Question

In our daily life, we see poverty all around us. They could be landless labourers in

villages, people living in overcrowded jhuggis in cities, daily wage workers or child

workers in dhabas. According to facts, in India every fourth person is poor.

Poverty means hunger and lack of shelter, lack of clean water and sanitation facilities,

lack of a regular job at a minimum decent level. Poverty is considered as one of the

biggest challenges of independent India. India would be truly independent only when

the poorest of its people become free of human suffering.

Social scientists look at poverty through a variety of indicators. Usually, the indicators

are used to relate to the levels of income and consumption. But, now 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.

The poverty line is a method to measure poverty based on income or consumption

levels. Poverty line varies according to time and place. In India, the poverty line is

determined through a minimum level of food requirement, clothing, footwear, fuel and

light, educational and medical requirement, etc.. These physical quantities are

multiplied by their prices in rupees. In India poverty is calculated on the basis of the

desired calorie requirement. 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. On the basis of these calculations, for the year 2011–12, the poverty line for a

person was fixed at Rs 816 per month for rural areas and Rs 1000 for urban areas

Answer the following questions

26.1What do you mean by poverty?

26.2What is the criteria for fixing poverty line?

26.3Poverty line varies according to time and place. Why​

Answer 1

Answer:

• 26) 1 Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way: “Poverty is hunger. ... Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape.
• Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way: “Poverty is hunger. ... Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape.26 2) The Planning Commission fixed an upper limit of 326,000 for rural BPL families on the basis of simple survey. Accordingly, families having less than 15 marks out of maximum 52 marks have been classified as BPL and their number works out to 318,000.
• Poverty is about not having enough money to meet basic needs including food, clothing and shelter. However, poverty is more, much more than just not having enough money. The World Bank Organization describes poverty in this way: “Poverty is hunger. ... Most often, poverty is a situation people want to escape.26 2) The Planning Commission fixed an upper limit of 326,000 for rural BPL families on the basis of simple survey. Accordingly, families having less than 15 marks out of maximum 52 marks have been classified as BPL and their number works out to 318,000.26 3) A person is considered poor if the income or consumption level of a person falls below a given minimum level necessary to fulfil basic needs. Basic needs are different at different countries and different time. That is why, poverty line may vary with time and place..