POVERTY IN INDIA… AN

OVERVIEW

By
Leelakrishna
Bhargav Ram
Krishna Devraj

HS 231 INDIAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

 INDIA SHINING – THE NEXT
SUPERPOWER
 Country with the most
population- also the country
with largest number of
impoverished people.
 One in every four Indians lives
on less than 20 rupees a day
and one in every five remains
hungry the whole day.
 47% of Indian children under 5
malnourished or stunted.
 A literacy rate of 61%, barely
ahead of Sudan and behind
Rwanda .

STRAIGHT IN YOUR FACE…
Indicators of Poverty
 The poverty line-
 •World bank definition
•Indian Government
definition
•Rural statistics
•Urban statistics

Roughly 1 out of every 4 Indians

earns less than 10 Rs a day.
Medically, the food got from such
money is just enough to
DECREASE- IN THE REAL
SENSE?
POVERTY LINE

WORLD BANK DEFINITION

INDIAN DEFINITION –
living above poverty line
only means the person can
BARELY SUVIVE.
OTHER ECONOMIC
INDICATORS:-
 PURCHASING POWER PARITY (PPP)


 GINI CO-EFFICIENT


 DIFFERENT INCOME INEQUALITY
METRICS
SOCIAL INDICATORS

 LIFE EXPECTANCY
 INFANT MORTALITY RATE
 MALNUTRITION RATE AMONG
CHILDREN
 ACCESS TO INFORMATION
 ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE
 ACCESS TO EDUCATION
A classification..
THE CAUSES …

THE TWO APPROACHES-

•


 DEVELOPMENTALIST VIEW

 NEO LIBERAL VIEW
DEVELOPMENTALIST VIEW

 “the colonial economic restructuring”

 Total de-industrialization
 Declining terms of trade
 Periodic mass misery due to man
made famines etc.
 Open monopoly by the sovereign
nation
 Root evil of all present poverty

 INDIA OF OLD…

 Villages- isolated self sustained

• economies
 Annual revenue reported by the
• Emperor Aurangzeb's exchequer
• exceeded £100 million in 1700 (twice
of Europe then)
 India ranked consistently among the
top two economies of the world
before the advent of colonialism.
The colonial impact

 Stifled trade with rest of the world

 Share in world income fell from
24.4% (Entire europe then – 23%) in
1700 to 3.8% in 1952.
 Undue and harsh taxation system,
many famines, from which we never
really recovered.
NEO LIBERAL VIEW…

 Protectionist policies
 Lack of property rights
 Over reliance on agriculture
 High population growth rate
 Caste system
Current assessment
Health indicators
Education indicator...
 Acts, Actions & Acting…

 1950 – 1970 – No discernible trend,

kept increasing and decreasing.
 1970- 1990- steady decline in rural
poverty, but a rise in urban poverty
 A 2007 report by the state-run NCEUS
found that 77% of Indians lived on
less than 20 rupees per day , with
most working in "informal labour
sector with no job or social security,
living in abject poverty."
An outlook, a hope..

•E ra d ica tio n o n ly a lo n g te rm
goal
•Trickle d o w n e ffe ct fro m
m id d le cla sse s
•In cre a se d stre ss o n e d u ca tio n
•E m p o w e rm e n t o f w o m e n
•R e d u ctio n o f re g io n a l
im b a la n ce s
 What we can do..

 In our own small way, let us not

waste resources, the fruit of hard
earned tax payer’s money, which
might better be used to eradicate
the misery of others. Let us show
that we do care, and realise the
dream of seeing a poverty free
India.
THANK YOU
•
BIBLIOGRAPHY..
 http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/poverty-in-
india.html
 http://www.indiaonestop.com/povertyindia.htm
 http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/08/news/international/pluggedin_m
urphy_india.fortune/index.htm
 http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUT
HASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,menuPK:295609~pagePK:141132~piP
K:141109~theSitePK:295584,
 http://www.indiastat.com/india/ShowData.asp?
secid=221&ptid=8&level=2
 http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp
 http://www.censusindia.gov.in//CensusWebResults.aspx?
textfield=per+capita&drpQuick=&drpQuickSelect=#
 http://en.wikipedia.org/
•

Reports-
•

 National Human Development report- HRD Ministry India 2001

 Poverty in India and Indian states- an update by Gaurav Datt
 poverty and inequality in India- a re examination by Angus Deaton,