law and poverty

INTRODUCTION
Poverty is one of the main problems which have attracted attention of sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for his physical and mental efficiency. It is a situation people want to escape. It gives rise to a feeling of a discrepancy between what one has and what one should have. The term poverty is a relative concept. It is very difficult to draw a demarcation line between affluence and poverty. According to Adam Smith - Man is rich or poor according to the degree in which he can afford to enjoy the necessaries, the conveniences and the amusements of human life.

Poverty line in India, when at a beginning of a new millennium more than 260 million of people don’t have income to access a consumption basket defines your poverty line. Of all these 260 million people, around 75% lives in India. India contributed around 22% of the world poverty. Such a high incidence of poverty is a matter of concern for such a developing country. Indeed poverty is a global issues. It must be a major objective of developing process in order to attain international status.
Farmers, small dairy owners, wages earners, Small land holdings and their low productivity are the cause of poverty among households dependent on land-based activities for their livelihood. Poverty is also a result of poor educational skills and vocation skills among these people. due to poor physical as well as finance base , a large proportion of the people are forced to be employed at vocations with a very low productivity and with low earning. Creating of various employment opportunities is a very big challenge for the administrators as well as planners for better developing country.

Poverty alleviation has been one of the guiding principles of the planning process in India. The role of economic growth in providing more employment avenues to the population has been clearly recognised. The growth-oriented approach has been reinforced by focusing on specific sectors which provide greater opportunities to the people to participate in the growth process. The various dimensions of poverty relating to health, education and other basic services have been progressively internalised in the planning process. Central and state governments have considerably enhanced allocations for the provision of education, health, sanitation and other facilities which promote capacity-building and well-being of the poor. Investments in agriculture area development programmes and afforestation provide avenues for employment and income. Special programmes has been launched by the government from time to time whenever they felt that the rights of sc (schedule caste), st (schedule Tribes) , persons with disability and other vulnerable class of the society. Antipoverty programmes that seek to transfer assets and skills to people for self-employment, coupled with public works programmes that enable people to cope with transient poverty, are the third strand of the larger anti-poverty strategy. The targetted public distribution system (TPDS) protects the poor people from raising prices of various essential commodities like wheat, rice etc.
According to recent reports there are around 38% of the poor in India as compare to the total population of India, this figure has been increased by 9.5% as in the last year it was around 28.5% of the total population. This committee ses a new methodology in finding this figures.
The committee was headed by SD Tendulkar has used a different methodology to reach at the current figure. It has taken into consideration indicators for heath, education, sanitation, nutrition and income as per National Sample Survey Organization survey of 2004-05. This new methodology is a complex scientific basis aimed at addressing the concern raised over the current poverty estimation.
Since 1972 poverty has been defined on basis of the money required to buy food worth 2100 calories in urban areas and 2400 calories in rural areas. In June this year a government committee headed by NC Saxena committee estimated 50% Indians were poor as against Planning Commission’s figure of 28.5%.
Even after more than 50 years of Independence India still has the world's largest number of poor people in a single country. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 260.3 million are below the poverty line, of which 193.2 million are in the rural areas and 67.1 million are in urban areas. More than 75% of poor people reside in villages. Poverty level is not uniform across India. The poverty level is below 10% in states like Delhi, Goa, and Punjab etc whereas it is below 50% in Bihar (43) and Orissa (47). It is between 30-40% in Northeastern states of Assam, Tripura, and Mehgalaya and in Southern states of Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh.

Poverty has many dimensions changing from place to place and across time. There are two inter-related aspects of poverty - Urban and rural poverty. The main causes of urban poverty are predominantly due to impoverishment of rural peasantry that forces them to move out of villages to seek some subsistence living in the towns and cities. In this process, they even lose the open space or habitat they had in villages albeit without food and other basic amenities. When they come to the cities, they get access to some food though other sanitary facilities including clean water supply still elude them. And they have to stay in the habitats that place them under sub-human conditions. While a select few have standards of living comparable to the richest in the world, the majority fails to get two meals a day. The causes of rural poverty are manifold including inadequate and ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programmes. The overdependence on monsoon with non-availability of irrigational facilities often result in crop-failure and low agricultural productivity forcing farmers in the debt-traps. The rural communities tend to spend large percentage of annual earnings on social ceremonies like marriage; feast etc.Our economic development since Independence has been lopsided .There has been increase in unemployment creating poverty like situations for many. Population is growing at an alarming rate. The size of the Indian family is relatively bigger averaging at 4.2.The other causes include dominance of caste system which forces the individual to stick to the traditional and hereditary occupations.
Since the 1970s the Indian government has made poverty reduction a priority in its development planning. Policies have focused on improving the poor standard of living by ensuring food security, promoting self-employment through greater access to assets, increasing wage employment and improving access to basic social services. Launched in 1965, India's Public Distribution System has helped meet people's basic food needs by providing rations at subsidized prices. Although it has affected less than 20% of the Poor's food purchases, the system has been important in sustaining people's consumption of cereals, especially in periods of drought. It has provided women and girls with better access to food and helped overcome the widespread discrimination against female consumption within households. It has also reduced the burden of women, who are responsible for providing food for the household.

