CAUSES OF POVERTY IN INDIA
Poverty can be defined as a situation in which a person is unable to meet basic needs for sustenance of life. These basic requirements include food, clothing and home. According to the report of the C. Rangarajan committee, the new poverty line was fixed at Rs. 32 per day in rural areas and Rs. 47 per day in towns and cities. At the present time 28.5 percent of the Indian population lives below the poverty line. Those who fall in the category of the poor have a daily income of less than Rs. 33 in cities and Rs. 27 in village.
“Do you think this amount (Rs. 33) is enough for a day to live in an enough for even a day to live in any part of the country, where the prices of food items are touching the sky”?
Above line shows that, majority of India population living below the poverty line. According to statistical data, a person earning Rs 40 per day is not poor. This one is the important matter of thinking of all Indians. Despite all efforts, the total number of poor in India is increasing and it is becoming a hindrance. The important causes of poverty are given below;
- High population growth rate of India is a major role play in poverty.
- The second major cause leads to high level of illiteracy.
- The third one is poor health care facilities and lack of financial resources.
GOVERNMENT SCHEMES FOR POVERTY ERADICATION IN INDIA
Poverty in India is like a disease suffering from different problem like; crime, slow growth, unemployment, poor health and lack of education. Poor children are unable to go to school they work of begging or work at the hotel and street shop for their livelihood. Poverty prevention has been the main goal of five year plans in India since its inception. Along with economic prosperity in India, target and welfare measures have been emphasized for poverty alleviation. Some important government schemes for poverty eradication:
PDS (Public Distribution System)
PDS distributes subsidized food and non-food items to the poor people. In all states distributed through a network of food grains like; wheat, rice, sugar and kerosene oil. Under this PDS scheme, every household of below the poverty line is entitled for 35 kilograms of rice or wheat each month, while above poverty line household is eligible to 15 kilograms of food grain on a monthly basis.
MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act)
This is a major scheme run by the central government to develop the village and provide employment to the rural areas people to prevent their migration. In this scheme of the government provide guarantees to ensure livelihood security in rural households for every household by providing at-least 100 days of guaranteed wages employment in rural areas.
RSBY (Rashtriya swasthya Bima Yojana)
National Health Insurance Scheme is for health insurance for the poor. It provides cashless insurance for all public those who have yellow ration cards have paid a registration fee of Rs 30 to get a biometric smart card with their figure and print photographs.
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is a major scheme launched with the objective of providing free education to children between the ages of 6 to 14 years. This Yojana announced in year 2000-01.
Make In India
On September 2014, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Make In India’ program with the goal of making India a global production hub. But it did not get enough success, because policy laxity and lack of infrastructure development were considered to be major obstacles.
STEPS TO END POVERTY IN INDIA
In my opinion, there is a need to make the scheme more targeted on the key sector like; farmers in rural areas, scheduled tribes peoples and casual laborers in cities. Therefore, there is a need to keep them at the center in poverty prevention programs. Jobless angle is also a major cause of poverty.
Employment can be increased and poverty can be decreased by the promoting small and cottage industries, textile, leather footwear, small scale industries and handicrafts item. Apart from this, employment can also be increased with proper implementation of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana’ is the quit good steps to end poverty of India.
