Cause of Poverty

The Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that according to 11th Five Year Plan Document, the cause of urban poverty include the following factors:-

i) Structural - which include socially constructed constraints to opportunities for low-income groups;
ii) Influx of a large number of workers to cities without commensurate job opportunities and availability of housing and basic amenities;
iii) High cost of living, including cost of health care and medical facilities, housing, transport and education;
iv) Lack of urban planning, especially that for housing low-income categories and provision of land for informal sector activities;
v) Absence of adequate regulation to protect the economic interest of the poor; and
vi) Lack of involvement of poor in urban planning and developmental process

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, urban poverty is multi-pronged. High spending on health in urban areas is one of the causes of urban poverty. To address the issues of poverty in urban areas, Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is implementing an employment oriented urban poverty alleviation Centrally-sponsored scheme named Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY), on all India basis, with effect from 1.12.1997. The scheme strives to provide gainful employment to the urban unemployed and under-employed poor, through encouraging the setting up of self employment ventures by the urban poor living below the poverty line, and also through providing wage employment by utilizing their labour for construction of socially and economically useful public assets.

She said, the scheme of SJSRY has been comprehensively revamped with effect from 2009-2010. In order to address the issues of shelter and basic services of the urban poor, this Ministry has also been implementing since 2005, the Sub-Mission of Basic Services for Urban Poor (BSUP) under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), catering to 65 identified Cities, and Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP), in cities / towns other than the 65 identified cities. These programmes are aimed at providing basic amenities viz. water, sanitation, primary health, primary education and social security, with decent shelter and security of tenure to slum dwellers/ urban poor.