Essay on Poverty in India Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.
“Poverty is the sum total of a multiplicity of fact others that include not just income and calorie intake but also access to land and credit, nutrition, health and longevity, literacy and safe drinking water, sanitation and other infrastructural facilities.”
In India, it is estimated that about 350-400 million people are living below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. More than 30 per cent of the population is illiterate. With women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected.
The main causes of poverty are illiteracy, a population growth rate by far exceeding the economic growth rate for the better part of the past 60 years, protectionist policies pursued since 1947 to 1991 which prevented large amounts of foreign investment in the country.
Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle- down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty.
‘Where there is no happiness for all, there cannot be happiness for any’. This is a fundamental truth successful nations around the world have discovered. They have structured their societies in such a way that though there may be inequalities in incomes and levels of enjoyment of the good things of life, the basics of a modern life are not denied to anyone.
What are these basics? Answers vary for each country. For India, these are; education. Health care, housing, water electricity, cooking fuel, old age support, sanitation, and employment. Providing these for all citizens is to both attack poverty and pave way for growth.
