< General Studies Home Page 

Content

• Rural Poverty
• Urban Poverty

---

A) Rural Poverty

Introduction:

• As per National Multidimensional Poverty index released by NITI Aayog, the rural areas have seen fastest decline in percentage of multidimensional poor in rural areas from (32.59% in 2015-16) to 19.28% in 2019-21.
• However, there are still some challenges which allows the rural poverty to exist.

Causes:

• Inadequate and Ineffective implementation of anti-poverty programs.
• Very small population engaged in non-agricultural activities.
• Agriculture related issues:
  • Monsoon dependence on Agriculture makes farmers dependent on vagaries of nature. Irrigation facilities are still not available for most of the agricultural land in India.
  • Low productivity of agriculture and allies’ activities. For e.g., wheat production/acre or milk production per animal in India is way lower than that of developed countries.
• Poor Infrastructure: Poor roads, inadequate electricity etc. make economic development of rural areas difficult.

Social Factors:

• Poor situation of health and education facilities in rural areas.
• Inter-caste conflicts and rivalries
• Excessive expenditure on ceremonies like marriage, childbirth etc.

Way Forward:

• Improvement implementation of the poverty alleviation programs like MGNREGA, MUDRA, PDS etc.
• Infrastructure improvement: Providing accessibility to electricity, water supply etc., to make rural areas suitable for establishment of agriculture.
• Reform Agriculture -> Agri-Market reforms, land leasing reforms etc.; Focus on improving productivity of animal husbandry sector.
• Improved focus on education, skill development and entrepreneurship in rural areas.
• Promoting cottage industries, agro-based industries and food processing industries

B) Urban Poverty

Background:

• Poverty eradication has been a key goal of Government of India since many decades now. But, the focus has mostly been on rural areas as most of the Indian population lived in rural area and rural poverty was pervasive.
• However, Urban population has kept on rising and so has been the number of poor in Urban areas. One key reason for it has been migration of rural poor into cities in search of better livelihood. This phenomenon is universally acknowledged as the Urbanization of Poverty.
  • Urban Poverty is manifested in terms of increasing slums, and around 20% of urban population lives in slums.
• There are some similarities in urban and rural poverty. These include – lack of adequate food, employment, healthcare and education; Access to information and lack of voice and representation in the settlements; the ability to influence decision making is remote, since they end up powerless in the face of the landed gentry in villages and the rich and organized classes in cities.
• But there are some key differences in between urban poor and rural poors.

i. Adequate housing and basic services clearly differentiate urban and rural poor.

• In Urban areas security of tenure is an issue; this is not generally a concern in rural areas.

ii. Urban poor are also much more deprived in terms of sanitation and infrastructure.

• The non-availability of toilet facilities, especially for women; lack of clean drinking water, clean air and ventilation; and exposure to disease make living conditions awfully run down.

iii. Other challenges of urban poor include challenges of transport, dangers of extortion and increased vulnerability to crime.

iv. Social and Psychological situation: The stark differences that are seen in the living standards of the urban rich and the urban poor have a significant bearing on the psychology of the urban poor.

• Within the rural society, the stratification is far less. Consumption pattern is likely to be less dissimilar, since the variety of consumer products available in a village is narrow.
• The deprivation of poverty, therefore, unlike the rural areas, hit the urban poor hard, because they see what the others have and what they don’t. The situation breeds powerlessness, emotive confusion, resentment and buried anger.

Conclusion:

• Acknowledgment of these differences is crucial for creating effective antidotes against urban poverty. The past practice of seeing all poverty in a rural light and applying rural solutions in urban conditions will not yield the expected results. Furthermore, the design of anti-poverty policies needs to be looked at in the context of overall urban policies, urban planning and legal and institutional framework.

Example Questions:

• “The Past Practice of seeing all poverty in a rural light and applying rural solutions in urban
  conditions will not yield expected results” Elaborate [10 marks, 150 words]