Class 9 Economics Poverty as a Challenge Notes is comprehensively discussed to have clear understanding of the chapter for the students so that he/she feels confident in his exams.
Poverty as a Challenge Class 9 Economics Notes
Poverty as a challenge is an important chapter of class 9 Economics Ncert that deals with the concept of poverty,issues related to poverty, social exclusion and vulnerability to poverty, poverty line, poverty estimates at regional, national and global level in different decades, vulnerable groups,causes and Anti poverty measures and the challenges associated with this problem.
Introduction
Poverty is a multidimensional problem as it affects poor people socially, economically, physically and emotionally etc.In our daily life, we come across different people like landless labourers, people living in slums, daily wage workers in urban areas, rickshaw puller,beggers etc who could not fulfil their basic needs.
•Every 4th person in India is poor approximately 27 crores people live in poverty in 2011-12.
•India has the largest concentration of poor people in the world which is a major challenge India faces.Issues related to poverty.
Issues related to Poverty
•Landlessness, unemployment, size of families, illiteracy, poor health, child labour and helplessness are the main problem associated with poverty.
•Poverty means absence of the availability of food, shelter, health, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities,sense of security and are ill treated at almost every place.
•Mahatma Gandhi insisted that India would be truly independent only when poorest of the poor became free from human sufferings.Poverty as seen by social scientists Social scientists look poverty through various indicators like illiteracy,lack of general resistance due to malnutrition,lack of access to healthcare, lack of job opportunities, lack of access to safe drinking water, sanitation etc.
Social exclusion and Vulnerability
Social exclusion
According to this concept, people live only in poor surrounding with other poor people excluded from enjoying social equality of better off people in better surroundings.
•Social exclusion can be both a cause as well as a consequence of poverty.
•Individuals or groups are excluded from facilities, benefits and opportunities that others enjoy.
Vulnerability
Vulnerability to poverty means greater probability of certain communities (backward, widow, physically handicapped ) of becoming poor or remaining poor in coming years.It is determined by the options available to different communities for finding an alternative living in terms of assets, education, health and job opportunities.These communities are at great risk during natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunami, terrorism) etc.
Class 9 Economics Chapter 2 People as Resource Notes
Poverty Line
Poverty line is an imaginary line that is considered appropriate to decide person is living in poverty or above it on the basis of his income or consumption level required to fulfil minimum subsistence level or basic needs.A minimum level of food , clothing, footwear, fuel and light, educational and medical requirements etc are determined for subsistence.
Methods to measure poverty
It is based on two parameters
•Income level
•Consumption level
•Poverty line is based on calorie requirement that vary depending on age,sex and type of work that person does.
•Consumption:Average calorie requirement in India is 2400 calories per person per day in rural areas as people here are engaged in more physical work than urban areas where 2100 calories per person per day is required .
•Income:On the basis of income, in 2011-12, poverty line for a person in rural areas was fixed at ₹ 816 per month and ₹ 1000 for urban areas.
•The survey of poverty estimates periodically is conducted by NSSO(National Sample Survey Organisation).
•In comparison among developing countries, World Bank use a uniform standard of 1.90$ per person per day to determine poverty.
Poverty Estimates
•Decline in poverty ratio from 45% in 1993-94 to 37% in 2004-05 and in 2011-12 came down to 22%.
•Number of poor people declined from 407 million in 2004-05 to 270 millions in 2011-12.
•Average annual decline of 2.2 % during 2004-94 to 2011-12
Vulnerable Groups
Poverty is not same for all social groups and economic categories in India.
Social groups -; Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes
Economic Groups– Rural agricultural labour households and urban casual labour households
•People below poverty line belonging to SCs & STs are 29 and 43 percent .
• Casual labour in rural areas and urban areas are same which is 34 percent.
•Except STs, poverty is declined in rural agricultural labour, urban casual labour households and SCs in 1990s.
•In poor families, income inequalities is faced by some members more than others and they are women, elderly people and female infants who are denied equal access to resources available in family.
Inter State Disparities
•All India head count ratio was 21.9 percent in states like Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa had above all India poverty level.
•Two poorest states with poverty ratios of 33.7 % and 32.6%.
