Tag: inequality

ISSUES RELATING TO POVERTY AND HUNGER

India is a country which suffers a lot due to hunger and poverty. Hunger is very closely related to poverty as poverty is one of the main reasons for hunger. 

Indian economist and philosopher Amartya Sen said that lack of ability to pay for food is obviously caused by poverty.

POVERTY

Poverty is a condition caused due to lack of basic needs of life such as water, health care, food, unemployment etc. It is described as the low income level of people which leads them to poor standard of living. Poverty means that the income level from employment is so low that even the basic human needs are not fulfilled. The impact of poverty on children is substantial. Children who grow up in poverty typically suffer from severe and frequent health problems; infants born into poverty have an increased chance of low birth weight, which can lead to physical and mental disabilities. Poverty is a difficult cycle to break and often passes from one generation to the next. Typical consequences of poverty include alcohol and substance abuse, limited access to education, poor housing and living conditions, and increased levels of disease. 

Hunger and food insecurity are the most serious forms of extreme poverty. To eradicate these issues from society is the prime concern of international organizations.

HUNGER

Hunger is a global problem and a lot of countries are facing this problem. Hunger is a condition where both the adults as well as children do not have access to food and there is a constant decrease in food intake, nutrients, no proper diet is there and some days are even gone without food which eventually leads to their death.

Climate change is also one of the reasons for world hunger. The amount of rain determines the production of crops. Droughts also affects agricultural production and extreme rain also causes flooding that leads to destruction of crops . Use of outdated products, not using better quality seeds also leads to shortage of food and those who are capable and have money buys food even at higher prices, the ones who have to suffer are poor people. They do not have money to buy food and hence they remain hungry. Hunger has a lot of serious problems such as insufficient economic systems, climate changes, misinformation but the most serious problem of all is poverty. Many poor nations such as Kenya, Uganda etc. are in desperate need of food. The growing population is one of the major causes of rising hunger and poverty. In Indian scenario Hunger and malnutrition are closely related. The main outcome of poverty is hunger. India is a home to the largest undernourished population in the world, 14℅ of our population is undernourished, 20℅ of children under 5 are underweight, 34.7℅ of children are stunned, 51.4℅ of women in the in the reproductive age i.e. 15-49 are anemic.

DIFFERENT ISSUES RELATING TO HUNGER AND POVERTY

Overpopulation is a major issue of rising poverty. There are not enough resources to satisfy your need. Demand is more and resources are limited and this leads to no proper distribution of resources and a large amount of people are left with no food. India is a country with a large population, and hence everyone’s demand is not full and people remain hungry.

Poor health service– the health sector of India is not as efficient as compared to other developed Nations, which leads to less access to good health and sanitization and hence causes ill health and maintains poverty.

Malnutrition- It is a phenomena that occurs in a human body when it receives little or no nutrition as a result of it people easily get sick and it causes death. it is responsible for the death of people, especially young children.

Insufficient education and lack of training- due to Rising poverty children are not able to get basic education and again since they are not educated, they don’t get employed and this vicious cycle of poverty is continued. Lack of money is reason for them not attending proper School and they have to indulge in labour to provide for a minimal living also causes rise for child labour. Parents send their children to work at a very young age.

Inequality– different gender, ethnic, group and social classes face inequality due to poverty. Low rate of economic development, If a country is poor then its development is also very slow.

Rise in crime – Often due to poverty and hunger, people indulge in criminal activities. To fill their empty stomach many young children opt for wrong ways and indulge in theft and loot and its disturbance in the society.

Way Forward

To eradicate poverty and hunger from the society, there is a need for the government to implement schemes and methods. The government should spend more in health, nutrition, and education. The government should invest more in agriculture and provide the farmers with better quality seeds and advanced machineries and modern techniques for more agricultural production, Also it is necessary to decrease rural poverty. Subsidies address only short-term issues. There is a need to develop technologies, with the help of which farmers can practice all-weather agriculture. Government should focus on increasing employment opportunities creating jobs in modern sectors and promote labor-intensive industries. Reduction in corruption will lead to an overall development of the economy. A country with low poverty level will only develop in a better manner.