Even more than 50 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-400 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected. It would be incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth has been very uneven.

The main causes of poverty are illiteracy, a population growth rate by far exceeding the economic growth rate for the better part of the past 50 years, protectionist policies pursued since 1947 to 1991 which prevented large amounts of foreign investment in the country. Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. Eradication of poverty can only be a very long-term goal in India. Poverty in India
Though the middle class has gained from recent positive economic developments, India suffers from substantial poverty. According to the new World Bank's estimates on poverty based on 2005 data, India has 456 million people, 41.6% of its population, living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day. The World Bank further estimates that 33% of the global poor now reside in India. Moreover, India also has 828 million people, or 75.6% of the population living below $2 a day, compared to 72.2% for Sub-Saharan Africa. On the other hand, the Planning Commission of India uses its own criteria and has estimated that 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005, down from 51.3% in 1977–1978, and 36% in 1993-1994. The source for this was the 61st round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) and the criterion used was monthly per capita consumption expenditure below Rs. 356.35 for rural areas and Rs. 538.60 for urban areas. 75% of the poor are in rural areas, most of them are daily wagers, self-employed householders and landless labourers. Although Indian economy has grown steadily over the last two decades, its growth has been uneven when comparing different social groups, economic groups, geographic regions, and rural and urban areas.

Wealth distribution in India is fairly uneven, with the top 10% of income groups earning 33% of the income. Despite significant economic progress, 1/4 of the nation's population earns less than the government-specified poverty threshold of $0.40/day. Official figures estimate that 27.5% of Indians lived below the national poverty line in 2004-2005. A 2007 report found that 77% of Indians, or 836 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day, with most working in informal labour sector with no job or social security, living in abject poverty. Income inequality in India is increasing. In addition, India has a higher rate of malnutrition among children under the age of three (46% in year 2007) than any other country in the world.

Historical trends in poverty statistics
The proportion of India's population below the poverty line has fluctuated widely inthe past, but the overall trend has been downward. However, there have been roughly three periods of trends in income poverty. 1950 to mid-1970s: Income poverty reduction shows no discernible trend. In 1951, 47% of India's rural population was below the poverty line. The proportion went up to 64% in 1954-55; it came down to 45% in 1960-61 but in 1977-78, it went up again to 51%. Mid-1970s to 1990: Income poverty declined significantly between the mid-1970s and the end of the 1980s. The decline was more pronounced between 1977-78 and 1986-87, with rural income poverty declining from 51% to 39%. It went down further to 34% by 1989-90. Urban income poverty went down from 41% in 1977-78 to 34% in 1986-87, and further to 33% in 1989-90. After 1991: This post-economic reform period evidenced both setbacks and progress. Rural income poverty increased from 34% in 1989-90 to 43% in 1992 and then fell to 37% in 1993-94. Urban income poverty went up from 33.4% in 1989-90 to 33.7% in 1992 and declined to 32% in 1993-94 Also, NSS data for 1994-95 to 1998 show little or no poverty reduction, so that the evidence till 1999-2000 was that poverty, particularly rural poverty, had increased post-reform. However, the official estimate of poverty for 1999-2000 was 26.1%, a dramatic decline that led to much debate and analysis. This was because for this year the NSS had adopted a new survey methodology that led to both higher estimated mean consumption and also an estimated distribution that was more equal than in past NSS surveys. The latest NSS survey for 2004-05 is fully comparable to the surveys before 1999-2000 and shows poverty at 28.3% in rural areas, 25.7% in urban areas and 27.5% for the country as a whole, using Uniform Recall Period Consumption. The corresponding figures using the Mixed Recall Period Consumption method was 21.8%, 21.7% and 21.8% respectively. Thus, poverty has declined after 1998, although it is still being debated whether there was any significant poverty reduction between 1989-90 and 1999-00. The latest NSS survey was so designed as to also give estimates roughly, but not fully, comparable to the 1999-2000 survey. These suggest that most of the decline in rural poverty over the period during 1993-94 to 2004-05 actually occurred after 1999-2000.

