NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 Poverty as a Challenge

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 Poverty as a Challenge are a great way to get experience and learn new things. They provide opportunities to improve your understanding of concepts, as well as practice your problem-solving skills. Also, NCERT Solutions can help you prepare for exams by familiarizing yourself with the format and style of questions. By providing step-by-step solutions to questions, Chapter 3 Class 9 Economics NCERT Solutions help students understand the underlying concepts more clearly.

Class 9 Social Science NCERT solutions can help make learning more exciting by providing a structure to follow and reliable information. This can help students move beyond simply memorizing facts and retain knowledge for longer periods of time. Using NCERT solutions can also help students prepare for exams in a more efficient manner.

Chapter 3 Poverty as a Challenge Class 9 Economics NCERT Solutions

1. Describe how the poverty line is estimated in India?

Solution

An individual is considered poor if he or she does not earn or consume enough to meet basic needs. A minimum level of food, clothing, footwear, fuel, light, education, and medical needs for subsistence is determined in India in order to determine the poverty line. By multiplying these physical quantities by their rupee prices, the poverty line is calculated. A poverty line can be calculated using a variety of numbers. Considering that living in rural areas differs from living in urban areas in terms of economics, the poverty line for people living in rural areas is different than that for those living in urban areas.

2. Do you think that present methodology of poverty estimation is appropriate?

Solution

Currently, poverty estimation is a quantitative concept, so it is inappropriate to use it. It discusses in a concise manner what poverty means to the people. It refers to a minimum level of living, not a reasonable living level. Many economists believe that the concept should be broadened to human poverty. When calculating poverty, factors such as education, health, employment, self-confidence, and equality should be considered as well. The quality of life is determined by these aspects, which are important to measure.

3. Describe poverty trends in India since 1973.

Solution

There is a substantial decline in poverty ratios in India from about 45 percent in 1993-94 to 37.2 percent in 2004-05. The proportion of people below poverty line further came down to about 22 percent in 2011-12. If the trend continues, people below poverty line may come down to less than 20 per cent in the next few years. Although the percentage of people living under poverty declined in the earlier two decades (1973–1993), the number of poor declined from 407 million in 2004-05 to 270 million in 2011-12 with an average annual decline of 2.2 percentage points during 2004-05 to 2011-12.

4. Discuss the major reasons for poverty in India.

Solution

There are various reasons for poverty in India. These are:

Under British rule, economic development was low. The British policies destroyed traditional Indian handicrafts and hindered the growth of industries like textile. This eliminated the source of income for large segments of the Indian population.

Green revolution created many job opportunities the agricultural sector. However, its effects were confined to limited parts of India.

There has been huge inequality in distribution of income in the country. This is mainly because of unequal distribution of land and other resources.

5. Identify the social and economic groups which are most vulnerable to poverty in India.

Solution

Social Groups Vulnerable to Poverty:
(i) Scheduled caste households
(ii) Scheduled tribe households

Economic Groups Vulnerable to Poverty:
(i) Rural agricultural labour households
(ii) Urban casual labour households.

6. Give an account of interstate disparities of poverty in India.

Solution

There are wide disparities in poverty across the country. Recent estimates show that in 20 states and union territories, the poverty rate is lower than the national average. With poverty ratios of 33.7 and 32.6 per cent respectively, Orissa and Bihar remain the poorest states of the nation. There has been a significant decline in poverty in Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and West Bengal. States like Punjab and Haryana have traditionally succeeded in reducing poverty with the help of high agricultural growth rates. Kerala has focused more on human resource development. In West Bengal, land reform measures have helped in reducing poverty. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu public distribution of food grains could have been responsible for the improvement.

7. Describe global poverty trends.

Solution

The proportion of people in different countries living in extreme economic poverty- defined by the World Bank as living on less than $1.90 per day-has fallen from 36 per cent in 1990 to 10 per cent in 2015. Although there has been a substantial reduction in global poverty, it is marked with great regional differences.

Poverty declined substantially in China and Southeast Asian countries as a result of rapid economic growth and massive investments in human resource development. Number of poors in China has come down from 88.3 per cent in 1981 to 14.7 per cent in 2008 to 0.6 per cent in 2019.

In the countries of South Asia (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan) the decline has also been rapid 34 per cent in 2005 to 15.2 per cent in 2014. With decline in the percentage of the poor, the number of poor has also declined significantly from 510.4 million in 2005 to 274.5 million in 2013. Because of different poverty line definition, poverty in India is also shown higher than the national estimates.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, poverty in fact declined from 51 per cent in 2005 to 40.2 per cent in 2018.

In Latin America, the ratio of poverty has also declined from 10 per cent in 2005 to 4 per cent in 2018. Poverty has also resurfaced in some of the former socialist countries like Russia, where officially it was non-existent earlier.

8. Describe current government strategy of poverty alleviation.

Solution

The current anti-poverty strategy of the government is broadly based on many schemes and programmes. Some of them have been mentioned below:

(i) National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) 2005: This programme was launched in 2005 and aimed at providing wage employment for 100 days to every rural household. One-third jobs were reserved for the women.

(ii) National Food for Work Programme (NFWP): This programme was launched in 2004 in 150 most backward districts of country. The programme is open to all rural poor who are in need of wage employment and desire to do manual unskilled work.

(iii) Prime Minister Rozgar Yozana (PMRY): This scheme was started in 1993. It aims at creating self-employment opportunities for the educated unemployed youth in the rural areas and small towns.

(iv) Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP): It was launched in 1995. It aims at creating self-employment opportunities in the rural areas and small towns.

9. Answer the following questions briefly :
(i) What do you understand by human poverty?
(ii) Who are the poorest of the poor?
(iii) What are the main features of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005?

Solution

(i) Human poverty refers to the state of deprivation in society. It reflects the lack of human development. Human Development Index and Human Poverty Index are used to measure human poverty.

(ii) The poorest of the poor are usually old people, women and infant females, who lack equal access to the resources available to their families.

(iii)The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) was passed in September 2005. The main features of NREGA Act 2005 are:

The act provides 100 days assured employment to every rural household in 200 districts.
The central government will also establish National Employment Guarantee Funds.
There is a plan to extend the scheme to 600 districts. One third of the proposed jobs would be reserved for women.
Under the programme, if an applicant is not provided employment within 15 days, he/she will be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.