Sources: civilservicesindia.com

A STUDY OF ‘INEQUALITY’

Gender equality and women empowerment can be considered as the two sides of the same coin. Progress toward gender equality requires women‘s empowerment and women‘s empowerment requires increases in gender equality. Inequalities are imposed on females, particularly in patriarchal countries such as in India. These gender-based violence results lowered access to resources such as education, employment, and income, and limits their power over decision making and freedom of movement.

I conducted a survey, which aimed to elicit attitudes and opinions of youngsters towards some areas like women’s rights, role of women in society etc. The twenty responses – including males and females believe in gender equality and they do agree that the treatment towards women are not fair. They are facing troubles in employment, health and education related fields.

All of the respondents disagree to the statement that higher education is more important to the boys than girls. Educating girls saves lives and builds stronger families, communities and economies and an educated female population increases a country’s productivity too. Schools can provide girls with life skills, reproductive health knowledge and a social space to discuss issues. Education is also a key source to an independent life.
Interestingly two of the women who didn’t support the first question are not interested to work outside home. Women is not a commodity to be bought by her husband and made a chef and babysitter. No one can mean that she should be inside four walls as an indoor girl. Women, who choose to work, to the workforce is a benefit to society as a whole. Women think differently and so will contribute to a versatile environment in which new techniques and styles will be implemented. Men and women complement each other, hence working together will produce results which only men, or only women, may not have been able to produce on their own. This does not imply that men and women who work outside the home are allowed to opt out of their responsibilities at home. If both parties were to give their careers as much importance as maintaining stability within the home, we would have a system which isn’t oppressive plus enforces values.

Twenty responses support the concept of gender equality. It is intrinsically linked to sustainable development and is vital to the realization of human rights for all. The overall objective of gender equality is a society in which women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life. Women have made significant progress entering male-dominated jobs like finance, law and medicine–over the past several decades. But still many female-dominated jobs tend to pay less than male-dominated ones, even when skill levels and education requirements are equivalent. All the respondents agree that gender equality is not practicing in the world- but we have progressed. They view that life is generally better for men than it is for women and more changes are needed to achieve equal rights for women.

Girls and women suffer most of the negative impact of rigid gender norms and roles – they are more likely to experience restrictions of their freedom and mobility, they experience epidemic levels of violence and harassment across the globe and have fewer opportunities to choose how to live their lives. Unequal societies are less cohesive. They have higher rates of anti-social behavior and violence. Countries with greater gender equality are more connected. Their people are healthier and have better wellbeing. Parents, government, teachers etc are responsible for ensuring gender equality and the building up of this concept should begin from one’s childhood itself. Gender-based inequalities translate into greater value being placed on the health and survival of males than of females. In general, the report finds that gender inequality is persistent in every domain examined, and women are disempowered both absolutely and relative to men.

Income inequality in India

Shared Moral Blindness - Ted's Thoughts

How has the unpriviliged community in India fared within the last few decades? Has their scenario changed?

There square measure actually several changes that one might observe within the last twenty years. Access to food grains from the general public distribution system at a supported rate has improved; several villages are electrified; a lot of youngsters are attending primary colleges in villages and concrete slums; bathrooms are made in many villages; several currently use mobile phones.

But has there been any important modification within the financial gain of little and marginal farmers among Adivasis and Dalits?

This is in all probability a a lot of complicated question to answer. after we started our journey as development practitioners twenty years past, we have a tendency to had to conduct a village study.

The average financial gain of Adivasi households in an exceedingly village of Bihar’s Lohardaga district (now Jharkhand) was around Rs 15,000 in 1996. This matched with the findings of comparable such studies in different areas of the Central Indian Plateau (CIP) conducted by our peers throughout a similar time.

Similar studies by development practitioners show that across the CIP, the common financial gain of little associated marginal households in an Adivasi space was Rs 55,000-60,000 in 2020 — a rise of just about fourfold from 1996.

The financial gain of those individuals failed to modification abundant within the last twenty years, if we have a tendency to take under consideration the rate. The Net present value (NPV) of Rs 15,000 in 1996 was around Rs 67,000 within the year 2019.

