Poverty and Unemployment:Measurements and trends; identification of BPL families,

The World Bank defines poverty in absolute terms. The bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US$1.90 per day> (PPP), and moderate poverty as less than $3.10 a day. Types of Poverty Absolute poverty measures poverty in relation to the amount of money necessary to meet basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. The concept of absolute poverty is not concerned with broader quality of life issues or with the overall level of inequality in society.

The concept of absolute poverty is based on absolute norms for living (measured in terms of consumption expenditure) laid down according: to specified minimum standard and all such individuals or groups whose consumption expenditure is found to be below this standard are classified as poor. Under the relative concept of poverty, a family (or an individual) is deemed to be poor if its level of income or consumption expenditure falls below a predetermined level.

Poverty in India is measured as the head-count ratio of the population living below the official ‘poverty line’, which is calculated using the methodology prescribed by the Expert Group on Methodology for Estimation of Poverty appointed by the Planning Commission in order to arrive at a threshold consumption level of both food and non-food items. The methodology uses the Consumer Expenditure Surveys (CES) conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of India once every five years to attain the poverty line; and, hence, poverty figures in India are obtained once every five years. The Planning Commission’s latest poverty line, using methodology suggested by the Tendulkar Committee in 2010, is apparently defined as the spending of Rs. 27.20 per capita per day in rural areas and Rs.33.40 per capita per day in urban areas.

Unemployment is a phenomenon that occurs when a person who is actively searching for employment is unable to find work. Unemployment is often used as a measure of the health of the economy.Different types of Unemployment are as follows:-

  • Structural unemployment focuses on the structural problems within an economy and inefficiencies in labor markets. Structural unemployment occurs when a labor market is not able to provide jobs for everyone who is seeking employment.
  • Frictional unemployment is when workers leave their old jobs but haven’t yet found new ones. Most of the time workers leave voluntarily, either because they need to move, or they’ve saved up enough money to allow them to look for a better job.Frictional unemployment is short-term and a natural part of the job search process.
  • Cyclical unemployment is a type of unemployment that occurs when there is not enough aggregate demand in the economy to provide jobs for everyone who wants to work. In an economy, demand for most goods falls, less production is needed, and less workers are needed.
  • Disguised unemployment exists where part of the labor force is either left without work or is working in a redundant manner where worker productivity is essentially zero. It is unemployment that does not affect aggregate output.

 

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