Poverty and unemployment are linked issues that negatively impact individuals and economies. Poverty is a lack of access to basic needs and results from factors like climate change, lack of education, hunger, and limited access to clean water. Poverty increases vulnerability and restricts opportunities. Unemployment occurs when people cannot find work and is influenced by a large population, few skills, and low growth. Both poverty and unemployment burden governments and societies by reducing production and increasing social costs. While schemes aim to alleviate these issues, more effective implementation is still needed.

1. POVERTY AND
UNEMPLOYMENT

2. Poverty
• Poverty is a situation where people
experience the lack or scarcity of specific
things that are necessary for survival such
as material things or money. Therefore,
poverty is a mixed concept that includes
economic and political elements.

3. Causes of poverty
 CLIMATE CHANGE
• The World Bank estimates that climate change has the power to push more than 100 million people into poverty over
the next ten years. As it is, climate events like drought, flooding, and severe storms disproportionately impact
communities already living in poverty.
LACK OF EDUCATION
• Most adults living in extreme poverty do not receive a quality education. And, if they have children,
they’re likely passing that on to them. There are many barriers to education around the world, including a
lack of money for uniforms and books or a cultural bias against girls’ education.
 HUNGER, MALNUTRITION, AND STUNTING
• Adults who were stunted as children earn, on average, 22% less than those who weren’t stunted. In
Ethiopia, stunting contributes to GDP losses as high as 16%.
LITTLE (OR ZERO) ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER, SANITATION, AND HYGIENE
• Currently, more than 2 billion people don’t have access to clean water at home. This means that people
collectively spend 200 million hours every day walking long distances to fetch water. Contaminated water
can also lead to a host of waterborne diseases, ranging from the chronic to the life-threatening.

4. Effects of poverty
• Poverty is linked with negative conditions such as substandard
housing, homelessness, inadequate nutrition and food insecurity,
inadequate child care, lack of access to health care, unsafe
neighborhoods, and under resourced schools which adversely impact
our nation’s children.

5. Poverty Line
• The poverty
threshold, poverty
limit, poverty
line or breadline, is the
minimum level of income
deemed adequate in a
particular country. The
poverty line is usually
calculated by finding the
total cost of all the
essential resources that
an average human adult
consumes in one year.

6. Global Multidimensional Poverty Index 2021 – Key
Findings
• 1.3 billion people across 109 countries live in acute multidimensional
poverty.
• Out of 1.3 billion people, 644 million are children (below the age of
18); whereas 105 million people are old (above the age of 60).
• Nearly, 85 percent of multidimensionally poor people live in Saharan
Africa or South Asia.
• 84 percent of these poor people live in rural areas.
• 67 percent and more of the total multidimensionally poor population,
live in middle-income countries.

7. Types of poverty
• Relative poverty is when households receive 50% less than average
household incomes, so they do have some money but still not enough
money to afford anything above the basics. This type of poverty is, on
the other hand, changeable depending on the economic growth of
the country.
• Absolute poverty is when household income is below a certain level,
which makes it impossible for the person or family to meet basic
needs of life including food, shelter, safe drinking water, education,
healthcare, etc.

8. Impact Of Covid On Poverty

10. Unemployment
• Unemployment is a situation when
a person actively searches for a job
and is unable to find work.
Unemployment indicates the
health of the economy.
• The unemployment rate is the
most frequent measure of
unemployment. The
unemployment rate is the number
of people unemployed divided by
the working population or people
working under labour force.
• Unemployment rate =
(Unemployed Workers / Total
labour force) × 100

11. Causes of Unemployment
• Large population.
• Lack of vocational skills or low educational levels of the working population.
• Labour-intensive sectors suffering from the slowdown in private investment
particularly after demonetization
• The low productivity in the agriculture sector plus the lack of alternative
opportunities for agricultural workers that makes transition among the three
sectors difficult.
• Legal complexities, Inadequate state support, low infrastructural, financial
and market linkages to small businesses making such enterprises unviable
with cost and compliance overruns.
• Inadequate growth of infrastructure and low investments in the
manufacturing sector, hence restricting the employment potential of the
secondary sector.

12. Impact Of Unemployment
• The government suffers extra borrowing burden because unemployment
causes a decrease in the production and less consumption of goods and
services by the people.
• Unemployment affects the economy of the country as the workforce that
could have been gainfully employed to generate resources actually gets
dependent on the remaining working population, thus escalating socio-
economic costs for the state. For instance, a 1 % increase in
unemployment reduces the GDP by 2 %.
• It is often seen that unemployed people end up getting addicted to drugs
and alcohol or attempts suicide, leading to losses to the human resources
of the country.
• Unemployed persons can easily be enticed by antisocial elements. This
makes them lose faith in the democratic values of the country.

13. Some Facts on Unemployment
• The unemployment rate in India, amidst lockdown and restrictions on mobility, is
12.81% as of June 8th 2021 based on the data provided by the CMIE. Earlier, the
unemployment rate in India shot up from 6.5 per cent in March 2021 to 8 per cent in
April 2021, to 14.7% by May end, while the employment rate fell from 37.6 per cent in
March to 36.8 per cent in April, says the report of CMIE – Centre For Monitoring Indian
Economy.
• In 2020, the unemployment rate in India fell to 7% in September 2020 from the record
high of 29% since the country went into lockdown from March 2020, However, it later
increased to 9.1% in December 2020.
• The unemployment rate again declined to 6.5 per cent in January 2021 from 9.1 per
cent in December 2020, while the employment rate surged to 37.9 per cent as
compared to 36.9 per cent.
• The lockdown to contain the coronavirus outbreak has forced many industries to shut
down thus increasing unemployment across the country.
• The unemployment in India stood at 6.1% in the financial year 2018 mentions the NSSO
– National Sample Survey Organization Report 2019.

14. Conclusion
Many schemes has been introduced by government of India to
alleviate the problem of poverty and unemployment:-
• Sapoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana
• Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP)
• Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana
If we implement these schemes effectively and efficiently in rural areas
we can overcome the problem of poverty and unemployment.

15. DANISH CHANDRA
SECTION -‘N’