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Poverty as a Challenge
Efforts By,
Ayesha,
IX - D
In our daily life, we
come across many
people who we think
are poor.
They could be landless
labourers in villages or
people living in
overcrowded jhuggis in
cities.
Introduction
Introduction
They could also be
beggars with children in
tatters.
We see poverty all around
us.
In fact, every fourth person
in India is poor.
This means, roughly 260
million (or 26 crore) people
in India live in poverty.
This also means that India
has the largest single
concentration of the poor
in the world.
This llustrates the
seriousness of the
challenge.
Introduction
Urban CaseTwo Typical Cases of
Poverty:
• Thirty-three year old Ram Saran works as a daily-wage laborer in a wheat flour mill near Ranchi in Jharkhand.
• He manages to earn around Rs 1,500 a month when he finds employment.
• The money is not enough to sustain a family of six – including himself, his wife, and four children [aged between 6 months to 12 years].
• He has to send money home to his old parents who live in a village near Ramgarh.
• Ram Saran lives in a one-room rented house in a crowded urban settlement in the outskirts of the city.
• His wife Santa Devi, works as a part time maid in a few houses and manages to earn another Rs 800.
• They manage a meager meal of dal and rice twice a day, but its never enough for all of them.
• His elder son works as a helper in a tea shop to supplement the family income and earns another Rs 300.
• His 10- year-old daughter takes care of the younger siblings.
• None of the children go to school and have only 2 pairs of second hand clothes. Shoes are a luxury.
• The children have no healthcare when they fall ill.
Story of Ram Saran
Rural Case
• Lakha Singh belongs to a small village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh.
• His family doesn’t own any land, so they do odd jobs for the big farmers.
• At times they get paid Rs 50 for a hard day’s work..• The family of eight cannot always manage two square
meals a day.• They live in a Kucha hut in the outskirts of the village.• The women of the family spend the day chopping
fodder and collecting firewood in the fields.• He had to start earning when he was 10 years old.• His father a TB patient, passed away two years ago
due to lack of medication. His mother now suffers from the same disease and life is slowly ebbing away.
• Although the village has a primary school, Lakha never went there.
• He started earning when he was 10 .• New clothes are bought once in a few years, and
even soap and oil are a luxury for the family.
Story of Lakha Singh
1.They show that poverty means hunger and lack of shelter.
2.Poverty also means lack of clean water and sanitation facilities.
What do they show?
3.Poor people are in a situation in which they are ill-treated at almost every place.
4. It also means lack of a regular job at a minimum decent level.
What do they show?
Poverty as seen by social scientists
• Poverty is looked through
other social indicators
like illiteracy level, lack of
general resistance due to
malnutrition, lack of
access to healthcare, lack
of job opportunities, lack
of access to safe drinking
water, sanitation etc.
• Analysis of
poverty based
on social
exclusion and
vulnerability is
now becoming
very common.
Poverty as seen by social scientists
Social exclusion
• According to this
concept, poverty must
be seen in terms of the
poor having to live only
in a poor surrounding
with other poor people,
excluded from enjoying
social equality of better
-off people in better
surroundings.
Vulnerability
• Vulnerability to poverty is a
measure, which describes the
greater probability of certain
communities (say, members
of a backward caste) or
individuals (such as a widow
or a physically handicapped
person) of becoming, or
remaining, poor in the coming
years.
Poverty Line
• A common method used to measure poverty is based on the income or consumption levels.
• A person is considered poor if his or her income or consumption level falls below a given “minimum level” necessary to fulfill basic needs.
• The present formula for
food requirement while
estimating the poverty
line is based on the
desired calorie
requirement.
Poverty Line
• The accepted average
calorie requirement in
India is 2400 calories
per person per day in
rural areas and 2100
calories per person per
day in urban areas.
Poverty Line
• Since people living in
rural areas engage
themselves in more
physical work, calorie
requirements in rural
areas are considered
to be higher than
urban areas.
Poverty Line
Causes of Poverty
• Low level of economic
development under the
British colonial
administration.
• The failure at both the fronts:
promotion of economic
growth and population
control perpetuated the cycle
of poverty.
• Irregular small
incomes
• Huge income inequalities.
• Socio-cultural factors
• Economic factors.
Causes of Poverty
Anti-Poverty Measures By The Indian Government
• The current anti-poverty
strategy of the
government is based
broadly on two planks
• (1) promotion of
economic growth
• (2) targeted anti-poverty
programmes.
I. National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005.It aims to ensure livelihood security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a
financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work
II. National Food for Work Programme (NFWP), which was launched in 2004.
The National Food for Work Programme was launched minister of rural development,central government on 14 November 2004 in 150
of the most backward districts of India with the objective of generating supplementary wage employment. The programme is open to all rural poor who are prepared to do manual, unskilled
labour.
III. Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) is another scheme which was started in 1993.
The PMRY has been intended to give employ to over million People by starting seven lakhs micro ventures by the jobless educated youth. It recounts to the starting of self-employment schemes through commerce, service &
business means.
IV. Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) was launched in 1995.
To generate employment in rural areas. To develop entrepreneurial skill and attitude among rural
unemployed youth. To achieve the goal of rural industrialization. To facilitate participation of financial institutions for higher credit flow to rural industries.
V. Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) was launched in 1999.
It aims at providing self-employment to villagers through the establishment of self-help groups. Activity clusters are established based on the aptitude and skill of the
people which are nurtured to their maximum potential. Funds are provided by NGOs, banks and financial
institutions.
VI. Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) launched in 2000.
PMGY was launched in 2000-2001 in all States and Union Territories (UTs) in order to achieve the objective of
sustainable human development at the village level.PMGY initially had five components viz., primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking
water and nutrition.
VII. Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY).Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) is an Indian government
sponsored scheme for ten million of the poorest families.It is on the look out for the 'poorest of the
poor'[1] by providing them 35 kilograms of rice and wheat at Rs.3 & Rs.2 per kg respectively.
The Challenges Ahead
• Challenges that still remain: providing
health care, education and job security
for all, and achieving gender equality
and dignity for the poor.
• These will be even bigger tasks.
• But despite the progress, poverty reduction remains India’s most compelling challenge.
• Wide disparities in poverty are visible between rural and urban areas and among different states.
• Certain social and economic groups are more vulnerable to poverty.
The Challenges Ahead
• Poverty reduction is expected to make better progress in the next ten to fifteen years.
• This would be possible mainly due to 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.
The Challenges Ahead
Thank You!!!
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