Poverty, deprivation and inequalities ( Sociology Optional)

There has been poverty in all societies over a long period. However, the ‘extent’ of poverty is more in some countries than others. In India however poverty is a major problem.

Concept of Poverty

The approach to defining poverty has usually been in economic term – the levels of income, property and living standards.
In recent times there are many dimensions that are considered in looking at poverty. It is no longer seen as purely an economic phenomenon.
It is now realised that there are sociological, political, psychological and geographical reasons as well as attitudes or value systems that need to be considered to understand poverty.
Absolute poverty refers to the inability of a person or a household to provide even the basic necessities of life.
It refers to conditions of acute physical wants, starvation, malnutrition, want of clothing, want of shelter, total lack of medical care.
The term “relative poverty” also refers to the fact that different societies have different standards, hence it is not possible to have a universal measurement of poverty.

In a general sense, inequality refers to imbalance in quantity, size, degree, value, or status. This often implies an imbalance in ability or resources to meet a challenge. Inequality in societies in general is manifest in caste, class, gender, and power relations.
In simple societies based on kinship, stratification is evident in status distinctions determined by age, sex, and personal characteristics as among Australian aboriginal community.
Beteille (1969) suggests that two aspects of social inequality deserve mention.
- The first is the distributive aspect which refers to the different factors (e.g. income, wealth, occupation, education, power, skill that are distributed in the population. It provides the basis of inter-personal interactions in society.
- The second is the relational of aspect which refers to the ways in which the individuals differentiated by the different factors relate to each other within a system of groups and categories.
Sociological analysis defines deprivation broadly as inequality of access to social goods. It includes poverty and wider forms of disadvantage. It refers to denial of access to resources required for self-development and fulfilment of basic necessities.

Regional disparity increased in the 1990s with southern and western parts doing better than northern or eastern parts. The economic disparity also increased within states.
The most persistent inequality in India is in the income and distribution of income and resources among the people. This is due to factors like family influence and inheritance etc.
There exists a large scale difference between people employed in the formal and non-formal sector. People received less money in the informal sector when compared to formal sectors.
There have been inequalities faced by various communities in the country. This has often led to various conflicts within groups or between one social group and the other.
People are still fighting on the basis of religion. There exists inequality between these groups on various fronts like employment and education. For instance, upper-caste Sikhs and Christians are more affluent than upper-caste Hindus in both urban and rural areas.
The caste system followed in India has been abolished but only on paper. People still practice the same. There exist wide inequalities between upper caste people and lower caste people.
Social deprivation is viewed as an exclusion of certain sections of society from opportunities indispensable for a healthy and respectable life.

The Human Development in South Asia 1999 reveals situation of glaring poverty, inequality and deprivation in South Asia in general and India in particular.

Poverty benefits the non-poor in general and rich and the powerful in particular. There are a number of functions of poverty:

Poverty ensures that ‘dirty work will get done, there are many menial jobs that have to be done in society. It is the poor who take up such jobs.
Poverty provides a market for inferior goods and services-second-hand clothes, stale food material, poor houses, and services from unqualified persons.
Poverty facilitates a life style of the affluent. The work done by the cooks, gardeners, washermen, house cleaners etc. enable the upper classes to lead a life of comfort.
Poverty provides a group that can be made to absorb the political and economic causes of change.

Planning in India has always had some concern about high levels of poverty. The approach in the earlier plan has tended to deal with the problem indirectly i.e. increasing of GNP, land reforms, provision of services, minimum needs programme etc.
It is in the 6th plan that a specific poverty alleviation programme was initiated. However, there is recognition that the problem is too deep to be solved by a specific programme.

Other targeted programmes are

Eradication of rural poverty from a level of 55 per cent in 1973-74 to around 36 per cent in 1993-94 has been a major achievement of India’s growth strategy that combined accelerated rural growth, both farm and non-farm, and direct attack on rural poverty through various programmes including investment in human development.
States experienced reduction in poverty in varying degrees. It is, however, evident that without growth, any substantial reduction in rural poverty is not possible.
The role of anti-poverty programmes to supplement the growth effort not only is valid in the post-reform period but becomes even greater to protect the rural poor against adverse consequences of economic reforms.