Explore topic-wise InterviewSolutions in .

• Medical facilities include number of hospitals, doctors, nurses, compounders, etc. available to provide health care to the citizens of country.
• As per an estimate there is 1 doctor per 6000 people in developing countries like India.
• Indian poor do not have access to sufficient medical facilities. Therefore life expectancy rate is low and infant mortality is high.
• In developing countries, every year 1.7 crore people die from diarrhoea, Malaria and T.B.
• Out of the 2.3 crore people suffering from AIDS world over, 90% belong to developing countries.
• All these facts and figures reveal that improper medical facilities are taking a major toll on people belonging to developing countries like India.
• The human resource which is the most important asset of a country is getting destroyed due to several diseases and hence the economies are draining.

1. Historical Causes:

• During the British rule, the farmers and agriculture suffered and so poverty increased.
• Britishers followed that kind of trade policy, tax policy and industrial policy, so that indian trade and business started losing their competitive power and production power. Also small and cottage industries of India were ruined. As a result unemployment and poverty started increasing.

2. Causes of Rural Poverty:

• Natural Causes: Repeated draught, uncertainty of monsoon and floods results in low production and less and uncertain income of the agriculturist. Hence, poverty is more.
• Demographic Causes: High increase in population did not allow per capita income to increase. Low per capita income and big size of families resulted in poor quality of life. Labour supply increases because of high population but low pace of development increased unemployment and so was poverty.

3. Economic Causes:

• Low agricultural productivity per labour: Because of poor irrigation facilities, insufficient technology, lack of education and training, heavy load of population,
  etc. result in low agricultural productivity in India. So due to low income of farmers, poverty increases.
• Unequal distribution of land and property: Because of zamindari system most of the tenants were working on other’s land and were not the owners. So they had no interest in investments. As a result, agriculture production became low and poverty increased day by day.
• Minimal development of small and cottage industry: Small and cottage industries which have great contribution in employment were growing slowly and this increased seasonal unemployment. As a result poverty remained high.
• Rapid increase in prices: Price-rise seriously affects poverty. Price-rise reduces purchasing power of low income group. While increases the benefit of businessman. This increases unequal distribution of income in the society and poverty increases.
• High rate of unemployment: In rural , India lack, of development of allied industries are responsible for high illiteracy, low mobility of labour, high rate of unemployment and poverty.

4. Social Causes:

• Low level of education: Because of low level of education, specially in rural areas, people get less opportunities in alternative employment and wage level remain low.. As a result poverty increases.
• Gender inequality: At workplace females are paid less than males. Women have low health level and less opportunities to work that keeps family income low which increases the level of poverty.

5. Other Causes:

• War: Because of war economic development remains low and problem of price-rise takes place. Hence poverty increases.
• Increases in defence expenditure: To make the security system stronger against war, a lot of special facilities have increased expenditure on defence which reduces expenditure on economic development and level of poverty increases.
• Defective Policies: Various schemes were introduced during planning period to reduce poverty but due to frequent changes in the ruling government many times they lacked continuity and co-ordination. As a result, poverty reduction could not be achieved through these schemes.

Economic factors for poverty:

1. Low agricultural productivity per labour:

• One of important reasons of high poverty in rural India is low agricultural productivity per labourer.
• Problems like poor irrigation facilities, insufficient technology, lack of education and training, low rate of investment, heavy load of population, etc. result in low agricultural productivity. So income of farmers remains low and poverty increases.

2. Unequal distribution of land and property:

Before and during the British in India, systems like Zamindari and land ownership were wide spread. As a result, land lied with handful of people like zamindars.

• Zamindars were neither directly associated with land cultivation nor had any interest to invest in agricultural sector. So the real cultivators i.e. farmers became landless and zamindars became land owners.
• The landless farmers had to then work in their own land as tenants and so they had no motivation of work.
• All such factors resulted in poverty among farmers.

3. Minimal development of small and cottage industry:

• India started giving importance to heavy and basic industries as a strategy for economic development after its second five year plan.
• India neglected small and cottage industries of rural regions which have great contribution in employment, production and income.
• Over and above agricultural and allied activities such as animal husbandry, dairy, fisheries, were growing slowly. This added to seasonal unemployment. As a result, poverty remains high.

4. Rapid increase in price:

• Events and situations of war, drought, low national production, rapid increase in demand, increase in production cost, price of goods and services as well as edible goods, etc. rise the price at a much faster rate.
• Price rise reduces purchasing power of low income group.
• It reduces standard of living and increases poverty. On the other side, increasing price benefits businessman, traders and big farmers.
• The society again falls in the trap of unequal distribution of income.

