Class9 Economics Unit03 NCERT TextBook English Edition

8/3/2019 Class9 Economics Unit03 NCERT TextBook English Edition

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Poverty as a Challenge 29

Overview

This chapter deals with one of the mostdifficult challenges faced by independentIndiapoverty. After discussing thismulti-dimensional problem throughexamples, the chapter discusses the waypoverty is seen in social sciences. Poverty

trends in India and the world areillustrated through the concept of thepoverty line. Causes of poverty as well asanti-poverty measures taken by thegovernment are also discussed. Thechapter ends with broadening the officialconcept of poverty into human poverty.

Introduction

In our daily life, we come across manypeople who we think are poor. They could

be landless labourers in villages or peopleliving in overcrowdedjhuggisin cities. They

could be daily wage workers atconstruction sites or child workers in

Poverty as a ChallengeChapter

dhabas.They could also be beggars with

children in tatters. We see poverty allaround us. In fact, every fourth person inIndia is poor. This means, roughly 260million (or 26 crore) people in India live

in poverty. This also means that India hasthe largest single concentration of the poor

in the world. This illustrates theseriousness of the challenge.

Two Typical Cases of Poverty

Urban Case

Thirty-three year old Ram Saran worksas a daily-wage labourer in a wheat

flour mill near Ranchi in Jharkhand.He manages to earn around Rs 1,500a month when he finds employment,

which is not often. The money is notenough to sustain his family of sixthat includes his wife and four childrenaged betweem 12 years to six months.

Poverty as a Challenge

33

Picture 3.1 Story of Ram Saran


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30 Economics

He has to send money home to his oldparents who live in a village nearRamgarh. His father a landless

labourer, depends on Ram Saran andhis brother who lives in Hazaribagh,for sustenance. Ram Saran lives in aone-room rented house in a crowded

basti in the outskirts of the city. Its a

temporary shack built of bricks andclay tiles. His wife Santa Devi, worksas a part time maid in a few housesand manages to earn another Rs 800.

They manage a meagre meal of dal andrice twice a day, but theres never

enough for all of them. His elder son works as a helper in a tea shop to

supplement the family income andearns another Rs 300, while his 10-

year-old daughter takes care of theyounger siblings. None of the children

go to school. They have only two pairsof hand-me-down clothes each. Newones are bought only when the oldclothes become unwearable. Shoes area luxury. The younger kids are

undernourished. They have no accessto healthcare when they fall ill.

Rural case

Lakha Singh belongs to a small village

near Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. Hisfamily doesnt own any land, so theydo odd jobs for the big farmers. Workis erratic and so is income. At timesthey get paid Rs 50 for a hard days

work. But often its in kind like a fewkilograms of wheat or dal or even

vegetables for toiling in the farmthrough the day. The family of eightcannot always manage two squaremeals a day. Lakha lives in akuchhahut on the outskirts of the village.

The women of the family spend theday chopping fodder and collectingfirewood in the fields. His father a

TB patient, passed away two yearsago due to lack of medication. Hismother now suffers from the samedisease and life is slowly ebbing away.

Although, the village has a primaryschool, Lakha never went there. Hehad to start earning when he was 10

years old. New clothes happen once

in a few years. Even soap and oil area luxury for the family.

Study the above cases of povertyand discuss the following issuesrelated to poverty:

Landlessness

Unemployment

Size of families

Illiteracy

Poor health/malnutrition

Child labour

Helplessness

Picture 3.2 Story of Lakha Singh


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Poverty as a challenge 31

These two typical cases illustrate manydimensions of poverty. They show thatpoverty means hunger and lack of shelter.

It also is a situation in which parents arenot able to send their children to schoolor a situation where sick people cannotafford treatment. Poverty also means lackof clean water and sanitation facilities. Italso means lack of a regular job at aminimum decent level. Above all it meansliving with a sense of helplessness. Poorpeople are in a situation in which theyare ill-treated at almost every place, infarms, factories, government offices,hospitals, railway stations etc. Obviously,nobody would like to live in poverty.

One of the biggest challenges ofindependent India has been to bringmillions of its people out of abject poverty.Mahatama Gandhi always insisted thatIndia would be truly independent only

when the poorest of its people become freeof human suffering.

