INTRODUCTION:
Poverty
Poverty is a state where a person finds it unable to maintain a minimum socially accepted level of standard of living. It is regarded as the root cause for low levels of health and educational outcomes, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity for mobility. Poverty alleviation remained the central to all the state and central level policy making. The Five Year Plans in India had their focus directly or indirectly on reducing the poverty levels throughout.
The problem of poverty is considered as the biggest challenge to development planning in India. High poverty levels are synonymous with poor quality of life, deprivation, malnutrition, illiteracy and low human resource development. 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.
As economy grows and per capita incomes rise, the poverty threshold indicating the minimum acceptable level of living need to be revised to reflect the changing consumption patterns in society. The Planning Commission appointed an Expert Group to review alternate concepts of poverty and recommend necessary changes in the existing procedures of official estimation of poverty.
POVERTY ERADICATION PROGRAMME:
There are two basic pre-requesters of a poverty eradication programmes. Firstly, reorientation of the agricultural relations so that the ownership of land is shared by a larger section of the people. Secondly, no programme of removal of poverty can succeed in an economy plagued by inflation and spiraling rise of price.
A poverty eradication programme, therefore, must mop up the surplus with the elite classes. These two pre-requisites a strong political will in the national leadership to implement the much needed structural reforms. Besides, the government must aim at a strategy for the development of the social sector of which the key component should be population control, universal primary education, family welfare and job creation especially in rural areas. These and the other aspects of poverty alleviation have not given any importance so far in our planning, though we have always thought that poverty can be removed through economic development.
Four main causes of poverty in India are as follows:
Rural poverty is a multi-dimensional social problem. Its causes are varied. They are as follows:
1. Climatic factors:
Climatic conditions constitute an important cause of poverty. The hot climate of India reduces the capacity of people especially the ruralites to work for which production severely suffers. Frequent flood, famine, earthquake and cyclone cause heavy damage to agriculture. Moreover, absence of timely rain, excessive or deficient rain affect severely country's agricultural production.
2. Demographic factors:
The following demographic factors are accountable for poverty in India.
(i) Rapid growth of population:
Rapid growth of population aggravates the poverty of the people. The growth of population exceeds the rate of growth in national income. Population growth not only creates difficulties in the removal of poverty but also lowers the per capita income which tends to increase poverty. The burden of this reduction in per capita income is borne heavily by the poor people. Population growth at a faster rate increases labour supply which tends to lower the wage rate.
(ii) Size of family:
Size of the family has significant bearing on rural poverty. The larger the size of family, the lower is the per capita income, and the lower is the standard of living. The persistence of the joint family system has contributed to the health and earning capacity of the ruralites.
3. Personal causes:
(i) Lack of motivation:
Lack of motivation is an important cause of rural poverty. Some ruralites do not have a motive to work hard or even to earn something. This accounts for the poverty of the ruralites.
(ii) Idleness:
Most of the rural people are lazy, dull and reluctant to work. Hence they rot in poverty.
4. Economic causes:
(i) Low agricultural productivity:
Poverty and real income are very much interrelated. Increase in real income leads to reduction of the magnitude of poverty. So far as agricultural sector is concerned, the farmers even today are following the traditional method of cultivation. Hence there is low agricultural productivity resulting in rural poverty.
(ii) Unequal distribution of land and other assets:
Land and other forms of assets constitute sources of income for the ruralites. But, unfortunately, there has been unequal distribution of land and other assets in our economy. The size-wise distribution of operational holdings indicates a very high degree of concentration in the hands of a few farmers leading to poverty of many in the rural sector.
(iii) Decline of village industries:
At present consequent upon industrialization new factories and industries are being set up in rural areas. Village industries fail to compete with them in terms of quality and price. As a result they are closed down. The workers are thrown out of employment and lead a life of poverty.
(iv) Immobility of labour:
Immobility of labour also accounts, for rural poverty. Even if higher wages are offered, labourers are not willing to leave their homes. The joint family system makes people lethargic and stay-at-home.
The ruralites are mostly illiterate, ignorant, conservative, superstitious and fatalistic. Poverty is considered as god-given, something preordained. All these factors lead to abysmal poverty in rural India.
