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Poverty Eradication Poverty is generally characterised as a state of deprivation, dependence and degradation below physically and socio-culturally acceptable norms or standards set by a society or nation. It is associated with a minimum level of living for its population. This definition aptly suits India where about one-fourth of the total population is forced to live below the poverty line. Rural India constitutes a total of 0.63 million villages with a population of 543.4 million. The basic statistics of rural areas show there is a skewed distribution of land holdings and population in the villages, while a large number of workers are landless labourers. Besides, a poor wage structure, a low level of literacy, poor health and poor infrastructure facilities contribute to the problem of poverty. In addition to the economic constraints there are religious attitudes, caste, stereotype personality patterns, prejudices, superstitions and taboos which perpetuate the ingrained social structure. All these factors hinder the pace of developmental process in rural India and plunge the society into poverty. Urban area is also not free from poverty. Here, an acute discrimination between haves and havenots can be seen easily. In capital city Delhi itself more than twenty per cent of the total population lives in jhuggis (slums). Unemployment, underemployment are also not absent from urban India. Avenues of higher education are open to city dwellers, but job opportunities are not keeping pace with the number of educated people. Meaningful employment is not available to able-bodied youths. Thus unemployment persuades poverty. It is a major cause of poverty. Poverty eradication programmes and policies are as old as the Independent India, though many new schemes and plans are initiated almost everyday to eradicate poverty. Government is well aware of this. There have been continuous efforts to transform the traditional villages, through schemes like Community Development Programme, IRDP, TRYSEM, JRY, Operation Blackboard, National Literacy Mission, Integrated Child Development Programme, and Balwadi Nutrition programme, Indira Awas Yojana, etc. The Panchayati Raj Institutions have been established at village, block and district levels for democratic decentralisation and devolution of power to the people. However, the .effectiveness of this and other such institutions has been limited and an erosion of their powers and functions has been reported from various states. The cooperative movement aimed at the development of the weaker section has also not succeeded. Its failure could be located in Nehrus statement: The state should promote and assist the cooperative movement instead of trying to control it. Certainly there are many programmes and policies for poverty eradication. But there is a lack of effective implementation. Thus, to eradicate poverty it is necessary to make the implementing machinery efficient, prompt and responsive. They should be made accountable. Those found insincere and dishonest should be penalised.

Poverty In India Economic development during the last nearly four decades since the inception of planning has resulted in a little increase in average per capital income. There is no doubt that living conditions have improved everywhere, even in the most backward districts. Yet a large number of people have remained poor deprived of basic nutrition, rudimentary shelter, minimally competent medical attention, and primary education. The existence of poverty is incompatible with the vision of an advanced, prosperous, democratic, egalitarian and just society implied in the concept of a socialist pattern of society. Elimination of poverty, therefore, must have the highest priority of society. Poverty can be defined as a social phenomenon in which a section of the society is unable to fulfill even its basic necessities of life. Poverty may be absolute or relative. Absolute poverty of a person means that his income or consumption expenditure is so meager that he lives below the minimum subsistence level. On the other hand, relative poverty merely indicates the large inequalities of income. To quantify the extent of poverty and measure the number of poor in the country, professional economists have made use of the concept of poverty line. The planning commission has defined the poverty on the basis of recommended nutritional requirements of 2,435, rounded as 2,400, calories per person per day for rural areas and 2,095, rounded as 2,100, calories for urban areas. The average calorie requirement is estimated by taking into account the population composition by age, sex and occupation categories, together with the corresponding recommended calorie norms by the Indian council of Medical Research. In rupees the poverty line is the mid-point of the expenditure class in which the calorie needs are satisfied. On this basis, in rupee terms, the poverty line works out at Rs. 76 per head per month (i.e. Rs. 912 per year) for rural areas and at Rs. 88 per month (i.e. Rs. 1056 per year) for urban areas, both at the 1979-80 prices. Poverty, however, is not equitable distributed throughout the country. The percentage of population living below the poverty line in 1987-88 was 33.40 percent in rural areas, 20.10 percent in urban areas, and 29.90 percent all-India. The number of poor people in the country has declined in absolute terms from 271.0 million in 1983.84 to 237.7 million in 1987-88. Region wise the Eastern Region of the country, comprising the state of Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam is the home to the largest proportion of population living below the poverty

