Conceptualizing Poverty in India: Issues and Strategies

Abstract

Since independence, addressing poverty has been given due consideration in Indian social policy. Especially, a number of developmental policies have been initiated to improve socio-economic conditions of the poor and women. Yet, even after six and half decades, poverty and many of its faces continue to dictate the terms, derailing a significant portion of population from mainstream social participation. It is estimated that a total of 363 million (29.5 per cent) people are living under the poverty line in India. The magnitude of the problem emphasizes the need to understand complex systems and procedures that create poverty at macro level and at the micro level, to analyze the factors influence poor to chip into poverty vicious cycle for longer periods. Given this backdrop, the paper attempts to conceptualize the multidimensional nature of poverty. It analyzes the phenomenon at global level in general and India in particular; and offers an operational definition to poverty. The paper further analyses a few important poverty reduction strategies put forward by various scholars. The last section attempts establish a link between access to institutional credit and poverty and shows microfinance is an alternative strategy for poverty alleviation. The paper concludes that it is important to address the problem of financial exclusion in order to alleviate poverty.