Poverty in India: Reasons, Responses, Solutions | UPSC Notes

Poverty

New Dimensions of Poverty

Feminization of Poverty—

WEF—Unpaid work by women looking after their homes & children is worth 3.1% of India’s GDP. Employment segmentation dimension—confined to pink collered jobs

Multidimensional Poverty—

2005-2006–Indian pop under Multidimensional poverty—640 ml (55%), reduced to 369 ml (28%) in 2015-16.

Urban Poverty (Urbanisation of Poverty) :How to tackle Urban Poverty?

Data aggregation of urban poor match up with their skills—NMD announced by NDMA is a step in this direction.

Urban Mgt—Ex—Cochin Urban Poverty Reduction Project shown that est of a poverty cell within a municipal corp

Urban Gov

Urban Dev—Improved infra

Urban Employment Guarantee Prog—Kerala’s Ayyankali Urban Emp Guarantee Scheme guarantees 100 days of manual wage emp to an urban household.

Govt initiative for Urban Poor during Pandemic

Free Food grain Supply to Migrants

Disbursal of Revolving Fund to SHGs

Special Credit Facility for Street Vendors—PM-SVINIDHI

ONORC

Rural Poverty—SECC on Poverty—

56% of rural households hold no agri land.

49% of households can be considered poor in the sense of facing some deprivation.

ALTERNATIVE MODEL TO ERADICATE POVERTY:-

Role of VOs— Pratham & Akshay Patra

CSR—

TATA Group— In edu field, Tata provides scholarship for numerous inst.

Ultratech cement—org medical camps, sanitization prog ,water conservation prog, industrial training etc

PPP—can reduce infra deficit & open new avenues for employment gen

Promoting Entrepreneurship

Capability Approach of Prof Amartya Sen

Dev as expansion of people’s capabilities

Aims to enhance people’s well-being by expanding their capabilities NITI AAYOG Approach—Based on 2 legs—

1. Employment-intensive Sustained Rapid Growth—Accelerate growth of org labour-intensive sectors —can be achieved through the creation of CEZs etc
2. Making anti-poverty prog effective—PDS, MGNREGA & Housing for All

Way forward

WB Report shows that to sustainably reduce poverty, countries need to— Grow in an inclusive, labor-intensive way.

Invest in the human capital

Insure poor & vulnerable against shocks that can push them deeper into L

Inequalites

Oxfam report (Jan 2022)—“Inequality kills”—During Covid-19– More than half of world’s new poors r from India

4.6 cr fall into extreme poverty

Wealth of Richest 142 Indians doubled

Why to solve inequality—

Constitutional mandate—DPSPs (Art 38, 39)—Building a more just & equal society Consequences of Inequality— Low Rate in Poverty Reduction

Inequality is the root of Revolution. (Aristotle)

Inhibits social mobility—Inter gen tranmission of poverty—Poverty Trap Social Exclusion

Creates a grossly divided society

Need of—

Rights based approach

Social security exp—Edu, health, pensions

Address multidimensional inequalities

RECENT IMPROVEMENTS

Greater opportunities–Growth-oriented approach

Capacity Building–Education, health, WASH etc which promote capacity-building and well-being of the poor.

Empowerment of vulnerable sections

Bottom up approach–Decentralization of power. Ex – MGNREGA.

Curb Corruption–Digitalization, DBT, Financial inclusion,Social audits

Sustainable, Inclusive, equitable & Regionally balanced development – To address regional and sector based growth imbalance in growth, govt has initiated programmes such as Green

Revolution 2.0, Blue Economy, North Eastern Region Vision 2020 for the development of the NER etc.

Quotes

Gandhi— “Poverty is the worst form of violence”

Nelson Mandela— “Poverty is not an accident. Like slavery & Apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man made & it can be eradicated by the actions of human beings”