🔆Poverty Dimensions
✅Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.
✅According to the World Bank, Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.
✅Each nation may have its own threshold that determines how many of its people are living in poverty.
In India, 21.9% of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2011. In 2018, almost 8% of the world’s workers and their families lived on less than US$1.90 per person per day (international poverty line).
🔆Pre-independence poverty estimates:
📍Dada Bhai Naoroji
(Book – Poverty and Un-British rule in India)
✅Initially it was Dada Bhai Naoroji who estimated poverty in the second-half of the 19th century.
✅He concluded the baseline in 1867-68 price which was based on the cost of a subsistence diet consisting of ‘rice or flour, daal, mutton, vegetables, ghee, vegetable oil and salt’.
📍1938
✅Congress President Subhash Chandra Bose set up the National Planning Committee (NPC) with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman. The Committee regarded the irreducible minimum income between Rs. 15 and Rs. 25 per capita per month at pre-war prices.
📍The Bombay Plan (1944)
✅Bombay Plan proponents had suggested a poverty line of Rs.75 per capita per year.
✅The Bombay Plan was a set of proposals of a small group of influential business leaders in Bombay for the development of the post-independence economy of India.
#poverty
#society
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✅Poverty is a multidimensional phenomenon in which a person or community lacks the financial resources and essentials for a minimum standard of living.
✅According to the World Bank, Poverty is pronounced deprivation in well-being, and comprises many dimensions. It includes low incomes and the inability to acquire the basic goods and services necessary for survival with dignity. Poverty also encompasses low levels of health and education, poor access to clean water and sanitation, inadequate physical security, lack of voice, and insufficient capacity and opportunity to better one’s life.
✅Each nation may have its own threshold that determines how many of its people are living in poverty.
In India, 21.9% of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2011. In 2018, almost 8% of the world’s workers and their families lived on less than US$1.90 per person per day (international poverty line).
🔆Pre-independence poverty estimates:
📍Dada Bhai Naoroji
(Book – Poverty and Un-British rule in India)
✅Initially it was Dada Bhai Naoroji who estimated poverty in the second-half of the 19th century.
✅He concluded the baseline in 1867-68 price which was based on the cost of a subsistence diet consisting of ‘rice or flour, daal, mutton, vegetables, ghee, vegetable oil and salt’.
📍1938
✅Congress President Subhash Chandra Bose set up the National Planning Committee (NPC) with Jawaharlal Nehru as the Chairman. The Committee regarded the irreducible minimum income between Rs. 15 and Rs. 25 per capita per month at pre-war prices.
📍The Bombay Plan (1944)
✅Bombay Plan proponents had suggested a poverty line of Rs.75 per capita per year.
✅The Bombay Plan was a set of proposals of a small group of influential business leaders in Bombay for the development of the post-independence economy of India.
#poverty
#society
1/4
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🔆Post-independence poverty estimates:
📍Planning Commission
✅Planning Commission Expert Group (1962), constituted by the Planning Commission formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas (Rs.20 and Rs.25 per capita per year respectively).
📍Y. K. Alagh Committee (1979)
✅By 1979, it was decided that poverty should be measured precisely based on starvation. Committee was constituted which gave its recommendation as the people consuming less than 2,100 calories in the urban areas or less than 2,400 calories in the rural areas are poor.
📍Lakdawala Committee (1993)
✅In 1993, an expert group constituted to review methodology for poverty estimation, chaired by D.T.
✅Lakdawala, made the following suggestions:
🔰Consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier;
🔰State specific poverty lines should be constructed and these should be updated using the Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) in urban areas and Consumer Price Index of Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL) in rural areas; and
🔰Discontinuation of ‘scaling’ of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics. This assumes that the basket of goods and services used to calculate CPI-IW and CPI-AL reflect the consumption patterns of the poor.
#society
#prelims
#poverty
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📍Planning Commission
✅Planning Commission Expert Group (1962), constituted by the Planning Commission formulated the separate poverty lines for rural and urban areas (Rs.20 and Rs.25 per capita per year respectively).
