Acknowledgement

"I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher Mr. H.P. Singh Sir who gave me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful project on the topic Poverty in India - A Case Study which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to know about so many new things. Secondly, I would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this project within the limited time. I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge.
PAWAN SINGH BHANDARI

Table of Contents
Acknowledgement Table of Contents Introduction Poverty in India Problems of Rural Poverty Problems of Urban Poverty Poverty in the States CONCLUSION References

INTRODUCTION
Poverty has been described as a situation of pronounced deprivation in well being and being poor as to be hungry, to lack shelter and clothing, to be sick and not cared for, to be illiterate and not schooledPoor people are particularly vulnerable to adverse events outside their control. They are often treated badly by institutions of the state and society and excluded from voice and power in those institutions. (IBRD, 2000-2001: 15.) Using income as a measure of poverty, the World Development Report (2000-01: 3) refers to the deep poverty amid plenty in the world and states that a fifth of the worlds people live on less than $ 1 a day, and 44% of them are in South Asia. Lack of access to resources or assets is a unifying characteristic of poverty in all its manifestations. The poor lack ownership of or access to assets such as land, water, forest, dwelling units, credit, literacy, longevity, voice and capital-both physical and social. Those who are severely below the poverty line are largely involved in subsistence type activities for which they get exploitatively poor returns despite suffering extreme physical hardship and undertaking grave risks so as to earn a meager income. Since earnings are below even the margins of existence, expenditure and survival needs exceed income. This often results in the need to borrow small amounts of money at usurious interest rates of as much as 120% per annum (Mehta, 1996b: WS 82 ) When borrowing is not possible, hunger is suffered. Their inability to change the power relationships results in scarcely available common resources (such as even drinking water) or public funds meant for poverty alleviation being misappropriated and diverted through manipulation by the locally powerful or corrupt. Since there are no mechanisms for grievance redressed this could result in social tension, despair or a combination thereof. The well-being of its people has been the prime concern of the Government of India since 1947. A number of policies have been formulated to help those sections of the population who have been left behind in the overall growth process to catch up with the rest of the people. However, till the mid-1970s, the approach had essentially been that the growth process will take care of reducing poverty. But this did not happen significantly. Therefore, the late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed a sea change in the strategy for poverty alleviation. The government decided to attack poverty directly rather than depend on general growth alone. This gave birth to the concept of growth with redistributionthe use of special schemes for the direct generation of income for the poor along with the promotion of general growthto achieve a faster reduction in poverty. Keeping the objective of eradicating poverty in mind as well as the goal of promoting the general welfare, the Statistical Organization of India, since its inception in 1950, led by the National Survey Organization (NSSO), has kept up the work of collecting various kinds of statistical information for the use of policymakers, program implementers, and other people involved in the eradication of poverty and the improvement of general welfare in the country.

Poverty in India
Poverty in India is still rampant despite an impressive economic growth. An estimated 250 million people are below the poverty line and approximately 75 per cent of them are in the rural areas. In general, poverty can be defined as a situation when people are unable to satisfy the basic needs of life. The definition and methods of measuring poverty differs from country to country. According to the definition by Planning Commission of India, poverty line is drawn with an intake of 2400 calories in rural areas and 2100 calories in urban areas. If a person is unable to get that much minimum level of calories, then he/she is considered as being below poverty line.

Causes of Poverty in India

High level of dependence on primitive methods of agriculture High population growth rate High Illiteracy (about 35% of adult population) Regional inequalities Protectionist policies pursued till 1991 that prevented high foreign

investment

During the period between 1973-74 and 1999-2000, the incidence of poverty expressed as a percentage of people below the poverty line declined continuously from 54.9 per cent to supposedly 26 per cent. (See table 1). However, the pace of reduction in poverty varied considerably during this period with a large decline in the percentage of the population in poverty throughout the 1980s, a slowdown in the pace of poverty reduction in the early 1990s, and a reported but contested sharp 10% decline in poverty in the second half of the 1990s. No such secular decline occurred in the numbers of those in poverty. The number of people below the poverty line increased by 8 million during the 1970s, decreased by 21.8 million during the 1980s, increased by 13 million during the early 1990s and reportedly decreased by a massive 60 million during the mid to late 1990s. Government has introduced a number of antipoverty programs since independence to alleviate poverty. These include various employment guarantee Programs such as National Rural Employment Program, Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Program etc. Recently, Government has initiated National Rural Employment Guarantee Program (NREGP). As per NREGP, the government will provide 100 days of employment per year to whosoever is willing to work. NREGP is considered as a landmark program in poverty alleviation measures One of the major problems with poverty alleviation programs is their implementation. Rajiv Gandhi once said that out of 100 paisa allocated for poor only 14 paisa reaches them. But in spite of their weaknesses, poverty alleviated program can be credited for their success in alleviating poverty to an extent. Greater public-private partnership and committed and efficient bureaucratic machinery is required to tackle poverty.

