Rural poverty in India c.1

Poverty is an extreme form of chronic deprivation of basic human needs for the sustenance of his life. Whether or not poverty is a symptom of structural crisis of present day socio-economic formations may be debatable but it is unques tionably an outcome of retarded development of the forces of production within the limitations of archaic and stagnant relations of production. Hence, in the case of poverty in rural areas of the developing nations, vast amount of natural and human resources remain untapped for a long time.

The form of poverty available in socio-culturally and economically backward region like Deoria district of Uttar Pradesh is more an expression of immobilization of human, agricultural and industrial resources than anything else. Although, in such a case a proper analysis of poverty would entail a study of the relations of poverty to the social, economic and political system within which the poor are deprived, yet the present study in spite of all limitations offers an account documented within the scope of parameters of geographical analysis.

The chapters of the present work have been prepared with a view to deal with social, economic and cultural dimensions of poverty. In addition to this, various poverty indicators have been identified in order to make classification of the poor, according to the poverty status, possible. The results have shown that about 71% of the population lives under the conditions of poverty, amongst whom the largest section belongs to the class of absolute poverty. Besides, a discussion on offered solutions of poverty problem including the possible alternatives for the removal of poverty has been added keeping in view the various government sponsored programmes to this end. Last but not least, radical changes in the structure of development council in order to create a new people's development council has been proposed. It has been suggested in the present work that this people's develop ment council will go a long way in minimising the intensity of poverty felt in the rural areas to a large extent..