Poverty – Human Resource Indicator

Poverty can be defined as the state of being with out, often associated with the need, hard ship and the lack of the resources across the wide range of the circum stances, some times poverty can be a very comparative and a subjective term and for various others it can be considered as a moral and an evaluative term and at various other situations, for others it can be a scientifically established term. Poverty can be under stood on the basis of the calorie consumption as it has been very clearly explained by the planning commission of the India as the 2400 calories per the person per day in the rural areas and 2100 calories per the person per the day in the urban areas. Any thing less than this refers to the fact that the person or the individual or as a whole the group of the persons are under the poverty. At various times under the various types of the circumstances, comes up various types of the factors that help and play a critical part in the measurement of the levels of the poverty and on of such things are the monetary yard sticks to measure the poverty. Rs 368 per the person per the month consumption or the income in the rural areas and Rs 559 per the person per the month consumption or the income in the urban areas, was kept as the parameter for the measurement of the poverty. Poverty in the simple words can or actually is to be in a state where one is very poor or extremely poor and the state of being inferior in the quality or the in sufficient in the amount.

Poverty is a very important and a very critical issue in the India, instead of having one of the fastest growing economies in the world. It refers not even having enough money for fulfilling the very basic needs such as the food, the water, the shelter, even the toilets. Many people in the different countries live in the poverty especially in the developing areas of the Africa, the Latin America and even the some parts of the Asia. Poverty is found to be caused by a large no of the factors and one of them is the literacy. Poverty is associated with the under mining of a range of the key human attributes, including the health. The government of the Punjab has been and is still making its best of the best efforts to eradicate the problem of the poverty and then generate the income and then gradually the employment in the state. As per the latest estimates of the poverty for the year 2011 – 2012 prepared by the expert group constituted under the leader ship of the Dr C. Rangarajan, percentage of the population below the poverty line came down the level of the 11.3 percent with the level being of the 7.4 percent in the rural parts of the state and about 17.6 percent in the urban parts of the state vis-a vis 29.5 percent in the India. In the facts that have come up in the various types of the researches that have been carried out for tackling the problem of the poverty, it has come in to the lime light that the state of the Punjab is gradually marching quite ahead of the nation in the tackling of the problem of the poverty and it is at the second place among the various other major states followed by the Himachal Pradesh, which has only 10.9 percent of the people living below the poverty line.

Average monthly per capita expenditure that has been calculated by the national sample survey organization is always widely used as the tool to compare the consumption level in the different states. According to the 68th round of the national sample survey organization that was conducted during the 2011-2012, average monthly per capita expenditure in the Punjab is much better than the country as whole as well as the most of the major states of the country. The average monthly per capita expenditure of the rural Punjab Is Rs 2345, which is significantly higher than the national average of the Rs 1430 and was the second highest among all the major states after the state of the kerala in whose case the average monthly per capita expenditure is Rs 2669. in the urban area average monthly per capita expenditure in the state of the Punjab was Rs 2794 whereas at the national level it was Rs 2630. The ranking of the state of the Punjab at the second place in the rural areas after the state of the kerala and the 5th place in the urban areas proves that lesser the inequality of the income between the rural and the urban areas in the state of the Punjab and the standard of the living of the rural Punjab id comparatively much better and also much improved in the nature compared to the rural areas of all the other states of the India. As all the countries in the whole of the world and then further the various states of all these respective countries have been and are still trying to control the levels of the poverty, in such a similar way the state of the Punjab has also taken various steps and has started various types of the initiatives in this regard, some totally at its level and some with the help of the central government and some them can be named as the follows – the mahatma Gandhi rural employment guarantee act (MG-NREGA), the swaran jyanti gram swarozgar yojana, the national rural livelihood mission, the indra awaas yojana, the swaran jayanti shehari rozgar yojana, the Punjab back ward classes land development and the finance corporation (BACKFINCO) and the Punjab scheduled castes land development and the finance corporation (PSCFC). These projects have helped a great deal in the improvement of the control of the poverty not only for the India but also for the state like that of the Punjab in controlling the problem of the poverty and also by increasing the quality and the levels of the education as by doing this, the problem of the poverty can be controlled in a way.

