Question

Describe social excusion , vulnerability and literacy as the major fimensions of poverty

Answer 1

Poverty is the most difficult challenge faced by independent India. Poverty is a condition in which a person lacks the financial resources and essentials things to enjoy minimum standards of life. Poor people can be landless labourers in villages, jhuggi and slum dwellers in cities and towns, daily wage workers at construction sites, child , workers in dhabas or even beggars. India has the largest single concentration of the poor in the world, where every fourth person is poor.

Two Typical Cases Of Poverty

The following two cases show the many dimensions of poverty, including lack of proper food, shelter, healthcare, education as well as clean water and sanitation. They also show lack of a regular means of livelihood.

(i) Urban Case

Ram Saran is a daily wage labourer in a flour mill near Ranchi in Jharkhand. He earns around Rs. 1500 per month when employed. He supports his family of 6 persons, besides sending some money to his elderly parents. His wife and son also work, but none of his 4 children can attend school. The family lives in a one-room rented house on the outer areas of the city; The children are undernourished, have very few clothes or footwear and no access to healthcare.

(ii) Rural Case

Lakha Singh is a landless labourer in a small village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. By doing odd jobs for farmers, he earns Rs. 50 per day. Sometimes, he gets some foodgrain or other item instead of cash. He is not literate and his family of 8 people lives in a kuchha hut near the edge of the village. They have no access to healthcare, cannot afford new clothes or even soap or oil.

Poverty Analysis by Social Scientists

Social scientists, analyze poverty from many aspects besides levels of income and consumption.

These aspects are

* Poor level of literacy

* Malnutrition leading to poor resistance to disease

* Lack of access to healthcare

* Lack of job opportunities

* Lack of access to sanitation and safe drinking water and so on.

Indicators for Poverty

The most commonly used indicators for poverty analysis are social exclusion and vulnerability.

Social Exclusion

Social exclusion means living in a poor surrounding with poor people, excluded from enjoying Social equality of better off people in better surrounding. Social exclusion can be a cause as well as a result of poverty which leads to exclusion of individuals or groups from facilities, benefits and opportunities that others enjoy.

In India, caste system is based on social exclusion. People belonging to certain caste were prevented from enjoying equal facilities, benefits and opportunities. This caused more poverty than the lower income.

Vulnerability

Vulnerability to poverty is a measure, which describes the greater probability of certain communities e.g. members of a backward caste or individuals e.g. widow, physically handicapped person of becoming or remaining poor in the coming time.

Vulnerability is determined by various options available to different communities in terms of assets, education, job, health, etc and analyse their ability to face various risks like natural disasters. The group which face greater risk at the time of natural calamity are called vulnerable groups.

Poverty Line

Poverty line is an imaginary line used by any country to determine its poverty. It is considered appropriate by a country according to its existing social norms. It varies from time to time, place to place and country to country.

The most common method of determining poverty is income or consumption levels i.e. people will be considered poor if their income or consumption level falls below a given ‘minimum level’ (poverty line) necessary to fulfil the basic needs.