Thursday 7 March 2013


Poverty in India


Anti Poverty Programs in India | Mid-Day Meal Scheme for School Children | Various Development and Employment Program

  • Poverty is a social phenomenon in which a section of society is unable to fulfill even its basic necessities of life. The countries of the third world exhibit invariably the existence of mass poverty, although poverty also exists even in the developed countries of Europeand America.
  • Several economists and organizations have given different estimates of poverty. Most of them estimated the number of persons below the poverty line on the basis of an average calorie intake of ,50 per capita per day.
  • According to the report of Task Force on Minimum Needs and Effective Consumption Demand – an expert group of Planning Commission, defined poverty one on a nutritional norm of per capita daily intake of ,400 calories in rural areas and ,00 calories for urban areas.
  • A person who fails to obtain this minimum level of calories is treated as being below the poverty line.
  • The identification process of persons below die poverty line has been put to a controversy for the last few years. Planning Commission adopted the survey of NSSO as a basis for defining poverty line and determining the number of persons below it.
  • On the basis of these criteria, Planning Commission estimated 8.96% of total population below poverty line for the year 993 – 994. The expert group under the chairmanship of Professor.
  • DT Lakadawala (appointed by Planning Commission which submitted the report in July, 993) found earlier estimates of poverty unreliable and suggested an alternate approach for identifying poor in which different poverty line was determined for different states on the basis of price level of that particular state.
  • Lakadawala expert group suggested that it will be most suitable to rely on the disaggregated commodity indices for Consumer Price Index for Agricultural laborers (CPIAL) to update the rural poverty line and a simple average of suitably weighted commodity indices of Consumer Price Index for Industrial Worker (CPIIW) for I updating urban poverty line. Adopting this approach the expert group suggested 3 different poverty lines for all different states.

Latest Poverty Trends in India
  • Presently, .8% Indians are living Below Poverty Line (BPL). The survey to measure this is conducted by National Sample Survey (NSS) Organization.
  • NSS determines poverty line using the mixed recall period method in which consumer spending for five items such as clothing, footwear, durable goods, education and institutional medical expenses are collected from a 365 day period.
  • Orissa is the poorest state with 39.9% people living below poverty line. It is followed by Jharkhand, Bihar and MR Poverty is lowest in Chandigarh (3.8%), Jammu and Kashmir (4.%) and Punjab (5.%).

State - Specific Poverty Lines in 2004 - 2005 (Rs. per capita
per month)
State / UTRuralUrban
Andhra Pradesh292.95542.89
Assam387.64378.84
Bihar354.36435.00
Chhattisgarh322.41560.00
Delhi410.38612.91
Goa362.25665.90
Gujarat353.93541.16
Haryana414.76504.49
Himachal Pradesh394.28504.49
Jammu & Kashmir391.26553.77
Jharkhand366.56451.24
Karnataka324.17599.66
Kerala430.12559.39
Madhya Pradesh327.78570.15
Maharashtra362.25665.90
Orissa325.79528.49
Puniab410.38466.16
Rajasthan374.57559.63
Tamil Nadu351.86547.42
Uttar Pradesh365.84483.26
Uttarakhand478.02637.67
West Bengal382.82449.32
D and N Haveli362.25665.90
All India356.30538.60
Poverty : Rural and Urban

I. Rural Poverty in India
  • Main Reasons
  • Rapid Population Growth
  • Lack of Capital
  • Lack of Alternate Employment Opportunities Other than Agriculture
  • Excessive Population Pressure on Agriculture
  • Illiteracy
  • Regional Disparities
  • Joint Family System
  • Child Marriage Tradition
  • Indifferent attitude towards Investment
  • Lack of proper implementation of Public Distribution System
Government Efforts
  • Legal Elimination of Bonded Laborers
  • Preventing the Centralization of Wealth by modifying the Law
  • Antyodaya Plan
  • Small Farmer Development Program (SFDP)
  • Drought Area Development Program (DFDP)
  • Twenty Point Program
  • Food for Work Program
  • Minimum needs Program (MNP)
  • Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP)
  • National Rural Employment Program (NREP)
  • Rural Labor Employment Guarantee Program (RLEGP)
  • Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojana (JGSY) (Formerly known as Jawahar Rozgar Yojana)
  • TRYSEM Scheme
  • Family Planning / Welfare Program for Population Control
  • Employment Assurance Scheme
  • Scheme for Rural Artisans / Craftsmen
  • DWCRA Program
  • Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
  • Mahila Samriddhi Yojana
  • National Social Assistance Program (NSAP)
  • Group Life Insurance Scheme for Rural Areas
  • Rural Housing Program
  • Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY)
  • Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
  • Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana
  • Indira Awaas Yojana
  • Samagra Awaas Yojana
  • Pradhan Mantri Rozgar Yojana
  • Agriculture Income Insurance Scheme
  • National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme
II. Urban Poverty India
  • Migration of Rural Youth towards Cities
  • Lack of Vocational Education / Training
  • Limited Job Opportunities of Employment in the Cities
  • Rapid increase in Population
  • Lack of Housing Facilities
  • No proper Implementation of Public Distribution System
Government Efforts
  • Emphasis on Vocational Education
  • Nehru Rozgar Yojana (NRY)
  • Self – Employment Program for the Urban Poor (SEPUP)
  • Financial assistance for Constructing Houses
  • Self – Employment to the Educated Urban Youth (SEEUY) Program
  • Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (Also implemented in rural areas)
  • National Social Assistance Program
  • Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP) Program
  • Prime Minister’s Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Program (PMIUPEP)
  • Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana
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