The question of poverty eradication has been one of the major concerns before the policymakers since the reign of Indira Gandhi, who coined the slogan ‘Garibi Hatao’. But the sad reality is that despite electoral catchphrases like Garibi Hatao, India Shining and Aam Aadmi, India is home to approximately 1.13 billion people, of which 27.8 per cent live below the poverty line.
The poverty line is an imaginary line which determines the accepted income level of consumption requirements according to the conservative standards of the Government of India. The face of this persistent and deep-rooted cause of poverty is reflected in poor spending on health, education, malnourished bodies, poor infrastructure resulting in a poor quality of life, child labour, undignified ageing.
Now with economies growing, the problem of Poverty has also become a multi-dimension problem globally. However, this problem is more evident in developing nations such as India. There are numerous illustrations of Poverty in the earlier times, for instance, the Four Vedas, describe the society infused with socio-economic inequalities and widespread poverty.
The social stratification according to the Varna System, which led to the division of people into four Varnas called the Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras, was again based on socio-economic standards where the poorest of the lot had to suffer. Social exclusion of the lower castes and immobility to better-paying occupations in the times to follow brought about obvious misery and hardships which are often seen by the current generations as well. In one way or the other, the rigid caste system which on paper is extinct is a clear slap on ambiguous terms like equality and freedom that are only enjoyed by those who can afford it.
While India has successfully reduced the share of people who fall below the poverty line by 27.4 % from 59.4% in 1973, is this actually an accomplishment?
What do you mean by the term Poverty?
The word is derived from the French word poverté. Poverty, in simple terms, refers to the state of not having any income or money, material possessions and basic amenities for survival. The United Nations went one step ahead while describing it as a situation which entails more than just lack of income and productive resources. The organisations also included facts like Hunger and Malnutrition, which has often been ignored, limited access to education and most importantly social discrimination.
Approximately 736 million people lived below the international poverty line in 2015. What is estimated is that there are 122 women, aged 25 to 34 living under the international line for every 100 men of the same age group. Poverty is classified into different types namely, Cyclical, and Collective Poverty.
Cyclical
This refers to a situation that may be widespread throughout the population, but what is significant is that the occurrence is only for a limited duration. This is rather common in the field of agriculture where crops are season specific. With respect to industrialized societies, the main cause is the volatility in the business cycle with mass unemployment during the periods of depression or serious recession. One of the most unique examples of cyclical poverty was the experience of the United States of America during the Great Depression Period of the 1930s.
Collective
What can easily be understood as an antonym of Cyclical poverty is Collective Poverty. This is rather permanent in nature. Though it is widespread as the same suggests, involves a relatively permanent insufficiency of means to secure basic needs—a condition that may be so general as to describe the average level of life in society or that may be concentrated in relatively large groups in an otherwise prosperous society.
This is transmitted from one generation to the other. The example of the Caste system and poverty as a product of it is a suitable example for Collective Poverty. The entire debate around the reservation in India stems from Collective Poverty. What is marketed by it is the economic underdevelopment of a society or country at large. Proposed remedies for this can either be –
- Expansion of the gross national product (GNP) through improved agriculture or industrialization, or both, and
- Population limitation.
How can you measure it?
What seems to a broad concept can be narrowed down to two conservative approaches i.e. Absolute, and Relative Poverty.
Absolute Poverty, synonymous with ‘extreme state of poverty’, is a set standard characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs. For instance, the ‘Dollar a Day’ was used to determine the standard of living in the 1990s where the purchasing power determined whether the person was subject to absolute poverty or not. Fortunately, this method was rightly criticised by Philip Alston, a UN special reporter on extreme poverty and human rights, stated the World Bank’s international poverty line of $1.90 a day is fundamentally flawed and has allowed for ‘self-congratulatory‘ triumphalism in the fight against extreme global poverty, which he asserts is ‘completely off track‘ and that nearly half of the global population, or 3.4 billion, lives on less than $5.50 a day, and this number has barely moved since 1990.
Relative Poverty views it in the social context. This school of thought argued that there is a dire need to consider other fundamental factors in a society with respect to the changes that take place. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of the population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. This is a calculation of the percentage of people whose family household income falls below the determined level. The reports of United Nations rely on this while publishing their reports.
Conclusion
If you ask me? I am in complete favour of the absolute poverty measure. While it might seem like a shroud method of determining to the some, in my opinion if the rate of income is fixed at an amount which can ensure not just survival but life with dignity as bestowed upon us by Article 21 of the Constitution of India, it will definitely be a step upwards. What can be ensured is the dignity of labour since there would be no sense in moving upwards if we cannot move forward in our approach.
With respect to the concept of Relative Poverty, I would like to take an example to show my concerns about the same in a practical setting. Poverty stems from exploitation. This exploitation is in terms of both resources as well as labour. When the rich exploit resources, the demand and supply chain gets disturbed due to which the poor cannot afford it.
The Rich also exploit labour by paying them less. Now, for example, a village which has no other source of employment has a businessman who wants to set up a factory. He hires the labour at a cost less than what labour might get in a city. But what is being missed out here is the fact that the businessman is providing an opportunity for the villagers to earn their basic standard of living. Now does this amount to exploitation? Will this still classify as a case of poverty? And isn’t the grass on the other side always greener? The answer is yours.
Editor’s Note
The article properly explains poverty, poverty line and the data related to the same. It takes into account some examples that help us learn the concept in an easy way. The author speaks explains the measures of poverty – Absolute and Relative. The data shows that poverty has been a rising problem in the country and in spite of various movements introduced to diminish the problem; we have not been able to do so.