Meaning Of Poverty :

Poverty is the worst form of violence Mahatma Gandhi.

Much has been written about the meaning of poverty. What we find through our work and
frequent visits to poor communities is that poverty:
Deprives people of their security and well-being;
Deprives people not only of safe water and adequate food, clothing and shelter, but also
education and healthcare;
Takes away peoples rights, and their freedom, dignity and peace of mind;
Puts people's lives in danger and robs them of their future.
The Scottish Poverty Information Unit argues that: "Poverty is defined relative to the
standards of living in a society at a specific time. People live in poverty when they are
denied an income sufficient for their material needs and when these circumstances exclude
them from taking part in activities which are an accepted part of daily life in that society."
[via : http://www.powerfulinformation.org/page.cfm?pageid=pi-poverty]
Concept Of Poverty :
Although poverty is one of the most familiar and enduring conditions known to humanity, it
is an extremely complicated concept to understand. Some researchers view it as a reaction
to the stress of being poor, whereas others perceive it as a process of adapting to the
condition of poverty. Historical definitions are numerous, but can be classified as relating to
either lack of financial income or lower social status. Numerous factors contribute to the
concept of poverty, including political, economic, social, and cultural forces. The one that
has consistently had the greatest effect on the evolving concept is the passage of time,
which encompasses all these forces in a very intricate manner. This author explored the
evolution of the concept of poverty to identify relevant themes for consideration in the
public health nursing domain.
[via : http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1508832]
Types of Poverty:
Take from Text Book [Economics] on Page 22 under sub-topic Absolute Poverty and Relative
Poverty.
Causes of Poverty:
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. Under Utilized Resources:
The existence of under employment and disguised unemployment of human resources and
under utilization of resources has resulted in low production in agricultural sector. This
brought a down fall in their standard of living.
4. 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.
The net result is poverty.
6. 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.
7. Unemployment:
The continuously expanding army of unemployed is another cause of poverty. The job
seeker is increasing in number at a higher rate than the expansion in employment
opportunities.
Measures to eradicate Poverty:
1) Poverty and unemployment are interred related. Therefore, adequate employment
opportunities should be created in rural areas particularly in agricultural sector. In order to
eliminate agricultural unemployment it is necessary to improve agriculture in the country.
Good seeds, good tools, good manure must be arranged for it if the production is to be
increased. The major cause of agricultural unemployment in India is the dependence of
cultivation upon the rains. Thus, there should be a proper and good arrangement of
irrigation through minor and major projects.
2) If conditions for marketing agricultural produce do not favor the cultivator, the increase
in production will not alleviate the problem of agricultural unemployment. The organisation
of the agricultural market will increase the income of the cultivator as well as improve the
situation with regard to unemployment.
3) The total impact of land reform on rural formation has been for less then had been hoped
for. Effort should be made to remove the loop holes in land legislations in order to make
land reform more meaningful and effective additional lands should be redistributed among
landless laborers, the marginal sub marginal farmers, so that they will be able to earn more.
Effort should be made to provide the landless laborers with maximum of land by making
barren land fertile.
4) Animal husbandry and cattle breeding have great potential, not only in unemployment
but also in overcoming malnutrition. The government should extent special encouragement
for animal husbandry, poultry and fish farming. Necessary training for poultry and diary
farming should be imparted.
5) An improvement in agriculture, not supplemented by any other corrective measure
cannot provide employment to the increasing population. Besides the farmer should also
get some work during that period of the year when he is not engaged in cultivation. Some of
subsidiary industry, such cottage industry like furniture making, weaving, spinning, match,
barked and ropes etc, can help to a considerable extent in removing unemployment.
6) In spite of the promise of industrial decentralisation which never seems to arrive. There
are some areas of small industries which could, in fact, he located in rural areas. A major
element in creating employment in rural areas must mean a removal of some small
industrial estates into purely rural areas. They will carry their power allocations with them
and could then be an element in small scale industrialisation in rural areas.
However, this by itself will not be adequate to foster rural industrialisation in a dynamic
sense. What is required is a new concept of modernisation combining Indian Traditional
rural artisan skills with power availability and with an appropriate technology. A substantial
portion of value added can appear from units set up efficiently in areas where artisans can
greatly increase their output by modernisation of their technology.