Introduction

Economic growth is of no use if a sizeable segment of the society suffers deprivation . Growth is converted into Development only when poverty is eliminated. Imploying that people no longer suffer hunger, dearth or starvation; all people enjoy at least the bare minimum of life,viz.food, clothing, and shelter. Independent India embarked upon the programmes of development with socialistic pattern of society as its central objective. It sought to achieve economic and social equality, focusing on the elimination of poverty. The present chapter analyses the concept of poverty and its diverse dimensions. It discusses the way the poor identified. It offers a theoretical perspective of the remedial measures. Finally, it describes the poverty alleviation programme launched by the government from time to time.

What is Poverty and Who are Poor?

Poverty is the inability to fullfil the minimum requirements of life. The minimum requirements includes food, clothing, housing, education and health facilities. If these minimum needs are not fulfilled, man undergoes pains and sufferings. There is loss of health and efficiency. Sickness and disabilities render them helpless to fight out poverty. They start accepting it as a way of life. Generation after generation they live in poverty, grow inpoverty and die in poverty. Poverty breeds itself or multiplies itself.

Relative and Absolute Poverty:How are the Poor Identified?

Relative poverty and absolute poverty are the two variants of poverty. Following is their brief description: (1)Relative Poverty: It refers to poverty in relation to different classes,regions or countries. The country or class of people whose level of substance is low is treated as poor or relatively poor in comparison to the country or class of people having high level of subsistence. According to a report published by UNO, those countries are considered relatively poor where per capita income is less than one dollar per day. In India ranks low even among the poor countries. Per capita income even of countries like Egypt,Sri Lanka and Pakistan is higher than that of India. Per capita per annum income of the USA is $34,870 ;that of japan is $35,993 and Switzerland $36,970. Thus , india is one of the poorest country in the world. Relative poverty is also interpreted in terms of inequality of income within the country. For example ,in india share of 20 percent of low income group of people in the national is barely 7 percent. In terms of of unequal distribution of income of the people of an area ,poverty is often measured using the concept of Lorentz curve and ginni coefficient.

(2) Absolute poverty: In india , the concept of poverty line is used as a measure of absolute poverty. Poverty line refers to that line which expresses per capita average monthly expenditure incurred by the people to satisfy their minimum needs . In india, persons who spend rupees 328 on consumption in rural areasand rupees 459 in urban areas per month at 1999-2000 prices are treated as absolutely poor whose monthly consumption expenditure falls below this line. In india nearly 25 percent of the countrys population is absolutely poor. In terms of the total number of absolutely poor, 25 percent in india covers nearly 50 percent of the absolutely poor in the world.

How is poverty line fixed in india : some procedural details

Note the following observations on the procedure we follow in india while fixing the poverty line:

 In the estimation of consumption cutoff , we do not include public expenditure by the government on consumer goods. Only private consumption expenditure is concerned. As components of private consumption expenditure, we consider not only food item but non food items as well. For the consumption of food items , we work out per capita consumption of calories. Frequency distribution is formedwith different class intervals showing the ramge of calorie consumption and the level of calorie consumption. Higher clas shows higher range of calorie consumption. Frequency are recorded against each class interval. Each frequency counts the number of heads belonging to a particular consumption class. Finally head count ratio is worked out showing poor and non poor ( corresponding to poverty line cutoff),separately for the rural and urban areas. The ratio shows the percentage of population below poverty line.

categorizing poverty category 1 :chronic poor: those who are always poor and those who are usually poor. Example: landless workers and casual workers. Category 2: transient poor: (i) those who are changing poor moving in and out of poverty (like seasonal workers) Category 3:never poor: these are categorized as non poor people.

source : economic survey ,2007

source : economic survey ,2005-06

Rural population continues to have an edge over urban poverty, thrugh both have an significant decline over time. Rural poverty has declined from 54 percent in 1972-73 to 21.8 to 21.7 percent during the same period. However , percentage decline by no means should be interpreted to mean the total decline as well. Owing to an explosing rise in population overtime the total number of those below pverty line has continued to swell both in rural and urban areas, despite a fall in percentage values.