📍Y. K. Alagh Committee (1979)
✅By 1979, it was decided that poverty should be measured precisely based on starvation. Committee was constituted which gave its recommendation as the people consuming less than 2,100 calories in the urban areas or less than 2,400 calories in the rural areas are poor.
📍Lakdawala Committee (1993)
✅In 1993, an expert group constituted to review methodology for poverty estimation, chaired by D.T.
✅Lakdawala, made the following suggestions:
🔰Consumption expenditure should be calculated based on calorie consumption as earlier;
🔰State specific poverty lines should be constructed and these should be updated using the Consumer Price Index of Industrial Workers (CPI-IW) in urban areas and Consumer Price Index of Agricultural Labour (CPI-AL) in rural areas; and
🔰Discontinuation of ‘scaling’ of poverty estimates based on National Accounts Statistics. This assumes that the basket of goods and services used to calculate CPI-IW and CPI-AL reflect the consumption patterns of the poor.
#society
#prelims
#poverty
2/4
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🔆Suresh Tendulkar Committee (2005)
✅In 2005, the Suresh Tendulkar Committee was constituted by the Planning Commission.
✅The current estimates of poverty are based upon the recommendations of this committee.
✅This committee recommended a shift away from the calorie-based model and made the poverty line somewhat broad based by considering monthly spending on education, health, electricity and transport.
✅It supported nutritional intake rather than caloric intake. The committee also drew a line based on cost of living. The Tendulkar panel stipulated a benchmark daily per capita expenditure of Rs. 27 and Rs. 33 in rural and urban areas, respectively.
📍C. Rangarajan Committee (2012-14)
✅The committee raised the cost of living per day to Rs. 32 and Rs. 47 for rural and urban areas, respectively. Hence, the poverty percentage of India worked closely to 30% and in absolute terms close to 40 crores poor.
📍Arvind Panagariya Task Force (2015)
✅The task force suggested setting up a committee to identify people “Below Poverty Line (BPL)” It also suggested participation of states. The paper talks of considering four options for tracking the poor.
✅First, continue with the Tendulkar poverty line.
✅Second, switch to the Rangarajan or other higher rural and urban poverty lines.
✅Third, bottom 30% of the population tracking over time
Fourth, tracking the bottom 30% on specific components, such as housing, sanitation, electricity, nutritional intake, etc.
📍NITI Aayog Task Force
✅NITI Aayog favoured the Tendulkar line (21.9%)
To remove any criticism that many poor would be left behind if poverty line as per Tendulkar committee is adopted, NITI Aayog has underlined that it will only be used to track progress in combating poverty rather than identifying the poor for entitlements.
✅SECC data as suggested by Saxena and Hashim committee will be used for entitlements.
✅Dr. N.C. Saxena Committee was set up by the Ministry of Rural Development to advise it on the suitable methodology for BPL Census and not for estimation of poverty.
✅The Planning Commission constituted an Expert Group under the Chairmanship of Professor S. R. Hashim recommended the detailed methodology for identification of families living Below Poverty Line in urban areas.
#society
#poverty
3/4
✅In 2005, the Suresh Tendulkar Committee was constituted by the Planning Commission.
✅The current estimates of poverty are based upon the recommendations of this committee.
✅This committee recommended a shift away from the calorie-based model and made the poverty line somewhat broad based by considering monthly spending on education, health, electricity and transport.
✅It supported nutritional intake rather than caloric intake. The committee also drew a line based on cost of living. The Tendulkar panel stipulated a benchmark daily per capita expenditure of Rs. 27 and Rs. 33 in rural and urban areas, respectively.
📍C. Rangarajan Committee (2012-14)
✅The committee raised the cost of living per day to Rs. 32 and Rs. 47 for rural and urban areas, respectively. Hence, the poverty percentage of India worked closely to 30% and in absolute terms close to 40 crores poor.
📍Arvind Panagariya Task Force (2015)
✅The task force suggested setting up a committee to identify people “Below Poverty Line (BPL)” It also suggested participation of states. The paper talks of considering four options for tracking the poor.
✅First, continue with the Tendulkar poverty line.
