A Review on India's Experience with Poverty since Independence-Conceptual Framework, Trends and Approaches for its Eradication

India’s economic structure has changed dramatically over last 5-6 decades. But the benefits of growth not widely spread to various sections in society, reached only marginally to low income groups .Even more than 60 years after independence from almost two centuries of British rule, large scale poverty remains the most shameful blot on the face of India. Of its nearly 1 billion inhabitants, an estimated 350-450 million are below the poverty line, 75 per cent of them in the rural areas. More than 40 per cent of the population is illiterate, with women, tribal and scheduled castes particularly affected. It would be incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth has been very uneven. Though the middle class has gained from recent positive economic developments, India suffers from substantial poverty. According to the new World Bank's estimates on poverty based on 2005 data, India has 456 million people, 41.6 percent of its population, living below the new international poverty line of $1.25 (PPP) per day. The World Bank further estimates that 33percent of the global poor now reside in India. Moreover, India also has 828 million people, or 75.6percent of the population living below $2 a day, compared to 72.2percent for Sub-Saharan Africa. Inequality increased in recent years after reforms. Income elasticity of poverty has fallen. A given growth will be associated with more limited gains for the poor. Because, of weak participation of poor, limited access to education, land, credit, low agricultural growth, underdeveloped infrastructure such as irrigation, roads, electricity in poorer states. Poverty depends on per capita household income which in turn affected by employment, wage rate, land productivity, industrialization, expansion of service sector and other general growth and distribution factors. In this back ground the present paper made an attempt to analyse causes of poverty, poverty and Poverty Line in India, , Intellectual genesis of poverty, Historical trends in poverty statistics, Measurement of Poverty, Comparison of Poverty after Reforms, estimation of poverty, Alternative Poverty Measures, the factors affecting incidence of poverty and Outlook for Poverty Alleviation. The study is concluded by giving some Long term suggestions for Poverty eradication in future