Poverty and Hunger

What the official syllabus says

GPSC Main Examination, Paper V: General Studies-II, (B) Governance and Social Justice:

• Poverty and Hunger: Poverty, inequality, and their developmental implications. Causes, consequences, and strategies to tackle poverty and hunger.

Topics in detail

Concepts

• Absolute and relative poverty; income poverty and multidimensional poverty
• Poverty line: estimates by the Lakdawala (1993), Tendulkar (2009) and Rangarajan (2014) expert groups
• Multidimensional Poverty Index: the global index by UNDP and Oxford (OPHI), and NITI Aayog's national index
• Inequality: Gini coefficient, Lorenz curve; inequality of income, wealth and opportunity
• Hunger and malnutrition: undernourishment, stunting, wasting, underweight, anaemia, hidden hunger (micronutrient deficiency)

Developmental implications

• Poverty traps and intergenerational poverty
• Effects on health, education and productivity
• Inequality, social exclusion and conflict
• Regional disparities and their effect on growth

Causes

• Unemployment and underemployment; low farm productivity
• Unequal ownership of land and assets
• Social exclusion by caste, gender and region
• Health shocks and out-of-pocket spending
• Price rise and food inflation
• Natural disasters and climate stress

Strategies against poverty

• Growth with employment; labour-intensive sectors
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 (100 days of wage employment)
• Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana: National Rural Livelihoods Mission and National Urban Livelihoods Mission
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (housing)
• Financial inclusion: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana; social security schemes
• Direct Benefit Transfer

Social protection

• National Social Assistance Programme (1995): old-age, widow and disability pensions
• Income support to farmers: PM-KISAN
• Urban poverty: slums, street vendors (Street Vendors Act, 2014; PM SVANidhi), migrant workers
• Insurance and pension schemes for the unorganised sector
• Asset-based approaches: land reforms and the Forest Rights Act, 2006
• Gender and poverty: women-headed households and women's self-help groups

Strategies against hunger

• National Food Security Act, 2013: coverage of up to 75 per cent of the rural and 50 per cent of the urban population; Antyodaya Anna Yojana
• Public Distribution System and its reforms: end-to-end computerisation, One Nation One Ration Card
• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (free food grains)
• Integrated Child Development Services and POSHAN Abhiyaan (2018)
• PM POSHAN (school meals)
• Food fortification and crop diversification towards millets
• Sustainable Development Goals 1 (no poverty) and 2 (zero hunger)

Measuring hunger

• Prevalence of undernourishment (Food and Agriculture Organization)
• Global Hunger Index indicators: undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality; debates on its method
• National Family Health Survey data on stunting, wasting, underweight and anaemia

Issues

• Targeting: inclusion and exclusion errors
• Leakages in delivery
• Freebies and fiscal sustainability

Overlaps

Employment, growth and inclusive development are in General Studies-III; Gujarat's own anti-poverty and nutrition measures are on Gujarat: Social Sector, Poverty and Welfare.