Browsing by Subject "Poverty"

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    Food security and poverty : a case study of tea gardens in North Bengal
    (University of North Bengal, 2023) Chakraborty, Abhijit; Roy Mukherjee, Sanchari
    Food Security has attracted a lot of interest in the economic literature, especially in recent years1. One of the ways to measure poverty is food security. Since minimum calorie intake is a basis for measuring poverty. Food security on the other hand is defined as “Food security, at the individual, household, national, regional and global levels is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’’2. Thus, if enough food is not available, we would call a certain population food insecure. On the other hand, out of the various measures of poverty the basic needs approach tries to identify the nutritional requirement as per person calorie requirement and then convert it into monetary terms to determine a poverty line(Atkinson 2019). The other method is the capability approach as proposed by Amartya Sen which tries to explain poverty in terms of basic capabilities or functioning. The basic needs approach is an old theory. The poverty literature also identifies the measurement issues under two broad heads one is the direct method and the other is the indirect method. The direct method takes into consideration the shortfall in minimum calorie requirement, whereas the indirect method takes into consideration the income required to satisfy the minimum calorie required3. The minimum calories required for basic sustenance are used as a method for determining poverty lines in many countries4. There is also a vast literature which has tried to identify the relation between food security and poverty(Kakwani and Son 2016). The interest by economists in the hypothesis of calorie intake and its effect on income is central to the efficiency wage hypothesis, proposed by Leibenstein (Leibenstein 1957). The seminal work states that the efficiency of work depends on wages, which comes from nutrition (Dawson, Tiffin 1998) and thereby nutrition will play a major role in the country. Thus, we can claim there is a relationship between poverty and food security. In India, the poverty line is determined using the minimum calorie approach and therefore we state that people falling below a certain calorie norm are considered to be food insecure. The required dietary allowance or the recommended calorie at the poverty line is usually taken from the RDA proposed by ICMR. We use the direct method to determine the extent of poverty and thus food security in our surveyed population. The research hypothesis we propose are: Research Hypothesis • Poverty and food security are related, poverty leads to food insecurity and food insecurity leads to poverty. • Tea gardens of North Bengal exhibit marked regional disparities in terms of food security and poverty • PDS has helped to address the problems of Food Insecurity in the Tea Gardens of North Bengal. • Other determinants of Food Security show that there exists food insecurity in Tea Plantations Research Questions: • What is the present socio-economic status of the Tea Plantation workers in the selected gardens? • What is the role of the public distribution system in India in mitigating food security? • How has the PDS evolved in the tea gardens? • Is Poverty and Food Security related? • Are the people in Tea Gardens suffering from undernourishment? • What are the other determinants of Food Security? We use household-level data to test the hypothesis. We also determined the other factors that might affect food security. We find evidence that food security and poverty are indeed related. Results also show high incidence of undernutrition among the Tea plantations, which is a core indicator of food security. Our analysis suggests among the various determinants of food security, the most important are household size and education.
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    Globalization, Growth, Poverty and Inequality: Perspectives from Eastern Europe and South Asia
    (University of North Bengal, 2015-03) Ray, Ajit Kumar
    There are volumes of literature in search of linkages between globalization and poverty. The pro-globalization advocates argue that it led to faster growth, reduction in poverty and in inequality. The anti-globalization critics argue that it led to slower but more volatile growth, increased poverty and inequality. We examined the claim of positive relationship between growth rate with reduction of poverty and inequality. We find the claim that growth reduces poverty and inequality has not been realized. Moreover, positive growth due to globalization either immiserizes the poor or trickles down benefits insignificantly.
