Romanticismo

Poverty is generally described as a lack of income and assets to meet the basic needs of life, which leads to deprivation in human beings. Poverty deprives one with lack of food, nutrition, shelter, education and health and various other material needs. Apart from material deprivation, poverty leads to failure to participate in the various social and economic activities. The poor lack the strength to mitigate against the vulnerability imposed on them.

Income is one of the indicators to measure poverty and it is relatively easier to measure the quantifying extent of poverty. Poverty is measured by what is called the Head Count Ratio, which simply measures the percentage of families with income above the poverty line. The percentage of population living below the poverty line is estimated by using the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) of the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). Based on this survey, the poverty head count ratio differs from state to state. However, the inflation rate plays a vital role in the process of estimation as it differs from commodity to commodity and from state to state. (Luthra, 2005)

There is a serious contention that the actual poverty estimates of the country, particularly of rural areas, might be higher than what is estimated. The Planning Commission set up an expert committee under the chairmanship of Prof. Suresh Tendulkar to work out the methodology for the estimation of poverty. The Tendulkar Committee excluded the calorie norms and introduced a new methodology using implicit prices for estimating the poverty lines and distribution of monthly per capita consumption expenditure, based on a mixed reference period (MRP) of the years 2004 - 200524. This committee used the Fisher Price Index to fix the state rural-urban price differentials (Planning Commission, 2009). According to the Tendulkar Committee, the all India head count ratio using the new poverty line basket of rural poverty had declined from 41.8 percent in 2004- 2005 to 28.3 percent in 2009 – 2010 and urban poverty had declined from 25.7 percent to 20.9 percent respectively. This resulted in an overall poverty ratio of 37.2 percent instead of 27.5 percent as mentioned earlier. Thus an additional 120 million poor had been added (Ramakumar, 2010).

The Planning Commission (2009) significantly raised the poverty line by nearly 50 percent. The urban poverty line was increased from Rs. 578.80 to 859.60 and in the rural areas it was increased from Rs. 446.70 to Rs. 672.80, which means an urban poor person in India who earns less than Rs.29 per day, is termed as very poor and living below the poverty line. At this level of earning with Rs.29 per day in an urban area survival is very difficult. How possible would it have been for these people to consume the estimated food

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Until 1993-94, information on consumption expenditure collected by National Sample Survey Organisation was based on a uniform 30-day recall period for all items of consumption. Since 1999-00, NSSO has used a mixed recall period for collecting information on consumption expenditure from households. Under Mixed Recall Period (MRP), information on five broad item groups of household consumer expenditure with low frequency of purchase (low frequency items for short) namely, clothing, footwear, education, institutional medical care and durables is collected on a year-long recall basis while information on consumption expenditure on all other items is collected on the basis of a month -long recall period. In the case of URP, all information on consumption expenditure is collected on a month -long recall period basis.

equivalent of 2100 calories and provide their family of a minimum of 4 members with basic food, water, shelter, health care and normal education?

According to Chen & Ravallion (2008) states that India’s poverty line is low by developing country standards of the five international official lines. The Expert Group appointed by India’s Planning Commission has recently proposed a new official line for India, which is about US $1.17 a day at 2005 PPP. This is closer to international line of US $1.25 a day (Deaton, 2010). Due to all the factors mentioned above, the research study uses World Bank estimates of US$1.25 per day as a poverty line. In order to analyse the impact of the SHG on poverty level, the net monthly income levels of the SHG members before and after the programme intervention was compared with respect to the value of US$ 1.25 per day which is Rs.65.50 per day (the value of US$ as of December 2011)25. This value is considered as the Poverty Income (as Rs.65.50 for 30 days which is equal to Rs.1965 per month, rounded to Rs.2000). The Net Income is the house hold income of the respondents. This study assumes that increase in net income is a parameter to estimate the poverty. If the Net Income of the SHG members was less than the Poverty Income, they were termed as respondents living below the poverty line and if the Net Income is greater than the Poverty income, the respondents are assumed to be above the poverty line. The Net income after joining the SHG includes the value of the utilization of resources owned by the households along with the income of the respondent, earned from the income generating activities through the help of the SHGs. The result of the analysis shows the Poverty Head Count Ratio before and after joining the SHGs and the impact of the SHG in reducing the poverty level.

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