essay on poverty in india
Answers
Poverty is one of the major problems in India. It is the root cause of many socio-economic problems including population explosion, unemployment, and child labour and rising graph of crimes. Poverty alleviation should be the main target of the nation so as to make it a prosperous and developed country. Thus, poverty elimination is a matter of fundamental importance.
Poverty implies a condition in which a person finds him unable to maintain a living standard adequate for his physical and mental efficiency. He even fails to meet his basic requirements. Poverty is in fact a relative concept. It is very difficult to draw a demarcation line between affluence and poverty. According to Adam Smith, “Man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, the conveniences and the amusements of human life.”
The pathos of Indian story is that 220-230 million of Indian population, which constitutes 22 per cent of the total population, is poor, as per the findings of the National Sample Survey Organisation. This makes India home to the world’s largest proportion of the poor, even if the percentage of the people living below poverty line reduced from 36 per cent in 1993-194 to 22 per cent in 2004-05. The problem of poverty is acute in villages. More than 75 per cent people live in villages. Even prevalence of poverty is not uniform all across India. The poverty level is below 10 per cent in states like Delhi, Goa, Punjab, etc. while it is nearly 50 per cent in socio-economically backward states like Bihar and Orissa. The percentage of poverty fluctuates between 30 to 40 in north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, and in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.
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There are other dismal facts about poverty in this 4th largest economy of the world on GDP at Purchasing Power Parity: it ranks 126th out of 177 countries listed in the World Human Development Index and the rate of child malnutrition double than that of sub-Saharan Africa. The most recent World Bank estimates for India are based on household surveys carried out in 1999-2000. It was found that almost 80 per cent of India’s population was surviving on less than $2.15 a day (in PPP terms), i.e. is about 800 million $1.40 a day or less and nearly 35 per cent were found to be living on $1.20 a day or less. With such factual and visible evidence enforcing existing bias, the defining element of our economy would remain identified with poor millions.
Rather than getting drowned into swirling oceans of data we need to look into the factors which lead to poverty. Since India is predominantly an agricultural country, it is the largest source of employment. More than three-fourths of their populations depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture here is dependent on monsoon. Sometimes due to uncertainty and irregularity of monsoon, agriculture collapses. Foodgrains production declines. Often there is drought. All these adversely affect the income generation prospect. These combine to result in poverty. People do not have other means of livelihood; they are left with no other option except to starve.
Illiteracy constitutes a major cause of poverty. It is really very distressing that after more than 60 years of independence, about one-fourth of our population do not know how to read and write. Illiteracy is one of the constraints which deprive one from opportunities to seek other forms of livelihood. It in fact forces people to stick to ancestoral jobs and prevents them from having job flexibility. Besides, caste system also puts constraints in the access to lucrative jobs to a vast majority of the people. Though constitutionally such institutions have been dismantled, their presence can still be seen in rural areas.
Furthermore,
there has been increase in unemployment adding to the woes of poverty.
Growing population is a great contributor to poverty. The average size
of Indian family is relatively bigger, consisting of 4.2 members. All
these factors make a vicious cycle of poverty and aggravate the problems
related
Explanation:
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