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Addressing the Success of Poverty Reduction Efforts in India

Poverty reduction efforts in India
Poverty reduction efforts in India have seen vast improvements in the last decade. Historically, the country has seen poverty across the nation, including lack of education, lack of proper hygiene and low gross domestic product (GDP) compared to its growing population. In the last decade, economic reform and poverty reduction efforts in the southern regions of India have made poverty reduction in the nation a strong force, improving its Multidimensional Poverty (MDP) ranking and doubling India’s GDP.

Vast Improvements in the Southern States

The MDP ranking is “an international measure of acute poverty,” which is based on three measures: health, education and living standards. In the last decade, India has seen its raking increase from 54 of 102 countries to 26, a rather significant jump, which equals approximately a 34 percent decline in poverty. It seems that this decline in poverty was due to the high performance of five southern states: Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

These states have an average MDP of nine percent, while India has a national average of 21 percent. The states with the lowest MDP percentage are Kerala, with an MDP of one percent, and Tamil Nadu, with six percent. Interestingly, many states in India are significantly above the national average–for example, Rajasthan (31 percent) and Bihar (43 percent)–but the promising performance in the southern states lowers the national average, showing the positive effects of poverty reduction efforts in India.

How Poverty Reduction Efforts in India Are Helping

One reason for this decline in poverty is an improvement in public facilities. Improvement in public facilities accounts for the improved quality of life and can create spillover into other areas, such as healthcare and education.

Until recently, many areas of India, including many in the southern states listed above, did not have school, health care, a post office or clean drinking water. Many of these problems have begun to be remedied.

Improvements in poverty reduction efforts in India can be seen in different ways across poorer areas of India. For example, in Surguja, most children go to school now and most families have a “job card.” Other regions, such as Uttar Pradesh, have not made nearly as much progress and many other areas are somewhere in between.

Economic Reform in India

Improvements have also been seen in India’s GDP over the last decade, with a near doubling of national income reaching $7.98 trillion. Economic reform in the nation have led to improvements in poverty reduction efforts in India. The vast array of economic reform that has taken hold of India seems to be one of the reasons for this improvement, allowing India to begin to lift its citizens out of poverty.

An example is the Green Revolution. A push for food production within the nation itself first made India reach a self-sufficient food supply, then made the nation a surplus producer of food, allowing it to export food for greater income. Additionally, India became the world’s largest rice producer in 2015.

Another example of economic reform was introducing cell phones to rural areas of India which allowed individuals to be globally connected, facilitating entrepreneurship and migration opportunities for historically cut-off areas of India. According to the CATO Institute, economic reform in India has helped reduce the number of individuals in poverty by 150 million.

While there is definitely still work to do, India seems to be on a progressive path to poverty reduction. Through economic reform measures and improved quality of life, India is giving its citizens a pathway out of poverty.

– Katherine Kirker
Photo: Flickr

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10 Extremely Relevant Facts About Poverty in Bangalore

Bangalore
Bangalore (officially called Bengaluru) is the capital city of the state of Karnataka in India. Bangalore is known as the fastest-growing city in India and India’s “Silicon Valley.” The rapid growth of Information Technology (IT) and business process outsourcing (BPO) has marked the city with the global economy. With massive growth comes a downside: one-fifth of Bangalore’s population lives in slums.

In 2017, Bangalore had an estimated population of 12.34 million and nearly 25 percent of this population live in slum areas. A rapid shortage of housing and increased demand for manpower in the city has led to the growth and emergence of slums in Bangalore. Here are 10 facts about poverty in Bangalore.