5. High rate of unemployment:

• Majority of rural India is dependent on agriculture and agriculture is dependent on monsoon. Hence, most people can grow only one crop in a year. This results in seasonal unemployment.
• To make things worse, population in India is quite high and they live jointly. During times of seasonal unemployment it becomes very difficult to bear the expense of the entire family. Majority all the members work in agriculture even when some of them are excess for the work. This results in disguised unemployment.
• Moreover, lack of alternate business opportunities in rural regions increase unemployment and poverty further.

Demographic factors:

After independence and during the planning period India’s economy grew rapidly. With this India also made rapid increase in the health services.

• Owing to all these factors, India’s death -rate declined but birth-rate did not reduce. This led to population explosion.
• Due to high population the per capita income did not increase much. Low per capita income and big size of families resulted in poor quality of life.
• There were insufficient employment opportunities for the fast growing population. As a result, people were forced to work in low wages and this made them poorer.

By creating income earning assets, we can generate employment opportunities through which poor can raise their income which ultimately helpful in improving standard of living. Thereby, it address the problem of poverty.

Poverty alleviation has always been accepted as one of the major objectives of planned development process in India but even after vast spending on poverty alleviation programmes, the government has not succeeded in poverty alleviation in India.

Despite various strategies to alleviate poverty, problems like hunger, malnorishment illiteracy, and lack of basic amenities are prevalent in India. None of the poverty alleviation strategies resulted in any radical change in the ownership of assets, process of production and improvement of basic amenities to the needy.

Due to unequal distribution of assets, the benefits from poverty alleviation programmes have not actually reached the poor. The amount of resources allocated for the poverty alleviation programmes is not sufficient when we take the magnitude of poverty into consideration.

The implementation of the poverty alleviation programmes is the responsibility of government and bank officials who are ill motivated, inadequately trained, corruption prone and vulnerable to pressure from local elites.

The resources are thus used inefficiently. Government policies have also failed to address the various issues related to poverty due to non – participation of local level institutions in programme implementation. It is evident that high growth alone is not sufficient to reduce poverty without the active participation of the people.

Further, it is necessary to identify poverty stricken areas and provide infrastructure such as schools, roads, power, telecom, IT services, training institution s, etc. Institutional weaknesses abound and implementation failures are the biggest reasons that these programmes not succeeded.

Removal of poverty has one of the major objectives of Indian developmental strategy. The current government strategy of poverty alleviation is based on two planks:
(1) Promotion of Economic Growth
(2) Targeted Anti-poverty Programmes

Some of the anti-poverty programmes undertaken by government at present are discussed below:
→ Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY):Started in 1993, this programme aims to create self-employment opportunities for educated unemployed youth in rural areas and small towns.
→ Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY):Launched in 2000, this aims to create and improve basic services like primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and rural electrification.
→ National Food for Work programme (NFWP):Launched in 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country, this programme is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desired to do manual unskilled work.
→ National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA):This act was passed in September 2005. The act provides 100 days assured employment every year to every rural household in 200 districts. Later, the scheme will be extended to 600 districts and also one third to the proposed jobs would be reserved for women.

The percentage of poor people has declined from 54.9% in 1973 to 26.1% in 2001. This shows a significant decline. However, the absolute number of poor has remained more or less static at 320 million. Recently it has declined to 260 million.

There was a substantial decline in poverty ratios in India from about 55% in 1973 to 36% in 1993.

(a) The proportion of people below poverty line further came down to about 26 % in 2000.

(b) If the trend continues, people below poverty, line may come down to less than 20 % in the next few years.

(c) Although the percentage of the people living under poverty declined in the earlier two decades (1973-1993) the number of poor remained stable around 320 million for a fairly long period.

(d) The latest estimates indicate a significant reduction in the number of poor to about 260 million.

The percentage of people living below poverty line has fallen from 28% in 1991 to 21% in 2001; in the developing countries. Poverty declined substantially in China and some South Asian countries because of rapid economic development. On the other hand, reduction was not as sharp in countries; like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc.

In Sub Saharan Africa, poverty increased from 41% in 1981 to 48% in 2001. The poverty level has remained the same in Latin America. Poverty has resurfaced in Russia and some of the former communist countries.

In India poverty line is measured or calculated considering the following factors required for subsistence:
1. Minimum level of food requirement,
2. Clothing
3. Footwear
4. Fuel and Light
5. Education and
6. Medical requirement etc.
These physical quantities are multiplied by their prices. The present formula for food requirement is based on the desired calorie requirement. On the basis of these calculations in 1999 – 2000, the poverty line in the rural areas was fixed Rs.328 per capita per month and in urban areas, it was Rs.454. People earning more than this amount were considered above the poverty line and earning less than this amount were considered as living below the poverty line.

‘Food for work’ programme was started in the 1970’s to raise the standard of living of poor. These poverty alleviation programme aimed to raise income and employment for the poor through the creation of incremental assets and by means of work generation.

