Development Context in India: Poverty Problem

This paper explores the development context in India with a focus on poverty problem. It discusses the causes of poverty, situation analysis, target groups, and development strategies. The paper also provides insights into the impact of social inequality, gender bias, and space technology development on poverty in India. The document type is an essay and the type of assignment is a research paper. The subject is development studies, the course code is DEV101, and the course name is Introduction to Development Studies. The university is not mentioned.

Running head: DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT IN INDIA
Development Context in India: Poverty Problem
Name of the Student:
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1DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT IN INDIA
Table of Contents
1.0 Background................................................................................................................................2
2.0 Development context: Poverty in India.....................................................................................2
2.1 Causes of poverty in India.....................................................................................................3
3.0 Situation analysis.......................................................................................................................4
3.1 Population..............................................................................................................................4
3.2 Urban growth.........................................................................................................................4
3.3 Urban poverty........................................................................................................................5
3.4 Target groups.........................................................................................................................5
3.5 Gender bias............................................................................................................................6
3.6 Space technology development.............................................................................................6
3.7 Social inequality....................................................................................................................6
4.0 Development strategy and approach..........................................................................................7
4.1 Development programmes.....................................................................................................9
4.2 Development strategies........................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................13

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1.0 Background
The paper is based on real development context in India with development problem of
poverty. India is one of the countries within the world with a population of excess 1.2 billion.
India has sustained a growth of GDP for two decades with lead in rising per capita incomes as
well as reduction of the poverty. The per capita income is approximately $1,270 placing India
Middle Income Country. Ahmed et al., (2016) discussed that India is followed a path for the
development and it is growing from agriculture to the services tend to regulate as compare to
Indian economy. Vinayagamoorthi, Selvam and Lingaraja (2015) analyzed that economy of
India is developed an advanced business in technological space with rapid emergence of
Bangalore is as hub of the global software organizations. The key difference of India with some
of the countries like China and Japan is that economical India is heavily dependent on the service
industries in the export services. The country has comparative advantages in the service
industries like business software. The growth of India is hampered by the structural problems
and poverty problems (Choudhury, 2016). The country is required investments in the
infrastructure as well as manufacturing due to rapid growth rates.
2.0 Development context: Poverty in India
Despite to the economical growth as well as development of India, one of the main
obstacles towards growth and development is poverty. The long term growth of GDP of India is
stable and diversified. In the future, India is expected to grow 7 percent per year that is a
progress into the macroeconomic and business environments (Ali et al., 2018). In recent years,
India made a significant depression in the levels of poverty with poverty is dropping from 46%

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to 13.4% before 2015. Still the country has 176 million of poor people; moreover the country is
sought to achieve better growth and promote inclusion along with sustainability by the policy
approaches. In the present year, the India population those are below the poverty line is nearly
28.5%. Actual people those are living below the poverty line are higher based on the statistical
data. Tilak (2018) concluded that household expenditure is focused to calculate poverty count
within India. Purchasing power of people to buy food and buy capacity for the non-food items is
being measured. Efforts are resulted to lessen the poverty within rural India at fast pace as
compared to urban counterparts.
People those are tribal, dalits as well as labor class are coming under the category of poor
class within India. The international poverty stands at $1.25 per day and in the year 2010, 28.5%
of the entire population in India is below the poverty line (Kim, Mohanty, & Subramanian,
2016). Based on the poverty development report in the year 2011, the poverty of India is
probable to drop by approximately 22% in the year 2015.
2.1 Causes of poverty in India
Birthal, Roy and Negi (2015) discussed that higher population growth is one of the main
reasons of poverty within India. It leads to higher level of illiteracy, care facilities as well a lack
of access to the financial resources. Alkire and Seth (2015) analyzed that higher growth of
population affects per capita and make per capita income to be lower. By the year 2026, it is
expected that Indian population will be reach to 1.5 billion and then India becomes largest nation
within the world. At same pace, economy of India is not increasing due to shortage of jobs. For
this particular cause, approximately 20 million of new jobs are required to overcome with the
poverty of India. Due to lack of jobs in India, number of people will keep on increasing and

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poverty line is also increasing. Unskilled workers are paid low in spite of hard work. Area of
concern in this area is cost cutting along with more amount of profit. As jobs are low as
compared to people those are looking for jobs, therefore unskilled workers are no such options
but to go for less money. According to Bhalla, Luo and Bhalla (2017), government should find
ways to impose minimum wage standards for the workers. Poverty should require to eradicate
from India as each person has right to live a healthier life. It is known that in India, non-
availability of the amount of power will low industrial as well as development of agriculture.
3.0 Situation analysis
3.1 Population
In spite of decline in the rate of the growth in population, there is drop from 24% and
India is second most populated country in the world. Due to growth in population year by years,
there will be high increase in population of India by the year 2025. According to the year 2017,
the population is stand for 133.92 crores. In the year 1975-2010 the population is doubled to 1.2
billion. The country has more than 50% of population below the age of 25 as well as 65% below
the age of 35 (Rao et al., 2017). Complexity is lent by variations which can occur throughout
population on the social parameters like income as well as education.
3.2 Urban growth
The urban population of India is estimated to be 133.92 crores that are more than 30% of
the total population. The urbanized cities of India are Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi
and Chandigarh. The urban areas are increased centers of the economical growth. Due to rapid
rise in the economical activities, the urban population growth is resulted to social as well as

