Hello everyone welcome to my blog
Iam Rakesh K V persuing B.Tech in CSE from Presidency University Banglore
I have created a short blog on poverty in India
Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day available – they are considered extremely poor. This makes the Indian subcontinent one of the poorest countries in the world; women and children, the weakest members of Indian society, suffer most.
India is the second most populous country after China with about 1.2 billion people and isthe seventh largest country in the world with an area of 3,287,000 km². The highly contrasted country has enjoyed growth rates of up to 10% over many years and is one of the largest economies in the world, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1,644 billion US dollars. But only a small percentage of the Indian population has benefited from this impressive economic boom so far, as the majority of people in India are still living in abject poverty.
Poverty in India :– from the village to the slum
More than 800 million people in India are considered poor. Most of them live in the countryside and keep afloat with odd jobs. The lack of employment which provides a livable wage in rural areas is driving many Indians into rapidly growing metropolitan areas such as Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore or Calcutta. There, most of them expect a life of poverty and despair in the mega-slums, made up of millions of corrugated ironworks, without sufficient drinking water supply, without garbage disposal and in many cases without electricity. The poor hygiene conditions are the cause of diseases such as cholera, typhus and dysentery, in which especially children suffer and die.
Poverty in India impacts children, families and individuals in a variety of different ways through:
- High infant mortality
- Malnutrition
- Child labour
- Lack of education
- Child marriage
- HIV / AIDS
Malnutrition :– not even a bowl of rice a day
India is one of the world’s top countries when it comes to malnutrition: More than 200 million people don’t have sufficient access to food, including 61 million children. 7.8 million infants were found to have a birth weight of less than 2.5 kilograms – alarming figures for a country commonly referred to as the emerging market.
Child labour :– no time to play and learn
Although child labour for children under the age of 14 in India is prohibited by law, according to official figures, 12.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working. Aid agencies assume that in reality, there are many more estimating that 65 million children between 6 and 14 years do not go to school. Instead, in order to secure survival, it is believed that Indian children contribute to the livelihood of their families; they work in the field, in factories, in quarries, in private households and in prostitution.
SOS Children’s Villages :– fighting poverty in India
Since 1963, the SOS Children’s villages have been involved in India. In a total of 41 SOS Children’s Villages across the vast country, around 18,000 children and young people find a new home – the majority of them are girls. Nearly 5,000 girls and boys receive access to education at the 16 SOS Hermann Gmeiner schools in the Indian subcontinent. In the nine SOS Vocational Training Centres, over 1,300 young people are completing a qualified vocational training. Medical and psychological help is available to needy families in the 34 SOS Social Centres and the two SOS Medical Centres. The SOS Children’s Villages is working together with other aid organizations and the population to fight poverty in India.
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Poverty rate map of India by prevalence in 2012, among its states and union territories
As India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, poverty is on the decline in the country, with close to 44 Indians escaping extreme poverty every minute, as per the world poverty clock. India has been able to lift a significant percentage of its population out of poverty, but many still live in it. India had 73 million people living in extreme poverty which makes up 5.5% of its total population, according to the Brookings report. In May 2012, the World Bank reviewed and proposed revisions to their poverty calculation methodology and purchasing power parity basis for measuring poverty worldwide. It was a minimal 3.6% in terms of percentage. As of 2016, the incidence of multidimensional poverty has almost halved between 2005–06 and 2015–16, declining from 54.7 percent to 27.5 percent .
India Poverty rate since 1993 based on World Bank $2.00 ppp value
According to United Nations Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner, India lifted 271 million people out of poverty in just a 10-year time period from 2005/06 to 2015/16.
The World Bank has been revising its definition and benchmarks to measure poverty since 1990, with a $2 per day income on purchasing power parity basis as the definition in use from 2005 to 2013.Some semi-economic and non-economic indices have also been proposed to measure poverty in India. For example, in order to determine if a person is poor or not, the Multi-dimensional Poverty Index places a 33% weight on the number of years that person spent in school or engaged in education and a 6.25% weight on the financial condition of that person.
The different definitions and underlying small sample surveys used to determine poverty in India have resulted in widely varying estimates of poverty from the 1950s to 2010s. In 2012, the Indian government stated that 22% of its population is below its official poverty limit. Based on 2005’s PPPs international comparison program,in 2011, the World Bank estimated that 23.6% of Indian population, or about 276 million people, lived below $1.25 per day on purchasing power parity.According to the United Nations Millennium development goals (MDG) programme, 270 million people out of 1.2 billion Indians, roughly equal to 21.9% of India’s population, lived below the poverty line of $1.25 in 2011–2012.
From the late 19th century through the early 20th century, under British colonial rule, poverty in India intensified, peaking in the 1920s.Famines and diseases killed millions each time. After India gained its independence in 1947, mass deaths from famines were prevented. Since 1991, rapid economic growth has led to a sharp reduction in extreme poverty in India. However, those above the poverty line live a fragile economic life.
As per the methodology of the Suresh Tendulkar Committee report, the population below the poverty line in India was 354 million (29.6% of the population) in 2009-2010 and was 269 million (21.9% of the population) in 2011–2012.In 2014, the Rangarajan Committee said that the population below the poverty line was 454 million (38.2% of the population) in 2009-2010 and was 363 million (29.5% of the population) in 2011–2012.Deutsche Bank Research estimated that there are nearly 300 million people who are in the middle class.If these previous trends continue, India’s share of world GDP will significantly increase from 7.3% in 2016 to 8.5% by 2020. In 2012, around 170 million people, or 12.4% of India’s population, lived in poverty (defined as $1.90 (Rs 123.5)), an improvement from 29.8% of India’s population in 2009.In their paper, economists Sandhya Krishnan and Neeraj Hatekar conclude that 600 million people, or more than half of India’s population, belong to the middle class.
The Asian development Bank estimates India’s population to be at 1.28 billion with an average growth rate of 1.3% from 2010–2015. In 2014, 49.9% of the population aged 15 years and above were employed. However, 21.9% of the population still lives below the national poverty line.The world poverty clock shows real-time poverty trends in India, which are based on the latest data, of the World Bank, among others. As per recent estimates, the country is well on its way of ending extreme poverty by meeting its sustainable development goals by 2030.
According to oxfam, India’s top 1% of the population now holds 73% of the wealth while 670 million citizens, comprising the country’s poorest half, saw their wealth rise by just 1%.
CONCLUSION About POVERTY
Poverty is eradicated when there is a surplus in the economy and you allow for wealth inequality. However wealth inequality destabilizes the society.
Thank you all for opening my blog !!!
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