Question

Seminar on poverty and unemployment in india

Answer 1

Answer:

“Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent on them, and of being forced to accept rudeness, insults, and indifference when we seek help.” —Latvia 1998

In the simplest term, poverty may be defined as a social condition where individuals do not have financial means to meet the most basic standards of life that is acceptable by the society. Individuals experiencing poverty do not have the means to pay for basic needs of daily life like food, clothes and shelter.

Poverty also staves people off from accessing much needed social tools of well-being like education and health requirements. The direct consequences stemming from this problem are hunger, malnutrition and susceptibility to diseases which have been identified as major problems across the world. It impacts individuals in a socio-psychological way with them not being able to afford simple recreational activities and getting progressively marginalized in the society.

The term poverty is interconnected with the notion of the poverty line/ threshold that may be defined as the minimum figure of income that is required in a particular country for maintaining the socially acceptable quality of life in terms of nutritional, clothing and sheltering needs. The World Bank has updated its international poverty line figures to 1.90 USD (Rs. 123.5) per day on October 2015 (based on prices of commodities in year 2011-2012), from 1.5 USD(Rs. 81) as a response to the changes in the cost of living across the world as per current economy. The organization estimates that – “Just over 900 million people globally lived under this line in 2012 (based on the latest available data), and we project that in 2015, just over 700 million are living in extreme poverty.”

Explanation:

Unemployment is a common economic malady faced by each and every country of the world, irrespective of their economic system and the level of development achieved. But the nature of unemployment prevailing in underdeveloped or developing countries sharply differs to that of developed countries of the world.

While the developed countries are facing unemployment, mostly of Keynesian involuntary and frictional types but the underdeveloped or developing countries like India are facing structural unemployment arising from high rate of growth of population and slow economic growth.

Structural unemployment may be open or disguised type. But the most serious type of unemployment from which those undeveloped countries like India are suffering includes its huge underemployment or disguised unemployment in the rural sector.

Unemployment is a serious problem. It indicates a situation where the total number of job vacancies is much less than the total number of job seekers in the country. It is a kind of situation where the unemployed persons do not find any meaningful or gainful job in-spite of having willingness and capacity to work. Thus unemployment leads to a huge wastage of manpower resources.

India is one of those ill-fated underdeveloped countries which is suffering from a huge unemployment problem. But the unemployment problem in India is not the result of deficiency of effective demand in Keynesian term but a product of shortage of capital equipment’s and other complementary resources accompanied by high rate of growth of population.

Essay # 2. Nature of Unemployment Problem in India:

Present unemployment problem in India is mostly structural in nature.

Unemployment problem of the country can now be broadly classified into:

(a) Rural unemployment and

(b) Urban unemployment.

(a) Rural Unemployment:

In India the incidence of unemployment is more pronounced in the rural areas.

Rural unemployment is again of two types:

(i) Seasonal unemployment and

(ii) Disguised or perennial unemployment.

(i) Seasonal Unemployment:

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Agriculture, though a principal occupation in the rural areas of the country, is seasonal in nature. It cannot provide work to the rural population of the country throughout the year. In the absence of multiple cropping system and subsidiary occupation in the rural areas, a large number of rural population has to sit idle 5 to 7-months in a year

Indian agriculture is also suffering from disguised or perennial unemployment due to excessive pressure of population. In disguised unemployment apparently it seems that everyone is employed but in reality sufficient full time work is not available for all.

In India, about 72 per cent of the working population is engaged in agriculture and allied activities. In 1951 more than 100 million persons were engaged in the agricultural and allied activities whereas in 1991 about 160 million persons are found engaged in the same sector resulting in as many as 60 million surplus population who are left with virtually no work in agriculture and allied activities.

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