Essay On Rural Poverty

A study by Mehta and Shah (2005), using the data of the Planning Commission, found that the incidence of poverty continued to be significant in rural areas vis-à-vis urban areas. They identified six states, namely, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Orissa, as more poverty-stricken and which together accounted for about 72 per cent of India’s poor and half of the total population. The SCs/STs formed the “hard core” of the poverty-stricken population in these six states.

56. Thorat and Mahamallik (2005) observed that there had been a considerable regional variation in the incidence of income poverty for each social group in rural India. The study classified the major states into three categories, namely, low,

A study by Mehta and Shah (2001) found multiple deprivations suffered by historically marginalized groups such as SCs, STs, etc., made it harder for them to escape poverty as different forms of disadvantages tended to be mutually reinforcing. Low productivity of land and labor and hence, lower earnings and wage rates were attributed to the chronic poverty among SC’s/ST’s, especially in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar

60. A study by Krishna, Kapila, Porwal and Singh (2003), covering 20 villages in Gujarat, The study identified a combination of factors as being responsible for households falling into poverty, namely, ill health and heavy health-related expenditure, heavy customary expense on marriage and death feasts, and high interest.

61. Thorat and Mahamallik (2005) in their study, using secondary data, found that lack of access to income earning capital assets like agricultural land, limited employment diversification of rural non-farm sector, less urbanization, lack of human capital and the consequent heavy dependence on agriculture, particularly as wage labor with lower wages, were some of the important factors responsible for the persistently higher incidence of poverty among SCs/STs compared to non-SCs/STs in rural