* Poverty projections for 2007Source: Tenth Five Year Plan, Volume I, Planning CommissionThe biggest cities are growing faster than smaller towns. India’s mega-cities have thehighest percentage of slum-dwellers in the country. This indicates that as big cities groweven larger, their slums will swell. While slums have become an important place to reachthe urban poor, even though the urban poor do not all live in slums. The urban poorpopulation in India is estimated to be nearly 8 crores currently, while the slum populationis only 4 crores.Establishing an appropriate poverty line to monitor changes in income poverty is alsodifficult. A poverty line should be set which reflects the income needed to avoiddeprivation within each local context. For urban poverty, at the very least it should reflectthe income needed not only to purchase sufficient food but also to obtain a secure shelterwith adequate quality water, sanitation and garbage collection, to pay for transport andfor keeping children at school, and to afford health care and medicines when needed. The‘non-food’ monetary costs of avoiding poverty are generally higher in urban areas than inrural areas, as access to housing, resources and services are monetized – and usuallyparticularly expensive in larger or more prosperous cities. But very few nations haveincome-based poverty lines that vary from place to place, reflecting differences in theincome needed to avoid poverty. Where there is provision for this, it usually focuses onvariations in the cost of food or variations in what the poorest 20 per cent of householdsspend on non-food items, which is not the same as the income level they need to avoiddeprivation.
The multi-dimensional nature of poverty
Urban poverty is usually characterised by:1.
Inadequate household income
(resulting in inadequate consumption of basicnecessities), sometimes exacerbated by an uneven distribution of consumptionwithin households, between men and women and between adult men and children.2.
Limited asset base
for individuals, households or communities (including bothmaterial assets such as housing and capital goods, and non-material assets such associal and family networks and ‘safety nets’).3.
Inadequate provision of ‘public’ infrastructure and services
(piped water,sanitation, drainage, health care, schools, emergency services, etc.)4.
Inadequate protection by the law
– for instance, regarding civil and politicalrights, health and safety in the workplace, environmental legislation andprotection from violence.5.
‘Voicelessness’ and powerlessness
within the political system – no possibility orright to receive entitlements, make demands within political systems or get a fairresponse.6.
Exploitation and discrimination
(often on the basis of gender, caste, age,ethnicity, etc.)