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    Human rights violation : A study of two states of North-East India, Assam and Manipur
    (University of North Bengal, 2021) Guha Roy, Ananya; Ghosh, Maya
    Introduction: Human rights are rights originating from human dignity. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or status”. These are rights to live, liberty and security of person, right to freedom of speech, judicial remedy, freedom of movement, right to take part in the governance of one’s country, etc. The second types of rights are economic and social rights. These are the right to work, right to live with dignity, right to rest and leisure, right to education, equal pay for equal work, right to equality, etc. Here human rights were proclaimed as ‘the highest aspiration of common people’. Hence, protection and maintenance of human rights is a fundamental duty of every government. The concept of human development although can be traced back in early history of humanity in different cultures and religions, has of course, now acquired new interpretations of increasing the capability of human being to take charge of their destiny. Human rights approaches try to address the main causes of development problems. As former Secretary-General Kofi Annan once said, “Human rights can be found at the heart of every major challenge facing humanity”. On the other hand, human development approach is concerned with all the capabilities that people have reason to value. Both the ideas have much in common with the concerns expressed by Declarations of Human Rights. The promotion of human development and the achievement of human rights share, in many ways, a similar motivation and represent a fundamental commitment to securing the freedom, well-being and dignity of individuals in all societies. While human rights embrace the range of social, economic, cultural and political rights, as defined by the international community, human development is about expanding the choices people have to lead lives which they value, the resources to make those choices available and the security to ensure those choices meaningful. According to Amartya Sen, human right and development are indeed mutually compatible. He shows that both share a common goal: enriching the lives and freedoms of ordinary people. The combination of the two perspectives gives us something that neither can provide alone. North-east India, once considered as a ‘paradise’, has now become ‘crisis-ridden’. The root cause of this mess lies in the history, geography and demography of this region. In May,1958 Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the then President of India, in response to the continued unrest in the north-eastern territories of the Union, including self determination activities by Naga tribes that spilled over into the state of Manipur, promulgated the Armed Forces (Assam and Manipur) Special Powers Ordinance. The ordinance entitled the Governor of Assam and the Chief Commissioner of Manipur to declare the whole or any part of Assam or Manipur, respectively, as a “disturbed area”. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act replaced the ordinance later that year. The Act was passed by both houses of Parliament on 18th August, 1958 and received presidential assent on 11th September, 1958.Subsequent amendments to the Act, which mainly dealt with the territorial scope of its application, were enacted in 1960, 1970, 1972 and 1986.Even though there was some resistance within the parliament against the passing of the Act, the majority prevailed and the law was passed. Today the Act is applicable to the north-eastern territory of India, comprising of seven states, namely Assam, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland. The two constituent states of North-east have been selected for study keeping in view the incidents of human rights violation by both state and non-state actors. While the state of Manipur witnesses a kind of state sponsored violation of human rights, in Assam the ethnic insurgency groups are constantly violating the rights of common men with the state in most cases has failed to stand to the occasions. Statement of the Research Problem: We have said earlier that human rights are the basic rights for an individual. These rights are regarded very important for the better living of a person. Today, violation of human rights is seriously taken note of by international bodies. It is in this backdrop that most countries have set up their own independent National Human Rights Commissions. Hence human rights are undeniable and inherent rights of every individual. The North-eastern part of our country is declared as ‘disturbed’ for long. Its human rights situation is rooted in its ethnic and linguistic make-up and in the history of its administrative relationship to the central government of India. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 was implemented to control the insurgents as well as to maintain peace and security in the region. But surprisingly, after its deployment the situation became even worse. The army violates the human rights of the inhabitants by means of torturing, arresting, searching their houses in excuse of suspicion. They harass the female in connection to help the militants by providing shelter. Thousands of cases of rapes and sexual molestations have been reported against the army. But due to lack of proper investigation the victims do not get justice. Several times the civil society raises its voice to repeal the draconian Act. The central government sometimes too feels to withdraw it, but in practice they do nothing. International organizations like United Nations, Amnesty International make some recommendations, still the people of North-east have been deprived of enjoying the basic human rights of them. This encouraged the researcher to study the actual human rights situation in the two North-eastern states i.e. Assam and Manipur. Objectives of the proposed study: The proposed study would explore the situation of human rights in the north-eastern part of India and the situation of Assam and Manipur, in particular. The focus has been restricted only to the political character of the issue. A huge number of publications have made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the human rights climate of these areas. Many of these recommendations focus on the need for investigation of all reported abuses and the amendment or repeal of abusive security regulations. The prime objectives of the proposed study would be to study: a) The extent and nature of violation by armed forces. b) To find out the role of the central government as well