Poverty Class 12 Important Questions and Answers Indian Economy Chapter 4

Important Questions of Poverty Class 12 Indian Economy Chapter 4

Question 1.
Explain the meaning of poverty.
Answer:
Poverty may be defined as the inability to secure minimum human needs related to food, clothing, housing, education and health.

Question 2.
What do you understand by ‘Churning poor’?
Answer:
They are the people who regularly move in and out of poverty, e.g. Small farmers and seasonal workers.

Question 3.
How is head-count ratio calculated?
Answer:
The percentage of population below poverty line in a country is called head-count ratio.
Head-count Ratio =

Question 4.
State how much minimum calories are prescribed for children below one year and adults performing heavy work?
Answer:
The minimum calories required for children below one year are 300 and for adults who perform heavy work, it is 3600.

Question 5.
Do you think that poverty has shifted from rural to urban areas? Why?
Answer:
The poverty has shifted from rural to urban areas because of the overflow of the rural poor who migrated to urban areas in search of alternative employment and livelihood.

Question 6.
State the most important reason of poverty in India.
Answer:
Rapidly rising population is the single most important reason of poverty in India.

Question 7.
Poverty alleviation programmes are targeted to rural areas. Why?
Answer:
The rural population is four times of urban population and poverty level is more in rural areas than urban areas. So, these programmes are targeted to rural areas.

Question 8.
Name two major programmes whose objective is to improve the food and nutritional value of the poor.
Answer:
Two major programmes that aim at improving the food and nutritional value of the poor are

Public Distribution System
Integrated Child Development Scheme

Question 9.
What is meant by ‘Food For Work’ Programme? (NCERT)
Answer:
Food For Work Programme was launched in 1977-78. Under this programme, the government gave work to poor people related to making of kutcha road, clearing debris, etc and gave foodgrains instead of wages. This programme was later restructured as National Food for Work Programme in 2001.

Question 10.
What programme has the government adopted to help the elderly people and poor and destitute women? (NCERT)
Answer:
The government has launched National Social Assistance Programme. Under this programme, elderly people who do not have anyone to take care of them are given pension to sustain themselves. Poor women, who are destitute and widows are also covered under this scheme.

Question 11.
According to which concept of poverty, you can assess the level of inequality in the country?
Answer:
Relative concept of poverty helps to assess the level of inequality in the country. As per this concept, a comparison between the income level of top 5-10% with the bottom 5-10% is made, which reflects the relative standard of poverty. This concept of poverty indicates the relative position of different segments of the population in the income hierarchy.

Question 12.
Write a short note on Gini Co-efficient.
Answer:
The Gini Co-efficient was proposed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912 as a measure of inequality of income and wealth, i.e. as a measure of relative poverty. The coefficient varies between 0 which reflects complete equality, and 1 which indicates complete inequality. India’s Gini Index is 0.339.

Question 13.
UNDP has identified two categories of poverty. State those categories.
Answer:
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has identified two categories of poverty which are explained below

Income poverty which arises due to lack of necessities of material well-being, and
Human poverty which is a denial of opportunity for living a tolerable life.

Question 15.
Give the difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty.
Answer:
Difference between absolute poverty and relative poverty

Basis	Absolute Poverty	Relative Poverty
Meaning	Absolute poverty means that the person is not able to achieve a minimum level of consumption.	Relative poverty means that a person is poor in comparison of certain other person.
Prevalent in	This concept is prevalent in less developed countries.	This concept is prevalent in developed countries.

Question 16.
Why calorie based norm is not adequate to identify the poor? NCERT
Answer:
Calorie based norm is not an adequate measure to identify poor people because of the reasons mentioned below

This system categorises poor in a single category and does not differentiate between poor and very poor.
This mechanism considers calories . intake as the only basis of determining poverty. It fails to consider factors such as healthcare, provision of clean drinking water, proper sanitation, basic education, etc.
This measure fails to explain social factors that cause poverty such as ill health, lack of access to resources, lack of civil and political freedom, etc.

Question 17.
How can creation of income earning assets address the problem of poverty? (NCERT)
Answer:
Creation of income generating assets implies resources like land, social networks, etc which encourage empowerment and community services, fixed public assets like wells, clinics, schools, bridges, etc which generate employment. The access to these assets and their use serve as a foundation for earning a livelihood, thereby addressing the problem of poverty.

Question 18.
Enumerate the main problems that are generally associated with poverty of the economy.
Answer:
Poverty in an economy is the result of

rapidly rising population
low productivity in agriculture
under utilised resources
low rate of economic development
price rise

Question 19.
Do you think that it is not possible to eradicate poverty completely?
Answer:
No, I do not agree that it is not possible to eradicate poverty completely. In the world as a whole, there are plenty of resources to produce food but still there is hunger. Poverty in the present day world is more of a question of inequitabie distribution of income and wealth. It is possible to eradicate poverty completely by complete re-distribution of existing resources and incomes.

Question 20.
Is there any relationship between unemployment and poverty? Explain. (NCERT)
Answer:
Poverty and unemployment usually go together. Those who fail to get employment become a burden on the limited family income and thus, per capita consumption level decreases.

Decrease in consumption levels further decreases an individual’s earning capacity and he is unable to come out of vicious circle of poverty. It has been observed that most of the poor are either unemployed or intermittently employed as casual labourers. Uncertainty of income does not enable them to meet their basic needs and they are thrown into poverty. Therefore, we can safely conclude that a high degree of positive correlation exists between poverty and unemployment.

