Poverty - Class 12 Commerce Economics - Extra Questions

Poverty line is basically defined by the basic necessities an individual requires. A person who is able to earn to meet his requirements is said to be above poverty line while those who can't are said to be below poverty line.

BASIS	ABSOLUTE  POVERTY	RELATIVE POVERTY
Biological Needs	any person who is not in a position to meet the most basic commodities to sustain life like food, shelter, and clothing is considered to experiencing extreme poverty	relative poverty does not classify biological needs in its definition but focuses on the comparison between other people within the environment.
Income Levels	People who have a considerable amount of income can meet their basic commodities	the income level is highly considered in absolute poverty, but it is not considered under the relative poverty measurement.
Poverty Alleviation Programs	Different international bodies and government of various countries have developed policies and measures to ensure that absolute poverty is eradicated around the world	there are no measures and policies implemented to alleviate relative poverty.
Quality of Life	Here quality of life is better	Quality of life is poor
Ability  to change	can be eradicated	cannot be eradicated

The current government strategy of poverty alleviation is based on two planks:
(i) Promotion of economic growth
(ii) Targeted anti-poverty programmes
(i) Promotion of economic growth: Till the early eighties, there were little per capita income growth and not much reduction in poverty. Since the eighties, India's economic growth has been one of the fastest in the world. The growth rate jumped from an average of about 3.5 per cent a year in the 1970s to about 6 per cent during the 1980s and 1990s. The higher growth rates have helped significantly in the reduction of poverty by widening opportunities.
(ii) Targeted anti-poverty programmes: The government has started several anti-poverty schemes. Some of them are worth mentioning: National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005 - The Act provides 100 days assured employment every year to every rural household in 200districts.
National Food for Work Programme (NFWP) - This scheme was launched in 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country. The programme is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desire to do manual unskilled work.
Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) 1993 - The aim of the programme is to create self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns.
Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) 1995 - The aim of this scheme is the same as Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana.
Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yozana (SGSY) 1999.
Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yozana (PMGY) 2000.
Antyodaya Anna Yozana (AAY).

Human poverty is a concept that goes beyond the limited view of poverty due to lack of income. It refers to the denial of political, social and economic opportunities to an individual to maintain a reasonable standard of living Illiteracy, lack of job opportunities, lack of access to proper healthcare and sanitation, caste and gender discrimination, etc. are all components of human poverty.

Poverty reduction would be possible in India through higher economic growth, increasing stress on universal free elementary education, declining population growth, increasing empowerment of the women and the economically weaker sections of society.

(i) Social groups which are most vulnerable to poverty are scheduled caste and scheduled tribe households.
(ii) Among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the rural agricultural labour households and the urban casual labour households.

1:The reason that there was a substantial decline in poverty in China and Southeast Asian countries was the high economic growth in these countries.
2:The high economic growth was due to the fact that they followed an export-oriented policy of industrialization.
3The concentrated on mass manufacturing of many products which were then exported to various other countries.

(i) Although there has been substantial reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional differences. Poverty declined substantially in China and Southeast Asian countries as a result of rapid economic growth and investments in human resource development. Number of the poor in China has come down from 606 million in 1981 to 212 million in 2001.
(ii) In the countries of South Asia-India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal Bangladesh, Bhutan the decline has not been as rapid.
(iii) In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty in fact rose from 41 per cent in 1981 to 46 per cent in 2001.
(iv) In Latin America, the ratio of poverty remained the same. Poverty has also resurfaced in some of the former socialist countries like Russia.

1:Among the economic categories, the most vulnerable groups are the rural agricultural labour households and urban casual labour households.
2:The social groups more vulnerable to poverty are the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes households. The Scheduled Castes are not allowed to avail the facilities given to others due to the prevailing caste system, leading to poverty.
3:The economic groups vulnerable to poverty are rural agricultural labour and urban casual labour households. The rural agricultural labour has no land of their own and are thus not able to earn enough to meet their daily needs, leading to poverty.

(i) Poverty means hunger and lack of shelter. It also is a situation where a person fails to attain the basic facilities like medical facilities, educational facilities and basic civic amenities.
(ii) Around 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nation and most of them are children. Though there is plenty of food in the world for everyone but due to lack of money to buy, people are malnourished, they become weaker and often sick.
(iii) This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.
(iv) Several programmes have been started to solve this problem in India. 'Food for work' programme-where the adults are paid with food to build schools, dig wells, make roads and so on. This both nourishes them and builds infrastructure to end the poverty.
(v) 'Food for education' programme-where the children are provided with food when they attend school. Their education will help them to escape from hunger and global poverty.

The two planks on which the anti-poverty strategy of the government is based:

A famine is characterized by widespread deaths due to starvation and epidemics caused by forced use of contaminated water or decaying food and loss by body resistance due to weakening from starvation.

Major reasons are given below:
(i) Lack of proper implementation and right targeting.
(ii) There has been a lot of overlapping of schemes. Despite good intentions, the benefits of these schemes are not fully reached to the deserving poor.
(iii) Improper monitoring of the poverty alleviation programs.

(i) Kerala has focused more on human resource development.
(ii) In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty.
(iii) In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu public distribution of food grains could have been responsible for reducing poverty.
(iv) States like Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates.

Following are the three programmes initiated by the government to improve the food and nutritional status of the poor:

1. Public Distribution System,
2. Integrated Child Development Scheme, and
3. Midday Meal Scheme.

Following are the two wage employment programmes initiated by the government:

1. Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana, and
2. National Food for Work Programme.

National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) collects data on poverty in India. It is estimated on the basis of consumption expenditure.  

21.8% of population was below the poverty line in the year 2004-05.

Meaning of poverty: Poverty means living in conditions of where a person doesn't have basic needs like proper food, water or shelter.
Meaning of poverty line: Poverty line is basically defined by the basic necessities an individual requires. A person who is able to earn to meet his requirements is said to be above poverty line while those who can't are said to be below poverty line.

There are different ways in which the poverty line in India can be estimated. Some of them are as follow:

No, the present methodology of poverty estimation is inappropriate because it takes into only the basic needs of fuel, clothing, etc. But the quality of these basic necessities is lowest quality available, which is not appropriate.

The proportion of poverty in different states of India is not the same. There are huge disparities in poverty among these.
The following are the facts which show this disparity:

Women, elderly people and women infants are poorest of poor in our society.