Different people think about poverty in different ways. Some people think that poverty is about being able to buy and sell but other people think about getting a fair share of education and health care or about being given respect, and having some influence over what happens in their life. Because of these differences it is useful to think about two main types of poverty income poverty and nonincome poverty. Income poverty happens when a household takes in less than one US dollar per day. This means that people will not have enough food or medicine and they will have poor clothes and houses. Income poverty is due to people not having access to money or other assets. If people do not have any other assets like land to grow their own food, then income poverty can result in stunted growth and early death. The best way to reduce income poverty is to encourage and support the development of effective businesses (small, medium and large) which make good use of our natural resources and talents to create wealth and jobs.

Non income poverty happens when people may have a little bit of money but otherwise the quality of their life is not good. They do not have access to affordable social and physical services (schooling, health care, medicines, safe water, good sanitation, good transport) and they may not feel safe in their homes either because they cannot trust the authorities or because they belong to some particularly vulnerable group The best way to reduce non-income poverty it to make sure that people have access to affordable and good quality social services and infrastructure, that they feel secure in their homes, that they trust the authorities and, if they are vulnerable, that there are safety net Programs to protect them

Poverty in India: Current Situation

Poverty is one of the main issues, attracting the attention of sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for a comfortable lifestyle. Though India boasts of a high economic growth, it is shameful that there is still large scale poverty in India. Poverty in India can be defined as a situation when a certain section of people are unable to fulfill their basic needs. India has the world's largest number of poor people living in a single country. Out of its total population of more than 1 billion, 350 to 400 million people are living below the poverty line. Nearly 75% of the poor people are in rural areas, most of

them are daily wagers, landless laborers and self employed house holders. There are a number of reasons for poverty in India. Poverty in India can be classified into two categories namely rural poverty and urban poverty

. Reasons for Rural Poverty some of the basic reasons of rural poverty in India are: Unequal distribution of income. High population growth. Illiteracy. Large families. Caste system.

Problems of Rural Poverty

Presence of malnutrition, illiteracy, diseases and long term health problems. Unhygienic living conditions, lack of proper housing, high infant mortality rate,

injustice to

women and social ill-treatment of certain sections of society

Steps Taken by Government to Reduce Rural Poverty

The government of India has been trying its best to remove poverty. Some of the measures which the government has taken to remove rural poverty are:
Small farmers development Program. Drought area development Program. Minimum needs Program. National rural employment Program. Assurance on employment.

Causes for Urban Poverty

the causes of urban poverty in India are:
Improper training Slow job growth. Failure of PDS system

Problems of Urban Poverty

Restricted access to employment Lack of proper housing facilities Unhygienic environments No social security schemes

opportunities and income.

Lack

of opportunity to quality health and educational services

The steps taken by government to remove urban poverty are Nehru Rozgar Yojana. Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana. Urban Basic services for the poor Program. National social Assistance Program. But these processes can be helpful only if the policies go to those people for whom it is meant. The clash between the central government and the state government often results in the lack of implementation of these policies. So it is very important that the governments do not play power politics when it comes to a serious issue such as poverty

Poverty in the States

Where are India's poor spatially located? This section attempts to identify the states in which 1. The largest percentage of Indias poor is located in 1999-2000. 2. that had a large percentage of their own population in poverty in 1993-94.11 3. that had a relatively poorer record of reducing the percentage of their population in poverty between 1973-74 and 1993-94. In which states are most of Indias poor concentrated? Almost half of Indias poor and one third of India's population are concentrated in the three states of Uttar Pradesh (including Uttaranchal), Bihar (including Jharkhand) and Madhya Pradesh (including Chhattisgarh). The exact estimates are 48% of India's poor and 35.6% of India's population are in these three states. Three states - Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa - account for another 22.5% of those in poverty. 71.65% of Indias poor and half of the population are therefore located in six states. Further, while the share of the poor exceeds the share of the population in all these states except Maharashtra, in the case of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa their relative share of those in poverty is substantially larger than their share of India's population. No major reduction in poverty in India is possible unless interventions for poverty alleviation are intensified in these states. Future CPRC research will focus on the constraints on improved anti poverty interventions in some of these states Which states have a large percentage of their population in poverty? In 1993-94, 37.2% of persons living in rural areas and 32.2% of persons in urban areas were below the poverty line. The percentage of population of a state that was in poverty or the poverty ratio was above the all-India average for rural areas in seven states Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and West Bengal. Urban poverty was also above the all India average for the first five of these states as also for Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Prades.

