MBS662: Poverty in India and Sustainable Development Goals Essay

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of poverty in India within the context of business, society, and the environment, focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It examines the historical roots of poverty in India, the widening gap between the rich and the poor, and the challenges faced by the government in poverty alleviation. The essay details various government programs, such as education initiatives, financial inclusion schemes, and employment programs like MGNREGA, aimed at reducing poverty and improving living standards. It also discusses the role of other stakeholders, including NGOs and businesses, in contributing to poverty reduction through CSR activities and investment. The essay acknowledges the complexities in measuring poverty across different states and the need for ongoing efforts, including population control, to achieve the SDG goal of no poverty. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of a combined effort from all stakeholders and the support of international organizations in removing poverty from India.

BUSINESS SOCIETY
AND
ENVIRONMENT

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Poverty in India
Sustainable development goals are the set of 17 global goals. It has been designed to act as a
blueprint for achieving a better and highly sustainable future for everyone. These goals were
made in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and they have planned to achieve this
by the end of the year 2030. It is a part of UN Resolution 70/1 the 2030 Agenda (Reid, et al
2017). Goals are No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education,
Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Decent Work
and Economic Growth, Industry innovation and infrastructure, Reducing inequality,
Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production, Climate
Action, Life below Water, Life on Land, Peace justice and strong Institutions, and
Partnerships for the Goals. In the below written essay there will be description of Poverty in
India and the way in which governments and other stakeholder efforts towards achieving No
Poverty have been illustrated.
India has not generated poverty by some incidents rather it exists in India from past centuries.
One of the major reasons for it is the fact that India was divided into classes where the lowest
class in the society were not allowed to take education and they were deprived of any kind of
wealth. Under the British rule this widened up (Karnani, 2016). Many governments post-
Independence tried to remove poverty but they are failing. After liberalisation of the market
in the 1990s, poor and rich gap kept on increasing. Critical nature of the situation can be
understood in terms of the fact that India stands as second most unequal nation among all the
nations as the top 1% people own 58% of the total wealth of the country (Sehrawat & Giri,
2018). An estimate suggests that India’s two-thirds population live in poverty. A report
suggested that 68.8% of population living in the country earns $2 a day. More than 30% of
the people earn lesser pay than $1.25 on daily basis (Alkire & Seth, 2015).
The biggest challenge that government will have to face in elevating poverty is the fact that
there is a very big population of people who are poor (Thorat, Vanneman, Desai & Dubey,
2017). It is also the fact that the population growth among the poor families in India is very
high so when the government plans that they will be elevating poverty under certain time
frame either the people that living under poverty line increases or resource scarcity get
generated (Kattula, et al 2016). It is also the fact that the corruption in India is very high so
when the governments send money for some kinds of projects that could elevate poverty the

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money actually does not reach to the people who are actually in the need. This makes the
situation critical situation in the village areas where the poor people are not even connected to
the formal banking structure. ‘No poverty’ has been the main slogans for the political parties
in the election but they are unable to remove it.
Government of India is highly determined that they will achieve the SDG goal of ‘No
poverty’ under the given time frame so that they can come out from the category of lower
middle income economies. In order to achieve this SDG, Indian government is running many
kinds of poverty elevation programs. These programs are running with the help of state
governments. First thing on which government of India is concentrating upon is education of
the poor people. This is because the best way to elevate poverty is to educate people so that
they can earn their bread. Poor people in India did not have access to formal education hence
they are unable to get proper wages and are unaware about their rights (Dehury & Mohanty,
2015). Even when the governments are running any kinds of schemes people are unaware
about it. Free schooling to the poor people and easy loans for the students that aims to go for
higher education has helped the poor people to improve their chances of getting out of
poverty.
Another major step was to connect all the people with the formal banking system. This was
necessary for removing the middle man who took the actual amount of money that
government sends for poor people. In this regards the ‘PradhanMantri Jan Dhan Yogna’ was
launched which aimed at opening large numbers of accounts of the poor people. Due to this
government was able to provide direct cash benefits to the people in the form of subsidy on
items that are necessary for life or the insurances or wages. (Gooptu & Parry, 2017).
MGNREGA was another important plan that government had made to provide work to the
poor people on the daily basis and the wages are sent to the people’s account directly.
Governments are trying hard to ensure that they are able to reduce the challenges related to
the skill development. For this they have developed the skill development initiatives that aim
at improving the technical skills of the people so that people may not face challenges in
getting jobs in the age of technology (Mohanty, Mohapatra, Kastor, Singh & Mahapa 2016).
There are other kinds of benefits that are being given by the government to ensure that the
basic life amenities are provided to the people such as home, food and other items. Food
products at lower rates are given to the people who are living under the below poverty line.
This is done by the government to ensure that no body in the country dies of hunger

