India

POVERTY AND A LOW standard of living have been the bane of Indian society. Famines, natural calamities, infant mortality, and illiteracy have been the fate of the majority of Indians for centuries. During the colonial period, the Indian National Congress outlined a poverty eradication program. After independence, on August 15, 1947, the constitution of the Republic of India clearly spelled out the concept of a welfare state. Indian political leaders have tried to alleviate poverty through various programs, and Prime Minister Indira Gandhi even coined the term garibi hatao (“abolish poverty”). Eradicating poverty, maintaining steady economic growth, and fighting overpopulation have remained India's major goals.

India, with a population of about 1.05 billion, has a population growth rate of 1.55 percent. It belonged to the category of Low Human Development, with an Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.416, 0.443, and 0.481 in the years 1975, 1970, and 1985, respectively. From 1990 onward, it surged to more than 0.500, and it was categorized as a Medium Human Development group with an HDI of 0.519, 0.553, and 0.590 in the years 1990, 1995, and 2001, respectively. The largest number of poor people live in India with a per capita [Page 535]income below $400. About 15 million children are bonded to labor in India. Substantial portions of the population are deprived of the bare necessities of life such as drinking water, healthcare, food, and shelter. India presents a land of contradictions, with skyscrapers and large slum areas in the metropolitan areas. The life expectancy was 62.86 years and the infant mortality rate was 63.19 deaths per 1,000 live births per a 2001 estimate.

Eradicating poverty, maintaining steady economic growth, and fighting overpopulation have remained India's major goals. In urban areas in India, the amenities of modern life coexist with the unmet necessities of those living in poverty.

A slow growth rate until the 1980s did not help government efforts to combat poverty; the increased growth rates of the past decades did not lead to a dramatic decrease in poverty, either. For the first time, assurance of basic minimum needs found an explicit and prominent place in the Fifth Plan. The concept included not only an assurance of purchasing power sufficient to procure a collection of basic items of consumption but also elementary education of all children up to 14 years of age; minimum public health facilities integrated with family planning and nutrition for children; protected water supply; amenities for landless labor; and slum improvement in larger towns, rural roads, and rural electrification. The idea of a direct, targeted poverty alleviation program quickly took root and gained widespread acceptance across the entire political spectrum. Governments at the center and in the states have since vied with each other in increasing allocations and devising new schemes (or the same schemes with different names) under this rubric.

The Planning Commission of the government established a committee in 1993 that recommended the following measures for a wholesome picture of living conditions and well-being of the poor: the composition of the poor population in terms of dominant characteristics, that is, their distribution by region, social group, family characteristics (such as size, education, age, sex of household head, dependency ratio), and the way it is changing over time. Much of this can be done by appropriate [Page 536]tabulation of employment and consumption survey data.

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