It is only in the second half of the 20th century that poverty and the poor have come to be matters of our concern and obligation. After a long neglect of the poor during the British rule, the measures adopted after independence signify the recognition of poverty and the social responsibility for alleviating it. How did this happen? What have we done? How far have we succeeded? Before anempting to answer these questions, let us first discuss the concept of poverty.
The Concept
The definition of poverty matters because how it is defined determines how much poverty there is believed to be. The definition can also influence the explanations of poverty and the possible solutions that are put forward. As Ruth Lister puts it, "How we define poverty is critical to political, policy and academic debutes about the concept. It is bound up with explanations and has implications of solutions" (cited in Holborn and Haralambos, 2008: 214).
Poverty is a situation that gives rise to a feeling of a discrepancy between what one has and what one should have. What one should have is an internal construct; hence, each person's feeling and experience of poverty is individual and unique. But, the feeling of 'powerlessness' and 'resourcelessness's possessed by all poor people. Henry Bernstein (1992) has identified the
following dimemions of poverty:
- Lack of livelihood strategies
- Inaccessibility to resources (money, land, credit)
- Feeling of insecurity and frustrations
- Irability to maintain and develop social relations with others as consequence of lack of resources
Three precepts are often used to define poverty:
(i) the amount of money required by a person to subsist
(ii) the life below a 'minimum subsistence level' and 'living standard' prevalent at a given time in a given place
(iii) the comparative state of well-being of a few and the deprivation and desti- tution of the majority in society.
Poverty in India
India represents a dichotomy in development. According to UNIDO "Yearbook of Statistics 2010' India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. It ranks ninth in world industrial production and tenth in gross national production (GNP), yet it has a large population that is extremely poor. The United Nations Human Development Index (2013), based on three indicators-life expectancy, access to education and income levels-ranks India 136th among 186 countries (The Times of India, 15 March 2013). Although since independence, the country has regis tered a significant overall growth rate, and there has been a progressive increase in the per capita income-from Rs 1,630 in 1980-81 to Rs 4,974 in 1990-91 to Rs 16,688 in 2000-01 το Rs 54,835 in 2010-11, yet there has been a deterioration in the living standards of a large section of the population.
According to Ansari and Akhtar (2012), at the beginning of the new millennium, 260 million people in India did not have income to access a consumption basket which defines the poverty line. Of these, 75 per cent were in the rural areas. India is home to 22 per cent of the world's poor. Such a high incidence of poverty is a matter of concern in view of the fact that poverty eradication has been one of the major objectives of the development planning process.
In India, the last decade of the 20th century has seen a visible shift in the focus of development planning from the mere expansion of production of goods and services, and the consequent growth of per capita income, to planning for enhancement of human well-being. The notion of human well-being itself is more broadly conceived to include not only consumption of goods and services in general, but more specifically to ensure that the basic material requirements of all sections of the population, especially those below the poverty line, are met and that they have access to basic services such as health and education. This approach has resulted in the reduction in poverty along with overall improvement in the quality of life. Since India became part of the global economy and underwent economic reform in 1991, its economy is growing at a faster rate of nearly 10 per cent per annum. In the process, India fras become the fourth largest economy in the world. In the last two decades, a significant proportion of the population across the country has reaped the benefits of this economic growth.
Causes of Poverty
There are two extreme perspectives on the basis of which we can analyse the causes of poverty-the old and the modern. One view of poverty is that it providential and it is the result of an individual's past karmas (deeds) or sins The other view ascribes poverty to be the result of a failure of an individual' working abilities or due to his/her lack of motivation. Describing the richnes of a rich person in terms of his/her destiny and the poverty of a poor person in terms of his/her lack of abilities serves the economic interest of the rich people as they escape paying high taxes to be used for uplifting the poor. One modern view links poverty with factors which are beyond an individual's control, the other describes the functioning of social systems in the society a the cause of poverty.
David Elesh (1973: 359) has given three causes of poverty: 1) individual, 2) culture or sub-culture of poverty, and 3) social structure.
1) Individual
The ideology of individualism which finds the cause of poverty within the individual is that success and failure of an individual are his personal matters. li one ends up in poverty, it is his own fault, because he is lazy, dull, inefficient or lacks initiative. This ideology maintains that poverty is good for society because the fittest will survive. Another aspect of this ideology is the Protestant Ethics described by Max Weber which emphasizes on individual's success through individual hard work, virtue, and honest work. If he fails, he has no one but himself to blame, for he has vices, is idle and has bad habits. The typical 'victimblamer' is a middle-class person who is enjoying reasonably good material success and has a good job and steady income. He says: "I had to struggle to make it; why can't the poor? There must be something wrong with them". Spencer, Carnegie and Lane believe in this ideology.
