Poverty, Illiteracy, and Unemployment in India: Challenges and Progress

India’s rapid expansion and exponential growth prospects are facing major deep-rooted problems of poverty, inequality, and illiteracy. These are acting as hurdles in achieving its economic and social goals.

The History:

The roots of this can be traced back to British India in the near history, to the Indian kingdoms and princely states. Where there was a feeling of being superior to others creates inequality. With the end of British rule, though India gained its Independence, the aftermath was not that great; we had a country that had been dominated over its natural resources and labor.

India, which was once known as the golden sparrow after its independence, didn’t even have enough to feed its population.

The Present:

There has been an exponential improvement in the economic condition, and the major issues have been acknowledged and worked upon. The government has also managed to tackle these issues to an extent with the introduction of new policies and economic reforms, but considering the size of the population, just doing that much is not enough.
Is it even possible to eradicate these issues?

A society only prospers when people become responsible and selfless. There is a linkage between the three factors that is poverty, inequality, and illiteracy. In a poor society, education is not prioritized due to the scarcity of available resources and the absence of facilities and incentives, which in turn causes illiteracy. This further affects an individual’s ability to make money, keeping him trapped in poverty, and this further creates inequality in the process. There is an interdependence between these three factors. Improvement and development in any of these could result in an overall improved picture as they have a snowball effect on one other.

Here are a few pointers that should be considered; these would help in getting to an ideal scenario where there is the minimum saddle and maximum growth and prosperity; they can be considered as follows,

Allocating the resources on a priority basis:

Due to the limitation of the available resources, the government has to find and allocate resources to the issues which are a priority. For instance, there exists extreme poverty, which is lethal. The government needs to intervene in these areas and put in place policies and schemes to ensure access to the basic essentials of life.

Working in synergy:

For India to achieve its true growth potential and achieve extensive growth, it has to consider the tradeoff between growth and reducing inequality and poverty. This cannot be achieved singlehandedly by the government or by an individual but has to be achieved in a synergy.

Promote education and financial literacy:

The one thing that has been observed in the government’s schemes is that they are only focused on the production side of things: the skilled India initiative, the upskilling platform, and many others; they, in turn, need to also focus on the saving side of things as their spending habits that indirectly affect the financial position

Escaping the poverty trap:

There are three major factors that keep a person from escaping poverty. This includes the absence of basic healthcare, no access to clean water, healthy food, and no access to education. These are the factors that are crucial to resolve, thus breaking the trap of escaping poverty, becoming literate, and achieving equality.

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