South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global
poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)
However the 2011 United Nations rural poverty report notes some of India’s exemplary poverty mitigation measures along with the usual areas of concern. The report tells us that every additional million rupees (around US$23,000) spent on rural roads in India during the 1990s was found to lift 881 people out of poverty. Indian villages close to towns and cities have a better record of reducing poverty than others. In India, rapid rural non-farm growth is occurring along transport corridors linked to major urban centres, largely independent of their agricultural base.
According to the report titled Rural Poverty Report 2011: New Realities, New Challenges-New Opportunities for tomorrow's generation, majority of the world's poor are still found in the rural areas despite 350 million rural poor escaping poverty during the past decade. The report has, thus, asked for greater investment in agriculture and efforts to boost livelihoods. (PDF link enclosed below)
India’s casual workers have seen their real wages rise gradually over the years, partly as a result of improved transportation (and other) infrastructure: where infrastructure is better, real wages are higher. The report says that in India ownership of mobile phones has been found to increase women’s economic independence and make it easier for them to travel alone; the mobile phones are worth the equivalent of two to four extra years of women’s education in terms of reducing gender inequalities.
It tells us that South Asia is home for the largest number of poor rural people – about 500 million – of any region or sub-region despite slight fall in rural poverty rates. Four-fifths of all extremely poor people in South Asia live in rural areas.
The report says that due to the doubling of international food prices between 2006 and 2008, about 100 million poor rural and urban people were pushed into the ranks of the world’s hungry. It is calculated that feeding a global population of just over 9 billion in 2050 will require a 70 per cent increase in global food production. It points out that fragmentation has resulted in a rapid decline in average smallholder farm sizes over the past 50 years: in India, for example, average landholding size fell from 2.6 hectares in 1960 to 1.4 hectares in 2000 and it is still declining.
The report conjectures that increasingly volatile food prices, the uncertainties and effects of climate change and a range of natural resource constraints will further complicate efforts to reduce rural poverty.
Taking note of India’s landmark (Mahatma Gandhi) National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), the report says that by 2007/2008 the scheme provided 100 days’ employment to 30 million poor rural households. Decreased out-migration has been recorded in areas where projects have been implemented – along with a rise in agricultural wages owing to a tightening of labour markets in some areas.
Women were 44 per cent of NREGA participants in 2007/2008 in India, and considerably more in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan. Women’s average wages ranged from 47-58 rupees a day in the private labour market to an average of 85 rupees under NREGA.
The report, which has been prepared by the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has found that an overall decline of extreme poverty – people living on less than $1.25 per day – took place in rural areas over the past decade, from 48 per cent to 34 per cent. The report has acknowledged the decline in poverty in rural areas of East Asia, primarily China, where the number of extreme poor fell by about two-thirds over the past decade.
The report says that the fast-growing, large economies like Brazil, China and India are now important pillars of global markets, and massive sources of both demand and supply of agricultural products. India is clubbed together with Pakistan, Philippines and Senegal as transforming economies with high level of hunger and slow progress in improving it. In India, tribal peoples, most of whom live in degraded forest areas, are disproportionately represented among the poor.
Despite massive progress in poverty reduction in some parts of the world over the past couple of decades – notably in East Asia – there are still about 70 per cent of the developing world’s 1.4 billion people living on less than US$1.25 a day, and close to 1 billion people suffering from hunger.
Rural poverty is quite high in sub-Saharan Africa too, which is home to nearly a third of the world’s extremely poor rural people, whose numbers increased from 268 million to 306 million over the past decade. However, Sub-Saharan Africa’s rate of extreme poverty in rural areas declined from 65 to 62 per cent over the past decade.
Salient features of the Rural Poverty Report 2011:
* South Asia is home for the largest number of poor rural people – about 500 million – of any region or sub-region.
* In South Asia, South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, over three-quarters of the poor live in rural areas, and the proportion is barely declining, despite urbanization.
* According to the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), there were half a billion people living on less than US$0.75 a day (may be called ultra-poor) in 2004. Around 80 per cent of these people lived in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and the very poorest overwhelmingly in sub-Saharan Africa; most of them are rural.
* Children are disproportionately among the malnourished, a fact that has severe consequences for their future development and that of their households and societies.
* In all developing regions children in rural areas are more likely to be hungry than children living in cities and towns. In 2008, the ratio was 1.4 underweight rural children for every 1 underweight urban child in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; around 2.5:1 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and in the Middle East; and in East Asia, where the ratio was most unbalanced, children in rural areas were almost five times as likely to be underweight as children in urban areas.
* At least 70 per cent of the world’s very poor people are rural, and a large proportion of the poor and hungry are children and young people.
* There are today approximately one billion poor rural people in the world. Presently, there are still about 1.4 billion people living on less than US$1.25 a day, and close to 1 billion people suffering from hunger.
* Some 3.1 billion people, or 55 per cent of the total population, live in rural areas. However between 2020 and 2025, the total rural population will peak and then start to decline, and the developing world’s urban population will overtake its rural population.
* Today, a little less than 35 per cent of the total rural population of developing countries is classified as extremely poor, down from around 54 per cent in 1988; while the corresponding percentage for the US$2/day poverty line is now just above 60 per cent, down from over 80 per cent in 1988. This is mainly due to a massive reduction in rural poverty in East Asia, where today the incidence of rural poverty is around 15 per cent for the US$1.25/day line and 35 per cent for the US$2/day line.
* Doubling of international food prices between 2006 and 2008 has pushed 100 million poor rural and urban people into the ranks of the world’s hungry.
* The food price hike in 2008 affected people in Asia, which is home to the largest number of hungry people (640 million) and sub-Saharan Africa, which has the highest prevalence of under-nourishment relative to its population (32 per cent).
* An overall decline of extreme poverty – people living on less than $1.25 per day – took place in rural areas over the past decade, from 48 per cent to 34 per cent.
* In sub-Saharan Africa, the number of extremely poor rural people has increased from 268 million to 306 million over the past decade.
* Rural poverty has declined more slowly in South Asia, where the incidence is still more than 45 per cent for extreme poverty and over 80 per cent for US$2/day poverty, and in sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 60 per cent of the rural population lives on less than US$1.25 a day, and almost 90 per cent lives on less than US$2/day.
* In Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa there are only 11 and 6 million people respectively living in extreme poverty
* One study shows that a 1 per cent growth in GDP originating in agriculture increases the expenditures of the poorest 30 per cent of the population at least 2.5 times as much as growth originating in the rest of the economy. Another study shows that agricultural growth is up to 3.2 times better at reducing US$1/day poverty than growth in non-agriculture.
* Fragmentation has resulted in a rapid decline in average smallholder farm sizes over the past 50 years: in India, for example, average landholding size fell from 2.6 hectares in 1960 to 1.4 hectares in 2000 and it is still declining.
* In India, every additional million rupees (around US$23,000) spent on rural roads during the 1990s was found to lift 881 people out of poverty.
* The report has emphasized on increasing the productivity of the poor smallholder farmers and rural entrepreneurs.
References
Despite gains, bulk of world’s poor live in rural areas, UN report finds, The United Nations, 6 December, 2010,
India accounts for 22 per cent of global maternal deaths,
Two more newly released reports on hunger and malnutrition,
Richer states, poor performance, in reducing malnutrition,