✅Second, switch to the Rangarajan or other higher rural and urban poverty lines.
✅Third, bottom 30% of the population tracking over time
Fourth, tracking the bottom 30% on specific components, such as housing, sanitation, electricity, nutritional intake, etc.
📍NITI Aayog Task Force
✅NITI Aayog favoured the Tendulkar line (21.9%)
To remove any criticism that many poor would be left behind if poverty line as per Tendulkar committee is adopted, NITI Aayog has underlined that it will only be used to track progress in combating poverty rather than identifying the poor for entitlements.
✅SECC data as suggested by Saxena and Hashim committee will be used for entitlements.
✅Dr. N.C. Saxena Committee was set up by the Ministry of Rural Development to advise it on the suitable methodology for BPL Census and not for estimation of poverty.
✅The Planning Commission constituted an Expert Group under the Chairmanship of Professor S. R. Hashim recommended the detailed methodology for identification of families living Below Poverty Line in urban areas.
#society
#poverty
3/4
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🔆Estimating Poverty: Challenges
✅Components of PLB à Determining components of Poverty Line Basket (PLB) is one of the challenges of poverty line estimation because of the price differentials (of constituents of basket) which vary from state to state and period to period.
✅Variations across states à Some states such as Odisha and West Bengal supported the Tendulkar Poverty Line while others such as Delhi, Jharkhand, Mizoram etc. supported Rangarajan report.
✅The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticized by many for being too low.
✅Demographic and Economic Dynamics à Further, consumption patterns, nutritional needs and prices of components keep on changing as per dynamics of macro economy and demography.
✅Lack of consensus among the states over the acceptance of the Tendulkar and Rangarajan committee report. Some states such as Odisha and West Bengal supported the Tendulkar Poverty Line while others such as Delhi, Jharkhand, Mizoram etc. supported Rangarajan report.
✅Most of the governments have mothballed the reports of committees and panels à because this issue is not only politically sensitive but also has deeper fiscal ramifications.
✅Problem of determining threshold à If the poverty threshold is high, it may leave out many needed people; while if it is low, then it would be bad for the fiscal health of the government.
#poverty
#society
4/4
✅Components of PLB à Determining components of Poverty Line Basket (PLB) is one of the challenges of poverty line estimation because of the price differentials (of constituents of basket) which vary from state to state and period to period.
✅Variations across states à Some states such as Odisha and West Bengal supported the Tendulkar Poverty Line while others such as Delhi, Jharkhand, Mizoram etc. supported Rangarajan report.
✅The current official measures of poverty are based on the Tendulkar poverty line, fixed at daily expenditure of ₹27.2 in rural areas and ₹33.3 in urban areas is criticized by many for being too low.
✅Demographic and Economic Dynamics à Further, consumption patterns, nutritional needs and prices of components keep on changing as per dynamics of macro economy and demography.
✅Lack of consensus among the states over the acceptance of the Tendulkar and Rangarajan committee report. Some states such as Odisha and West Bengal supported the Tendulkar Poverty Line while others such as Delhi, Jharkhand, Mizoram etc. supported Rangarajan report.
✅Most of the governments have mothballed the reports of committees and panels à because this issue is not only politically sensitive but also has deeper fiscal ramifications.
✅Problem of determining threshold à If the poverty threshold is high, it may leave out many needed people; while if it is low, then it would be bad for the fiscal health of the government.
#poverty
#society
4/4
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🔆 Developmental Issues Arising from Poverty in India
📍 Key Challenges & Impacts
1️⃣ Poor Health Outcomes
✅ Poverty-driven inequality limits healthcare access → malnutrition, chronic diseases, reduced life expectancy.
✅ Example: Global Nutrition Report (2024) → 40% of India’s children experience food poverty.
2️⃣ Limited Education Access
✅ Economic deprivation & exclusion push children into labor/early marriage, curbing education.
✅ Example: UNESCO (2022) → 6 million children (6–11 yrs) in India out of school, mainly from poor families.
3️⃣ High Infant Mortality
✅ Lack of nutrition & healthcare → high infant mortality, hindering demographic growth.