Outlook for Poverty Alleviation
Since the early 1950s, government has initiated, sustained, and refined various planning schemes to help the poor attain self sufficiency in food production. Probably the most important initiative has been the supply of basic commodities, particularly food at controlled prices, available throughout the country as poor spend about 80 percent of their income on food.
Eradication of poverty in India can only be a long-term goal. Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. It is incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class (which was virtually non-existent when India became a free nation in August 1947) indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth is not at all even.
After the liberalization process and moving away from the socialist model, India is adding 60-70 million people to its middle class every year. Analysts write that an estimated 390 million Indians now belong to the middle class; one-third of them have emerged from poverty in the last ten years. At the current rate of growth, a majority of Indians will be middle-class by 2025. Literacy rates have risen from 52 percent to 65 percent during the initial decade of liberalization (1991-2001).
While total overall poverty in India has declined, the extent of poverty reduction is often debated. While there is a consensus that there has not been increase in poverty between 1993-94 and 2004-05, the picture is not so clear if one considers other non-pecuniary dimensions (such as health, education, crime and access to infrastructure). With the rapid economic growth that India is experiencing, it is likely that a significant fraction of the rural population will continue to migrate toward cities, making the issue of urban poverty more significant in the long run. More than 103 million people have moved out of desperate poverty in the course of one generation in urban and rural areas as well. If India can achieve 7.3% annual growth over the next 20 years, 465 million more people will be spared a life of extreme deprivation. Contrary to popular perceptions, rural India has benefited from this growth: extreme rural poverty has declined from 94% in 1985 to 61% in 2005, and they project that it will drop to 26% by 2025. India's economic reforms and the increased growth that has resulted have been the most successful anti-poverty programmes in the country. Various programmes by government
The Tenth Five Year Plan recognizes that economic growth cannot be the only objective of national planning, and development objectives need to be defined not just in termsof increases in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or per capita income but in more broader terms of enhancement of human well being. Although the Plan aims at a growth target of 8 per cent per annum, in order to reflect the importance of these dimensions it also identifies specific and monitorable targets for a few key indicators of human development.
Reduction of poverty ratio by 5 percentage points by 2007 and by 15 percentage points by 2012.
All children in India should be in school by 2003; and all children to complete 5 years of their schooling by 2007.

In India there should be a reduction in gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by at least 50 per cent by 2007.

There should be a reduction in infant mortality rate to 45 per 1000 live births by 2007; and to 28 by 2012.

Rthere should be a reduction in maternal mortality ratio to 2 per 1000 live births by 2007; and 1 by 2012.
Direct Anti Poverty Programmes

Rural Poverty Alleviation Programmes
Both self and wage employment programmes together with the programmes on rural housing from the major step of the poverty alleviation programmes being implemented in the rural areas.

Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY)

The programme seeks to bring the assisted poor families (Swarozgaris) above the poverty line by organizing them into Self Help Groups (SHGs) through the process of social mobilization, training and capacity building and provision of income generating assets through a mix of Bank credit and Government subsidy. The list of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households forms the basis for assistance of families under SGSY; safeguards have been provided to vulnerable sections by reserving benefits Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, women and disabled persons. Under the programme emphasis is also laid on training, capacity building and provision of rural infrastructure. The reorientation of the self-employment programme to a group lending format is seen as the most valuable way of not only creating livelihood opportunities, but also for social mobilization, especially of women. Women’s self-help groups have proved themselves to be very effective in improving standards of accountability of various public agencies and in bringing about substantial social transformation.The social mobilization that has been engendered by the poverty alleviation programmes leads to benefits, which cannot be quantified by standard economic measures.

Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY)

The SGRY is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desire to do manual and unskilled work in and around the village/habitat. The programme is self-targeting in nature. While providing wage employment, preference is given to agricultural wage earners, non-agricultural unskilled wage earners, marginal farmers, women, members of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes, parents of child labour withdrawn from hazardous occupations, parents of handicapped children or adults with handicapped parents. The programme is implemented through the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). Five percent of the funds and foodgrains under SGRY are retained for utilization in areas of acute distress arising out of natural calamities or for taking up preventive measures in the chronically drought or flood affected areas. In addition the programme has a special component to be used with schemes having wage employment potential to meet exigencies arising out of any natural calamity. Priority is given to soil and moisture conservation, minor irrigation, rejuvenation of drinking water sources, augmentation of ground water, traditional water harvesting structures, desiltation of village tanks/ponds. and such other schemes necessary for watershed development. Other priority works include construction of rural link roads, farm roads, linking agricultural fields, drainage works, afforestation and those that result in creation of durable socio economic assets such as schools, kitchen sheds for schools, dispensaries, community centers, panchayat ghars and development of haats (markets),

National food for work programme
The National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) was launched on 14 November 2004 in 150 identified backward districts where there is a high demand for wage employment in these areas and also need for local level community assets and infrastructure to be created. It isexpected that the programme will: ensure a minimum level of employment and incomes to the poor; give the poor an opportunity to develop their collective strength, improve their economic position, and reduce their vulnerability; discourage migration; provide access to health, education and welfare services in the village itself; an expedite the construction of environment friendly infrastructure, works which enhance productivity levels (both farm and off farm)\ and provide a basis for further promoting economic activities in the region. The responsibility for planning, implementation, monitoring and supervision of the programme at the district level is vested with the collector/ district magistrates.

