Poverty is a
major problem from which India has been suffering since an extremely long time.
Poverty is quite a subjective topic and cannot have one ‘right’ definition.
Each country can describe it in their own way according to the conditions of their
own economy. Although, in a broad way it may be described as a state in which
an individual is unable to fulfil even his basic needs of life.
The basic
reasons are the social factors. The quality of education provided to the poor
children is not good enough for them to change their future and therefore, they
end up being poor. This cycle goes on due to the lack of money. Here are some
of the major causes of poverty in India.
1.INEQUALITY
During the
five-year plan period, the national income of the country has been increasing
but the problem arises when it is not being distributed among the different
sections of people equally. Majority of this income goes to those who are
already rich leaving the poor with close to nothing. This inequality has widened
the problem of poverty.
2.BACKWARD
AGRICULTURE
In India,
the natural as well as the physical resources are underutilized due to the lack
of technology and capital. Therefore, the production is low in the country.
Even the technology available in the agricultural sector lack irrigation
facility and they do not have high-yielding variety of seeds. This also results
in the increase of poverty as their quality of life id still low.
3.BORROWINGS
The poor, in
order to survive financially, borrow money from government banks or rich money
lenders. For this borrowed money, they have to pay an interest which is set
quite high. This leads them to end up in a vicious cycle of borrowings. This
cycle continues from one generation to another making it impossible for them to
save.
4.HIGH RATE
OF POPULATION GROWTH
Because of
the increase in the population, the burden of dependency ahs increased.
Therefore, to provide for the family’s basic needs becomes an exceedingly big
problem. This high rate of population also indicates lower health facilities
and other crucial amenities which leads to the standard of living being low.
5.SOCIAL
CAUSES
Many social
factors such as caste, religion, gender, joint family system and others have
hindered the economic growth. Majority of the population still being orthodox
and not ready to change and move on ha vastly affected the growth of the
country.
6.UNEMPLOYMENT
Because of a
high level of unemployment, the number of dependency of people on the employed
ones has increased. As a result, the consumption expenditure per head is
decline because there is only so much one person can provide for a family.
Consequence – most of such families are living below the poverty line.
7.ILLITERACY
It is no
hidden fact that a high percentage of our population is illiterate. Due to
this, the farmers have absolutely no idea about the efforts and initiatives
taken by government that may help them with their financial condition. Also,
they are unaware of the new technologies and tools for cultivation being introduced
in the market. This also leads to the money lenders cheating them and
extracting more money from them.
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