Poverty and Developmental Issues

What the official syllabus says

UPPCS Main Examination, General Studies I.

Role of Women in society and women's organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies.

This page covers the part on poverty and developmental issues, their problems and remedies.

Topics in detail

Meaning and measurement of poverty

• Absolute and relative poverty; income poverty and multidimensional poverty
• The poverty line and its basis (calorie norm, consumption basket)
• Expert groups: Lakdawala (1993), Tendulkar (2009), Rangarajan (2014)
• Multidimensional Poverty Index: the global index of UNDP and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative; NITI Aayog's national index

Causes of poverty

• Low productivity in agriculture; landlessness; unemployment and underemployment
• Inequality of assets, education and health
• Population pressure; regional imbalance; social exclusion; natural disasters

Programmes against poverty, by type

• Wage employment: Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
• Self-employment and livelihoods: IRDP (1978), Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (2011)
• Food security: the Public Distribution System and the National Food Security Act, 2013
• Housing: Indira Awaas Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana
• Social security: the National Social Assistance Programme (1995)
• Financial inclusion: Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (2014)

Developmental issues

• Growth and development; human development and the Human Development Index (UNDP, 1990)
• Inclusive and sustainable development; the Sustainable Development Goals (2015, 17 goals)
• Regional disparity, rural-urban gap, jobless growth
• Role of the state, NGOs, self-help groups and civil society in development

Inequality

• Income and wealth inequality; the Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient
• Kuznets's hypothesis on growth and inequality
• Inequality of opportunity: education, health, gender and caste

Urban poverty

• Slums, informal work and insecure housing
• Programmes for the urban poor: DAY-National Urban Livelihoods Mission, street vendor support

Remedies

• Raising farm incomes, rural non-farm jobs and skills
• Universal health and education; nutrition for children and mothers
• Better targeting of welfare through direct benefit transfer
• Decentralised planning through panchayats

Overlaps

Inclusive growth and government schemes appear in General Studies III (economy) and General Studies II (welfare schemes, NGOs and SHGs).