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environmental conditions in cities (Schreiner, 2016). Rapid population growth as well as
poverty, investment in housing creates problems in the urban areas.
3.3 Urban poverty
Despite progress in the economic growth and development, poverty is a widespread
through India. There is a decline in proposition of population living below the poverty line. It is
estimated that there is 40% of the rural population plus 33% of the urban population those are
living below the poverty line (Maitra, 2016).
3.4 Target groups
There are various groups those are affected by poverty such as women, children, youth
and elder people. Women are making high percentage of poor people as compared to men as
women are less access to both education as well as employment. Most of women are employed
with less salary job (Venkateswaran et al., 2018). Poor household employees are earning less as
compared to men. Other groups those are affected by means of poverty are children. In families
where children are still present, children are affected by malnutrition as well as it severe affects
on children among age of six months to two years. Children are died in young age due to poor
physical conditions as well as poor mental developments. Poverty can also restrict access to the
educational opportunities in early childhood developments (Chauhan et al., 2016). Main cause of
the children poverty is lack of opportunities among the parents with lower skills and lower
qualifications. Young people are affected by poverty due to lack of educational facilities which
can limit the opportunities of employment. Old people have no employment but they should be
taken care by society. In India, due to higher unemployment, families are shared pensions means
they are for elderly people.

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3.5 Gender bias
Poverty is household attribute, and it is critical to assess gender bias in causes of poverty.
It is shown that in India, head of household is taken as reference points. Gender of head is used
as factor for the gender bias. The gender bias is operated in two different ways such as women
are discriminated against the work. Discrimination of the employees is in favor of the male to
female candidates (Kannan, 2017). In other aspect, women are not recruited with higher salary
jobs. When the jobs require skills, then women is not competent as compared to males. It is
reflected in low income among the females. When a woman has fewer skills as compared to
males, then responsibility of perception is lies with household, where the parents are being
trained and educated. In India, the boy child is more educated as compared to girl child (Gupta,
More, & Gupta, 2018). Less schooling means less human capital, therefore females earn less
income than male.
3.6 Space technology development
Poverty has adverse effect on the technical development in the space. India becomes a
world innovator in the space science. Reach in local Indian community is being immobile.
Incorporation of extensive advancements of area with the school going the children is not to such
mark (Sadath & Acharya, 2017). Awareness is created in the community of students. Space
science is being restricted in the organizations such as ISRO; such that there is establishment
oneself in the field is infertile.
3.7 Social inequality
One of the sources of poverty in India is social inequality that is originated from the
cultural ideas about various genders, races, social classes and ethnic groups. Inequalities are

7DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT IN INDIA
placed in dissimilar categories such as birth, based on religious and racial characteristics. Poverty
has direct plus indirect impact on social and physical health of the individuals. It is seen that both
poverty along with social inequality are related (González-Eguino, 2015). Effects of the income
inequality are fall over over society, which can cause stress and disruption of family. It can cause
increase in rate of the crime, murder as well as violence. Inequality can provide a direct influence
on poverty due to which inequality is affected growth as well as growth influences the poverty.
Therefore, from the above factors, it is analyzed that poverty is not limited to the national
boundaries. It is a concern for the policy makers as well as researchers. It is critical to measure
along with assess poverty of the world (Dehury & Mohanty, 2015). India is considered as one of
the poorest countries in the world. Main cause of increase in poverty at the global level is that the
world is being recognized in such ways that people are not able to access to advanced technology
along with resources. In the developing countries, income as well as income aspects poverty is
due to problem in stretching from corruption of governance, poor growth in economy,
unemployment, lack of access to the social services as well as lower level of investments.
4.0 Development strategy and approach
India has vast experiences into implementation of development programmes. The
development approaches and area planning is required changes over period of time. India has
long history with different development approaches. In the year 1950, policy makers are stressed
maximization of the economical growth by step in investment assumed that many benefits are
raised out. In the year 1970, it is realized that benefits of the agricultural growth is not permeate
to the rural poor. It leads to second development approach suggested that distribution of the

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assets throughout land reforms, development of community along with cooperative farming
(Dehury & Mohanty, 2015). In the year 1980, it is suggested that attack on the poverty
throughout rural development programmes like NREP, RLEGP. Before evaluation of the anti-
poverty programmes, there is evaluation of five year plans in the poverty alleviation.
Economical growth is based on location and it is blend of the physical geography. It will
determine accessibility of the location as well as its resources. In order to achieve the balanced as
well as spatial development, India is adopted development strategies so that they can overcome
with the poverty problems (Deaton, 2016). The concept of rural development in India is a
context of agriculture as well as remains for longer time with agricultural development. Poverty
is associated with the rural population which is defined as inability to attend the standard of
living to include not the consumption of food, living standard and clothing while they are not
able to access to the education and healthcare services.
Two track development strategies which are suggested such as sustained broad based
economical growth which make effective use of the labor, main asset owned by poor people
(Sundaram, 2017). Second approach is investment on people and human resources by making
sure access to the basic social services of proper quality along with quantity. Both the strategies
will facilitate employment along with income raises enable to participate in the development of
economy of India. de Haan (2016) stated that success of those strategies is based on each actor
within society. The public sector is effective as it provides public goods, bridges externalities gap
along with provides information.