line-51.3 percent of the total population in the eastern region in 1983 lived below the line of poverty. The corresponding proportions were 43.2 percent in the southern Region, 37.2 percent in the central Region 34.9 percent in the Western Region, and 8.3 percent in the Northern Region comprising the state of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. There has been a sharp fall in the incidence of poverty during the decade of eighties than ever before. The reasons for this are, (i) growth rate of GNP accelerated during this period; (ii) Anti-poverty programmes provided employment and assets to the needy, (iii) Increasing urbanization of the economy; (iv) growth of non-farm activities due to development of rural infra-structure: and (v) Higher growth rate in the eastern part of the country. In rural sector, the major group of the poor consists of agricultural labourers or those who own or have access to so little land that they are forced into wage labour to earn subsistence. In urban areas, poverty can be identified with people who are unemployed, underemployed or employed in various low productivity occupations such as porter age, street pending, etc, or employed in jobs either with insecure employed or with every low real wages. In most of the metropolitan cities, migrant worker are prominently amongst the poor. This segment of poverty, in fact, is the extension of the rural poverty itself. The labour absorption capacity of land is always limited, and more often than not it seems to have reached the stagnancy level. The additional labour force unable to find profitable employment opportunities in these villages flock to the nearby towns and metropolitan cities in search of work. Thus they swell the rank of labour force in cities. The cities have failed to absorb even the existing force: any addition from outside only worsen the situation. The condition of the urban poor is further worsened by the fact that they are not producer of food. An important cause of poverty in India is the serious inequality of incomes, both in the rural and urban sections of the economy. This in turn is caused by differences in the ownership of assets land in the rural areas and material assets in the urban areas. The government would have to develop multi pronged attack on poverty to be able to guarantee maximum good for maximum numbers. The steps which can be suggested to solve the problem of poverty are as follows: (1) Rapid economic growth; (2.) Increasing he rats of surplus generation in the economy; (3) Stepping up agricultural growth in the less developed regions where labour is abundant, wage rates are low and poverty is widespread; (4) Evolving new technology to step up production in rained agriculture; (5) Social development: (6) Infrastructural development; (7) Accelerating employment in the informal rural non-agricultural sector; (8) Improving the consciousness and education levels of the poor; (9) Strengthening of various beneficiary-oriented programmes.

Poverty, however, can be eradicated only when the various facilities and concessions, programmed to be provided by the government for the uplift of the downtrodden actually reach them. Then, there should be proper utilization of these concession and facilities.

A n E s s a y o n P o v e r t y w i t h r e f e r e n c e t o India B A m i t B h u s h a