10 Facts About Poverty in Bangalore

  1.  A study titled, “Slums and Urban Welfare in Karnataka’s Development” notes that twenty percent of the city’s population, or around 2.2 million people, live in slums.
  2. The number of slums in Bangalore has grown from 159 in 1971, to over 2000 slums (notified and non-notified) in 2015. Those living in slums accounted for just over 10 percent of the city’s population in 1971 and an estimated 25 to 35 percent in 2015.
  3. Per the survey conducted by Karnataka Slum Development Board 2011, there are 2,804 slum areas in the state; out of which, 597 slum areas are in Bangalore City. It is estimated that the population of the slums in the state is about 40.50 lakhs, which works out to 22.56 percent of the state’s urban population.
  4. According to the 2007 Karnataka Development Report, Karnataka emerged as a leader in foreign investment, being among the three largest recipients of foreign direct investment (FDI) among Indian states. Despite being the largest recipient of FDI, Karnataka has seen growing unemployment, larger numbers to the unorganized work-force and deepening urban poverty.
  5. In Bangalore, nearly one million poor live in slums, and about one-third of slum dwellers fall below the poverty line, with a monthly income of less than Rs 2500 ($55).
  6. The poor in Bangalore live in various habitations and spaces: notified slums, (the government is responsible for providing some basic services to notified slums), non-notified slums, temporary squatter colonies, pavements and railway stations or labor camps that are temporary shelters provided by builders to migrant construction workers.
  7. According to a 2017 study, the median household size in the slums of Bangalore is five and 25 percent of the families have a household size of up to 4 members; 75 percent of the slum dwellers have a household size of up to 6 members. The monthly median income of slum dwellers in Bangalore is around 3,000 INR ($47).
  8. A survey conducted by NGO Fields of View (FoV) showed that more than 70 percent of the families in slums live in debt and are trapped in slums with nowhere to go. The study shows that nearly 80 percent of slum dwellers are from the socio-economically deprived Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities, while 11 percent are from forward castes.
  9. The erosion of traditional industries (such as textiles), the decline of the public sector and small-scale industries sector created the urban poor as they lost industrial employment. The rapid expansion of the construction industry and of the almost 100 percent export-oriented, ready-made garment industry, has provided employment to large numbers of poor migrants seeking a living in the city; this “provision,” though, comes with low wages and poor working conditions.
  10. According to the study, it is said that a large number of jobs are now available as drivers of cars and vans run by BPOs and call centers; fleets of rental taxis which serve the new international airport; security and maintenance personnel in malls and supermarkets; low-end jobs in taxi/travel agencies (office boys); and waiters and other support staff in the expanding hospitality industry. Slum dwellers in Bangalore are employed in a wide range of economic activities in the services (auto/bicycle repairing, small eateries, auto-rikshaw driving, head load bearing, domestic work) or in self-employment (pushcart vendors, street side/traffic light sellers, rag pickers and so on).

Room for Improvement

The Karnataka Slum Development Board (KSDB) has succeeded in constructing around 70,000 dwellings for slum-dwellers across the state and 5,000 shelters for people living in slums in Bengaluru. A study indicates that the local activist groups have been somewhat successful in forcing the Government to address issues of housing and other basic amenities. However, for slum residents, government housing projects invariably end up in merely “putting a roof over their poverty.”

As illustrated by these 10 facts about poverty in Bangalore, the rich becoming richer and the poor becoming poorer is a common phenomenon seen in Bangalore. However, ensuring housing is given at low-interest loans, rather than having to fall back on moneylenders, is “one way to improve their standards of living,” said Bharath Palavalli from FoV to The Hindu.

– Preethi Ravi
Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Poverty in Mumbai Everyone Should Know

Top 10 Facts About Poverty in Mumbai
Mumbai is a city with a massive population but, like most of India, it struggles with poverty. Poverty has long been a major concern for the Indian government, but with a consistently growing population, it is becoming increasingly harder to create effective change. Regardless, having all the facts about the city is a good first step to understanding what can be done to improve living standards. The following are 10 important facts about poverty in Mumbai.

10 Facts About Poverty in Mumbai

  1. According to the 2011 census, the population of Mumbai was 12,478,447. Estimates for 2018 put the population around 22 million; however, the next official census is not scheduled until 2021.
  2. In 2016, an estimated 55 percent of Mumbai’s population lived in slums. A slum is an area of dense population typically characterized by poverty, deteriorated housing and buildings and poor living conditions. 
  3. Not all slums are recognized, or “notified,” by the Indian government, meaning residents of “non-notified” slums are not entitled to piped water, toilets, electricity or public transportation. This also allows the government to de-prioritize them in slum improvement schemes.
  4. Almost half of Mumbai’s slums are non-notified, and Mumbai is estimated to have the largest slum population of any city in the world. 
  5. Lack of access to clean water causes various bacterial infections. These can cause mild to severe diarrheal illnesses and, in some cases, mortality through the ingestion of harmful chemicals, toxins and bacteria. These illnesses are particularly prevalent in non-notified slums. 
  6. The Indian government created the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) in 1971. Since then, the SRA has been implementing projects and policies to try and improve the lives of people living in poverty. The SRA website has a record of 1,513 total projects that have been run in cities and villages across India, including many in Mumbai. 
  7. Mumbai also has a large homeless population that is unable to access any housing or places to settle in. According to the 2011 census, over 54,500 people are homeless in Mumbai. 
  8. Mumbai had a 33.4 percent secondary education drop out rate in early 2017. However, there has also been a 20 percent increase in enrollment since 2010. 
  9. The income gap in Mumbai and other parts of India is widening. According to a Maharashtra survey, people in the poorest districts earn only 25 percent of what people in the wealthiest districts do. 
  10. The largest slum in Mumbai is called Dharavi. It is home to about one million people, however many of them are not below the poverty line. While still densely packed, Dharavi is home to middle-class, well-educated residents, and many of them have satisfactory living conditions.

