sbm_poverty

THE POVERTY

Deba Pratim Sinha

Outline
• What is Poverty??
• Global extent of chronic poverty

• Reasons Why Poverty cannot be ignored
• Why Poverty?
• Measurement of Poverty: The Poverty Line

• The State and the Politics of Poverty
• How proved wrong
• The Three stories
• Ways that can make the Poverty Away
• Some Government aided program
• References

So, What is Poverty??
Poverty is the lack of what one needs to live within a society. In the broadest sense, it means survival but also contribution and participation to social daily activities
-Dr Amartya Sen

Global extent of chronic poverty
APPROX. 300-420 MILLION CHRONICALLY POOR

Reasons Why Poverty cannot be ignored…… 1. Some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) can never be achieved without reaching the poor.
2. Other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) will be achieved fully or in part by excluding the poor. The poverty of those left behind post-2015 will likely be even more intractable.
3. By denying the poorest – those with least to lose – we risk undermining p olitical and economic stability.

4.Direct Correlation with Increasing Crime, Degrading Environment,
Societal Instability, Degrading health and of course terrorism.
5. Enormous effects on powerless victims such as children and women.

Why Poverty??
1. Rapidly Rising Population: On an average, 17 million people are added every year to Indian population which raises the demand for consumption goods considerably.
2. Low Productivity in Agriculture: Due to subdivided and fragmented holdings, lack of capital, use of traditional methods of cultivation, illiteracy etc. This is the main cause of poverty in the country.
3. Under Utilized Resources : The existence of under employment and disguised unemployment of human resources and under utilization of resources has resulted in low productivity in agricultural sector. This brought a down fall in their standard of living.
4. Low Rate of Economic Development : The rate of economic development in India has been below the required level. Therefore, there persists a gap between level of availability and requirements of goods and services. The net result is poverty.

Why Poverty??cont…
5. Price Rise : The continuous and steep price rise has added to the miseries of poor. It has benefited a few people in the society and the persons in lower income group find it difficult to get their minimum needs.
6. Unemployment : The continuously expanding army of unemployed is another cause of poverty. The job seeker is increasing in number at a higher rate than the expansion in employment opportunities.
7. Shortage of Capital and Able Entrepreneurship : Capital and able entrepreneurship have important role in accelerating the growth. But these are in short supply making it difficult to increase production significantly.

8. Social Factors : The social set up is still backward and is not conducive to faster development. Laws of inheritance, caste system, traditions and customs are putting hindrances in the way of faster development and have aggravateed the problem of poverty.
9. Political Factors : The Britishers started lopsided development in India and reduced Indian economy to a colonial state. They exploited the natural resources to suit their interests and weaken the industrial base of Indian economy. Sadly, post Independence nothing much has changed.

Measurement of Poverty: The Poverty Line
• Below Poverty Line is an economic benchmark and poverty threshold used by the government of India to indicate economic disadvantage and to identify individuals and households in need of government assistance and aid.
• Internationally, an income of less than $1.25 per day per head of purchasing power parity is defined as extreme poverty. By this estimate, about 21.92% percent of Indians are extremely poor.
Income-based poverty lines consider the bare minimum income to provide basic food requirements; it does not account for other essentials such as health care and education. The reason is that the poorest of the poor (i.e. in poor countries) spend on average up to 75% of their budget on food.

The State and the Politics of Poverty
-Akhil Gupta (Red Tape)

Mr Akhil researches through field work and finds the failure of Faucault ‘s discussion of bio politics and of Agamben’s concept of sovereign

Giorgio Agamben

Michel Foucault

How proved wrong…
• 1.Biopolitics – It as a modality of power depends upon management of the population.
• 2.Normalizing Power of Statistics.
• When he visited a village of Alipur

The Three stories
1.Malik,the Block Development Officer
2.Goel,one of the BDO’s staff
3.Ramnarain,low caste man of Odh caste

Ways that can make the Poverty Away
1. More Employment Opportunities:
Poverty can be eliminated by providing more employment opportunities so that people may be able to meet their basic needs" For this purpose, labour intensive rather than capital intensive techniques can help solve the problem to a greater extent.During the Sixth and Seventh Five Year
Plans, programmes like Integrated Rural Development Programme,
Jawahar Rozgar Yojana Rural Landless Employment Guarantee
Programme etc. have started with a view eliminate poverty in the rural sector. 2. Minimum Needs Programme:
The programme of minimum needs can help to reduce poverty. This fact was realized in the early seventies as benefits of growth;poor people are left with no choice but to pay direct attention to the basic needs of the low strata of the society.
3. Social Security Programmes:
The various social security schemes Workmen 's Compensation Act,
Maternity Benefit Act, Provident Fund Act, Employ, State Insurance Act and other benefits in case of death, disability or disease while duty can make a frontal attack on poverty.

Ways that can make the Poverty Away
4. Establishment of Small Scale Industries:
The policy of encouraging small industries can help to create employment in rural areas especially in backward regions.
Moreover, this will transfer resources from surplus areas to deficit without creating much problem of urbanization.
5. Uplift of Rural Masses:
As it is mentioned that India lives in villages, various schemes for the uplift of rural poor may be started. The poor living, in rural areas generally belong to the families of landless agricultural labourers, small marginal farmers, village artisans, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes.
6. Land Reforms:
Land reforms have the motto, "land belongs to the tiller".
Thus legislature measures were undertaken to abolish
Zamindari System. Intermediaries ceiling on holdings was fixed.
Ironically, these land reforms lack proper implementation

Ways that can make the Poverty Away
7. Spread of Education:
Education helps to bring out the best in human mind and spirit. Therefore, it is urgent to provide education facilities to all. They should be given special facilities of stipend, free books and contingency allowance Education will help to bring awakening among the poor and raise their mental faculty.
8. Social and Political Atmosphere:
Without the active co-operation of citizens and political leaders, poverty cannot be eradicated from India. A conducive social political atmosphere is a necessary condition for eradicating the poverty from its root.

Some Government aided program
• Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojna
• National Old Age Pension Scheme(NOAPS)
• National family Benefit Scheme(NFBS)
• National Maternity Benefit Scheme
• ANNAPURNA
• Integrated Rural Development programme
• Rural Housing-Indira Awaas Yojana(IAY)
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act (MGNREGA)
• Integrated Childhood Development Scheme

References
• Wikipedia
• RedTape by Akhil Gupta

Thank You

References: • Wikipedia • RedTape by Akhil Gupta Thank You