Poverty as seen by social scientists

Since poverty has many facets, social

scientists look at it through a variety ofindicators. Usually the indicators usedrelate to the levels of income andconsumption. But now poverty is lookedthrough other social indicators likeilliteracy level, lack of general resistancedue to malnutrition, lack of access tohealthcare, lack of job opportunities, lackof access to safe drinking water,sanitation etc. Analysis of poverty basedon social exclusion and vulnerability is

now becoming very common (see box).

both a cause as well as aconsequence of poverty in the usualsense. Broadly, it is a process through

which individuals or groups areexcluded from facilities, benefits andopportunities that others (theirbetters) enjoy. A typical example isthe working of the caste system inIndia in which people belonging tocertain castes are excluded fromequal opportunities. Social exclusionthus may lead to, but can cause moredamage than, having a very lowincome.

Vulnerability

Vulnerabilityto poverty is a measure, which describes the greaterprobability of certain communities(say, members of a backward caste)or individuals (such as a widow or aphysically handicapped person) of

becoming, or remaining, poor in thecoming years. Vulnerability isdetermined by the options availableto different communities for finding

an alternative living in terms ofassets, education, health and jobopportunities. Further, it is analysedon the basis of the greater risks thesegroups face at the time of naturaldisasters (earthquakes, tsunami),terrorism etc. Additional analysis ismade of their social and economicability to handle these risks. In fact,

vulnerability describes the greaterprobability of being more adversely

affected than other people when badtime comes for everybody, whether aflood or an earthquake or simply afall in the availability of jobs!

Social exclusion

According to this concept, poverty

must be seen in terms of the poorhaving to live only in a poorsurrounding with other poor people,excluded from enjoying social equality

of better-off people in bettersurroundings. Social exclusion can be

Poverty Line

At the centre of the discussion on povertyis usually the concept of the poverty line.

A common method used to measurepoverty is based on the income or


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32 Economics

consumption levels. A person isconsidered poor if his or her income orconsumption level falls below a given

minimum level necessary to fulfill basicneeds. What is necessary to satisfy basicneeds is different at different times andin different countries. Therefore, povertyline may vary with time and place. Eachcountry uses an imaginary line that isconsidered appropriate for its existing levelof development and its accepted minimumsocial norms. For example, a person nothaving a car in the United States may beconsidered poor. In India, owning of a caris still considered a luxury.

While determining the poverty line inIndia, a minimum level of foodrequirement, clothing, footwear, fuel andlight, educational and medicalrequirement etc. are determined forsubsistence. These physical quantities aremultiplied by their prices in rupees. Thepresent formula for food requirement

while estimating the poverty line is basedon the desired calorie requirement. Fooditems such as cereals, pulses, vegetable,

milk, oil, sugar etc. together provide theseneeded calories. The calorie needs varydepending on age, sex and the type of

work that a person does. The acceptedaverage calorie requirement in India is2400 calories per person per day in ruralareas and 2100 calories per person perday in urban areas. Since people livingin rural areas engage themselves in morephysical work, calorie requirements inrural areas are considered to be higher

than urban areas. The monetaryexpenditure per capita needed for buyingthese calorie requirements in terms offood grains etc. is revised periodicallytaking into consideration the rise inprices.

On the basis of these calculations, forthe year 2000, the poverty line for a person

was fixed at Rs 328 per month for therural areas and Rs 454 for the urbanareas. Despite less calorie requirement,

the higher amount for urban areas hasbeen fixed because of high prices of manyessential products in urban centres. In

this way in the year 2000, a family of fivemembers living in rural areas andearning less than about Rs 1,640 permonth will be below the poverty line. Asimilar family in the urban areas wouldneed a minimum of Rs 2,270 per monthto meet their basic requirements. Thepoverty line is estimated periodically(normally every five years) by conductingsample surveys. These surveys arecarried out by the National Sample SurveyOrganisation (NSSO). However, formaking comparisons between developingcountries, many internationalorganisations like the World Bank use auniform standard for the poverty line:minimum availability of the equivalent of$1 per person per day.

Lets Discuss

Discuss the following:

Why do different countries use different

poverty lines? What do you think would be the

minimum necessary level in yourlocality?

Poverty Estimates

It is clear from the Table 3.1 that there issubstantial decline in poverty ratios inIndia from about 55 per cent in 1973 to36 per cent in 1993. The proportion ofpeople below poverty line further came

down to about 26 per cent in 2000. If thetrend continues, people below poverty linemay come down to less than 20 per centin the next few years. Although thepercentage of people living under povertydeclined in the earlier two decades (19731993), the number of poor remained stablearound 320 million for a fairly long period.