These are the top 10 facts about poverty in Mumbai. While many of them depict poverty and issues that need to be addressed, others point out positive aspects of the city that may not always receive as much visibility. It is important to look at the city’s strengths in addition to its weaknesses in order to gain a fuller understanding of the issue at hand.

– Liyanga de Silva

Photo: Flickr

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Economic Growth in India Helping to Fight Poverty

economic growth in India
India, one of the most populous countries on Earth (around 1.2 billion people), witnessed rapid growth of its GDP over the last two decades, experiencing a surge in economic growth. In fact, income per capita has doubled in 12 years and triggered a solid overall reduction of the poverty rate.

The Central Statistics Organization Findings

According to the Central Statistics Organization (CSO), India’s gross domestic product grew by 6.3 percent, for a yearly rate of 7.1 percent between July and September of 2017; however, corporate earnings are expected to grow by over 20 percent in the financial year of 2017-18.

However, in the prospects of India’s GDP growth, the CSO has also included a slight decrease in the annual rate, which will fall to 6.5 percent in 2017-18. This result is an overall improvement considering that the Indian economy experienced a three-year low rate of 5.7 percent probably due to the implementation of a goods and services tax (GST). 

Positive Outcomes

The general picture, nevertheless, yields incredibly positive outcomes: income tax returns rose 21 percent to 42.1 million in 2016-17, and India gained a position as the third largest startup base in the world with over 4,750 technology startups, 1,400 of which were founded in 2016.

Moreover, the tax collection figures between April-June 2017 show an increase in Net Indirect taxes by 30.8 percent and an increase in Net Direct Taxes by 24.79 percent year-to-year — indicators of steady economic growth in India.

Among the factors that have and continue to contribute to the country’s development, it’s worth noting a few crucial ones i.e. fast-growing population of working age, wage costs and the structure of the legal system.

The presence of 700 million Indians under the age of 35 and steadily growing demographics for the next twenty years demonstrates the increase of the working-age population from 58 percent to 64 percent over the last two decades. Furthermore, many of these people are English speakers which creates a strong legal system and facilitates the attraction of foreign investments, especially from companies specializing in IT outsourcing.

Past and Future Progress

Wage costs are also quite low and the productivity gap between India and other countries has been massively reduced over the last few years. As a result, India’s economy has successfully increased the presence of businesses in the field of technology, an upturn that has created Bangalore as a hub for global software businesses.

This economic growth in India has lent a massive hand towards the reduction of poverty in the country and to the development of living standards of its citizens. While there’s still ongoing debates on what living in poverty means and what threshold we employ to provide an accurate definition of poverty, the number of poor people did in fact drop from more than 400 million in 2005 to 270 million by 2012 — a wonderful omen for today and the future.

While the World Bank still counts many people below the line of global poverty, India’s poverty rate is the lowest among countries with large poor populationS. Overall, the future is bright for this South Asian country! 

– Luca Di Fabio

Photo: Unsplash

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A Need for Change: Top 10 Facts About Poverty in India

facts about poverty in India
India is a South Asian country with one of the fastest growing economies and yet still a large number of inhabitants living in poverty.