•Along with rural poverty, urban poverty is also high in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
•Decline in poverty in Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.
•Punjab and Haryana have succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates.
•Kerala has focused on human resource development.
•In West Bengal,land reforms measures helped in reducing poverty.
•In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, public distribution system of foodgrains have helped in reducing poverty .
Global Poverty Scenerio
Poverty defined by world bank as person living on less than 1.90$ per day has declined from 35 % in 1990 to 10.68 % in 2013.
•Poverty reduced in China and Southeast Asian countries due to high economic growth and huge investment in human resource development.
•No of poor in China came down from 88.3% in 1981 to 14.7% in 2008 to 1.9% in 2013.
•In South Asian countries (India, Pakistan,Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan) poverty is declined from 54 to 15 percent in 2013.
•In sub Saharan Africa, poverty reduced from 54% in 1990 to 41% in 2013.
•In Latin America, poverty declined from 16% in 1990 to 5.4% in 2013.
The new sustainable development goals of the United Nations proposes ending poverty of all types by 2030.
Causes of Poverty
•Historical reason is the low level of economic development under British colonial rule
•Policies of colonial government ruined traditional industries like handicrafts and textiles that resulted in less job opportunities and low income.
•Low level of income accompanied by high h growth of population caused per capita income very low.
•Impact of green revolution was limited to some parts of India even large population was dependent on agriculture.
•Industries in public and private sector were not enough to absorb all the job seekers.
•Unequal distribution of land and other resources during land reforms which aimed at redistribution of assets in rural areas due to improper and ineffective implementation.
•Socio- cultural and economic factors to fulfill social obligations and religious ceremonies are also responsible for indebtedness of poor people.
•Small farmers borrow money to buy inputs like seeds, fertilizers, pesticides etc and in case of crop failure became victim of indebtedness which is cause and effect of poverty.
Anti- Poverty Measures
Current anti -poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on two components.
•Promotion of economic growth
•Targeted anti -poverty programmes
Official estimates state that poverty was 45% in early 1950s remained same till 1980s and then India’ s high economic growth jumped from 3.5% to 6% that reduces poverty to 37.2 in 2004-05.
There is strong link between economic growth and poverty reduction, economic growth widens opportunities and provide resources needed to invest in human resource development.Growth in agriculture sector is much below the expectation where large proportion of population are dependent ha direct impact on poverty.
Anti -Poverty Programmes
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,2005(MGNREGA )
•It provides 100 days of wage employment to every household to ensure livelihood security in rural areas.
•It aimed at sustainable development to address the cause of draught, deforestation and soil erosion.
•One-third of proposed jobs are reserved for women.
•Provided employment to 220 crores person days of employment.
•Share of SC,ST , women in the scheme are 23%,17% and 53%.
•As in March 2018 average wages varies from ₹281 per day (in Haryana) to ₹168 in Bihar and Jharkhand.
Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana
•Started in 1993
•Aim is to create self employment opportunities for educated unemployed youths in rural and small towns.
•Helped in setting up small business and industries
Rural Employment Generation Programme
•Launched in 1995
•Aim is to create self employment opportunities in rural areas and small towns.
•25 lakhs new jobs has been set for the Programme under 10th five years plan.
Swaranajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana
•Launched in 1999.
•Aim is to bringing poor families above poverty line by organising them into self help groups through mix of bank credit and government subsidy
Pradhanmantri Gramodaya Yojana
•Launched in 2000.
•Additional assistance is given to states for basic services such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water and rural electrification.
Lack of proper implementation and right targeting and lot of overlapping of schemes caused the benefits of these schemes are not reached to deserving poor so it requires proper monitoring of all the poverty alleviation programme.
The Challenges Ahead
•Wide disparities in poverty are visible between rural and urban areas and among different states.
•Certain social and economic groups are vulnerable to poverty.
The official definition of poverty covers only minimum ‘subsistence’ level of living rather than ‘reasonable ‘level of living .
Scholars advocates that concept of poverty be broaden into human poverty.Human poverty deals with food education, health,shelter,job security, self confidence,,free from gender and caste based discrimination and child labour etc.With development,the definition of poverty changes and the challenges are more than the subsistence level of living like providing healthcare and education,job security,gender equality and dignity for the poor