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Poverty is the state of human subsistence where one finds him unable to fully participate in the process of production and fair trade, to earn s u i t a b l e w a g e s , enough to cover the cost of a healthy & hygienic living in a dignified way. A person in poverty in not only denied a healthy & productive living standard in present, but he is also unable to make good use of any evolving opportunity due to lack of adequate resources. Thus even the future generation of a person in poverty is condemned to live in subsistence. Poverty not only gives an undignified present state of living but a l s o makes a person bereft of any hope to improve his lot without an external support. Poverty can be attributed to many factors, each of which may have its own degree of d i s t r e s s . C h i e f c a u s e s o f p o v e r t y a r e n o r m a l l y c i t e d a s l a c k o f e d u c a t i o n & marketable skills, high growth rate of population, lack of n a t u r a l r e s o u r c e s o f production like agricultural land and mines, fiscal imprudence of the government, l a c k o f e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p o r i d e a s i n a s o c i e t y , l o w r a t e o f c a p i t a l f o r m a t i o n , casteism/racism, lack of infrastructure, inadequate investment or foreign investment, s e c u r i t y e n v i r o n m e n t e t c . e t c . H o w e v e r the most astonishing thing about such debates on poverty is that the debate usually shifts to identification of a chief cause/s & ways to tackle t h e s a m e . T h i s i s b a s i c a l l y t r i v i a l i z a t i o n o f t h e w h o l e debate. It may also be pointed out that given the choice to people/policy makers to root out poverty & say casteism, education or health, a lot of people would like to give much more priority to eliminate poverty. However, the truth is most of them are u n a b l e t o s t r u c t u r e & f o c u s a t t e n t i o n o n p o v e r t y a l o n e & d i g r e s s t o o n e o f t h e contributory causes with the result that poverty gets lesser attention. The basic requirement is the need to understand the theorem or principle of poverty before s u c h a d i s c u s s i o n can be conducted & led to its normal conclusion. Poverty is the result of inability of a society or any particular cross- section of a society to participate in or share the means of production and engage in a f a i r exchange process on a sustainable basis. In simple words, this translates into either indrance or a lack of empowerment of a cross-section of society to p r o d u c e marketable goods & seek a suitable price in a free & fair manner. The term free & f a i r i n t h e p r e v i o u s s e n t e n c e m a y b e i n t e r p r e t e d a s s o m e t h i n g s i m i l a r t o P u r e Competition as in economics where there is availability of a large number of sellers( o r p r o d u c e r s ) & b u y e r s , t h e y h a v e e a s y a c c e s s t o i n f o r m a t i o n & b u s i n e s s c a n proceed in unhindered way i.e. transaction cost is low. In context of producers, this also means availability of a large number of producers with easy & unfettered access to factors of production such as land, capital, manpower & other resources. The

important point is the emphasis on distribution of the means of production to ensure participation of a larger population & a fair trading process to ensure a d e q u a t e remuneration. If a society embarks on such mission, the inequalities are bound to reduce, resulting in improvement in quality of living for a larger number of people, enhanced productivity & greater harmony. The contrast between USA & Japan may not out of place to be quoted here. USA with much greater land, mineral & other

resources, houses a much higher proportion of people in poverty than Japan which islow on resource but has achieved a better distribution of

resources (lowerinequality).Lo oking at the above, it is clear that the intention of the essay is to explore povertyas mainly an economic phenomenon, though the causes

that contribute to povertymay be identified as social, political, regulatory or economic in nature. It is beingdone intentionally to keep the evolving discussion focused

solely on poverty & not todigress to any one or more of the contributory cause & dilute the debate. This soundlogical as well because, though poverty of any crosssection of society of a

particulargeography may be a result of a socio-political cause say casteism/racism; howeverthe cause essentially results in establishment of a regime of denial of the means of production & fair

trade price. Such a regime of denial may be exercised by outrightrestriction, by lack of empowerment (no information or knowledge sharing) or byincreasing the cost of resource for

that particular crosssection of the society. It alsoneeds to be understood that eliminating some of the causes of poverty might bemuch more cumbersome, politically risky to

get support besides putting pressure onalready meager resources. Also, eliminating poverty might itself lead to a number of problem waning away of at least their impact might wane for the

society.Then there is also the human problem of motivation, where a human being has anopportunity to exploit the means of production & get a fair market price, but doesnot feel

tempted to do so. This could be a result of lack of ideas & information, ageneral state of gloominess, fear of exploitation & other similar factors. It maysometimes happen when the

human subject has comfort of accumulated assets e.g.a doctor or an educationist may be unemployed or inadequately employed (lowwages) in an urban area, however

does not feel tempted to explore a rural or a sub-urban area offering higher wages for employment. Also, poverty itself is a bigdetriment for the poverty struck person as it blocks

many of his attempt to riseabove poverty due to inability to provide for the financial resources to do so e.g. aperson good at computers may not able to afford himself of proper training &

