Poverty in India is a very common social problem. Poverty basically means when people do not have a sufficient amount of money to even fulfill even their basic needs. The very basic need of a human is food, water, shelter, and clothing but not everyone is capable of even arranging these for themselves and their immediate families. People with no livelihood generally face the problem of poverty.
Meaning of Poverty
Typical examples of poverty are the beggars sitting on the edges of roads depending on other people for their food and water requirements and residing in jhuggis so as to fulfill their need for shelter. But not every poor faces the problem of arranging food, shelter, and clothing, poverty can be observed when parents are capable enough to send their kids to schools or they can’t afford the treatments when they fall ill. Few people do not have access to clean and safe sanitation facilities and live with poor sanitation facilities. So, this means thereby that poverty extends to the lack of access to education facilities, proper healthcare, clean sanitation, etc. It points out the fact that there is a lack of regularity in income and people are inconsistent with even enjoying basic needs and have a constant sense of helplessness.
There is also a concept of ‘Poverty Line‘ that is the indicator to decide who is poor and who is not. It defines that when the earnings or the income or the level of consumption ranges below the given “minimum level” to meet the basic needs. It differs from country to country, time to time, and place to place i.e. who is poor today may not be poor next year, and who is not poor day may come under the poverty line the next year.
Poverty is defined as a state or condition in which an individual or group lacks the financial means and necessities for a basic level of living. When one’s earnings from work are insufficient to meet fundamental human requirements.
There can be multiple reasons for which people have to face poverty likewise lack of unemployment opportunities, overpopulation, insufficient production, poor infrastructure, disparities in income, social cultural obligations like marriages, religious ceremonies, etc. But overpopulation stands out as every other cause which leads to the problem of poverty.
Rise in Population – A major cause of Poverty
One of the biggest and strongest causes of poverty in countries like India is the rate of the population it has. Gradually, throughout the years the population of India has increased tremendously. This significant increase has caused people to feel a lack of resources. So, only those who have sufficient money can only afford them so making the poor feel much poorer. Supposedly a land of 100 square feet which was earlier occupied by 2 members of the family, with more birth rates now has to be shared by an average of 2 more children or maybe more than that. Resources are again present in a minimal amount and are not increasing but usage or the consumption of the same resources has been increasing continuously. So, it has led to the overexploitation of resources. Following are the key highlights related to the problem of poverty and population:
- Considering the case of job opportunities, due to the growing population it happens that the size of people becomes more than the opportunities. So, it becomes the case of unemployment leading people to face a lack of basic financial resources to arrange for food, shelter, and all. When poor people can’t afford the money then they indulge in practices like theft and other crimes.
- When it comes to rural areas, the population there is devoted to more agricultural purposes. Since the quality of agriculture is dependent on the fertility of lands and good rains. But after the breakout of growth in the population, the accessibility of the land holding per person has reduced from the earlier making it more difficult for the people to earn a good livelihood. The only little extra money they earn is through cultivation, dairy farming, and subsistence crops. So, the same income which was being shared in 2 is now to be shared in 4 or 5 or many more with no increase in income.
- Also, people from rural areas in search of better income sources shift to urban areas, Bombay is a famous example depicting this migration. But since a large scale of people population migrates to the same region for the same type of jobs, it becomes difficult for the economy to serve them. Only certain types of jobs they can be employed at. The population migrated usually becomes casual laborers and has periodic jobs mostly at the time of festivals and occasions. So, the element of instability in income makes it difficult for the population to have continuous access to their basic needs and thus making them come under the poverty line.
- Even in the case of urban areas, a large section of the rural poor is the ones migrated from the urban areas. The urban poor is either casual laborers or intermittently employed and lack job security or at times have limited skills. The growing population without access to proper education thus led to increasing in the amount of poverty.
- A rapid growth in the rate of population has led to a decrease in the per capita income of a country. Earlier what was a healthy and richer index of the country, has now become a poorer index. For example, if 1 lac is to be distributed among 25 people then the per capita income would be ₹4000 but if the size of the population increases to 100 then it would be only ₹1000, which is obviously not a healthy index even if the total income rises, considering the inflation rate and rich-poor disparity hinders its equal and fair distribution.
- With the advent of growth in the population, the resourcefulness of individuals has decreased with time because resources have not been increasing with the rising population. Resources like healthcare, educational facilities, etc. become reasonably available to the population i.e. who can afford it can own them. Also, the rapidly rising population has made many landless. The problem of landlessness then again creates the problem of employment opportunities and ultimately rising poverty.
- Rapid growth in population rates has affected the people and economies of more of developing nations like India. The population is experiencing a calorie deficit when compared to the minimum requirement of 2400 calories per rural person and 2100 calories per urban person due to poverty. The high population has made national and family budgets go thinner i.e. a quick rise in people under the poverty line as the number of children to be fed, or educated and provided with jobs has increased.
- A high population does not only restrict people’s ability in general but also strains the ability of the government to provide the required resources to the population. As the government is responsible to support the citizens by providing them subsidies to buy basic amenities, and bank credit or by passing schemes or policies like Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY). But due to the advent of more population rise it has become difficult even for the government to make these basic amenities available to all. It has become difficult for the government to cover or to reach out to the entire population likewise it is feasible to reach 50,000 people but becomes difficult to attend lacs of people.
In India, the poorest or the vulnerable class incorporates labour class, Dalits and tribal people. And almost 60% of poor people resides in states like Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and few more.
Poverty in India
This is the case of Sitaram who lives in a small city of Madhya Pradesh for understanding poverty in India. He works in an agricultural field and earns ₹120 per day but that is too for almost half of a year. And the rest of the time, he takes up odd jobs. His wife Shakuntala also works with her to support the family but she does not get regular work and gets only ₹50. Since 1992, they had a total of 6 members including the husband-wife itself, their 2 daughters, an unmarried sister, and an old-aged widowed mother. But in 1993, Shakuntala gave birth to her son, already it was difficult to arrange funds for basic needs and after his birth, it became almost infeasible to handle all the expenses considering the inflation rate.
Also, her 2 daughters were forced to leave the school. Sometimes, they have to arrange for money to buy medicines for their ill & widowed mother because they lack proper healthcare and clean sanitation. Even with the rise of one more member, it affected their family budget because it is expensive to look after a newborn child. Some days, the family can’t even arrange for 2 meals a day for everyone but somehow only manages to procure daily milk for his son. The rise in population does cause poverty and poverty cause more rise in population. It is a vicious cycle, especially in developing countries like India, and calls for strict actions and policies to stop the negative movement.
FAQs on Poverty
Question 1: What is Poverty?
Answer:
Poverty denotes to the lack of wealth in a way that people in general do not have the accessibility to a life where they can fulfill their basic needs. It is the state of being poor. Some also says that ‘Poverty is hunger’.
Question 2: Entail the list of basic needs whose affordability decides who is poor & who is not.
Answer:
Following is the list of the basic needs:
- Food
- Water
- Shelter
- Clothing
- Safe Sanitation facilities
- Medical care
- Good Education
Question 3: How does an increase in population growth causes lead to poverty?
Answer:
Overpopulation depletes the resources to be shared, make people go through landlessness, outpacing the ability of economy, less of employment opportunities, creating irregular jobs with inconsistent earning source which ultimately becomes the major cause for poverty. It also leads to a reduction in per capita income of individuals nationwide leading to people facing more income disparities.