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) – The government of India had passed the mahatma Gandhi national rural employment guarantee act and this initiative is being implemented in all the districts of the state of the Punjab with effect from the 01-04-2008. The main objective of this scheme is mainly to enhance the lively hood security in the rural areas by providing at least 100 days of the guaranteed wage employment in a financial year to every house hold whose adult members volunteer to do the un-skilled manual work.

Swaran Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) – This is an initiative or a scheme launched by the government of India as an integrated programme for the self – employment of the poor people living in the rural areas. The scheme was launched on 01-04-1999. The swaran jyanti gram swarozgar yojana aims at providing the self – employment to the villagers through the establishment of the self help groups. The activity clusters are established based on the aptitude and the skill of the people which are nurtured to their maximum potential. Funds are usually provided by the various NGO’s, the banks and the various financial institutions.

National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) – This one is the scheme which is one of the world’s largest poverty reduction initiatives. The national rural livelihood mission is the restructured version of the swaran jyanti gram swarojgar yojana (SJGSY), launched recently in the year of the 2011 by the ministry of the rural development, the government of the India and just in order to bring the poorest of the poor above the line of the poverty just by ensuring the opportunities of the lively hood to them. The mission aims to ensure that at least the one member from each rural poor house hold, preferably a woman is brought under the SHG’s will be tied up with the market links and the bank loans so that the products are sold and a regular income is ensured to all the members of this. Investing in the financial literacy and the business planning is the core activity of the SHG’s formation. The government of the state of the Punjab has initiated the process of the implementation of the NRLM in the state with the help of the establishment of the state rural livelihood mission (SRLM) society at the state level. The governing body and the executive committee have also been formed the government of the state of the Punjab, which further will guide the society to perform the various types of the activities under the program or the initiative. As per the various types of the guidelines of the NRLM, every state has to prepare the initial annual action plan and then finally submit the same to the ministry of the rural development, government of the India in order to start with the pilot project. SRLM Punjab has prepared the initial annual action plan for the 14 blocks in the 6 districts of the Punjab. These districts are the tarn taran (khadoor sahib, valtoha and the chohla sahib), gurdaspur (dhariwal and the dera baba Nanak), Patiala (rajpura, sanaur and the pat ran), sangrur (sunam, sangrur and the lehragaga) and the ferozpur (Guru Har Sahai), fazilka (Fazilka and the jalalabad).

The indira awaas yojana – with a view to the meet the needs of the houses of the rural poor, indira awaas yojana (IAY) was launched in the month of the may in the year 1985 as a sub scheme of the Jawaharlal rigger yojana. It is mainly being implemented as an fully independent scheme since 1 January 1996. the indira awaas yojana mainly aims at helping the rural people below the line of the poverty (BPL) belonging to the SCs/STs, free bonded labourers and the non SC/ST categories in the construction of the dwelling units and also to up the gradation of the existing unserviceable kutcha houses by mainly providing the assistance in thee form of the full grant. From the year 1995-1996, the IAY benefits have been extended to the widows or the next of the kin of the defence personnel killed in the action. Benefits have also been extended to the ex-servicemen and the retired members of the paramilitary forces as long as they fulfil the normal eligibility conditions of the India awaas yojana. IAY funds are also being ear marked for the minorities, indira awaas yojana is a centrally sponsored scheme on the 75-25 basis.

Swaran Jayanti Shehari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) – This scheme or the initiative was launched by the government of the India in order to alleviate the index of the poverty in the urban areas. The scheme has mainly five components, these are the urban self employment programme (USEP), urban women self help programme (UWSP), skill training for the employment promotion amongst the urban poor (STEP-UP), the urban wage employment programme (UWEP), urban community development network (UCDN). Now with effect from the April 2014, SJSRY has been replaced with the national urban livelihood mission (NULM), NULM will surely cover all the cities with the population of the one lac or the more besides all the districts head quarter’s town or the cities as per the census conducted in the year of the 2011.

The Punjab backward classes land development and the finance corporation (BACKFINCO) – This type of the initiative provides the loans to the backward classes and the various present minorities whose annual income of the family is less than the level of the Rs 103000 in the urban areas and Rs 81000 in the rural areas.

The Punjab Scheduled Castes Land Development and the Finance Corporation (PSCFC) – The main and the most important aim of this initiative or the corporation is to provide the loans and the subsidy to the poor scheduled caste population.