as the state government for the development of these regions, the reasons for not getting the benefits provided by the government in the several five years plans. c) To show the regional imbalances that exists in the levels of economic development in India, a country with continental dimensions, not only between different states but also within the states between different districts and regions. Therefore, the planned economic development of the state has brought wide disparities in the socio-economic situation. d) To identify the demands of the insurgency groups. e) To examine the root causes of the inter-ethnic clashes whether it plays the role of a catalyst in increasing poverty. Research Questions: Following are the questions which will be probed for understanding the problem: a) To what extent, human rights and development are linked in the context of North- East India, especially in Assam and Manipur.Manipur b) What has been the exact nature of poverty in the region? Are poverty and ethnic conflicts the roots of human rights violation? c) What has been the role of the state in protecting the human rights of the people of the region and specifically prevent human rights violation during the last three decades? d) Is it possible to identify human rights violation as indexes of a fragile social and economic structure? e) How far the crisis of human development has been accentuated because of colonial legacy of the British rule and the existence of varied religious belief in a multi-cultural context. Research gap: Although lot of studies on human rights as well as human rights violation in different parts of north-eastern India have been carried out by renowned scholars, no systematic and comprehensive study that has touched the actual state of condition regarding human rights violation in north-east, particularly in Assam and Manipur has ever been undertaken. On the basis of the existing review of literatures, we identified the research gap in our study. Studies on human rights violation in North-east India are large in number. But most of them view the situation from one dimension – either from the governmental point of view or from the insurgents. The issue of development is almost ignored in the existing literatures. Considering the massive poverty situation, in comparison to the rest of the country, this study seeks to identify the mutual relationship between development and human rights violation. The proposed study would not only explore the intensities and degree of violence of that region, but also highlights its impact on its people. Moreover, the study looks at the entire situation through an impartial point of view that would help in the formation of public opinion. The proposed study has explored the situation of human rights in the north-eastern part of India, in general and the situation of Assam and Manipur, in particular. The focus has been restricted only to the political character of the issue. A comparative analysis of the human rights situation of the different states of north east India is conspicuously missing in the earlier literature. In our present study, we have compared the human rights situation of Assam and that of Manipur with the help of various parameters. In this connection, the activities of Assam Human Rights Commission and Manipur Human Rights Commission have also been compared. A huge number of publications have made a number of recommendations aimed at improving the human rights climate of these areas. Many of these recommendations focus on the need for investigation of all reported abuses and the (4) amendment or repeal of abusive security regulations. But in true sense, there is a huge gap between theory and practice. All these attempts have not done much to restore the security of the people of those regions. I have given emphasis on the issue of migration which has not been discussed in the previous literature. Although rigorous quantitative analysis is desirable, the absence of a sufficient amount of reliable data does not allow to pursue such an endeavor. Therefore, my analysis is qualitative in nature - often based on anecdotes and careful observations. There are both beneficial and harmful effects on the economy. The immigrants have contributed to the rise of agricultural productivity and by supplying cheap labor in the informal labor market have benefitted the consumers and producers alike. The immigrants do not seem to compete with the native workers who are generally educated and seek employment in the formal labor market. The immigrants have put tremendous pressure on land and environmental problems which have indirect adverse effects on the economy. So we can realize that the issue of migration has played a pivotal role in the socio-economic-political aspect of the north eastern region. Research Methodology: Method of data collection: For this present study data is collected and examined from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include historical archival, various governmental reports, documents of five-year plan and other authentic printed and visual documents. Secondary sources will include the findings of other scholarly studies on the same problem in other parts of the country for the purpose of comparative analysis. Different articles, journals, periodicals and websites are also considered to highlight the human rights situation. The researcher has visited Assam and Manipur several times to acquire a thorough knowledge regarding the actual scenario of human rights there. To collect the accurate data, the researcher has spent long hours in the offices of The Assam Human Rights Commission and Manipur Human Rights Commission. Data Analysing: First, the researcher has shown the descriptive statistics about four important parameters of human rights violation in Assam as well as Manipur. These four important indicators present total complaints, custodial deaths, number of rapes, and number of (5) encounters. In our study, custodial deaths include police custody, judicial custody, and defence or paramilitary custody. The researcher has computed mean of all the above stated parameters to know the average of total complaints, custodial deaths, number of rapes, and number of encounters in Assam as well as Manipur. The researcher has also shown the maximum and minimum values of all the stated parameters to showcase the range or span of all the four indicators under study. The researcher has shown the standard deviation to show the dispersion of each parameter from their respective mean values. Higher value of standard deviation indicates the higher deviation of the cases from their average cases. Apart from the descriptive