India, once known as the golden bird, is now counted among the world’s poorest countries. The country has a very dirty history behind it, from the early invaders to the British; we all know how they robbed us and left nothing. When the British left India, it became the world’s second poorest country.
Every country has different definitions and measures to define poverty. In India, it is income based and consumption based, whereas World Bank and institutions of United Nations use a broader definition to compare poverty among nations, which is Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) as well as nominal relative basis. Even in India, each state has its own poverty threshold to collect poverty data. This makes it more complicated to understand.
I will use India’s history and World Bank’s data to understand the reason behind poverty in India. I will also use some Government measures to understand it.
- According to the World Bank, 27,00,00,000 Indians are poor. This translates to one poor in every five Indians.
- Seven low-income states (UP, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha) consist 62% of India’s poor population, whereas the rest of the states considered as higher income states consist 45% of the poor population.
- 80% of India’s poor population lives in rural areas.
- Poverty distribution between rural and urban areas are 25%and 14%t respectively.
- Poverty is highest in lower castes with 43% in ST’s, 29% in SC’s, 21%in OBC’s and 12% in the rest of the population.
- Agriculture is the main source of income (34%) in rural areas, whereas self-employment is the main source of income in urban areas (40%). When we talk about salaries, it is 4% in rural areas and 20%in urban areas.
- The poor spend more on food (56%), fuel (13% and electricity. Education and health are lowest in their priority (9%), whereas rich spend lowest on fuel and electricity (9%) and highest on food (47%) alongside shopping and other needs (33%) and education and health (9%) being the second lowest.
- The poor have low access to basic services like toilets, electricity and clean water.
- According to C.Rangarajan committee report-2011, the daily per capita expenditure was pegged at 32 rupees for the rural poor and at 47 rupees for the urban poor.
Measures:
In India, the measures to define poverty have become very old, it is now very necessary to review it. Apart from this, India’s environment and society have also contributed to the promotion of poverty. History has witnessed how people from lower castes have always gone unnoticed. They were always kept away from education, social and economic partnership. A vast number of India’s population was illiterate, and unemployed. Even today, the situation remains the same. The growth in India’s population has also been an important subject, due to which unemployment has been increasing. Apart from this, lack of financial literacy among people has also helped to grow poverty.
Prevention:
It is almost impossible to completely eliminate poverty from any country. But it can be reduced to some extent. For this, we have to pay attention to various standards in which changes in the education system are most important. Apart from this, they have to pay attention to their education and health by completely eliminating child labor. The ban on child marriage must also be reinforced. Due to health issues, people’s money is spent at once, which promotes poverty, so we need to improve health services. People should be warned about the danger of the growing population, in which unemployment is the main issue, and also be made aware of measures to control the population. People should also be provided with financial literacy. Only then can this country’s poverty be reduced.