Rural Housing – Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY)
Housing is one of the components considered to be vital for human survival and, therefore, essential for socio-economic development. As part of the efforts to meet the housing needs of the rural poor, the scheme of Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) is being implemented in the country. The Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) was launched as the major scheme for construction of houses to be given to the poor, free of cost at the unit cost of Rs.25,000/- in plain areas and Rs.27,500/- in the hilly/difficult areas. An additional component has been added, to the scheme for conversion of unserviceable kutcha houses to semi pucca houses. A Credit-cum- Subsidy Scheme for rural housing was also launched to target rural families having annual income up to Rs.32, 000/-. The loans under this scheme are disbursed by the commercial banks and housing finance institutions. In addition Samagra Awaas Yojana, a comprehensive housing scheme, has also been introduced on pilot basis with a view to ensure integrated provision of shelter, sanitation and drinking water. The underlying philosophy is to provide for convergence of the existing rural housing, sanitation and water supply schemes with special emphasis on technology transfer, human resource development and habitat improvement with people’s participation.

National Social Assistance Programme
The National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) was launched as a Centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) in 1995, with the aim of providing social assistance benefit to poor households in the case of old age, death of primary breadwinner and maternity. The programme supplements the efforts of the state governments with the objective of ensuring minimum national levels of well-being and the Central assistance is an addition to the benefit that the states are already providing on social protection schemes. NSAP has the following two components:

National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) :
Old age pension of Rs. 75 per beneficiary per month is provided to aged destitute persons with little or no regular means of subsistence from their own sources of income or through support from family members or other sources.

National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS):
A lump sum benefit of Rs. 10,000 is provided in the case death of primary breadwinner of a BPL family due to natural or accidental causes. The family benefit is paid to a surviving member of the household of deceased who is determine to be the head of the household. Annapurna: The Annapurna scheme, launched in April 2000 as a CSS, provides food security in the form of 10 kg of foodgrains per month free of cost to destitute senior citizens with little or no regular means of subsistence from his/ her own source of income or through financial support from family members or other sources. The funds for the schemes are provided as Additional Central assistance (ACA) to the states, and can be utilised on welfare schemes of old age pension, family benefit or free food grains to the aged. States/Union Territories are free to take up one or two or all of the three or in any other combination in accordance with their own priorities and needs. The PRIs at the panchayat and district level are involved in the implementation of the schemes.

Urban poverty alleviation schemes
Swaran Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana
(SJSRY) is the main poverty alleviation programme in the urban areas. The SJSRY seeks to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor by encouraging the setting up of selfemployment ventures or provision of wage employment. The two Schemes under SJSRY are the Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) and the Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP). The UWEP includes a component for assistance to groups of urban poor women under the title “Scheme for Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas” (DWCUA).
Scheme for Slums
According to the 2001 Census, there are 40.6 million persons living in slums in 607 towns/ cities, accounting for 22.8 per cent of the population of these cities. Absence of master plans, multiplicity of agencies working without coordination, insufficient availability of land for housing needs of the urban poor, failure to provide facilities for street vendors and hawkers, are some of the reasons for the persistence of urban slums.
Various schemes – National Slum Development Programme (NSDP), Night Shelters, Two Million Housing Scheme, Accelerated Urban Water Supply Programme (AUWSP), and Low-Cost Sanitation — provide for a wide range of services to the urban poor including slumdwellers. They include identification of the urban poor, formation of community groups, involvement of NGOs, self-help/thrift and credit activities, training for livelihood, credit and subsidy for economic activities, housing and sanitation, environmental improvement, community assets, wage employment and convergence of services. Valmiki-Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY) has been introduced in 2001-02 to provide a shelter or upgrading the existing shelter to BPL people in urban slums. Twenty per cent of the total allocation under VAMBAY is provided for sanitation and community toilets to be built for the urban poor and slum dwellers.

Indirect Programmes
Public Distribution System (PDS)
The importance of an effective mechanism that ensures availability of food at affordable prices at household level for the poor can hardly be over emphasised. Realising this, the Government streamlined the Public Distribution System (PDS), by issuing special cards to families Below Poverty Line (BPL) and selling food grains under PDS to them at specially subsidised prices under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). The thrust is to include only the really poor and vulnerable sections of the society such as landless agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, weavers, blacksmiths and carpenters in the rural areas and slum dwellers and persons earning their livelihood on a daily basis in the informal sector like porters, rickshaw pullers and hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers on the pavements in urban areas. BPL allocation of food grains has been increased from 20 kgs. to 25 kgs. Per family per month w.e.f. July 2001. In addition, under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 35kgs. Of food grain are provided to the poorest of the poor families at a highly subsidised rate of Rs.2 per kg. for wheat and Rs.3 per kg. for rice. The scheme has been expanded to cover 2.5 crore families.