statistics, the researcher has also used inferential statistics in order to check the hypotheses in the study. As the researcher has made a deliberate attempt to make a comparison between two states which are different from one other; she has taken the help of Independent t test. As the two states are two distinct sample groups, therefore, Independent t test is the most appropriate test in this study. In my study, comparisons between two states have been made on the basis of stated four parameters. First, I have considered the ‘total complaints’ parameter and I have checked the statistical significant difference of ‘total complaints’ between Assam and Manipur and applied the same test in the case of other parameters in my study. Research Findings: Chapter one deals with identifying the research problems and the methodology applied by the researcher for empirical study of the problem identified by the researcher. The researcher has stated the objectives of this research, research questions, hypothesis, detailed the overview of literature available in this field of research and pointed out the research gap in the area. Chapter two deals with the approaches and perspectives of human rights and human development. The first part of the chapter begins with the theory of natural law, followed by a detail understanding of natural rights theory and ends with a brief discussion of the three generations of human rights that is civil-political rights, socio-economic rights and lastly collective-developmental rights introduced by Jurist Karel Vasak. The approaches of human development have been elaborately discussed in the second part of the chapter. The chapter (6) ends with the illustration of the interrelationship between human rights and human development. Chapter three deals with the issues of poverty and development in this region. It analyses the level of achievements in different dimensions of human development across north eastern states. Moreover, this chapter tries to examine the extent of inter-state disparities in economic growth and human development related indictors in north eastern states. Though the region has made improvement with regard to the level of human development in recent time compared to the previous decades, yet its level of achievement in terms of human development is consistently low than that of nation average. Chapter four includes year wise as well as area wise several cases of different forms of human rights violations in Assam. Here we can notice that mainly human rights violations are done by the state police. The numerous numbers of incidents of custodial deaths, torturing, encounters have proved their level of cruelty. Violations against women, like rape, harassment vary from year to year. Chapter five deals with the situation of human rights violation in Manipur in detail. Most of the armed groups fighting for secession have accused the Central Government of exploiting the region’s rich mineral resources, neglecting its economy and flooding the state with migrant settlers. The human rights situation in this region has been aggravated rapidly after the deployment of Indian army to fight against secessionist insurgents. To control the insurgents and to diminish the support they enjoyed, the security forces have indulged in extra-judicial executions, custodial deaths, torture and rape. Moreover, the prolonged application of the security operations, conducted under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), 1958 has not only institutionalized a climate of impunity but has also alienated the public and fuelled a cycle of violence in the region. Chapter six has presented a comparative analysis between the above mentioned two states regarding their respective human rights situations. We have also considered the total number of cases of human rights violations happened in these two states from 2005 to 2018. This chapter has highlighted the responses from national as well as international bodies to control the situation and establish peaceful environment. Conclusion: In conclusion we can say that the profile of Assam shows that mainly the cases of human rights violations have been done by the police and not by the army. It is observed that (7) whereas the police violated human rights 1,112 times during 2005-2018, the army is accused for the same only 13 times. Places like Kamrup, Kacchar, Nagaon have the maximum cases of violations done by the police. In contrast to Assam, Manipur has the highest number of cases of violation of human rights done by the army. Due to unavailability of data regarding human rights violations here, the researcher has to solely depend on the narratives given by the MHRC’s officials and their newsletters. Mr. Khaidem Mani, the present chairperson of the MHRC has presented a detailed narration of the current scenario of human rights situation there. The researcher has observed that there lies statistically significant difference regarding the total number of complaints between Assam and Manipur. Perhaps the main reason behind this is the disfunctionality of the MHRC for a long span of time. I personally have realized that the newly formed commission under the chairmanship of Mr. Khaidem Mani sincerely wants to resolve the cases of human rights violations in this region. Manipur is one of the worst affected states in North-east India where to counter insurgency operations the state acts more cruelly towards the innocent inhabitants. The Indian Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police have been accused of violating human rights of the local people only because of suspecting them as militant. Common people even do not sleep properly at night. Anytime they can come, search their houses, destroy their belongings and pick up their family member for enquiry. Sometimes after interrogating they release that person, in some cases the victim simply ‘disappears’. Thousands of cases of rape, molestation, sexual assault have been done by the army. In terms of HDI ranking Manipur always performs better than Assam. According to the HDI ranking in 1981, 1991, 2001 and 2011 Manipur performs quite well in health and education, but its poor performance in economic attainment has placed its position below in the overall HDI value. Assam has been found consistently to be the poorest performer in the race of human development in recent decades. Uneven human development in this region in terms of health, education and economic outcome is very prominent and high degree of disparity across states is very much visible when examine the human development indicators. The Central Government must take all these issues into account during policy formulation.