The Top 10 Facts About Poverty in India

  1. According to a survey done by CNN, only five percent of India’s surveyed population made enough to pay taxes, 2.5 percent owned a vehicle and less than 10 percent had a salaried job.
  2. With such economic struggles, literacy is extremely uncommon in rural areas. Only 3.5 percent of students in India graduate and about 35.7 percent of the population doesn’t know how to write or read.
  3. In 2012, there were 270,000,000 — or one in every five —  impoverished Indians; 80 percent of these poor Indians lived in rural areas.
  4. Twenty-one percent of poor Indians have restrooms, 61 percent have electricity and only 6 percent have tap water.
  5. With poverty affecting Indian lives so much, 38 of every 1,000 babies born in India die before making it to their one-year mark.
  6. The rapid population growth in India is one of the major reasons for poverty within the country. The growth of the population exceeds the rate of growth in the country’s overall income. This heavily affects the poor because population growth creates a need for an increased labor supply, which is a profession with low wage rates.
  7. One of the top 10 facts about poverty in India includes climatic conditions and the effect such impacts have on poverty within the country as a whole. India’s climate is extremely hot, which makes it difficult for Indians to work. This inability, in turn, causes production to suffer and therefore, the income of Indians to suffer as well. Also, there are numerous amounts of floods, earthquakes and cyclones that cause extreme damage to agriculture and infrastructure; all of these conditions make it difficult for people living in poverty.
  8. “Your Article Library” explains that low levels of investment create low income and that the circle of poverty is seemingly never-ending within India.
  9. Business Today explains that India recently accounted for the largest amount of people living below the poverty line; 30 percent of India’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day.
  10. The Huffington Post reveals that 56 percent of Indians (around 680 million people) lack the ability to meet their basic needs. Even the people who are officially above the poverty line (around 413 million people) are still vulnerable to such harsh conditions.

Sooner Rather than Later

With poverty continually taking such a toll on India, it is important to understand that it is a country in need of assistance. Allowing people the ability to see their harsh living conditions is one way to ensure that these top 10 facts about poverty in India improve over time.

– McCall Robinson

Photo: Pixabay

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Poverty in Rural India: Causes and Measures

poverty in rural IndiaIndia has an overall population of 1.3 million, with 900 million people living in rural areas of the country. While the poverty rate has been significantly reduced due to governmental support, factors such as natural disasters, heavy dependence on agriculture and high birth rates have contributed to the continued poverty in rural India that affects around 300 million people.

Farming in India relies heavily on monsoons that bring rainfall and irrigate the land. This means that erratic weather, cyclones, water shortages and droughts all have a huge impact on agriculture and can cause damage to crops.

Environmental factors are not the only causes of poverty in rural India; societal factors play a large role as well. Many people living in rural areas lack the physical ability to work. Individuals may also face problems such as drug addiction or alcoholism. Other factors that increase the poverty rate include a poor educational system, limited access to medical care, poor or non-existent sex education and a lack of available birth control methods.

One main social issue related to poverty in rural India is the custom of child marriage. The legal age of marriage in India since 1978 has been 21 for men and 18 for women. Despite this, about one-third of global child marriages occur in India, and more than 230 million Indian girls marry before they reach 18 years of age.

In rural India, one-fifth of Indian girls are married before age 16 and give birth to their first child before age 18. Child marriages greatly affect Indian women’s physical and psychological health and result in fewer educational opportunities for younger women. It also increases the demands on food and energy as a result of a growing population.

Solutions to this problem include stricter law enforcement against child marriage and proper education regarding family planning for those living in poor socioeconomic conditions in rural India.

While the “green revolution” emphasized the ownership of private land and tried to fairly distribute this land to all individuals, much of the land in remote areas of India is still held by a small group of upper-status people. Large portions of cultivated land belong to a minority upper social class, which includes rich farmers and landlords, and results in a severely uneven distribution of land. In other words, the majority of people own very little land and as such may have to maintain a feudal relationship with rich landlords. Those not in feudal relationships struggle with a low annual income and often with debt, since the harvests from their lands seldom bring a profit. Other issues such as crop patterns, neglect of crop rotation and poor quality materials and technology also influence poverty in rural India.

Due to the high poverty rate, many rural areas in India now have to depend on loans with relatively high annual interest rates. While this seems like a good solution to the poverty crisis and reduces the immediate pressure of economic needs, in the long run, it will negatively affect these rural areas. Such loans lead to future debts and increase the need for funds to pay back the loans.

Better solutions should be adopted to help relieve financial stresses in rural India, such as a compulsory education allowance and poverty subsidies from the local government.

To sum up, poverty in rural India is caused by many factors. Possible solutions to reduce the poverty rate include stronger surveillance of land, stricter enforcement of the legal marriage age, widespread awareness of birth control, better access to medical resources and increased support for low-income families. The more solutions for poverty, the better the prospects for rural India.

– Xin Gao

Photo: Flickr

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10 Facts About Poverty in India

Poverty in India
A young nation with a long history, India has the second-largest population in the world. India is also a regional power with a stable democratic government and an economy that is growing quickly. Despite this, poverty in India is high. This is often portrayed throughout history as “growing pains”. To mitigate these pains, the government is working to diminish poverty in India.