The latest estimates indicate a significantreduction in the number of poor to about260 million.


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Lets Discuss

Study the Table 3.1 and answer the

following questions: Even if poverty ratio declined between

197374 and 199394, why did thenumber of poor remain at about 320million?

Are the dynamics of poverty reductionthe same in rural and urban India?

Vulnerable Groups

The proportion of people below poverty lineis also not same for all social groups and

economic categories in India. Socialgroups which are most vulnerable topoverty are scheduled caste andscheduled tribe households. Similarly,

Table 3.1: Estimates of Poverty in India

Poverty ratio (%) Number of poor (in millions)

Year Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined

197374 56.4 49.0 54.9 261 60 321

199394 37.3 32.4 36.0 244 76 320

199900 27.1 23.6 26.1 193 67 260

Source:Economic Survey 200203, Ministry of Finance, Government of India.

among the economic groups, the most vulnerable groups are the ruralagricultural labour households and theurban casual labour households. Thefollowing Graph 3.1 shows the percentageof poor people in all these groups.

Although the average for people belowpoverty line for all groups in India is 26,51 out of 100 people belonging toscheduled tribes are not able to meet their

basic needs. Similarly, 50 per cent ofcasual workers in urban areas are belowpoverty line. About 50 per cent of landlessagricultural workers and 43 per cent of

scheduled castes are also poor. The doubledisadvantage, of being a landless casual

wage labour household in the sociallydisadvantaged social groups of the

Graph 3.1: Poverty in India 2000: Most Vulnerable Groups

Numberofpooro

utofevery

100personfrom

thecategory

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Scheduledtribes

Urban casuallabourers

Rural agriculturelabourers

Scheduledcastes

Average Indianpoverty ratio

51 5047

43

26

Social Groups and Economic CategoriesSource:Reports on Employment and Unemployment among Social Groups in India No. 469,472,

NSSO, Ministry of Statistics, Programme Implementation, Govt of India.


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34 Economics

Picture 3.3Story of Sivaraman

scheduled caste or the scheduled tribepopulation highlights the seriousness ofthe problem. Some recent studies haveshown that except for the scheduled tribehouseholds, all the other three groups (i.e.scheduled castes, rural agriculturallabourers and the urban casual labourhouseholds) have seen a decline in povertyin the 1990s.

Apart from these social groups, thereis also inequality of incomes within afamily. In poor families all suffer, but somesuffer more than others. Women, elderlypeople and female infants aresystematically denied equal access toresources available to the family.

Therefore women, children (especially thegirl child) and old people are poorest ofthe poor (see box).

Story of Sivaraman

Sivaraman lives in a small villagenear Karur town in Tamil Nadu. Karuris famous for its handloom andpowerloom fabrics. There are a 100families in the village. Sivaraman anAryunthathiyar(cobbler) by caste nowworks as an agricultural labourer for

Rs 50 per day. But thats only for fiveto six months in a year. At othertimes, he does odd jobs in the town.His wife Sasikala too works with him.But she can rarely find work thesedays, and even if she does, shes paidRs 25 per day for the same work thatSivaraman does. There are eightmembers in the family. Sivaramans65 year old widowed mother is ill and


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Lets Discuss

Observe some of the poor familiesaround you and try to find the following:

Which social and economic group dothey belong to?

Who are the earning members in the

family? What is the condition of the old people

in the family?

Are all the children (boys and girls)attending schools?

Although state level poverty has witnesseda secular decline from the levels of earlyseventies, the success rate of reducing

poverty varies from state to state. Recentestimates show that in 20 states andunion territories, the poverty ratio is lessthan the national average. On the otherhand, poverty is still a serious problemin Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Tripura andUttar Pradesh. As the Graph 3.2 shows,Orissa and Bihar continue to be the twopoorest states with poverty ratios of 47and 43 per cent respectively. Along withrural poverty urban poverty is also highin Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and

Uttar Pradesh.In comparison, there has been a

significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal.States like Punjab and Haryana havetraditionally succeeded in reducingpoverty with the help of high agriculturalgrowth rates. Kerala has focused more onhuman resource development. In WestBengal, land reform measures have

helped in reducing poverty. In AndhraPradesh and Tamil Nadu publicdistribution of food grains could have beenresponsible for the improvement.