(v) Lack of employment opportunities:
Unemployment is the reflection of poverty. Because of lack of employment opportunities, people remain either unemployed or underemployed. Most of these unemployed and underemployed workers are the small and marginal farmers and the landless agricultural labourers.
5. Social causes:
(i) Education:
Education is an agent of social change and egalitarianism. Poverty is also said to be closely related to the levels of schooling and these two have a circular relationship. The earning power is endowed in the individual by investment in education and training. But this investment in people takes away money and lack of human investment contributes to the low earning capacity of individuals. In this way people are poor because they have little investment in themselves and poor people do not have the funds for human capital investment.
(ii) Caste system:
Caste system in India has always been responsible for rural poverty. The subordination of the low caste people by the high caste people caused the poverty of the former. Due to rigid caste system, the low caste people could not participate in the game of economic progress. A Shudra was not allowed to become a trader and a Vaisya could earn his bread only by trade.
Birth would decide their occupation and their economic fate. K. V. Verghese rightly observes, "Caste system acted as a springboard for class exploitation with the result that the counterpart of the poverty of the many is the opulence of the few. The second is the cause of the first."
(iii) Joint family system:
The joint family system provides social security to its members. Some people take undue advantage of it. They live upon the income of others. They become idlers. Their normal routine of life consists in eating, sleeping and begetting children. In this way poverty gets aggravated through joint family system.
(iv) Social customs:
The ruralites spend a large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage, death feast etc. As a result, they remain in debt and poverty.
(v) Growing indebtedness:
In the rural sector most of the ruralites depend on borrowings from the money-lenders and land-lords to meet even their consumption expenses. Moneylenders, however, exploit the poor by charging exorbitant rates of interest and by acquiring the mortgaged land in the event of non-payment of loans.
Indebted poor farmers cannot make themselves free from the clutches of moneylenders. Their poverty is further accentuated because of indebtedness. Such indebted families continue to remain under the poverty line for generations because of this debt-trap.
Important Measures Adopted to Remove Rural Poverty in India are as follows:
Several poverty alleviation programmes have been launched by the central government for the rural poor, comprising small and marginal farmers, landless labourers and rural artisans. They are as follows:
1. Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP):
The Integrated Rural Development Programme initiated in 1978-79 extended to all development blocks in the country in 1980-81. It is based on "the local needs, resources, endowments and potentialities."
Its objective is to enable selected families to cross the poverty line by taking up self-employment ventures in a variety of activities like agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry in the primary sector, weaving and handicrafts in the secondary sector, and service and business activities in the tertiary sector.
While the central and state government provides financial resources for the programme and lay down broad guidelines for its implementation, the main administrative unit of its implementation is the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs). At the Block level a number of extension officers are provided for programme implementation.
2. Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment (TRYSEM):
The scheme of TRYSEM was initiated in August, 1979, with the primary objective of providing technical skills to the rural youth to enable them to seek employment in fields of agriculture, industry, services and business activities. Only youth in the age group of 18-35 and belonging to families living below the poverty line are eligible for training.
3. Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA):
The scheme of DWCRA was introduced in 50 districts in 1982-83. The major thrust of DWCRA is to improve the socio-economic status of rural women through the creation of income-generating activities in a district on a self-sustaining basis.
4. National Rural Employment Programme (NREP):
National Rural Employment Programme was launched in October 1980 as a centrally sponsored scheme on 50:50 sharing basis between centre and states. Generating additional gainful employment opportunities, creating durable community assets and improving the overall quality of life in rural areas constitute the three fold objectives of the programme. The programme is implemented through DRDA.
5. Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP):
Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme was launched on 15th August 1983 to generate additional employment in rural areas particularly for the rural landless workers. Under this scheme employment is given to at least one member of every landless family up to 100 days in a year.
6. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY):
The programme was launched in April, 1989. It is preeminently a wage employment programme. Under the scheme, it is expected that at least one member of each poor family would be provided with employment for 50 to 100 days in a year at a work place near his/her residence.
About 30 per cent of the jobs under this scheme are reserved for women. The scheme is implemented through village Panchayats. It covers 46 per cent of our population. At present Jawahar Rozgar Yojana is not in operation.
7. Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS):
The EAS was launched in 1983 and expanded in phases to cover the whole country in 1996. It aims at providing 100 days of employment to two members of a rural family in a year.
8. Million Well Scheme (MWS):
The MWS is funded by the centre and states in the ratio of 80:20. The objective of the scheme is to provide open irrigation wells free of cost to poor, small and marginal farmers belonging to SCs and STs and freed bonded labour.
9. Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY):
The PMRY is a self-employment programme for the educated unemployed youth. This programme has been implemented since October 2, 1993 to provide employment opportunities to the educated unemployed youths in the country.
The minimum qualification required under the scheme is matriculation (passed or failed) or having undergone a government sponsored technical course for a period of six months or ITI passed. In this scheme the youth between the age of 18 and 35 belonging to families having income less than Rs. 25,000 per annum are provided assistance.
The educated unemployed entrepreneurs are given subsidy of 15 per cent subject to a ceiling of Rs. 75,000 each for starting small projects. They are required to bring 5 per cent of the project cost as margin money. Each entrepreneur is eligible for a loan upto Rs. 1 lakh. A reservation of 22.5 per cent for SC/ST and 27 per cent for Other Backward Classes has been provided. Preference is given to women.
10. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana (JGSY):
This scheme is in operation from 1999. It is implemented only at the village level to create village infrastructure and generates employment opportunities to alleviate poverty.
11. Jai Praksah Rozgar Guarantee Yojana (JPRGY):
The JPRGY has been launched (2002) to provide employment guarantee to the unemployed in the most distressed districts of the country.
12. Rural Housing Schemes:
Indira Awas Yojana was launched by the government in 1985. Under this scheme house is given free of cost to SC/ST families and free bonded labourers. Its scope has been extended to include non-scheduled rural poor. Under the Ninth Five Year Plan, Samagra Awas Yojana has been launched to ensure integrated provision of shelter, sanitation and drinking water to poor rural households.
After independence our planners and economists had felt that the economic development by itself would reduce poverty in the country. But the reality is that the benefits of development have not reached the doorsteps of the poor.
Further, the poverty reduction policy of the government through increase in the budgetary allocations for expenditure on social sectors also contributes to the removal of poverty. But its role is very much limited as it does not directly create any employment opportunities. It simply provides some relief to the weaker sections of the society under certain situations.
The above measures, if honestly implemented, are likely to help a sizeable section of the rural population to rise above the poverty line in India. A study of nine states of India conducted by the World Bank and completed in 1995 reveals that despite leakages in the operation of various poverty alleviation programmes many poor have been able to move above the poverty line.
UNEMPLOYMENT
The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) provides the Unemployment estimates on the basis of the Quinquennial surveys. Persons are considered as unemployed, if he/she was not working, but was either seeking or was available for work for a relatively longer time during the reference period. Unemployment rate is defined as the number of persons unemployed per 1000 persons in the labour force. This in effect gives the unutilized portion of the labour force. It is a more defined indicator of the unemployment situation in a population than the proportion of unemployed, which is nearly the number of unemployed per 1000 persons in the population as a whole.
The unemployment rate in the country during 2012-13 was estimated to be 13.3 per cent for the age group 15-29, a government report has revealed.
The Labour Ministry report on 'Youth employment- unemployment scenario, 2012-13 further revealed unemployment rate among the persons who cannot read and write any language or are considered illiterate was the lowest with 3.7 per cent without work in the 15-29 age group.
CONCLUSION:
It observed that people in employment were "actually overqualified for the job they are doing and therefore society is losing their valuable skills and forfeiting stronger productivity growth that would have been achieved".
It is true that the future of a country depends on the ability and the mental attitudes of its young men and women then India has already lost the will to develop. If India allows her young men to be gripped by insecurity and frustration, she will have to pay for modernization and rapid advancement with several years of stagnation.
This review paper expressed the views, opinions, reasons and suggestions regarding the poverty and unemployment. As like the sayings in economic point of view, "Rich become Rich and Poor becomes Poor". Even plenty of opportunities are available; people are not giving their keen concern to make use in an effective way. This is the main reason for unemployment because of it's under utilization and that reflects in poverty.
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