1)Capital -New Delhi.

2)Largest city -Mumbai.

3)Official Language(s) -Hindi, English.

4)Demonym -Indian.

5)President -Pratibha Patil.

6)Independence -From U.S.

a)Declared -15 August 1947 .
b)Republic -26 January 1950 .

7) Population -2011 Census -1,210,193,422 .

Poverty is one of the main issues, attracting the attention of
sociologists and economists. It indicates a condition in which a
person fails to maintain a living standard adequate for a
comfortable lifestyle.
Though India boasts of a high economic growth, it is shameful
that there is still large scale poverty in India. Poverty in India can
be defined as a situation when a certain section of people are
unable to fulfill their basic needs. India has the world's largest
number of poor people living in a single country. Out of its total
population of more than 1 billion, 350 to 400 million people are
living below the poverty line. Nearly 75% of the poor people are
in rural areas, most of them are daily wagers, landless laborers
and self employed house holders. There are a number of reasons
for poverty in India. Poverty in India can be classified into two
categories namely rural poverty and urban poverty.
High population growth.
Illiteracy.
Large families.
Caste system.
Presence of malnutrition, illiteracy, diseases and long
term health problems.
Unhygienic living conditions, lack of proper housing,
high infant mortality rate, injustice to women and
social ill-treatment of certain sections of society.
 The government of India has been trying its best to
remove poverty. Some of the measures which the
government has taken to remove rural poverty are:
Small farmer’s development Programme.
Drought area development Programme.
Minimum needs Programme.
National rural employment Programme.
Assurance on employment.
Slow job growth.
Failure of PDS system.
Lack of proper housing facilities.
Unhygienic environments.
No social security schemes.
Lack of opportunity to quality health and educational
services.
Nehru Rozgar Yojna.
Prime Minister Rozgar Yojna.
Urban Basic services for the poor Programme.
National social Assistance Programme.
 Now you would have understood, why some people are
so poor in India. Why we see beggars and paupers in
the city. Its time to think about ways to remove poverty
in India. We have given considerable thought to this
point and found Ten ways to remove poverty in India.
Help Feed Poor people – Whenever you see someone poor,
hungry or begging, try to give something to eat to that
person. If he is a professional beggar, then he will not take
food. But most of the time he is a poor person who would get
some energy, vitamins, protein by eating food. Try offering a
glass of milk to a rickshaw puller.
Donate medicines – If you see some sick poor person, do
not shy away from buying some medicines for him. If you
come across a poor person, talk to him and try to find if
someone is sick in his household. Do you know there are
many times some people sick in the household of a poor
person that they spend all their earning on their sickness. If
you step in and offer to buy a few medicines for that sick
person, the poor family can sail through that hardship easily.
Next time you come across your servants, maid, driver etc ask
if they have someone sick in the family.
Provide Education – You will agree with me that education
bridge the gap between a poor and rick person. Whenever
you see some child working on a shop, ask him if he would
like to study. Ask him what is his daily earning. Talk to his
boss, if he can attend a part time or evening school. Believe
me if only one person in a poor family acquires education, he
can bring the whole family out of poverty.
Employ poor – Whenever you are hiring someone for a job,
try to find his financial background. If two persons are
similar in merit, then try to hire the financially poorer one. I
am not saying that we need to discriminate against rich
people. Rather we have to give first chance to a poorer
person. If one poor person gets a job, he can feed a family
and establish a prosperous household.
Give small loans – Often poor people get into some
business and find it hard to raise loan. At times there are
small sums as little as Rs. 2000 that can lead to the failure of
their business. At this point they do not get loan as they do
not have any collateral. There are many organizations like-
Kiva.org where you can find such people who are looking for
small loans. Believe me they are more genuine than the big
sharks like- Satyam Chief, Harshad Mehta, Telgi like people
who have usurped our hard earned money. So try to give
small loans to poor people through micro finance schemes.
Visit Villages & Remote Areas – Next time when you plan
your summer or winter vacation, try to visit some village near
to the hill station or beach where you are staying. Just for
getting some insight take a small walk to a village and talk
with local people. Ask about their local conditions, weather,
school, job, agriculture etc. You will get a good information
about their living conditions. And then, you can take a
conscious decision to help them.
 Buy from Unorganized Sector – Today we all are running towards brand
names, showrooms and malls. Whenever we buy things from organized sector
like established brands, showrooms, malls etc the money flows towards the
people who are getting richer. Often money also goes out of India to the
countries like China that are exporting these things to us. Well, I am not against
this flow of money. But give it a thought, if you are buying 10 things, buy at least
1-2 things from unorganized sector also. Do not look at the unorganized sector
as local things. Give them a chance.
 Talk to Poor People – Well, you are rich or at least richer than a poorer person.
In my experience, most of the rich persons are also more educated than a poor
person. Education is one of the important factor that distinguishes you from a
poor person. Now, if you really want to help reduce poverty, try devoting some
time to impart education to poor people. If you are too busy to give a formal
education to a poor person, just devote a few minutes telling them about
important things in day to day life that you know. Like- while riding a rickshaw,
try to talk to the rickshaw puller. Tell him about new govt policies or schemes
that are there for every one. Tell him about RTI. You may think that RTI is
irrelevant to rickshaw puller. Well there are so many things you have read in
your school about Africa and South America that may look irrelevant to yor life
now. But this is called education. You are trying broaden the outlook of a
person. You are increasing his scope of thinking. I mean there are many things
that look unimportant but can add value to a person’s experience.
Share with Poor people – If you believe in God, you would
be thankful to him for giving you such a wonderful life free
from poverty. But being thankful is not enough. Every
religion teaches to share things with others. Well this good
deed becomes multiple times if we share our happiness and
prosperity with those who are less fortunate than us. If you
share a box of sweet with your colleague, it may be normal
thing with him. But if you share a box of sweet with poor
person it would be great source of happiness to him.
Volunteer Some Time – If you are not too busy in your life,
devote some time towards volunteering for raising the
standard of poor people. You can associate with some
organization, or you can just start giving some lessons to a
poor kid around you. You can devote some time towards
hospitals for poor. You can volunteer towards mess for poor
people. You can go and teach in the school of poor children.
 But these processes can be helpful only if the policies
go to those people for whom it is meant. The clash
between the central government and the state
government often results in the lack of
implementation of these policies. So it is very
important that the governments do not play power
politics when it comes to a serious issue such as
poverty.