| Thirty-three year old Ram Saran works as a daily-wage labourer in a wheat flour mill near Ranchi in Jharkhand. He manages to earn around ` 1,500 a month when he finds employment, which is not often. The money is not enough to sustain his family of six that includes his wife and four children aged between 12 years to six months. He has to send money home to his old parents who live in village near Ramgarh. His father a landless labourer, depends on Ram Saran and his brother who lives in Hazaribagh, for sustenance. Ram Saran lives in a one-room rented house in a crowded basti in the outskirts of the city. It's a temporary shack built of bricks and clay tiles. His wife Santa Devi, works as a part time maid in a' few houses and manages to earn another ` 800. They manage a meager meal of dal and rice twice a day, but there's never enough for all of them. His elder son works as a helper in a tea shop to supplement the family income and earns another ` 300, while his 10-year-old daughter takes care of the younger siblings. None of the children go to school. They have only two pairs of hand-me-down clothes each. New ones are bought only when the old clothes become un wearable. Shoes are a luxury. The younger kids are undernourished. They have no access to healthcare when they fall ill. |
| Lakha Singh belongs to a small village near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. His family doesn't own any land, so they do odd jobs for the big farmers. Work is erratic and so is income. At times they get paid ` 50 for a hard day's work. But often it's in kind like a few kilograms of wheat or dal or even vegetables for toiling in the farm through the day. The family of eight cannot always manage two square meals a day. Lakha lives in a kuchha hut on the outskirts of the village. The women of the family spend the day chopping fodder and collecting firewood in the fields. His father a TB patient, passed away two years ago due to lack of medication. His mother now suffers from the same disease and life is slowly ebbing away. Although, the village has a primary school, Lakha never went there. He had to start earning when he was 10 years old. New clothes happen once in a few years. Even soap and oil are a luxury for the family. |
Answer:
(i) Landlessness Landless labourers in the villages are generally poor. They usually belong to the depressed sections of society and earn very low wages. They are also subject to seasonal unemployment, when they have to do odd jobs at very low income.
(ii) Unemployment If the labour force is idle and unutilised due to unemployment, the level of income is reduced and the unemployed persons cannot afford even the essentials of life, leading to poverty.
(iii) Size of Families When the number of persons in a family increases, the income of the family becomes less than what is the minimum required to provide them the essentials for proper living. This ultimately leads to poverty.
(iv) Illiteracy Due to poverty, the parents are not able to send their children to school and thus increase their earning power. Later on, when these children become adults and enter the job market, they are unable to find well-paying jobs, resulting again in poverty. Thus illiteracy and poverty depend on each other.
(v) Poor Health/Malnutrition Poverty causes malnutrition and poor health, as the poor people cannot afford adequate amounts of nutritious food or proper medical services. Once they are malnourished or in poor health, they are not able to work productively and thus they get more poor.
(vi) Child Labour Poverty forces the parents to make their children work, although there is a law against child labour. This makes the children drop out from school, resulting in their not getting well-paying jobs when they grow up.
(vii) Helplessness Due to poverty, the poor people become helpless and are willing to do any work for a low income. This leads them further into poverty.
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