Changes in the Incidence of Poverty in Indias States: 1973-74 to 1993-94 The track record of different states of India in decreasing the proportion of their population that is in poverty has varied considerably as can be seen from tables 4 and 5 On the one hand, three states experienced a substantial reduction in the percentage of 12 their population that was in poverty over the entire twenty-year period from 1973-74 to 1993-94 - Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. The numbers of those below the poverty line declined by 58% in Punjab, 57% in Kerala and 55% in Andhra between 1973-74 and 1993-94. In addition, the states of Gujarat, West Bengal and Rajasthan were also able to accomplish a substantial reduction in the incidence of poverty - by 50%, 44% and 41% respectively as did Karnataka (39%) and Tamil Nadu (36%).

The substantial reduction in poverty in West Bengal could be attributed to institutional reforms brought about by the Left Front government. They include land reform (in particular, Operation Barga), effective political decentralization through the Panchayati Raj, implementation of poverty alleviation programmers through the panchayats, and political mobilization of the rural poor through kisan sabhas and political parties(Tendulkar and Jain, 1996) and rapid agricultural growth because of notable increases in area under irrigation through substantial private investment in pump sets and tube wells (Bhalla and Singh, 1997). However, despite the substantial decrease in the incidence of poverty in West Bengal, the state still gets included among the seven states that have a large proportion of their population in poverty These six states had 35% to 55% of their population in poverty even in 1993-94 . The worst poverty scenarios occurred in Bihar, which had more than half its population in poverty (55%) in 1993-94 and Orissa, with (49%). Bihar was able to reduce the percentage of its population in poverty by a marginal 11% over the 20 years. Assam (as is the case for several states in the North East) gets added to the group of 6 high share- of- India's- poor states listed above since 41% of its population is in poverty. Clearly Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh have suffered long duration poverty or chronic poverty since more than 40% of the population of these has been in poverty for over 20 years.13

CONCLUSION
Alleviation of poverty remains a major challenge before the nation. There may be disputes over the average level or the extent of reduction in the average level of poverty. But there is no denying that poverty has come down over the last three decades. There has been a steady decline in the poverty ratio, i.e., the number of poor expressed as a percentage of the total population. But, this decline until 1993-1994 was not adequate enough to effect a reduction in the number of poor due to increase in the population. The reduction has taken place between 1993-1994 and 1999-2000 when the number of poor declined by 60 million. Also, the efforts of the government have not made uniform impact across the regions. There are still some pockets in the country that need more attention and greater focus for the alleviation of poverty. The strategy needs to be complimented with a focus on provision of basic services for improving the quality of life of the people.

Alongside the average level of poverty, some of the important socioeconomic indicators such as literacy, education, and health have shown considerable improvement. As a result of the efforts intensified under the National Literacy Mission, the literacy rate has shown a much sharper increase during the 1990s compared to earlier decades. The health indicators have shown improvement, but India still lags behind many developing countries. The progress in poverty reduction and improvement in the socioeconomic indicators in India has been marked by extreme regional inequalities. The performance in this regard varies widely across the states and evidences suggest a variation of equal if not greater intensity between the regions within particular states. Also, within a state, the performance level of the indicators of level of living and quality of life measured in terms of the indicators of poverty and deprivation and socioeconomic indicators varies. There are some states that have performed well in reducing the incidence of poverty but not so well in improving the quality of life in terms of education and health. There is a north-south divide in the performance of poverty reduction. The four southern states, viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu have performed well whereas the performance is poor in some of the central (Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh) and eastern states (Bihar and Orissa). Unfortunately, in the current century more than 40 percent of the population of India will be residing in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Orissa. The performance of these states both in respect to poverty alleviation and socioeconomic development needs to be decisively strengthened.

References
1. Government of India, (2001), Poverty Estimates for 1999-2000, Press Release 2. Government of India, (2000) Economic Survey 1999-2000 3. The CERFE Research Program on Poverty (http://www.gruppocerfe.org/English/convegni/ny/document.htm)
4. The CERFE Research Program on Poverty

(http://www.gruppocerfe.org/English/convegni/ny/document.htm)

POVERTY IN INDIA
A Case Study

A PROJECT
Submitted By PAWAN SINGH BHANDARI Class XIIth, Section E, Class Roll No.: 12169
Lilawati Vidya Mandir Sr. Sec. School

Under Guidance of

MR. H.P. SINGH

Faculty of Geography
Lilawati Vidya Mandir Sr. Sec. School