Page 118 - DENG201_ENGLISH_II

English - II

Notes Points to Remember:
1. India is a vast country comprising many ethnic groups.
2. Hindu-Muslim unity led to the Revolt of 1857.
3. The second freedom struggle.
4. Provisions in the Constitution.
5. Recent disharmony in the country.
6. Indian culture has remained alive and dynamic.
7. It has preserved its fundamental character through the ages.
8. Our rich cultural heritage, which binds the people together, should be preserved at all costs.

6. Poverty

India, once known as the Sone Ki Chiriya or ‘land of plenty’, was full of riches. However, coming of
the Turks, the Mughals, the Arabs, the Mongols and the British for extending their empires or for
trade depleted its resources to a great extent, and today, poverty is a harsh reality for a large section
of the Indian population.
Poverty may be defined as the inability to secure the minimum consumption requirements for life,
health and efficiency. These requirements necessarily include minimum human needs in respect of
food, clothing, housing, education and health. Denial of minimum consumption needs causes human
misery. According to the Human Development Report of 1977, poverty is the denial of opportunities,
to lead a long, healthy, creative life and to enjoy a decent standard of living, freedom, dignity, self-
respect and the respect of others. In fact, poverty is a socio-economic phenomenon which defies any
precise definition. Its concept and content varies from country to country depending upon what a
particular society accepts a reasonably good living standard for its people.
Poverty line is drawn on the basis of a minimum desirable nutritional standards of calorie intake.
People below poverty line comprise largely of those whose consumption is very low and who have
little physical resources of production. Quite often they are located in the climatically unfavourable
regions with extremely low or fluctuating levels of production, income and meagre avenues of gainful
employment. According to United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human Development
Report-2003, India was ranked 127th among 175 countries. Among the South Asian Nations, India
with a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.416 is behind Maldives (rank 86), Sri Lanka (rank 99)
but is ahead of Bhutan (rank 136), Bangladesh (rank 139), Nepal (rank 143) and Pakistan (rank 144).
According to the Economic Survey 2001 -2002, 26.10 per cent of the total population live below poverty
line: 27.09 per cent in rural areas and 23.62 per cent in urban areas.
In India, poverty manifests itself in its severest form as a visual of semistarved, ill-clad, deprived
millions of countrymen. According to the UNDP Human Development Report-2003, India is the
home to the largest number of hungry people —23.3 million. The problem of poverty is grim in India,
in Orissa, extreme poverty ha, forced parents to sell their children for money. Different reports state
that farmers in the villages of many states Of India were forced to embrace death when they failed to
repay the loans to private lenders even after selling off their lands. A major defect in the economic
system is that while the mere processor becomes wealthy, the basic producer struggles to have a
decent living. In search of greener pastures, people migrate to urban areas which lead to development
of slum areas. Asia’s largest slum ‘Dharavi’ is in Mumbai. Poverty leads to many ills in the society.
Illiteracy, child labour, crime, corruption, and prostitution are some of them.
Poverty is the cumulative effect of many factors operating in the Indian society. At the macro level,
poverty is mainly attributed to the population explosion. In the rural areas, poverty is mainly due to
low land base. It largely emanates from the semi-feudal relations of production in agriculture. The
urban poor in India are largely the overflow of rural poor into the urban areas. Both in the rural and
in the urban areas, growing inemployment has accentuated the problem of poverty. Improper sectoral
investment and uneven distribution of resources are also responsible for iggravating poverty.
The eradication of poverty has been an integral component of the strategy for economic development
in India. Consistent with the objectives of successive plans in the realm of poverty alleviation, a number
of general is well as specific programmes were implemented for improving the living conditions of the

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