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(Mohanty, Govil, Chauhan, Kim & Subramanian, 2016). Under the ‘Pradhanmatri awas
Yogna’ people are being given money so that people can build their home. Government of
India has a planned that by 2022 there will be no man left in the urban areas without home
and in later phase there will be no families even in the rural areas that will not have their
home. It is the basic need of elevating poverty as the families that have home lives a better
life and they are able to concentrate on the development of their families. Even the children
in the family live with a better state of mind which helps them in studying. The sanitation and
the housing facility help the poor people to stay away from the illness. Poor people who do
not have resources any kinds of illness make the family’s financial condition worse especially
in the case of chronic illness. This is also why government of India has launched the
‘Ayushmann Bharat Yojna’ which is a bigger health insurance scheme for the poor people.
This will ensure that poor people will get medical assistance that is expensive and will not let
families to drain out of money. Government schemes like Mid-Day meal have helped in
eradicating the hunger among the children that are studying in the school. These are the steps
that are supporting the government initiative that more numbers of people within the country
does not go under the poverty line. These steps will have to continue for longer period of
time. However it is not easy in the country where the large amount of money is being given
to the people in the form of subsidies (Malik, 2015).
However the challenge of removing the poverty becomes greater in terms of the fact that
every India state has their own system of measuring the poverty which depends on the
regional aspects. This makes the system to be complex as the person who is under the poverty
line as per the central government may not be poor for the state government hence the
benefits that are given to the people might not reach to them. India’s current method to
calculate poverty as per the planning commission is not in terms of annual income rather it is
in terms of consumption or spending per individual over a certain period of time for basket of
essential goods (Gordon & Nandy, 2016). This methodology sets a different poverty line
threshold for the rural and urban areas. For rural areas the threshold has been set to 26 Rupees
per day while for urban areas it is 32 rupees a day. This is well below than the World banks
income based definition. In the rural India the situation is worse as they have been under the
poverty for centuries and they are not being allowed to come up in the society due to the Cast
system that prevails in India. This is forcing the people to leave their villages and come into
cities for earning money or for better live standards (Thomas, 2019). This is increasing the

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stress on the resources that urban areas have especially in terms of basic life amenities such
as housing, electricity and water supply.
The role of the other stakeholders of the society becomes critical for removing the poverty
from the country. There are many NGOs both governments funded and Non-government
funded NGOs that are working towards reducing the poverty especially in the village and
tribal areas which have largest amount of poor people living. Most of the companies that are
working India put eradicating poverty as a base line for their CSR activities. Many of the
companies have set up funds to educate the children of the poor families (Singh, 2015). At
the same time there are many companies that are working in collaboration with the
government for providing jobs to the poor people. Indian government understands that
without increasing the investment in India, it is not possible to generate large numbers of
employment opportunities in the nation. The scheme like ‘Make in India’ is promoting more
numbers of companies to open their manufacturing units in the country. This will provide
more job opportunities to skilled and unskilled people within the country. This is why the
government is doing many things to attract Foreign Direct Investments. Government has also
taken steps so that companies that are working in the tribal areas provide some kinds of
benefits to the people living there (Datt, Ravallion & Murgai, 2016). Rural development
programs are helping in this course.
However the efforts of the government have shown the positive signs which has been
acknowledged by the World Bank. According to the World Bank in the next 4 years India
will be able to take out 320 million people out of the poverty line. They have said that India is
the only South East Asian country that is on track to fulfil the SDG goals and will be able to
achieve this goal in the given time frame (Tilak, 2018). India has already removed half of the
poverty that existed when the goals were made. Around 44 Indians are coming out of the
poverty in every minute as per the World poverty clock. In the last 5 years only more than 50
million people have been uplifted from poverty. It is to be understood that India a growing
economy and hence overcoming economic challenges in removing such poverty will not be
easier for the nation that too when the population within the nation is increasing drastically.
In future it is required that the government works on population control programs as the
resources are decreasing day by day and people are increasing. This will enhance the
government’s effort to elevate people out of poverty and will allow the government to
provide better quality life to the people.

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In conclusion it can be said that removing poverty from India is not easier especially when
there is a very big population living in the country under the poverty lines. A combine effort
from all the stakeholders within the country could only help them in removing the poverty
(Keane & Thakur, 2018). The help of International Organisations in this could help India is
achieving this SDG goals.

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