Food and nutrition security
The importance of optimal nutrition for human development is well recognised. Initiatives that have been taken up during to improve nutritional status of the population include: (a) Increasing food production- building buffer stocks
(b) Improving food distribution
(c) Improving household food security through improving purchasing power; direct or indirect food subsidy
(d) food supplementation to address special needs of the vulnerable groups
(e) implementation of National programmes for tackling anaemia, iodine deficiency disorders and Vitamin-A deficiency. The Tenth Plan aims at achieving substantial reduction in the severe grades of under-nutrition and health hazards associated with it through effective implementation of strategies for prevention, early detection and management of macro and micronutrient under nutrition. The major effort will be to ensure optimal utilization of available infrastructure and manpower and convergence of efforts aimed at nutrition and health education to the population, identification of vulnerable groups/families, undernourished individuals and provide them with well-targeted subsidised food items; monitoring and midcourse correction through community based organisations and PRI. Given the large amount of resources flowing into programmes for food and nutritional security, Planning Commission proposes to constitute a committee to monitor ‘Food and Nutrition Security; the Committee will consist of nutritionists, social scientists, development practitioners, bureaucrats and NGOs. It is expected to monitor the outcomes of specific interventions as also review overall food availability both at the national and state levels. It could also identify pockets of extreme hunger and food insecurity and ensure flow of adequate supplies of foodgrains to these areas.

Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY)
Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) was launched in the Annual Plan 2000-2001 in all the States and the UTs in order to achieve the objective of sustainable human development at the village level. It envisages allocation of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to the States and UTs for selected basic minimum services in order to focus on certain priority areas. The programmes under PMGY include Primary Health, Primary Education, Rural Shelter, Rural Drinking Water, Rural Electrification and Nutrition.

Rural Connectivity
Rural connectivity is a key component of rural development in India. Rural roads contribute significantly to generating increased agricultural incomes and productive employment opportunities, alongside promoting access to economic and social services. The scheme of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) was launched to provide connectivity, by way of All-weather Roads to the unconnected habitations in the rural areas, in such a way that habitations with a population of 1000 persons and above are covered in three years (2000- 2003) and all unconnected habitations with a population of 500 persons and above by the end of the Tenth Plan Period (2007). Use of locally available material, including products like fly ash are encouraged under the programme. The Rural Roads constructed/upgraded under the programme are maintained by the concerned Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Sectoral programmes and poverty
The corner stone of poverty alleviation strategy remains “growth with social justice and equity” with encouragement to all sectors that provide opportunities to people to participate in the growth process. The poverty-alleviating role of agriculture, irrigation, area development programmes, land reforms, environment strategies and agro processing industries and small and medium industries, which employ labour intensive technology, has been widely recognized and Government, in the recognition, has taken up the reform of these sectors.

Agricultural Programmes
The National Policy on Agriculture was adopted in the year 2000. It is an attempt to unlock the growth of potential of Indian agriculture by strengthening rural infrastructure to support rapid agricultural growth, encourage value addition through promotion of agro industry and to create employment in rural areas to discourage migration. The agricultural developmental programmes being implemented help improve the productivity in agriculture and thereby enable the farmers to realize higher incomes. Focus is also laid on the National Watershed Development Programme for Rainfed Agriculture (NWDPRA) being implemented under the Macro-management for rainwater harvesting and conservation including the land development for the sustainable development of rainfed areas. The development of common property land resources under the programme also helps in generating biomass, which enables the landless rural poor to take up off-farm activities for livelihood support.
However, compared to eighties, there has been deceleration in the growth rate of production of foodgrain and non-foodgrain crops during nineties. Therefore, special attention has to be paid for increasing productivity in the rainfed areas through ground water development and watershed management. In addition application of biotechnology, remote sensing technology, post harvest management and processing technologies, energy saving technologies and technology for environment protection, are being encouraged. Further, diversification of agriculture has been undertaken in a big way with a shift to evolving not only integrated cropping systems but integrated farming systems including development of animal husbandry and dairying, horticulture, fish, sericulture and apiculture.

Irrigation
One of the main reasons for rural poverty, especially in an agrarian economy like India, is low agricultural productivity. Among the various inputs required to increase agricultural productivity, irrigation is by far the most important input ensuring a three-fold increase in production. . With proper water management and package of practices, irrigated agriculture has a potential to yield even 7-8 t/ha. The impact of increased agricultural production due to irrigation is not restricted to food grains and cash crops only but to horticulture also. Provision of irrigation facilities also insulates the farmer from the vagaries of monsoon and reduces his vulnerability. The production of food grains in India which was around 50 million tonnes in the fifties has reached about 210 million tonnes due to a quantum jump in creation of irrigation potential in the country. Besides the direct benefit in terms of productivity from irrigation, there are several other direct and indirect benefits as irrigation sources (dams, tanks, tube wells) also serve as drinking water sources. Irrigation projects also provide employment generation both during project construction and project operation. The Government is laying special emphasis on providing irrigation facilities and has also launched the Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP) with a view to ensure timely completion of irrigation project.

