TESL1034 (Literature)

3. POVERTY in INDIA
Prepared by
1.

Russel Junior Julius

2.

Christal Chong

3.

Firzana Huda

What is Poverty?
1.

Poverty is the state of being extremely poor

1.

In this case were talking about only gaining an

average of $1 daily.

2.

Poverty In India In brief

1.

Average Income of $1 per day

2.

No access to clean water

3.

No access to appropriate basic needs

4.

No access to decent shelter

I.

India has a meteoric growth rate of around 9%

II.

India as of today has about 1.2 billion citizen and 70% of

it lives in the rural area

III.

India is one of the worlds fastest growing economic

country

IV.

1% of Indias Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is on health

planned to be increased by 3-4%

V.

Widespread of anti-poverty policies has been introduced

since the 1950s

Statistics
1.

50% of Indians dont have proper shelter

2.

70% of Indians dont have access to decent toiletswhich causes a multitude of bacteria hosting the
person

3.

35% of Indians households dont have a nearby

clean water source

4.

85% of villages dont have secondary school

5.

40% of villages dont have proper roads connecting

to them

6.

20-50% of Indians is below the poverty line (earning

less than $1 a day per capita)

Forgotten Poor
1.

The Dalits (the untouchables),

womens and minority ethnic tribes
were not included in the official
poverty count.

2.

Theyre the group that are

marginalized by the society and
the politicains

3.

Politicians simply announce a

massive reduction in poverty by
just not including them in a
cencus. (politicians pretend that
they dont exist at all)

Poverty In India
1.

Because of Indias Huge size, poverty lines varies from

one state to another.

2.

India is also infamous of child labour

3.

As with many developing country, urban poverty in india

is a direct effect of rural migration fleeing poverty.

4.

Unemployment and underemployment issue

5.

Disproportionate housing problem

6.

They Dont have enough land to perform agriculture

What are the causes

of poverty
in India

7 main causes of Poverty in India

1. Rapidly Rising Population:
The

population during the last 45 years has increased at the rate of 2.2% per
annum.
On

average 17 million people are added every year to its population which raises
the demand for consumption goods considerably.
2. Low Productivity in Agriculture:
The

level of productivity in agriculture is low due to subdivided and fragmented

holdings, lack of capital, use of traditional methods of cultivation, illiteracy etc.
This is the

main cause of poverty in the country.

3. Low Rate of Economic Development:

The

rate of economic development in India has been

below the required level.
Therefore, there

persists a gap between level of

availability and requirements of goods and services.
4. Price Rise:
The

continuous and steep price rise has added to the

miseries of poor.
It has benefited a few people in the society and the
persons in lower income group find it difficult to get their
minimum needs.

5.Unemployment:
The

continuously expanding army of unemployed is

another cause of poverty.
Job seeker

is increasing in number at a higher rate than

the expansion in employment opportunities.
6.Social Factors:
The

social set up is still backward and is not conducive to

faster development.
Laws of inheritance, caste

system, traditions and customs

are putting hindrances in the way of faster development
and have aggravate the problem of poverty.

7. Political Factors:
The Britishers started

lopsided development in India and reduced

Indian economy to a colonial state.
They exploited the

natural resources to suit their interests and

weaken the industrial base of Indian economy.

How does poverty

affect India as a
whole?

The

number of poor people in India, according to the

countrys Eleventh National Development Plan, amounts
to more than 300 million. The country has been
successful in reducing the proportion of poor people from
about 55% in 1973 to about 27% in 2004.

One

third of the countrys population of more than 1.1

billion continues to live below the poverty line, and a
large proportion of poor people live in rural areas.
Poverty remains a chronic condition for almost 30% of
Indias rural population.

Poverty

affects tribal people in forest

areas, where loss of resources has made
them even poorer. In coastal fishing
communities, people's lives are deteriorating
because of environmental degradation, stock
depletion and vulnerability to natural
disasters.

Poverty

also causes the people of India to have lack of

access to productive assets and financial resources.
High levels of inadequate health care and extremely
limited access to social services are common among
poor rural people.

Women

in general are the most disadvantaged people in

Indian society. They are particularly vulnerable to the
spread of HIV/AIDS from urban to rural areas.

In

2005 an estimated 5.7 million men, women and

children in India were living with HIV/AIDS. Most of them
are in the 15-49 age group and almost 40 per cent of
them, or 2.4 million in 2008, are women.

Thank You
For your