2) Culture or Sub-culture of Poverty
The second cause of poverty is the culture of poverty, or the way of life of the poor. Such a culture blocks all attempts of the society to change the values, norms, beliefs and lifestyle of the poor. The 'culture of poverty' concept suggests that despite economic changes, the poor have remained so because of their culture or subculture. The culture of the poor fosters behaviour and values associated with poverty; it has kept the poor out of the mainstream of industrial society. Oscar Lewis popularized the notion of culture of poverty in 1959. He maintained that it was a special culture that passes on poverty from generation to generation. This conservative concept, often shared by the politicians and the public, has given our society a reason for doing little or nothing about the poor and poverty as a social problem. Advocates of this ideology identify lower-class culture and assume that the lifestyle of the poor is the cause of continued poverty. Ryan and Chilman believe in this school of thought.
3) Social Structure
While 'individual' and 'culture of poverty' are accepted as causes of poverty by the conservatives, the liberals, the radicals, and the sociologists link poverty to social structure or to "miserable and unjust social conditions". Our social institutions, our economy, low educational attainment, lack of employable skills, long-term unemployment or underemployment cause and perpetuate poverty. Change in social and economic structures is not brought about, or hindered by the vested interests. Sociologist Herbert Gans has pointed out to three functional gains-economic, political and social-that the middle-class derive from having a poverty-group in society. These range from getting society's 'dirty work' done to preserving one's high status or keeping oneself in power. Thus, the fault of poverty lies with those individuals/groups who do not want to change the social structure, values and norms for their vested interests
IN INDIAN CONTEXT THE CAUSES OF POVERTY MAY BE DESCRIBED AS UNDER:
i) Rapidly rising populations
ii) Low productivity in agriculture
iii) Under-utilized resources
iv) Price rise
v) Unemployment
vi) Shortege of capital and able entrepreneurship
vii) Low rate of economic development
viii) Social Factor
ix) Political Factor
Rural Poverty
The number of poor people in India, according to the country's Elevent National Development Plan, amounts to more than 300 million. The country has been successful in reducing the proportion of poor people from about 5 per cent in 1973 to about 27 per cent in 2004, but almost one third of the country's population of more than 11 billion continues to live below the poverty line, and a large proportion of poor people live in rural areas. Poverty remains a chronic condition for almost 30 per cent of India's rural population The incidence of rural poverty has declined somewhat over the past three decades as a result of rural to urban migration.
Poverty is deepest among members of SCs/STs in the country's rura areas. In 2005 these groups accounted for 80 per cent of poor rural people although their share in the total rural population is much smaller. On the may of poverty in India, the poorest areas are in parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Wes Bengal. Large numbers of India's poorest people live in the country's semi-arid tropical region. In these areas shortages of water and recurrent droughts impede the transformation of agriculture that the Green Revolution has achieved elsewhere. There is also a high incidence of poverty in flood-prone areas such as those extending from eastern Uttar Pradesh to the Assam plains, and especially in northern Bihar.
Poverty affects tribal people in forest areas also, where loss of entitlement to resources has made them even poorer. In coastal fishing communities people's living conditions are deteriorating because of environ mental degradation, stock depletion and vulnerability to natural disasters.
Causes of Rural Poverty
The following causes of poverty in rural areas may be identified:
1. Inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes. 2 Low percentage of population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits.
3. Non-availability of irrigational facilities and erratic rainfall in several states.
4. Low agricultural productivity resulting from dependence on traditional methods of cultivation and inadequate knowledge of modern skills
5. Non-availability of electricity for agricultural as well as industrial use in most of the villages.
6. Poor quality of livestock.
7. Imperfect and exploited credit market.
8. Lack of link roads, communication facilities and markets (i.e., infra- structure).
9. Low level of education. The general literacy level in the rural areas in the country is low while for females it is very low.
10. Absence of dynamic community leadership
11. Failure to seek women's cooperation in developmental activities and associating them with planned programmes
12. Inter-caste conflicts and rivalries
13. Spending a large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage, death feast, etc., and people being unwilling to break the expensive customs.
Poverty In India