The government uses Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) as proxy for income of households to identify the poor. Poverty line is estimated by the monetary value (per capita expenditure) of the minimum calorie intake that was estimated at 2400 calories for a rural person and 2100 for a person in the urban area. But this calorie based norm is not adequate to identify the poor duo to following reasons: 

1. This mechanism groups all the poor together and does not differentiate between the very poor and the other poor which makes it ’ difficult to identify who amongst them needs help the most.

2. Economists question, the basis of taking expenditure on food and a few select items as proxy for income.

3. This norm does not take into account the other factors associated with poverty such as accessibility to basic education, health care, drinking water, and sanitation.

4. This norm does not take social factors such as illiteracy, lack of access to resources, discrimination or lack of civil and political freedoms into consideration.

Rs. 972 per person per day.

Following are the tasks given to Rangarajan committee : 

1. Determining the poverty line of the nation and providing estimates of poverty. 

2. Evaluating the difference between the data used by National Statistical Organisation and National Sample Survey Organisation.

Following steps should be taken to remove poverty in India.

1. Creation of employment opportunities:

There should be greater encouragement to small scale industries in rural areas, poultry farming, dairy farming and piggeries should be developed.

2. Population Control:

Population growth is a hindrance in our coming the problem of population. It should be checked. Various family planning methods should be adopted by the people. The people should be educated so that they understand the charm of a small sized family.

3. Economic development:

There should be improvement in agricultural and industries. Their production should be increased.

4. Provision of minimum needs :

The Government should provide water, housing, sanitation, other facilities. The public distribution system should be regulated properly. So that the poor people may get essential commodities at cheaper rates.

5. Removal of economic inequalities: 

The Government should encourage small industries and agriculture. It should give incentive to industries in rural areas. The taxation policy should be progressive. The money collected by the Government should be spent on the welfare of poor people.

The second five year plan (1956-61) has pointed out that the benefits of economic development must accure more and more to the relatively less privileged classes of society. The Government’s approach to poverty reduction is of three dimensions: 

1. Growth oriented approach:

It is based on the expectation that the effects of economic growth that is rapid increase in the gross domestic product and per capita income of a nation would spread to all sections of society. 

Rapid industrial development and transformation of agriculture through Green Revolution in select regions would benefit underdeveloped regions and more backward sections of the community.

2. Food for Work:

In 1970, Food for work programme was started. The policymakers started thinking that incomes and employment for the poor could be increased through the creation of incremental assets and by means of work generation through specific poverty alleviation programmes. Under self-employment programmes, financial assistance is given to families or individuals.

3. Provision of minimum basic amenities : 

Through public expenditure on social consumption needs such as education, health, water supply and sanitation, people’s standard of living could be improved. Programmes under this approach are expected to supplement the consumption of the poor, create employment opportunities and improvement in health and education.

For this purpose ‘Pradhana Manthi Gram Saraj Yojana, Pradhana Mantri Gramodaya, Yojana, Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana and National Social Assistance Programme’ were started.

Being a resident of a village, I would suggest the following measures to tackle the problem of poverty:

• Identification of poor
• Generating employment opportunities for the identified poor
• Free access to education and health care facilities. 
• Establishment of small scale industries.
• Re-distribution of income-earning assets.  
• Encouraging poor for their active participation.  
• Organising training camps and night classes for importing vocation training to unskilled labourers.
• Advancing financial and technical assistance to establish small enterprises. 
• Upgradation of Agricultural practices to raise productivity.
• Enforcement of measures to check population growth.
• Development of infrastructure.
• Motivating the poor to acquire skills information and knowledge.

Correct option is (B) Suresh Tendulkar

National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS), National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS), and National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS).

Indira Awas Yojana.

The ratio of poor people’s number to the total population is called Head Count Ratio.

It started on 25th June, 2015 with an objective to solve the problem of fast increasing problem of dwelling in urban areas.

1. Indira Awas Yojna,
2. Rajiv Gandhi Yojna and
3. Prime Minister Awas Yojna.

Rajiv Gandhi Yojna, 2013-14 was implemented to improve the housing of those who reside in huts.

