question_answer 11)

Discuss the major reasons for poverty in India.

Answer:

The various causes of poverty in India are—   Colonial Economic Policies   (a) One historical reason of poverty in India is the low level of economic development under the British colonial administration.   (b) The policies of the colonial government ruined traditional handicrafts and discouraged developments of industries and textiles.   (c) The low rate of growth persisted until the 1980s. This resulted in less job opportunities and low growth rate of incomes.   (d) The government failure on both fronts, i.e., promotion of economic growth arid population control perpetuated the cycle of poverty.   Not Enough Jobs in Industries                           The industries set up in the public and private sector provided jobs to many people but the number of job seekers was far more than the jobs available and a large number of people remained unemployed  leading to poverty. Green Revolution and Employment   (a) The Green Revolution enabled multiple cropping or growing of 2 to 3 crops in, year, which created demand for labour in the agriculture sector. However, the Green Revolution was limited mainly to Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh and provided limited opportunities of work.   (b) The poor farmers could not buy inputs for farming and landholdings were small. Thus their production was low and the poor peasant families could hardly survive.   (c) The poor, especially in rural areas had to take loans for farming inputs and many times were unable to repay the loan. Thus they fell into a debt trap, leading to a worse situation.   (d) Another cause of poverty has been the huge income inequalities. One of the major reasons for this is the unequal distribution of land and other resources.   (e) Many communities like the Dalits, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes had traditionally been deprived of education, land and social status. Consequently, they have not been able to raise their standard of living in the absence of education, land and other resources.   (f) To fulfill social obligations and observe religious ceremonies, people in India including the very poor, spend a lot of money. They hardly have any savings, so they borrow money and are unable to repay the loans because of low income, thus falling into a debt trap leading to extreme poverty.   (g) Small farmers need money to buy agricultural inputs like seeds fertilizers, pesticides etc for which they have to take loans which they are unable to repay, thus falling into a debt trap leading to extreme poverty.