Global Poverty Scenario

The proportion of people in developingcountries living in extreme economicpoverty defined by the World Bank asliving on less than $1 per dayhas fallenfrom 28 per cent in 1990 to 21 per cent in2001. Although there has been a

substantial reduction in global poverty, itis marked with great regional differences.Poverty declined substantially in Chinaand Southeast Asian countries as a resultof rapid economic growth and massiveinvestments in human resourcedevelopment. Number of poors in Chinahas come down from 606 million in 1981to 212 million in 2001. In the countries ofSouth Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka,Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan) the decline has

needs to be helped with her dailychores. He has a 25-year-oldunmarried sister and four children

aged between 1 year to 16 years.Three of them are girls, the youngestis a son. None of the girls go to school.Buying books and other things forschool-going girls is a luxury hecannot afford. Also, he has to get themmarried at some point of time so hedoesnt want to spend on theireducation now. His mother has lostinterest in life and is just waiting todie someday. His sister and elder

daughter take care of the household.Sivaraman plans to send his son toschool when he comes of age. Hisunmarried sister does not get along

with his wife. Sasikala finds her a burden but Sivaraman cant find asuitable groom due to lack of money.

Although the family has difficulty inarranging two meals a day,Sivaraman manages to buy milk oncein a while, but only for his son.

Inter-State Disparities

Poverty in India also has another aspector dimension. The proportion of poorpeople is not the same in every state.


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36 Economics

not been as rapid. Despite decline in thepercentage of the poor, the number of poorhas declined marginally from 475 millionin 1981 to 428 million in 2001. Because ofdifferent poverty line definition, poverty inIndia is also shown higher than thenational estimates.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty in factrose from 41 per cent in 1981 to 46 per

cent in 2001 (see graph 3.3). In LatinAmerica, the ratio of poverty remained thesame. Poverty has also resurfaced insome of the former socialist countries likeRussia, where officially it was non-existent earlier. Table 3.2 shows theproportion of people living under povertyin different countries as defined by theinternational poverty line (meanspopulation below $1 a day). The MillenniumDevelopment Goals of the United Nations

Lets Discuss

Study the Graph 3.2 and do the following: Identify the three states where the

poverty ratio is the highest. Identify the three states where poverty

ratio is the lowest.

calls for reducing the proportion of peopleliving on less than $1 a day to half the1990 level by 2015.

Lets Discuss

Study the Graph 3.4 and do the following:

Identify the areas of the world, where

poverty ratios have declined.

Identify the area of the globe which has

the largest concentration of the poor.

45

50

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

5

0

Percentageofpeople

below

povertyline

47.2

42.6

37.436.1

34.4

31.2

27.1 26.125

21.120

15.8 15.314

12.7

8.7 8.2 7.66.2

3.5

Orissa

Bihar

Madhy

aprade

sh

Assam

Tripura

TamilNad

u

UttarP

radesh

AllInd

ia

West

Bengal

Maharasht

ra

Harya

na

Jammu&Ka

shmir

Andh

raPrades

h

Karnata

ka

Rajasth

an

HimachalP

radesh

Gujarat

Kerala

Punjab

Delhi

Graph 3.2: Poverty Ratio in Selected Indian States, 19992000

Source: Economic Survey 200102, Ministry of Finance, Government of India

Table 3.2: Poverty: Comparison amongSome Selected Countries

Country % of Population below $1 a day

1. Nigeria 70.8

2. Bangladesh 36.0

3. India 35.3

4. Pakistan 17.0

5. China 16.6

6. Brazil 8.2

7. Indonesia 7.5

8. Sri Lanka 5.6

Source: World Development Report, 2001.


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Source: World Development Indicators 2005, The World Bank.

Source: World Development Indicators 2005, The World Bank.

Graph 3.3: Share of people living on $1 a day, 19802001

0

10

40

20

50

30

60

70

1981 1990 2001

China

East Asia &

Pacific

South Asia

Sub-Saharan AfricaSub-Saharan Africa

South Asia

China

Latin American & Carribean

Latin American & Carribean

East Asia &

Pacific

Per

cen

tage

Years

1981

China

East Asia &Pacific

others

Sub-Saharan Africa

South Asia

1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1999 20010

500

1000

1500

2000

Milli

ons

2500

Years

Graph 3.4: Number of poor by region ($ 1 per day) in millions


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38 Economics

Causes of Poverty

There were a number of causes for the widespread poverty in India. One

historical reason is the low level ofeconomic development under the Britishcolonial administration. The policies ofthe colonial government ruined traditionalhandicrafts and discouraged developmentof industries like textiles. The low rate ofgrowth persisted until the nineteen-eighties. This resulted in less jobopportunities and low growth rate ofincomes. This was accompanied by a highgrowth rate of population. The two

combined to make the growth rate of percapita income very low. The failure at boththe fronts: promotion of economic growthand population control perpetuated thecycle of poverty.