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    Poverty in rural Cooch Behar, West Bengal (1999-2005) : role of the non-governmental organisations
    (University of North Bengal, 2008) Ghosh, Koushik; Jana, Arun Kanti
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    Problem of Poverty and the State in Odisha (2000-2010)
    (University of North Bengal, 2017) Pal, Anushuya
    Odisha has been one of the poorest state’s among the 29 (twenty-nine) states in India. Though the incidence of Poverty has come down from 47.15% in 1999-2000 to 39.90% in 2004-05, still the state remains the poorest state among all the major states in India. Various methodologies have been used for the estimation of poverty and from this we have come to deduce that poverty has declined. There are two important reasons that are responsible for the reduction of poverty. Odisha in recent years has experienced economic growth. There has also been intervention of the state through poverty alleviation measures. We argue in this paper that both the factors have contributed to the decline in poverty.
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    Problem of Poverty and the State in Odisha (2000-2010)
    (University of North Bengal, 2014-03) Pal, Anushuya
    Odisha has been one of the poorest state’s among the 29 (twenty-nine) states in India. Though the incidence of Poverty has come down from 47.15% in 1999-2000 to 39.90% in 2004-05, still the state remains the poorest state among all the major states in India. Various methodologies have been used for the estimation of poverty and from this we have come to deduce that poverty has declined. There are two important reasons that are responsible for the reduction of poverty. Odisha in recent years has experienced economic growth. There has also been intervention of the state through poverty alleviation measures. We argue in this paper that both the factors have contributed to the decline in poverty.
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    Study of Female Foeticide as Root Cause of Bride Trafficking in State of Haryana
    (University of North Bengal, 2020-09) Upadhyay, Niteesh Kumar
    Bride trafficking is forced sale, resale and purchase of girls/women in the name of marriage. Girls/women are kidnapped or lured into bride trafficking and sold, re-sold, raped and/or married off without their consent and their roles vary from sexual slavery to performing hard labour all the day, suffering physical and verbal abuse and living a life at the mercy of the men and/or their families who have ‘bought’ them. female foeticide remains the major cause for trafficking of brides in Haryana from other states as beacuse of low sex ratio the number of marraigbale girls in haryana are very less and which create a gender squeeze and force locals to buy brides from other poverty stickenareas.Poverty, lack of parenthood, illiteracy, customs and religious practices, quest for cheap labour, requirement of a servant/slave for the family, kidnapping, etc are some of the important factors, which contribute to the increase in number of trafficked brides in state of Haryana.
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    Survive, Effectiveness and Entrepreneurship among the Marginal Urban Women of Purulia, West Bengal
    (University of North Bengal, 2016) Bhui, Sudip; Sao, Gourav
    Urban population is becoming greater than rural population in coming few decades, in acquaintance of this urbanization, socio-economic elements of our population is going through a transition. Urban women have a liberal, flexible, prosperous setting in their habitation as well as socio-economic atmosphere. People of Purulia town still suffer from caste constrains like untouchabilities, permissive job providing, stigmatized identity in mass interactions in domestic sphere. Women of under this study area keep them active through Mahila Samiti, club memberships, workers union, ceremonial committees, and member of political parties. Their organized behaviors, decision making processes, multifaceted social status come under analysis to delve out the elements, innovations and instrumentalised skill for enhancing women entrepreneurship and welfare in general especially in Indian situation.