Rising inequality

The scenario changing at the national level?

India’s per capita gross domestic product (GDP) multiplied 5 times between 2000 and 2019; to $2014 in 2019 from $443 in 2000.

This doesn’t mean that financial gain of the complete population has multiplied. The highest one per cent in India attained twenty one per cent of total country’s financial gain in 2019. This was eleven per cent in 1990.

The top ten per cent attained fifty six per cent of the country’s total financial gain in 2019; rock bottom ten per cent attained solely 3.5 per cent.

Wealth distribution tells an analogous story. The richest ten per cent Indians closely-held 80.7 per cent of wealth in 2019.

The Gini (inequality in financial gain distribution) constant points to associate increasing difference in Republic of India. The constant in 2014 was 34.4 per cent (100 per cent indicates full difference and zero per cent full equality).

The constant multiplied to 35.7 per cent in 2011 and to 47.9 per cent in 2018. India is just second to Russia within the world in terms of difference.

Agricultural work is one of the most common way to sustenance in villages. A complete of 26.3 crores households are concerned in farming activities in India, per the most recent census knowledge for 2011.

Of this, only 11.9 crore folks are land-owning farmers; 14.4 large integer are landless staff and peasants. A minimum of 86.2 per cent of all farmers in India own simply 47.3 per cent of the crop area, per the agriculture census knowledge 2015-16.

During 2010-11 and 2015-16, the proportion of tiny and marginal farmers grew to 86.2 per cent from 84.9 per cent, whereas the overall range of operational holdings grew to 146 million from 138 million.

There are 126 million tiny and marginal farmers, that points to fragmentation of lands which a lot of medium farmers have become tiny and marginal farmers. These farmers along in hand concerning 74.4 million hectares of land — or a mean holding size of simply 0.6 hectares every.

Between 2010-11 and 2015-16, the amount of tiny and marginal farmers rose by concerning nine million, per agriculture census 2015-16.

Per capita land holding of rock bottom sixty seven per cent marginal farmers reduced to 0.38 hectares from 0.4 hectares within the last 20 years. The world isn’t enough for farmers to grow food for even six months.

Nearly 17 per cent smallholders have a mean land holding of 0.4 angular distance — a discount of 1.42 angular distance in 2000. The typical holding of scheduled tribe marginal farmers is 0.48 ha; for scheduled Caste, it’s solely 0.37 ha.

The country has another 3.76 crore households of landless laborer within the same time.

Pandemic made it worse

French economic expert Thomas Piketty, in his book Capital in the 21st Century, came up with a straightforward plan to elucidate difference in terms of wealth distribution takes place in associate degree economy.

He believes, once the come back on investments (r) is over the speed of economic process (g) of the country, a lot of wealth gets accumulated within the hands of a couple of (who own the suggests that of production) as compared to the busy category.

Piketty showed that the typical rate of come back on investment was 5 per cent throughout history. He finished that any rate below five per cent can cause a lot of difference as a lot of wealth are going to be generated for a couple of investors as compared to people who don’t own any suggests that of production.

Whether Piketty’s findings, largely supported Europe and also the u. s., are applicable for countries like India where economic history and pathways are totally different, is debatable.

However, a thirty five per cent increase within the web value of the billionaires in India throughout the novel coronavirus malady (COVID-19) pandemic, once India’s growth was negative ten per cent, could force US to assume if Piketty was right.

The approach ahead

India’s economic process has caught up considerably. This can be the time once states ought to invest: cash must move into the hands of the marginalized.

States earn cash through taxation. Increasing tax on the rich folks is that the obvious resolution. Piketty additionally projected the same live to cut back difference. The next rate of tax for billionaires are often the simplest way to get a lot of revenue for the state.

In any case, withdrawal of Central Public Sector Undertakings associate and public sector banks can’t be a permanent resolution in an economy where difference is rising sharply.

There is a desire to trace what’s happening within the economic condition pockets of India. A periodic study could facilitate policy manufacturers to believe the problem a lot of seriously and are available up with higher ideas to cut back inequalities.