To provide employment to one person per family for minimum 100 days a year to rural and urban poor as well as lower middle class families

Wage Employment Schemes:

• 28th April, 1989: Jawahar Rojgar Yojana – – JRY
• 2nd Oct., 1993: Employment Assurance Scheme – EAS
• 1994-95: Pradhan Mantri Rojgar Yojana – PMRY
• 2005: National Rural Employment Guarantee Act-NREGA
• 2009: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act – MGNREGA

Housing Schemes:

• 1985 – 86: Indira Awas Yojana – IAY
• 2013 – 14: Rajiv Awas Yojana – RAY
• 25th June, 2015: Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – PMAY

Social Security Schemes:

• 9th May, 2015: Atal Pension Scheme-APS
  : Jivan Jyoti Insurance Scheme – JJIS
  : Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana – PMFBY
• 28th August, 2014: Jan Dhan Yojana

Self-employment Programmes:

• Integrated Rural Development Programme -IRDP
• Training of Rural Youth and for Self-Employment – TRYSEM
• Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas -DWCRA
• Million Wells Scheme – MWS
• Supplying Improved Toolkit to Rural Artisans – SITRA
• Ganga Welfare Scheme – GWS

Suvarnajayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana -SGSY: 1st April, 1999: IRDP and other programmes integrated with it were merged in SGSY

Development of small scale industries, self-help groups were provided infrastructural facilities, technology loan, and facility of market to final goods to rural poor.

The churning poor are those who regularly move in and out of poverty, ex: small farmers, seasonal workers.

Poverty line as per planning commission is measured on the basis of minimum nutrition calories required for rural and urban population. It is estimated that a person is said to be poor if he is unable to consume 2400 calories per day in rural areas and 2100 calories per day in case of urban areas.

The condition in which people lack the minimum amount of income needed in order to maintain the average standard of living in the society in which they live is called relative poverty.

When a certain minimum level of per capita consumption and expenditure is required to decide the minimum basic needs of people it is known as poverty line.

Correct option is (D) Kerala

The rate of infant mortality depends on availability of health services, mother’s education, vaccination among children and nutrition of food.

Correct option is (D) 39

Current life expectancy is 66.21 years and current infant mortality rate is 40 per 1000 live births.

Correct option is (B) 75.8 years

Food and Agricultural organization (FAO) is a special agency which tries to reduce starvation at international level.

Increase in defence expenditure:

• Wars create havoc in the government and people. They fear their security.
• To make the security system of the nation stronger the country spends huge amount on modern missiles, fighter planes, tanks and submarine.
• A lot of expense is already incurred on developing special facilities to fight torrorism.
• All such money is non-developmental. A country has to forgo its several developmental projects so that it can use its limited budget in enhancing its security systems. As a result, new employment restricts, gets halted employment comes in danger and all this leads to poverty.

• To overcome drawbacks of all the previous methods of calculating poverty line a committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Suresh Tendulkar was formed.
• It presented its report in 2009 and gave a new measure of poverty line. The method suggested by this committee incorporated expenses done after health and education were also covered to get a more realistic picture of poverty. Hence, Tendulkar’s measure of poverty is considered more realistic.

Goa, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh

The present methodology of poverty estimation does not look appropriate. It only takes one factor in view and that is the economic factor. More over it considers about a “minimum” subsistence level of living rather than a “reasonable” level of living.

Poverty has many dimensions. It is no longer confined to economic factors alone. With development, the definitions of what constitutes poverty also changes. Its concept has broadened to human poverty. A few persons may have been able to feed themselves but if they are without education, without shelter, without health-care, without job security, without self-confidence, without social equality, they are considered poor. If poverty is to be removed in real sense and the people are to be brought above the poverty line, not only that we need to increase their income but also, we have to provide the people with education, shelter, health-care, job-security, respect, dignity all.

The proportion of poor is not the same in every state. Though there has been a decline in poverty in every state from the early seventies, the success rate of reducing poverty has varied from state to state. In 20 states and union territories, the poverty ratio is less than the national average of 26. In others, the poverty ratios are higher than the national average. Among these, Orrisa and Bihar continue to be the two poorest states with poverty ratios of 47 and 43 per cent respectively. Both rural and urban poverty are quite high in these states. On the other hand, states like Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir and West Bengal have shown a significant decline in poverty. Public distribution of food grains, focus on human resource development, high agricultural development and land reform measures are some of the factors responsible for the decline in poverty in these states.

Human poverty is a concept that goes beyond the limited view of poverty as lack of income. It refers to the denial of political, social and economic opportunities to an individual to maintain a “reasonable” standard of living. Illiteracy, lack of job opportunities, lack of access to proper healthcare and sanitation, caste and gender discrimination, etc., are all components of human poverty.

Women, children (especially the girl child) and elder people in a poor family are regarded as the poorest of the poor because they are systematically denied equal access to resources available to the family.

During a pc. Licuicr period of time, the amount of goods and services produced by one labour is per labour productivity.

Correct option is (B) Poverty line

Total market value of all the goods and services bought by families during a year divided by the total population of the same year is called per capita consumption expenditure.

In 2011, Brazil had 91% literacy rate where as in India it was 74.04%, in Nepal 60% and 55% in Pakistan.

The percentage of total population who are above seven years and able to read and write is called the literacy rate of the population. The current literacy rate of India is 74.04%.