The Importance Of Poverty In India

There are particular economic, social and geographical factors that can influence whether people are poor in India but these are not definite factors of being poor and people belong to one of these groups are not always poor. The Indian government’s definition of poverty does not accurately dictate who and who is not poor (Fernandez, 2010). The majority of poor people do live in rural areas because of the problems that people face in the rural areas (Müller and Patel, 2004). However, there are urban poor people who are poor due to recent events such as economic liberalisation (Fernandes, 2010). Low castes do experience greater poverty due to the disadvantages they faced historically (Seabrook, 2005). Tribal people rely heavily on the land and …show more content…
A significant proportion of women in India do not have an education and cannot read or write (Jeffry, 2005). This does change throughout the country, such as Kerala who has an 85% female literacy rate (Jeffry, 2005). However, the women who have no education are hugely disadvantaged and this can cause them to be poor. They often are not employed in the formal sector or end up in low pay, low skilled jobs (Müller and Patel, 2004). Many of them rely on their husbands to survive but this means they cannot leave their husband, even if he is abusive, because they have no other source of income (Made in India, 1999). Also, the schemes from the government that are available to help poor people, often are handed out to men (Fernandez, 2010). Although this is helping the poor, it is not addressing the issues surrounding gender inequality. However, there are some organisations that are trying to help women have a reliable source of income. An example is the Self Employed Women’s Association (Made in India, 1999). These women have formed a union to help each other and empower each other. They give females loans and teach them skills so that they can provide a source of income for their family through sewing. This helps to reduce poverty because now the women are adding to the family income and if tragedy was to strike, they can still provide this income (Made in India, 1999). Women in India tend to be disadvantaged when it comes to …show more content…
The definition, within India, of poverty is highly contested and does not truly label who is and is not poor. The majority of poverty exists in rural areas because of lack of job opportunities and resources to alleviate them from this poverty. However, poverty also exists in urban areas due to recent changes in the city that have been caused by economic liberalisation. Low castes, such as Dalits, and Muslims are often poor due to historical disadvantages they have experienced and currently they are not receiving the help they need to overcome these challenges. Tribal people are often poor due to their heavy reliance on their forests and if there are changes to the environment or if they are forced to leave, they can experience poverty and often do not receive adequate help from the government. Women are often poor due to their husbands being the main source of income into the family and men are the ones who mostly receive help from the government. However, all of these social, economic and geographical factors all intersect with each other. These factors do not solely determine whether people are poor or not and there are cases where people have been able to escape poverty even though they do fit into one of these factors. Therefore, although there are common trends of poverty, there is no single answer to who is poor and why there are