 

Top 10 Facts about Poverty in India

 

  1. In 1947, India gained independence from Great Britain. Its poverty rate at the time of British departure was at 70 percent.
  2. India is the country with the highest population living below the poverty line. Today, the poverty rate in India is 21.1 percent, which is an improvement from 31.1 percent in 2009. India’s estimated population in 2016 was 1.3 billion.
  3. Underdeveloped infrastructure and the medical sector hinders equal access to medical care. People living in developed urban areas have a higher chance of receiving medical attention and are at lower risk of becoming ill compared to people living in rural areas. Less than 20 percent of the rural population of India have access the clean water. Unsanitary water conditions increase the spread of both viral and bacterial infections.
  4. According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a strong supporter of development in Asia, India’s economy grew by 7.1 percent in 2016. The Asian Development Bank began assisting the Indian government with infrastructure and economic development in 1986.
  5. The following four facts highlight the 2016 successes from the joint projects undertaken by the ADB and India beginning in 2010. With the help of the Asian Development Bank, 344 million homes have either gained access or improved access to clean water thank to increased investment in irrigation, water treatment, and sanitation. In addition, 744,000 homes are no longer at risk due to flooding.
  6. To boost economic growth, India and the ADB have constructed or improved 26,909km of roads throughout the country, of which 20,064km are in rural areas, increasing the rural populations’ access to the economy and healthcare.
  7. Thanks to funding from the ADP, the Indian government has been able to build 606,174 units of affordable housing since 2010.
  8. To connect these new houses and improve older structures, 24,183km of power lines were hung or laid, while decreasing India’s carbon footprint by 992,573 tons of CO2.
  9. Independent of the ADB, the Indian government is considering testing a universal basic income program. Each person would receive 7620 Indian Rupees ($113) from the government to spend however they choose. A similar program is being tested by Finland. The aim is to fight poverty in India by relieving pressure on the poor. The cash handout would help to alleviate the pressure of any unforeseen expense. However, opponents fear that their banking systems would not be able to handle the sudden increase in cash flow and that food prices may drastically increase.
  10. To combat black-market corruption and increase tax compliance, the Indian government decided in 2016 to phase out the 500 Rupee and 1000 Rupee notes. All notes were to be deposited within the deadline, and remaining notes would not be considered legal tender.

Poverty in India is slowly but surely being diminished. Careful planning by the government will continue to benefit those stricken by poverty. Proof of this can be seen in the success of the government’s use of invested funds from the ADB. With a growing economy and responsible government, poverty in India will surely continue to decrease.

– Nick DeMarco

Photo: Flickr

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How the Farmers’ Strike is Fighting Poverty in India

Poverty in India
Farmers in the Nashik district of Maharashtra continue to strike, even after a majority desisted their protests once the government agreed to meet 70 percent of their demands. Those demands included a loan waiver and new legislation that would dissipate the neglect in rural areas. Poverty in India is widespread, and 30 percent of the agrarian population contributes to the 1.1 million people living on less than $1.25 a day.

Maharashtra is a state in Western India, where Mumbai is located. Strikers halted the food supply and the skyrocketing prices of goods were emphasized by protesters dumping milk and vegetables into the streets. Even after the government’s compromises, 52,000 acres of land may be taken to build a new highway without guaranteeing jobs for the farmers that it would affect, and stray protests remain. The Mumbai-Nagpur “superhighway” is only one unaddressed issue that has led government resentment to accumulate as much as the farmers’ debt.

India’s environmental policy, which limits pesticide use, has been increasing production prices steadily since the 1970s, and 3.2 million farmers have defaulted on bank loans. Credit delivery is one-fifth of the national average in the Northeast districts uninvolved in the current protests. Only 30 percent of usable farmland across India has irrigation systems in place. While the Maharashtra protesters demanded better cold storage chains and warehouses, they live in the second most populous state in the country. In Southern states, where there is little to no government infrastructure to aid farmers, the misery of rural agrarian areas has manifested as a painful statistic: the world’s highest suicide rates.

In short, poverty all across India is chronically tied to the poor treatment of the country’s farmers. The recent protests may not have solved the problem, but if the government can stay true to the promises they have made, it will be a significant step toward improvement.

Devendra Fadnavis, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, has promised loan waivers by October for the farmers who do not benefit from the institutional credit system, and minimum support prices for agricultural products are being reexamined. A higher price will be set for milk by June, power bills will be subsidized, supply chain management revised and Fadnavis assured protesters that any criminal offenses against them will be dropped.