Area Development Programmes
The area development programmes viz; Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) are being implemented on watershed basis. Common guidelines have also been adopted for other area development programmes such as National Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA), Development of Catchment Area of River Valley Projects and Flood Prone Areas.
The common guidelines for Watershed Development provide for a uniform strategy in the implementation of all area development programmes. The main features of this strategy are (i) Area development programmes to be implemented exclusively on watershed basis, (ii) Programmes activities to be confined to the identified watershed of about 500 hectares and to be executed on a project basis spanning over a period of four to five years,
(iii) Watershed project to cover a village, as far as possible. (iv) Elaborate institutional mechanism at various levels clearly defined for effective participation of the local people and the PRIs in all stages of project management,
(v) District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) / Zilla Parishad to be the nodal Government agency at the district level to act as a facilitator and provider of finances and technical assistance to the people’s organisations executing the watershed projects.

Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP)
Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP) aims at to minimize the adverse effects of drought on production of crops and livestock and productivity of land, water and human resources ultimately leading to the drought proofing of the affected areas. It also aims at promoting overall economic development and improving the socio-economic conditions of the resource poor and disadvantaged sections inhabiting the programme areas. The programme covers 972 blocks of 182 districts in 16 States.

Desert Development Programme (DDP)
Desert Development Programme (DDP) has been envisaged as an essentially land based activity and conceived as a long term measure for restoration of ecological balance by conserving, developing and harnessing land, water, livestock and human resources. The main objectives of this programme are: - (i) combating drought and desertification; (ii) encouraging restoration of ecological balance;
(iii) mitigating the adverse effects of drought and adverse edapho-climatic conditions on crops and livestock and productivity of land, water andhuman resources;
(iv) promoting economic development of village community; and
(v) improving socio economic conditions of the resource poor and disadvantaged sections of village community viz; assetless and women. Presently, this programme covers 232 blocks of 40 districts in seven States.

Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP)
Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) was started with the objective of development of wastelands based on village / micro watershed plans. It aims at promoting the overall economic development and improvement of economic condition of the resource poor and disadvantaged section of inhabitants. The scheme also helps in generation of employment in rural areas besides enhancing people’s participation in the wastelands development programmes at all stages

Land Reforms
Land reforms have been an important plank of the poverty alleviation strategy. Land reforms have been viewed as an instrument to enable landless to have access to land and for attaining higher levels of agricultural production and income in the rural areas. Land is still a major source of employment and income in rural areas. Therefore, the issue of agrarian reforms continues to remain on national agenda. The major components of the Land Reforms Policy include, detection and distribution of ceiling surplus lands, tenancy reforms, consolidation of land holdings, providing access to poor on common lands and wastelands, preventing the alienation of tribal lands and providing land rights to women. Further, for the successful implementation of land reforms, updating of land records by traditional methods as well as through computerisation is an essential prerequisite. Consolidation of fragmented agricultural land holdings forms an integral part of the Land Reform Policy and the Five Year Plans have accordingly been laying stress on its implementation. This operation is considered necessary for the planned development of the villages and achieving efficiency and economy in agriculture. In pursuance of this, many States had enacted legislations but so far not much progress could be made except in a few States.

Industrial Sector
The Government has undertaken measures to promote industrialisation and employment generation in the country. A National Programme for Rural Industrialisation has been announced with a mission to set up 100 rural clusters every year to give a boost to rural industrialization and to provide benefit to the rural artisans and unemployed youth and to reduce rural-urban disparities. Further, for developing small scale industry in industrially backward areas, the Integrated Infrastructure Development Scheme(IIDC) has been taken up. Also, there are schemes like Growth Centres Scheme to promote industrialization in the backward areas, and subsidy schemes like Capital Investment Subsidy Scheme-North Eastern Region, Interest Subsidy Scheme- North Eastern Region and Transport Subsidy Scheme to promote industrialization in hilly areas and remote areas. In addition, the Prime
Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) aims to provide employment/self employment to educated unemployed youths within the age group of 18-35 years with annual family income of Rs.24,000 or less. Under PMRY, preference is given to weaker sections including women. The scheme envisages 22.5% reservation for SCs / STs and 27% reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs In the North Eastern Region the scheme was revised in 1998-99 by raising the age limit to 40 years, income level up to Rs. 40,000 per annum and by covering all viable activities such as horticulture, piggery, poultry, fishing and small tea gardens. The scheme envisages compulsory stipendiary training for entrepreneurs after loan is sanctioned.

Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP)
REGP is being implemented with the following four components: (1).Special Employment Programme in 71 districts. (2).125 Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) Block Development Programme. (3).National Programme for selected village industries, namely, bee keeping, hand made paper and leather. (4).Thrust areas industries programme namely pottery, lime, cane and bamboo, processing of cereals and pulses, village oils, etc. The Special Employment Programme being implemented in 71 districts envisages employment generation for 10,000 persons per district through spinning and weaving of khadi and setting up of village industries. The districts for implementing the programme are identified on the level of backwardness and capability of the institutions implementing the programme. Priority is given to the backward districts.

Role of governance in poverty alleviation
Successful implementation of these programmes requires appropriate policy framework, adequate funds, and effective delivery mechanism. The success of these programmes ultimately depends on the capability of the delivery system to absorb and utilise the funds in a cost-effective manner. An effective and responsive district level field machinery with a high degree of commitment, motivation, professional competence and, above all, integrity has been recognized as one of the prerequisites for successful implementation of an anti poverty strategy. An effective governance system has to ensure people’s participation at various stages of formulation and implementation of the programmes, transparency in the operation of the schemes and adequate monitoring. International experience shows that greater functional and financial devolution to local governments results in higher allocation of resources for social sectors which are accompanied by efficiency gains in resource use. Such trends in social spending have been witnessed in many Indian States as well. Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) have been given a constitutional role in the governance of the country. Functional responsibilities for subjects that are central to the well being of the communities have been devolved on the PRIs by the Constitution. Truly empowered PRIs can play an important role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the schemes and reducing leakages.

The Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) have been playing an active role in building up people’s awareness and providing support to the governmental agencies and the Panchayati Raj Institutions in executing projects for development in rural areas. The NGOs can play an important role in capacity building, access to information, organisation of rural poor in selfhelp groups and increasing their awareness and capabilities. All these initiatives have good governance as their ultimate goal. It is expected that through the accelerating convergence of all these favourable factors it will be possible for the country to achieve the goals set in the Tenth Five Year Plan within the time frame.

Comparative study
The economies of Brazil, China and India are growing faster than many of their counterparts in the developing world. Despite this rapid growth, large portions of the populations in all three nations continue to live in conditions of poverty. Each country has had some success in reducing the numbers of impoverished citizens. But these achievements have come through very different approaches, with each employing a distinctive mix along two basic dimensions: pro-poor growth and pro-poor social policies.
A 2011 World Bank research report, “A Comparative Perspective on Poverty Reduction in Brazil, China and India,” looked at the nations’ strategies and their relative challenges and successes. The report used a common poverty line of $1.25 per person, per day, at purchasing parity power for consumption in 2005.
• All three countries had a drop in the percentage of their populations living below the poverty line in the period between 1981 and 2005. China dropped from 84% to 16%; India from 60% to 42%; and Brazil from 17% to 8%.
• Over that period, the rise in inequality, as measured by the Gini index, was far greater in China than in India; however, inequality fell in Brazil.
• China’s approach can be characterized as follows: “Direct redistributive interventions have not been prominent in China’s efforts to reduce poverty. Enterprise-based social security remained the norm, despite the dramatic changes in the economy, including the emergence of open unemployment and rising labor mobility. However, there are signs that this is changing. The Minimum Livelihood Guarantee Scheme, popularly known as Dibao, has been the Government of China’s main response to the new challenges of social protection in the more market-based economy.”
• Brazil’s history, however, is different: it “clearly has a larger capacity for using redistribution to address its poverty problem than China … In attempting to reduce poverty through redistribution, an important role was played by various cash transfer programs. These included both noncontributory, unconditional transfers as well as Conditional Cash Transfers (CCTs) targeted to poor families, which have played an important role from the late 1990s onwards.”
• Because of the scope of its poverty and the massive amounts of money required for potential state interventions to make a difference, the case of India can be distinguished from the other two countries: “The potential for using income redistribution to address India’s poverty problem is far more limited than in China or (especially) Brazil.” Still, there is “much hope for the new National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). This promises to provide up to 100 days of unskilled manual labor per family per year, at the statutory minimum wage rate for agricultural labor, to anyone who wants it in rural India.”
The report concludes by sketching an overall scorecard: “China clearly scores well on the pro-poor growth side of the card, but neither Brazil nor India do; in Brazil’s case for lack of growth and in India’s case for lack of poverty-reducing growth. Brazil scores well on the social policies side, but China and India do not; in China’s case progress has been slow in implementing new social policies more relevant to the new market economy (despite historical advantages in this area, inherited from the past regime) and in India’s case the bigger problems are the extent of capture of the many existing policies by non-poor groups and the weak capabilities of the state for delivering better basic public services.”
- See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/international/development/poverty-reduction-brazil-china-india/#sthash.FMr2SRpG.dpuf
Conclusion-
Poverty is one of the main issues, attracting the attention of sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for a comfortable lifestyle.
Though India boasts of a high economic growth, it is shameful that there is still large scale poverty in India. Poverty in India can be defined as a situation when a certain section of people are unable to fulfill their basic needs. India has the world's largest number of poor people living in a single country. Out of its total population of more than 1 billion, 350 to 400 million people are living below the poverty line. Nearly 75% of the poor people are in rural areas, most of them are daily wagers, landless laborers and self employed house holders. There are a number of reasons for poverty in India. Poverty in India can be classified into two categories namely rural poverty and urban poverty.