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4.1 Development programmes
The rural economy is integral part of the Indian economy. As most of poor people are
living in rural areas, therefore aim of development strategy is to improve quality of life of rural
people by alleviating poverty throughout self-employment, wage employment programs (Dubey
& Tiwari, 2018). Based on the programs, there is a reduction of poverty, so that all the issues
related to economic development is mitigated so that they should be a development in the
development context of India. Following are development strategies and programs of
government for the development which are discussed as:
1. Integrated rural development program (IRDP): It is introduced in the year 1979, where
this development strategy is provided support to the rural poor in form of bank credit for
the productive employment options throughout successive five year plan periods (Rao et
al., 2017).
2. Development of women and children in rural areas (DWCRA) is introduced to take care
of the requirements of people (Choudhury, 2016).
3. Wage employment programs is such an anti-poverty strategies assist for the poor
families to put them above the poverty line by sustained level of incomes throughout
social mobilization plus training (Vinayagamoorthi, Selvam, & Lingaraja, 2015). This
program is provided employment opportunities at the time of flood, natural disasters,
droughts and agricultural seasons. Therefore, it is created rural infrastructures that can
support economical activities.

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4. Employment assurance scheme (EAS): It is designed to provide employment in form of
the manual works in lean agricultural seasons (Venkateswaran et al., 2018).
4.2 Development strategies
In order to overcome with poverty, there is required to develop set of development
strategies with realization that economic growth is not an end. Sustainable development is
required for development of the poverty in India so that it is required to reduce poverty. When
Indian economical growth is improved, then there will be a reduction of poor rate as they will get
their requirements based on poor people’s needs (Birthal, Roy, & Negi, 2015). Different
measures are to be taken to reduce poverty in India which is as follows:
Change strategy in economic growth: In 1960-1970, it is suggested that Indian poverty
is reduced by accelerating of economical growth. The benefits of the economic growth are trickle
down to poor in form of employment benefits, higher productivity along with higher wages. It is
expected that poor is raised above the poverty line (Maitra, 2016). Growth model is used to
overcome with Indian poverty such as Lewis model for economic development with unlimited
supplies of the labor is suggested with rapid growth of modern industrial sectors to tackle
problems related to poverty. It is suggested that there is an increase in capital formation so that it
can generate employment benefits and increase in labor productivity (Sundaram, 2017). It will
not generate employment options when labor saving capital intensive processes of production is
used for growth in process. In decades of development, rate of the growth in GDP is achieved to
a range of 5.5% to 6% per annum. There is an increase in employment benefits mainly in the
organized industrial sectors.

11DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT IN INDIA
Growth in agriculture and poverty alleviation: Growth in the agriculture is considered as
important factor which can contribute to mark reduction in the poverty. Higher agricultural
growth is lead to lower in poverty ratio. Growth in the agricultural output in states of Punjab,
Haryana derived by adopting new higher yield technology caused reduction in poverty. The
solution leads to land augmenting innovations (Dubey & Tiwari, 2018). In order to mark decline
in the poverty throughout growth in agriculture, growth rate must accelerate by increase in public
investments in irrigations.
Speed development of the infrastructure: In order to generate employment benefits for
poor and rise in productivity is related to development of the infrastructure. The private sector is
not attracted to create investments in the infrastructure, and then public investment is required to
step for developments (Kim, Mohanty, & Subramanian, 2016). Availability of the infrastructure
like power and irrigation is raised to labor productivity.
Accelerate human resource development: Besides the development of physical
infrastructure, poverty is reduced throughout human resources development. It is required great
investments into the educational facilities like school to promote technical training, literacy
promotion to import of skills among people. The human resource development is not generated
deal of employment benefits but it can also raise productivity along with income of poor (Ahmed
et al., 2016). People are equipped with education as well as skills that can get wage employment
with better productivity. There are efforts which are resulted to low the poverty in rural India at
fast pace as evaluated to urban counterparts.
Access to assets and credits: Due to rapid growth of population, it can lead to great
subdivision as well as fragmentation of the agricultural holdings; lack of benefits of employment

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in industry has provided a negative influence on conditions of the agricultural labor.
Redistribution of the land throughout redistribution, implementation of the tenancy reforms can
ensure to provide security and fix fair rent is considered as important measures to reduce rural
poverty (Gupta, More, & Gupta, 2018). The banks and financial organizations supply credit to
poor much success is not achieved to provide credit to the poor farmers. Regional rural banks are
provided credits to poor to meet with their requirements.
Public distribution system: This system can target poor households which is an important
component for the strategy towards poverty reduction (Dehury & Mohanty, 2015). The food
grains procured are being allocated to state governments to sell throughout the public distribution
system at subsidized prices below the market prices.

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