Question 21.
Mention any four anti-poverty programmes launched by the government to eradicate poverty.
Answer:
Various schemes run by the Indian Government to eradicate poverty directly or indirectly are

National Food for Work Programme
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana
biational Social Assistance Programme
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana

Question 22.
Illustrate the difference between rural and urban poverty. Is it correct to say that poverty has shifted from rural to urban areas? Use the trends in poverty ratio to support your answer. (NCERT)
Answer:
Rural poor are the poor people residing in villages and small towns. The rural poor work mainly as landless agricultural labourers, cultivators with very small land holdings, landless labourers and tenant cultivators.

On the other hand, the urban poor are the poor people living in metros and big cities. Urban labourers do a variety of casual jobs, sell a variety of things on roadsides and are engaged in various other such activities. It can be seen from the given table that poverty ratio has shifted from rural to urban areas.

Years	Rural (in%)	Urban (in%)	India (in%)
1973 – 74	56.4	49.0	54.9
2004 – 05	28.3	25.7	27.5

It is evident from the above table that rural poverty has declined significantly from 56.4% in 1973-74 to 28.3% in 2004-05 whereas, decline in urban poverty (from 49% to 25.7%) is not that significant. Moreover, the gap between the rural and urban poverty ratios which was around 7% in 1973-74 fell to just around 2% in 2004-05 again signifying the shift in poverty from rural to urban areas.

Question 23.
Discuss the measures which will help to bring growth in an economy.
Answer:
The different measures which will help to bring growth in an economy are
(i) Income distribution should be improved: The government should try to improve the mechanism of income distribution and try to reduce income inequalities with the help of fiscal and legislative measures. These are

Fiscal measures These measures relate to the provisions related to taxation and subsidy. The government should adopt progressive system of taxation in which the richer section of the society is charged with higher rate of taxes and tax exemption is given to those with low incomes. Also, money collected as tax from the rich can be used to give subsidies to the poor, thus ensuring equitable distribution of income.
Legislative measures These measures are implemented by passing laws and are mandatory for all those who fall under its purview.

(ii) Population control The government should try to control the population of the country which is rising at a very fast rate. Poverty cannot be eradicated unless and until population of the country is controlled. Inspite of a significant growth in the national income of the country, the per capita income remains low due to excessive rise in population. Population control will reduce the dependent members in a poor household and help them to improve their status.

(iii) Other measures

Development of agriculture and other allied activities.
Maintaining stability in the price level
Eradication of unemployment
Promoting labour intensive technique of production
Developing backward regions
Creating self-employment opportunities

Question 24.
Why are employment generation programmes important in poverty alleviation in India?
Answer:
In India, twin problems exist, i.e. poverty and unemployment. Poverty can effectively be eradicated only when the poor start contributing to growth by their active involvement in the development process. This can only be achieved by launching various employment schemes. Following points discuss the importance of employment generation programmes to eradicate poverty:

Nexus between unemployment and poverty There exists a deep nexus between unemployment and poverty. If employment opportunities are generated, then more people will be employed leading to rise in their income, which in turn will reduce poverty.
Availability of basic facilities With the rise in employment opportunities, income increases and poor people are able to get access to education, health facilities, proper sanitation, etc.
Creation of assets The employment generation programmes aim at creation of assets like water harvesting, irrigation facilities, construction of roads, construction of dams, etc. All these assets help in the social and economic development of the rural areas and hence, eradicate poverty.
Creation of skills An essential element of employment generation programmes is the formation of human capital by imparting skills to the unskilled labourers through training. This skill formation enhances income earning capability of poor people.

Thus, poverty alleviation programmes like Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana, Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana, MNREGA etc have come into existence.

Question 25.
The three dimensional attack on poverty adopted by the government has not succeeded in poverty alleviation in India. Comment.
Answer:
The Government of India had launched a three dimensional approach to solve the problem of poverty. This approach aims to eliminate poverty through growth, poverty alleviation programmes and provision of minimum basic amenities to the people.

However, this approach has not helped to alleviate poverty from our country.
It can be justified from the points below

Problems like hunger, malnourishment, illiteracy and lack of basic amenities are still prevalent in India.
None of the poverty alleviation strategies resulted in any radical change in the ownership of assets, process of production and improvement of basic amenities to the needy.
Due to unequal distribution of assets, the benefits from poverty alleviation programmes have not actually reached the poor. Also, the amount of resources allocated for the poverty alleviation programmes is not sufficient.

Question 26.
Suppose you are a resident of a village, suggest a few measures to tackle the problem of poverty. (NCERT)
Answer:
As a resident of a village, a few measures which I would suggest to alleviate poverty from rural areas are as follows

Identifying the poorest of the poor who are in the most urgent need of assistance and ensuring that they are benefitted by various programmes.
Allocation of funds for poverty alleviation programmes must be increased.
Implementation of poverty alleviation programmes should be done by involving the village panchayat and local people.
Focus of schemes should be more on providing income generating assets which can provide sustainable income for the poor.
Vocational training should be provided to the youth to enable them to earn their livelihood.
Improved delivery mechanism should be put in place in schools so that the level of education is brought up to the required standards.
Credit facilities through banks and micro finance institutions should be provided to the people to save them from indebtedness to the exploitative moneylenders.
Farmers should be provided land for cultivation and irrigation. Also, warehousing and marketing facilities should be provided to small farmers.
Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) should be adopted to provide food security to BPL families.
Committed government officials should be given the responsibility to implement the rural development programmes.