With the spread of irrigation and theGreen revolution, many job opportunities

were created in the agriculture sector. Butthe effects were limited to some parts ofIndia. The industries, both in the publicand the private sector, did provide some

jobs. But these were not enough to absorball the job seekers. Unable to find proper

jobs in cities, many people started workingas rickshaw pullers, vendors,construction workers, domestic servantsetc. With irregular small incomes, thesepeople could not afford expensive housing.

They started living in slums on theoutskirts of the cities and the problemsof poverty, largely a rural phenomenonalso became the feature of the urban

sector.Another feature of high poverty rateshas been the huge income inequalities.One of the major reasons for this is theunequal distribution of land and otherresources. Despite many policies, we havenot been able to tackle the issue in ameaningful manner. Major policyinitiatives like land reforms which aimedat redistribution of assets in rural areashave not been implemented properly and

effectively by most of the stategovernments. Since lack of land resourceshas been one of the major causes of

poverty in India, proper implementationof policy could have improved the life ofmillions of rural poor.

Many other socio-cultural andeconomic factors also are responsible forpoverty. In order to fulfil social obligationsand observe religious ceremonies, peoplein India, including the very poor, spend alot of money. Small farmers need moneyto buy agricultural inputs like seeds,fertilizer, pesticides etc. Since poor peoplehardly have any savings, they borrow.Unable to repay because of poverty, they

become victims of indebtedness. So thehigh level of indebtedness is both thecause and effect of poverty.

Anti-Poverty Measures

Removal of poverty has been one of themajor objectives of Indian developmentalstrategy. The current anti-povertystrategy of the government is based

broadly on two planks (1) promotion of

economic growth (2) targeted anti-povertyprogrammes.

Over a period of thirty years lastingup to the early eighties, there were littleper capita income growth and not muchreduction in poverty. Official povertyestimates which were about 45 per centin the early 1950s remained the same evenin the early eighties. Since the eighties,Indias economic growth has been one ofthe fastest in the world. The growth rate

jumped from the average of about 3.5 percent a year in the 1970s to about 6 percent during the 1980s and 1990s. Thehigher growth rates have helpedsignificantly in the reduction of poverty.

Therefore, it is becoming clear that thereis a strong link between economic growthand poverty reduction. Economic growth

widens opportunities and provides theresources needed to invest in humandevelopment. This also encourages people


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to send their children, including the girlchild, to schools in the hope of getting

better economic returns from investing in

education. However, the poor may not beable to take direct advantage from theopportunities created by economicgrowth. Moreover, growth in theagriculture sector is much belowexpectations. This has a direct bearingon poverty as a large number of poorpeople live in villages and are dependenton agriculture.

In these circumstances, there is aclear need for targeted anti-poverty

programmes. Although there are so manyschemes which are formulated to affectpoverty directly or indirectly, some of themare worth mentioning. National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act(NREGA) 2005

was passed in September 2005. The Actprovides 100 days assured employmentevery year to every rural household in 200districts. Later, the scheme will beextended to 600 districts. One third of theproposed jobs would be reserved for

women. The central government will alsoestablish National EmploymentGuarantee Funds. Similarly stategovernments will establish StateEmployment Guarantee Funds forimplementation of the scheme. Under theprogramme if an applicant is not providedemployment within fifteen days s/he will

be entitled to a daily unemploymentallowance. Another important scheme has

been the National Food for Work Programme

(NFWP), which was launched in 2004 in150 most backward districts of thecountry. The programme is open to allrural poor who are in need of wageemployment and desire to do manualunskilled work. It is implemented as a100 per cent centrally sponsored schemeand foodgrains are provided free of costto the states. Once the NREGA is in force,the NFWP will be subsumed within thisprogramme.

Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana (PMRY)is another scheme which was started in1993. The aim of the programme is to

create self-employment opportunities foreducated unemployed youth in rural areasand small towns. They are helped insetting up small business and industries.Rural Employment Generation Programme(REGP)waslaunched in 1995. The aim ofthe programme is to create self-employment opportunities in rural areasand small towns. A target for creating 25lakh new jobs has been set for theprogramme under the Tenth Five Yearplan. Swarnajayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana(SGSY) was launched in 1999. Theprogramme aims at bringing the assistedpoor families above the poverty line byorganising them into self help groupsthrough a mix of bank credit andgovernment subsidy. Under the PradhanMantri Gramodaya Yozana (PMGY)launched in 2000, additional centralassistance is given to states for basicservices such as primary health, primaryeducation, rural shelter, rural drinking

water and rural electrification.Anotherimportant scheme is Antyodaya AnnaYozana (AAY) about which you will bereading more in the next chapter.

The results of these programmes havebeen mixed. One of the major reasons forless effectiveness is the lack of properimplementation and right targeting.Moreover, there has been a lot ofoverlapping of schemes. Despite goodintentions, the benefits of these schemes

are not fully reached to the deserving poor.Therefore, the major emphasis in recent years is on proper monitoring of all thepoverty alleviation programmes.

The Challenges Ahead

Poverty has certainly declined in India.But despite the progress, povertyreduction remains Indias mostcompelling challenge. Wide disparities inpoverty are visible between rural and


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40 Economics

Summary

You have seen in this chapter that poverty has many dimensions. Normally, this ismeasured through the concept of poverty line. Through this concept we analysedmain global and national trends in poverty. But in recent years, analysis of poverty isbecoming rich through a variety of new concepts like social exclusion. Similarly, thechallenge is becoming bigger as scholars are broadening the concept into human

poverty.

urban areas and among different states.Certain social and economic groups aremore vulnerable to poverty. Poverty

reduction is expected to make betterprogress in the next ten to fifteen years.

This would be possible mainly due tohigher economic growth, increasing stresson universal free elementary education,declining population growth, increasingempowerment of the women and theeconomically weaker sections of society.

The official definition of poverty,however, captures only a limited part of

what poverty really means to people. It isabout a minimum subsistence level ofliving rather than a reasonable level ofliving. Many scholars advocate that wemust broaden the concept into humanpoverty. A large number of people may

have been able to feed themselves. Butdo they have education? Or shelter? Orhealth care? Or job security? Or self-

confidence? Are they free from caste andgender discrimination? Is the practice ofchild labour still common? Worldwideexperience shows that with development,the definition of what constitutes povertyalso changes. Eradication of poverty isalways a moving target. Hopefully we will

be able to provide the minimumnecessary in terms of only income to allpeople by the end of the next decade. Butthe target will move on for many of the

bigger challenges that still remain:providing health care, education and jobsecurity for all, and achieving genderequality and dignity for the poor. These

will be even bigger tasks.

Exercises

1. Describe how the poverty line is estimated in India.2. Do you think that present methodology of poverty estimation is appropriate?3. Describe poverty trends in India since 1973.4. Discuss the major reasons for poverty in India.

5. Identify the social and economic groups which are most vulnerable to povertyin India.

6. Give an account of interstate disparities in poverty in India.7. Describe global poverty trends.8. Describe current government strategy of poverty alleviation.9. Answer the following questions briefly

(i) What do you understand by human poverty?(ii) Who are the poorest of the poor?(iii) What are the main features of the National Rural Employment

Guarantee Act 2005?


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References

DEATON, ANGUSAND VALERIE KOZEL (Eds.) 2005. The Great Indian Poverty Debate.

MacMillan India Limited, New Delhi.Economic Survey 20022003. Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi.

(Chapter on social sectors, [Online web] URL: http://indiabudget.nic.in/es_200203/social.htm)

Economic Survey 20042005. Ministry of Finance, Government of India, New Delhi.(Chapter on social sectors, [Online web] URL: http://indiabudget.nic.in/es_200405/social.htm)

Mid-Term Appraisal of the Tenth Five Year Plan 20022007. Planning Commission,New Delhi. Part II, Chapter 7: Poverty Elimination and Rural Employment,[Online web] URL: http://www.planningcommission.nic.in/midterm/english-pdf/chapter-07.pdf

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005. [Online web] URL: http://rural.nic.in/rajaswa.pdf

Tenth Five Year Plan 20022007. Planning Commission, New Delhi. (Chapter 3.2,Poverty Alleviation in Rural India: Strategy and Programmes, [Online web] URL:http://www.planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/fiveyr/10th/volume2/v2_ch3_2.pdf

World Development Report 20002001. Attacking Poverty, The World Bank, OxfordUniversity Press, Delhi.

Class9 Economics Unit03 NCERT TextBook English Edition

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