Maharashtra farmers will be anxiously awaiting the changes promised, and the world will be awaiting any similar political activism that will counter poverty in India through the voices of those rural people most affected.

– Brooke Clayton

Photo: Flickr

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These Publicly Listed Firms Are Fighting Poverty in India

India_businessAccording to the World Bank, 21.3 percent of India’s population lived on $1.90 or less per day in 2011. Since this statistic was released, entrepreneurs in India have established private enterprises that cater to the needs of those living in extreme poverty in India. Over the last year, these private firms have seen great success after going public.

In January 2016, Narayana Health was publicly listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and was immediately valued at $1 billion. Narayana Health was founded in 2000 as a private firm that provided heart surgeries and checkups to low-income individuals at affordable costs.

The expansion of the private firms in the healthcare sector of India, especially the development of firms catering to impoverished communities, is compensating for the lack of government expenditure on public healthcare.

In addition, the World Bank estimates that as of 2014 India only spends 4.7 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on healthcare. Most developed countries spend almost double this percentage on healthcare, with the U.S. at a high of 17.1 percent.

Ujjivan, a private microfinance firm based in India, also went public on April 28 of this year. The financial services firm provides small, interest-free loans to women in poverty. Founded in 2005, Ujjivan is now worth over $600 million (40 billion Indian Rupees) and is expecting to transform into a small bank for the poor.

The firm has also started to give loans to micro and small enterprises, with the aim of reducing poverty in India at the individual level.

These loans allow women and small enterprises to develop their own businesses without having to go through the tedious and often unsuccessful process of obtaining a bank loan. Forbes contributor Nish Acharya reported that “the poorest people in the world, who, contrary to conventional wisdom, had a higher repayment rate than the typical borrower.”

According to Forbes, the “social enterprise” model allows for the business to be more innovative in terms of solutions, as they have the larger focus on raising quality of living standards.

The success of these firms will perhaps become a model for other social entrepreneurs around the world, going beyond alleviating poverty in India.

– Isabella Farr

Photo: Flickr

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Heat Wave in India to Cause Massive Crop Loss


Approximately 300 people have died in the past month as a result of the deadly drought and heat wave in India. A large portion of the nation is undergoing extreme droughts and record-breaking temperatures, with the two hottest months of the year yet to ensue.

India is experiencing one of the worst water crisis it has had in years. A quarter of the population currently suffers from drought due to the failure of the past two monsoons to provide adequate water supply.

Armed guards now protect any water available from desperate farmers who constantly attempt to steal the valuable resource. As Purshotam Sirohi states, “water is more precious than gold in this area.”

Last month, authorities in India had to prohibit large gatherings at water collection sites in order to dispel the water riots. Gates were placed outside of water tankers and the police continually deal with skirmishes over the water supply.

For the past six to eight months, the poorer population has waited outside of water tankers overnight to fill up containers of water. After the water sites began to dry up, this extended to the rest of India as well.

To prevent the situation from worsening, authorities have begun to haul in trucks packed with water to provide for the citizens. However, this cannot alleviate the effect that the drought has on many citizens’ livelihood.

The farmers throughout India rely on the yearly monsoons to produce enough water to satisfy their crops, since the country lacks a highly functional irrigation system. Water shortages for the past two years have caused many farmers’ crops to dry up and the land to become far less arable for future seasons.

The drought and heat wave in India have eliminated many of the key resources that the country is largely dependent on. Those who live in the poorer areas of rural India have taken a significant hit from the rising temperatures and water crisis which has worsened the pre-existing social and economic conditions that these citizens suffer from.

A sizable portion of India’s population of poor rural workers is now migrating toward cities and populated towns to find water and to make up for their financial losses. Although many are able to find work in cities, migration leaves a lack of resources flowing from the rural areas which has a negative impact on the everyday functioning of the country.

However, this drought and heat wave in India has done more than eradicate the crops. The temperatures of over 113 degrees Fahrenheit have caused deaths across the nation. Schools have been forced to close as a result of dangerous conditions and outdoor activities have been temporarily stopped.

Though the citizens have felt the consequences of the extreme heat wave, the hottest months of May and June are still to ensue. There is hope on the horizon, though, as experts in India claim that the coming rainy season is expected to be significantly greater than those in the past.

– Amanda Panella

Photo: Youtube

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