Page 82 - DECO502_INDIAN_ECONOMIC_POLICY_ENGLISH

Indian Economic Policy

Notes Since rural areas are not offering enough employment opportunities, there is a push factor working
and as a consequence, the urban population is increasing. In the urban areas, housing property has
become so costly that it is beyond the reach of the majority of population. Most important is the price
of land whose price has been sky-rocketing. The way out is that the government acquires land and
does not add it as a charge from the poor and lower middle classes and starts a massive programme
of housing. Construction cost should be charged from the people and price paid by the government
to acquire land be treated as a subsidy for housing. It is only such an affordable price which can help
the country to achieve the target of “housing for all” in a period of 20 years. This will also generate
massive employment and thus raise the income of the poor who will be drawn to build houses.
In case, this is not done, the poor will usurp some land and put up jhuggies and this will lead to
further growth of slum population.
Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct option:
1. The planning commission constituted in September in
(a) 1989 (b) 1975
(c) 1985 (d) None of these
2. The National Rural Employment Guarantee came into force in
(a) 2006 (b) 2005
(c) 2007 (d) None of these.
3. The shortcomings of NREGA is
(a) Lack of adequate professional staff (b) Lack of project planning
(c) lack of transparency (d) All of the above
4. According to the 2001 census, India is the ……… largest country in the world with the total
population of 102.7 crore.
(a) First (b) Second
(c) Third (d) Fourth
7.6 Summary

• Poverty can be defined as a social phenomenon in which a section of the society is unable to
fulfil even its basic necessities of life. When a substantial segment of a society is deprived of the
minimum level of living and continues at a bare subsistence level, that society is said to be
plagued with mass poverty. The countries of the third world exhibit invariably the existence of
mass poverty, although pockets of poverty exist even in the developed countries of Europe and
America.
• Several economists and organisations have conducted studies on the extent of poverty in India.
It would be worthwhile to study some of the important estimates.
• The Planning Commission constituted in September 1989 an ‘Expert Group’ to consider
methodological and computational aspects of estimation of proportion and number of poor in
India.
• Gaurav Datt of the World Bank has made a study of poverty in India for the period 1951-1992
using NSS date. The poverty line is based on a nutritional norm of per capita daily intake of
2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100 calories for urban areas.
• More recent evidence by the World Bank suppose the view that the proportion of persons
below the poverty line come down from 52.4 per cent in 1970 to 42.5 cent in 1983 and further to
39.6 per cent in 1988 Gaurav Datt and Martin Ravallion also estimate that per cent below the
poverty line are 43.9 per cent — 40 per cent urban and 45 per cent in rural areas.
• Two factors account for this high incidence of poverty among rural labour households. Firstly,

76 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY