Poverty Among Rural Schedule Caste Families in Punjab (India)

In India nearly 32.7 per cent i.e. 40.7 millions population is living below the International poverty line of US$ 1.25 per day. A large portion of rural poor population belongs to schedule castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) and backward communities. These sections of society remain at the bottom of social hierarchy and have been socially deprived, discriminated and exploited by the upper castes since time immemorial. The state of Punjab occupies first position in terms of percentage of SCs to the state population and most of the SCs in the state live in rural areas. Moreover in Punjab state majority of SCs were living under BPL because of over dependence upon agriculture sector, which provides irregular income due to seasonal nature of work. Even after six decades of planning process of economic development and modernization has not benefited these weaker sections of the society. The present book was an attempt to measure the extent of poverty and identify the causes of poverty among these sections of the society for effective policy making for the upliftment of this community in near future.