seekb e t t e r w a g e s . A novice actor, which could be anyone including a state, a national or even amultilateral agency, can easily be tempted to start

seeking solutions to one of thecauses of poverty while making an attempt to root out poverty from a region(because of the confusion around the poverty debate). It is easy to

spot exampleswhere such agencies have put up or are putting up large infrastructure projects likeroads, dams etc., and setting up large number of primary schools & health

carecenters or even distributing food & medicines, seeking investment /foreigninvestment, all in an attempt to defeat the menace of poverty. So far our experiencein India goes, it shows us

that such attempts have either gone in vain or met withlimited success at best. No attempt is being made to undermine the need toeliminate causes like casteism, infrastructure,

foreign investments bottlenecks etc.However it needs to be reemphasized that as far as the need to eliminate poverty isconcerned, a more focused attempt would yield much better results &

improve wellbeing and harmony in the society. What is essentially required, is the need to createmore options for production, a better distribution of those options to seekparticipation of

local population, ensure a fairer trading regime and motivate thepovertystruck to take advantage of such production process more vigorously.Any concentrated attempt

to root out poverty from any part of the geography shouldclearly plan & provide answers to the following three questions. What measures should be adopted to create and deliver a

larger number of resources to reach out toa larger number of people in the region? How to ensure unhindered access of theproduce of the region to its markets & ensure a fair price? And

finally, what can bedone to ensure that a larger number of people feel motivated to participate in thep r o d u c t i o n p r o c e s s ? The above

might sound Gandhian thinking laced in etymologically modern economiclexicon, however as the discussion evolves, the differences shall become

morepronounced. Primary among them is the insistence on ensuring easy access tomarkets including international markets as opposed to selfsufficiency of

villages andall things there under viz. adoption of new technology instead of traditionalproductio n methods, encouragement to innovation & nonopposition to large

projectsetc. The only point that is stated is that any project, rolled out in the name of poverty must be assessed based upon the answers to the questions in the previousparagraph.

It should be looked if the project is helping in development of ecologywhere a larger number of people of the region can participate in the productionprocess

during the construction as well as the operating phase of the project & it isan opportunity for them to get better pricing for their produce on a sustainable basis.Also, the

project should be able to create a Feel Good factor where a larger numberof people in the region feel motivated to participate or contribute to the process. Letthere also be no doubt

that the essay draws inspiration from the Gandhianphilosophy of Production by masses as core theme for the management of poverty.An economist might be

tempted to argue that nearly all projects and policies wouldhave participation of people as well as would have to produce in order to qualifyfunding of the project by the

government & sustain it. Also, a large project mighthave some displacement of people along with a clutch of production machinery of thelocal society; it may also have some

adverse impact on small players in the sameindustry e.g. Textiles sector India. Also international phenomenon like globalizationwould have impact on local industry and employment. A

large project might alsochange the way business is conducted to the detriment of players who are unable tochange their business practices. Should such projects & policies be

necessary bequalified as detrimental to the economy & banished or can they be avoided at all.The idea of this essay is to highlight the flux in contemporary business

environmentand coopt the same along with the need to involve masses in the productionprocess. Now this might sound like utopia, quite preposterous for

implementation.Ho wever, the idea of judging projects on the basis of three core questions along withother funding related requirements is politically palatable, humanly

possible,measurable & monitorable. What essentially such a scheme does is it transfers therole of generating ideas from a central to a local level. Hereunder, a locality or localgovernment

generates/selects local ideas (and is also responsible for implementingit), it is then evolves further through help from central or other agencies, theauthorities at center qualify or

disqualify funding on such ideas and developsprogram for monitoring the same. If the selected idea is successful, the center mayshare & implement the idea at other regions where possible.

Though planning,selection & funding of such ideas may become more time consuming (monitoring,more cumbersome), the implementation & impact of such

scheme given theownership & stake of local players is likely to be much better then our presentsituation where a plethora of projects/policies are failing in the implementationphas

e.Now lets venture to examine the role of Indian government & various agencies