povertyinindiaanempiricalanalysis.docVIP

Poverty in India: An Empirical Analysis Bobby Ghosh I have personally visited Calcutta, India, wondering exactly why so many people line the streets in absolute destitution. Seeing homeless and poverty stricken people is sad anywhere in the world; I have seen it in much of the United States and in other countries as well. But nowhere is it as vast and grave a problem as it is in India. Every time someone asks for a few rupees on the street, it is an eye-opening experience that makes you realize how many people in this world are living below the poverty line – with not enough to eat, nowhere to live, no quality of life to speak of. India holds about one sixth of the world’s population, yet is responsible for thirty-five percent of the world’s poverty. If one wants to begin fighting the world’s poverty problems, India is probably the place to start. In the year 2000, twenty-six percent of the people of India were living under the poverty level. This is a fairly shocking statistic, especially when one considers the World Bank definition of poverty – income of less than one dollar a day, per capita. As surprising as this statistic may be, the situation has in fact improved drastically in the last quarter century. In fact, from 1951 to 1974, during India’s first quarter of independence, the poverty rate increased from 47 percent to 56 percent, but the last 25 years have seen this figure drop to 26 percent. (Nathan) With this paper, I seek to understand the determinants of this decreasing yet alarmingly high rate of poverty in India. I will focus on the state-by-state effects, especially as relating to factors such as religion, caste breakdown, proportion of agrarian workers, literacy rate and other demographic factors. In addition, I will examine what has been done in India with regard to hunger and poverty elimination efforts, take a look at what has been successful and what might need to be changed in the future. The problem of poverty in India arises in t