.Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Scheme (MGNREGS)
 The national rural employment guarantee act was notified on
September 7 ,2005 and the scheme launched on Feb. 2,2006.the
on going programmes of sampoorna grameena rozgar
yojana(SGRY)and national food for work programme (NFFWP)will
be subsumed within the NREGS in the 200 districts identified in
the initial stage.619 districts in the country are covered under
the scheme from April 1,2008.this scheme (MGNREGS) from Oct
2009.(100 days)

25.  POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES –A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT:
 Poverty alleviation programmes since independence are being
successful only to a limited extent. The percentage of absolute
poverty has come down. in spite of various poverty alleviation
programmes , hunger , malnutrition, illiteracy and lack of basic
amenities continue in many parts of the country. No radical
changes have taken place over the last six decades.
 The govt has changed the names of the programmes and some
programmes are integrated with existing programmes to reduce
the poverty in a progressive manner .but these programmes are
not completely successful in bringing changes in the ownership of
assets, process of production and improvement of basic amenities
to the poor.

26.  The certain reasons which prevent the successful implementation
of poverty alleviation programmes such as.
 1.Unequal distribution of land and other assets.
 2.non-poor are getting the benefits of the poverty alleviation
programmes.
 3.Insufficient resources are allocated for these programmes
 4.The govt and bank officials who are responsible for
implementing these programmes are ill motivated, inadequately
trained and corruption prone, which have resulted in inefficient
use and waste of resources.
 5.Non-participation of local level institutions
 6.Lack of active involvement of the poor.
 7.No better techniques are followed to the evaluation of
implemented programmes by the govt.