Poverty As A Challenge Class 9 Notes

Poverty as a Challenge Class 9 Notes explain the causes, effects, and measures to reduce poverty in India as discussed in the Economics chapter of the NCERT textbook. These notes help students understand how poverty is defined, the concept of poverty line, and the government’s initiatives to eradicate poverty.

Poverty as a Challenge Class 9 Notes

Introduction

NITI Aayog uses the Multidimensional Poverty Index to analyse the problem of poverty faced by the country. The ratio of multidimensional poverty has fallen from approximately 55 per cent in 2005–06 to 25 per cent in 2015–16 and to 15 per cent in 2019–21. It is also expected that multidimensional poverty will soon reach single digits.

Six Dimensions of Poverty

Poverty is not only about money; it’s about a lack of dignity, opportunity and security. It affects children’s education, health and future. Poor parents normally do not give their children a better life. Urban and rural poverty may look different, but both are painful and unjust. There are six dimensions of poverty.

Landlessness
Unemployment
Size of Family
Literacy Levels
Health/Nutrition
Helplessness

Mahatma Gandhi said that “India will be truly independent only when the poorest of its people are free from suffering.” It means that freedom is not just political; it must be economic and social too.

Poverty as seen by social scientists

Poverty has many sides; social scientists do not look at poverty as low income. They use many indicators to understand who is poor and why. The key indicators of poverty are as follows:

Category	Examples of Indicators
Health	Nutrition, child and adolescent deaths, maternal health
Education	Years of schooling, regular school attendance
Standard of Living	Cooking fuel, sanitation, drinking water, housing, electricity, assets, bank account
Other Indicators	Social exclusion and vulnerability

There are tools like the National Multidimensional Poverty Index to measure poverty more accurately.

1. Social Exclusion

The poor people live in poor areas, separated from richer communities. A typical example is the working of the caste system in India, in which people belonging to certain castes are excluded from equal opportunities. Social exclusion thus may lead to or can cause more damage than having a very low income.

2. Vulnerability

Some people or groups are more likely to become or stay poor. They have few options, like less education, fewer assets, and fewer job chances. Vulnerability means greater harm when bad times come, even if everyone is affected.

Poverty Line

What is the poverty line?

If a person’s income or spending is below the minimum requirement to fulfil the basic needs, these people are helped by the government to fulfil the needs. In India, measure the poverty based on calorie needs from food like cereals, pulses, vegetables, milk, oil, and sugar. In rural areas, 2400 calories per day are required, and in urban areas, 2100 calories per day are required. The cost of buying these calories was used to set the poverty line.

Poverty Estimates

In the 1990s, poverty fell from 45% to 37%. This is measured with the help of the Head Count Ratio (HCR). On the other hand, you can say that the number and proportion of poor people in India is called the Head Count Ratio (HCR). From 2000 to 2011 the poverty ratio decreased. From 2015 to 2021, multidimensional poverty dropped from 25% to 15%. Rural areas saw faster improvement in poverty indicators than urban areas.

Vulnerable Groups

Vulnerability to poverty refers to the higher likelihood that certain groups or individuals will become or remain poor in the future, due to factors such as limited assets, education, employment opportunities, and health. Groups that are particularly susceptible to poverty in India include Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, as well as rural agricultural labor households and urban casual labor households. A recent study found that, with the exception of Scheduled Tribes, all of these groups experienced a decrease in poverty in the 1990s.

Twelve Indicators of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index

NITI Aayog, a Government of India organisation, developed the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (NMPI) using the following 12 indicators. If an individual is found

Deprived on these indicators, he or she is considered multidimensionally poor.

Nutrition: A household is considered deprived if any child between the ages of 0 and 59 months, or woman between the ages of 15 and 49 years, or man between the ages of 15 and 54 years is found to be undernourished.
Child-Adolescent Mortality: A household is deprived if any child or adolescent under 18 years of age has died in the household in the five-year period preceding the survey.
Maternal Health: A household is deprived if any woman in the household who has given birth in the 5 years preceding the survey has not received assistance from trained skilled medical personnel during the recent childbirth.
Years of Schooling: A household is deprived if not even one member of the household aged 10 years or older has completed six years of schooling.
School attendance: A household is deprived if any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which he/she would complete class.
Cooking Fuel: A household is deprived if a household cooks with dung, agricultural crops, shrubs, wood, charcoal, or coal.
Sanitation: A household is deprived if the household has unimproved or no sanitation facilities, or if they are improved but shared with other households.
Drinking Water: A household is deprived if the household does not have access to improved drinking water or safe drinking water is at least a 30-minute walk from home (as a round trip).
Housing: A household is deprived if the household has inadequate housing: the floor is made of natural materials, or the roof or wall is made of rudimentary materials.
Electricity: A household is deprived if the household has no electricity.
Assets: A household is deprived if the household does not own more than one of these assets: radio, TV, telephone, computer, animal cart, bicycle, motorbike, or refrigerator; and does not own a car or truck.
Bank Account: A household is deprived if no household member has a bank account or a post office account.

Inter-State Disparities

Poverty is not equally spread across all the Indian states. From the 1970s, poverty has declined in every state, but the rate of progress differs. In 2019-21, some of the states have low poverty, like Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra. Some other states, like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, have also made big improvements. Different states use different strategies to reduce poverty:

Kerala: Focused on education and health (human resource development)
West Bengal: Used land reforms
Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu: Improved public food distribution

Poverty and Sustainable Development Goals

The new Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN) propose ending poverty of all types by 2030. It provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its centre point are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This requires urgent action on the part of both the developed and the developing countries (see box). These goals include:

Ending poverty
Improving health and education
Reducing inequality
Fighting climate change

Causes of Poverty

During the British rule, India’s economy was weak. Traditional industries like handicrafts and textiles were destroyed. The growth was slow till the 1980s; that way the job and income stayed low. In the same time the population increases quickly. The Green Revolution created farm jobs but only in some areas. Industries gave jobs, but not enough for everyone. Rich people have more land and resources. The smaller farmer needs more money for seeds and fertilisers.

Anti-Poverty Measures

Removal of poverty has been one of the major objectives of Indian developmental strategy. The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is based broadly on two factors: (i) (i) promotion of economic growth and (ii) targeted anti-poverty programmes.

The Challenges Ahead

Poverty has certainly declined in India. But despite the progress, poverty reduction remains India’s most compelling challenge.

Wide disparities in poverty are visible between rural and urban areas and among different states also. Certain social and economic groups are more vulnerable to poverty. Poverty reduction is expected to make India better. This would be possible mainly due to higher economic growth, increasing focus on universal education, and declining population growth; empowerment of the women and the economically weaker sections of society would also facilitate the same.

Social Science Class 9 Notes

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