Reasons for Rural Poverty

Some of the basic reasons of rural poverty in India are:
• Unequal distribution of income.- there has been unequal distribution of income. Richer are becaming more richer and poorer are becaming more poorer. These are been exploited by the rich peoples.
• High population growth - high population is also one of the factor of poverty as the rate as which the population is growing is not equal to increases in income leading to poverty.
• Illiteracy - even a large of population is not educated there they didn’t get proper works and salary leading to unemployment. Even they are didn’t know their rights and been easily exploited.
• Large families- people are not aware about family planning. A family having lesser income and having three to four child leading to poverty.

Problems Of Rural Poverty
• Presence of malnutrition, illiteracy, diseases and long term health problems.
• Unhygienic living conditions, lack of proper housing, high infant mortality rate, injustice to women and social ill-treatment of certain sections of society.
Steps Taken by Government to Reduce Rural Poverty
The government of India has been trying its best to remove poverty. Some of the measures which the government has taken to remove rural poverty are:
• Small farmer’s development Programme.
• Drought area development Programme.
• Minimum needs Programme.
• National rural employment Programme.
• Assurance on employment.
• Causes for Urban Poverty.
Causes for Urban Poverty
The causes of urban poverty in India are:
• Improper training
• Slow job growth.
• Failure of PDS system
Problems Of Urban Poverty
• Restricted access to employment opportunities and income.
• Lack of proper housing facilities
• Unhygienic environments
• No social security schemes
• Lack of opportunity to quality health and educational services.

Jawaharlal Nehru noted, "A significant fact which stands out is that those parts of India which have been longest under British rule are the poorest today." The Indian economy was purposely and severely deindustrialized (especially in the areas of textiles and metal-working) through colonial privatizations, regulations, tariffs on manufactured or refined Indian goods, taxes, and direct seizures. In 1830, India accounted for 17.6% of global industrial production against Britain's 9.5%, but by 1900 India's share was down to 1.7% against Britain's 18.5%. (The change in industrial production per capita is even more extreme due to Indian population growth). Not only was Indian industry losing out, but consumers were forced to rely on expensive (open monopoly produced) British manufactured goods, especially as barter, local crafts and subsistence agriculture was discouraged by law. The agricultural raw materials exported by Indians were subject to massive price swings and declining terms of trade.
British policies in India exacerbated weather conditions to lead to mass famines which, when taken together, led to between 30 to 60 million deaths from starvation in the Indian colonies. Community grain banks were forcibly disabled, land was converted from food crops for local consumption to cotton, opium, tea, and grain for export, largely for animal feed. In summary, deindustrialization, declining terms of trade, and the periodic mass misery of man-made famines are the major ways in which colonial government destroyed development in India and held it back for centuries.

The Neo-Liberal View
Unemployment and underemployment, arising in part from protectionist policies pursued till 1991 that prevented high foreign investment. Poverty also decreased from the early 80s to 1990 significantly however. Lack of property rights. The right to property is not a fundamental right in India. Over-reliance on agriculture. There is a surplus of labour in agriculture. Farmers are a large vote bank and use their votes to resist reallocation of land for higher-income industrial projects. While services and industry have grown at double digit figures, agriculture growth rate has dropped from 4.8% to 2%. Neo-liberals tend to view food security as an unnecessary goal compared to purely financial economic growth.
There are also a variety of more direct technical factors: About 60% of the population depends on agriculture whereas the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is about 18%. High population growth rate, although demographers generally agree that this is a symptom rather than cause of poverty.
And a few cultural ones have been proposed. The caste system, under which hundreds of millions of Indians were kept away from educational, ownership, and employment opportunities, and subjected to violence for "getting out of line." British rulers encouraged caste privileges and customs, at least before the 20th century.
Despite this, India currently adds 40 million people to its middle class every year. An estimated 300 million Indians now belong to the middle class; one-third of them have emerged from poverty in the last ten years. At the current rate of growth, a majority of Indians will be middle-class by 2025. Literacy rates have risen from 52 percent to 65 percent in the same period.

Suggestion-
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