✅ Example: NFHS-5 (2019-21) → Infant mortality = 35.2 per 1,000 live births, higher in rural areas.
4️⃣ Social Inequality
✅ Poverty widens wealth gaps, fueling stratification & inequity.
✅ Example: Oxfam (2023) → India’s richest 1% own 40.5% wealth; bottom 50% hold only 6%.
5️⃣ Child Labor
✅ Economic need drives children into hazardous work → depriving them of education & health.
✅ Example: ILO (2021) → 5.8 million children (5–17 yrs) engaged in child labor.
6️⃣ Gender Disparity
✅ Poverty worsens gender oppression → limits women’s access to education, jobs & resources.
✅ Example: World Economic Forum (2023) → India ranks 127/146 in gender equality.
7️⃣ Environmental Degradation
✅ Overuse of resources → deforestation, biodiversity loss, ecological decline.
✅ Example: WWF Living Planet Report (2020) → 70% biodiversity loss in India linked to agricultural expansion.
8️⃣ Crime & Social Unrest
✅ Poverty fuels desperation → rising crime & instability.
✅ Example: NCRB (2020) → Higher theft & robbery rates in poor urban belts (e.g., Delhi’s Seelampur).
9️⃣ Unemployment & Underemployment
✅ Lack of skills & opportunities trap poor in low-wage, informal jobs.
✅ Example: CMIE (2023) → India’s unemployment at 7.8%, underemployment widespread.
✨ Bottom Line:
Poverty in India is not just about lack of income — it perpetuates cycles of poor health, low education, inequality, environmental harm, and social instability, undermining long-term development.
#UPSC #GS2 #GS3 #Poverty #economy
Join @CSE_EXAM
@upsc_4_economy
📍 Key Challenges & Impacts
1️⃣ Poor Health Outcomes
✅ Poverty-driven inequality limits healthcare access → malnutrition, chronic diseases, reduced life expectancy.
✅ Example: Global Nutrition Report (2024) → 40% of India’s children experience food poverty.
2️⃣ Limited Education Access
✅ Economic deprivation & exclusion push children into labor/early marriage, curbing education.
✅ Example: UNESCO (2022) → 6 million children (6–11 yrs) in India out of school, mainly from poor families.
3️⃣ High Infant Mortality
✅ Lack of nutrition & healthcare → high infant mortality, hindering demographic growth.
✅ Example: NFHS-5 (2019-21) → Infant mortality = 35.2 per 1,000 live births, higher in rural areas.
4️⃣ Social Inequality
✅ Poverty widens wealth gaps, fueling stratification & inequity.
✅ Example: Oxfam (2023) → India’s richest 1% own 40.5% wealth; bottom 50% hold only 6%.
5️⃣ Child Labor
✅ Economic need drives children into hazardous work → depriving them of education & health.
✅ Example: ILO (2021) → 5.8 million children (5–17 yrs) engaged in child labor.
6️⃣ Gender Disparity
✅ Poverty worsens gender oppression → limits women’s access to education, jobs & resources.
✅ Example: World Economic Forum (2023) → India ranks 127/146 in gender equality.
7️⃣ Environmental Degradation
✅ Overuse of resources → deforestation, biodiversity loss, ecological decline.
✅ Example: WWF Living Planet Report (2020) → 70% biodiversity loss in India linked to agricultural expansion.
8️⃣ Crime & Social Unrest
✅ Poverty fuels desperation → rising crime & instability.
✅ Example: NCRB (2020) → Higher theft & robbery rates in poor urban belts (e.g., Delhi’s Seelampur).
9️⃣ Unemployment & Underemployment
✅ Lack of skills & opportunities trap poor in low-wage, informal jobs.
✅ Example: CMIE (2023) → India’s unemployment at 7.8%, underemployment widespread.
✨ Bottom Line:
Poverty in India is not just about lack of income — it perpetuates cycles of poor health, low education, inequality, environmental harm, and social instability, undermining long-term development.
#UPSC #GS2 #GS3 #Poverty #economy
Join @CSE_EXAM
@upsc_4_economy
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