NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Social Science Economics Chapter 3 – Poverty as Challenge

Economics is a social science that studies the complete range of factors that affect financial conditions and actions. From production to consumption, economics examines how individuals and organisations use and share the world’s in-demand resources.

The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 bring out one of the most painful challenges of independent India – poverty and its abolishment. The poverty line defines the bare minimum money for a person or a family to meet their daily necessities. Scientists define human poverty by taking the concept from minimum to reasonable living, where everyone has an education, home, health, job security, social inclusion, and there is no child labour. 

Chapter 3 Poverty as a challenge of Class 9 by Extramarks brings forth NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3, which works very well for the students. These solutions by Extramarks help students with answers and help them grasp the concepts quickly. Subject matter experts with years of experience have systematically prepared these solutions so that they can come handy for students to understand and score well.

Extramarks NCERT Solutions provide detailed and authentic answers to all the textbook questions. Through those, the students can understand, remember and retain answers to NCERT questions and thus, perform well in exams

We provide clear, concise explanations of each feature of poverty, especially in the Indian scenario. The team at Extramarks encourage the students to go through the NCERT based syllabus thoroughly and prepare for the CBSE examination. There is a requirement for children to practise essay type answers, and the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 gives sufficient material for the same. 

Extramarks offers a variety of study material to students of all classes. In addition to Class 10 Economics Chapter 5, material such as NCERT books, CBSE revision notes,  CBSE past question papers, CBSE sample papers, and more are readily available at the Extramarks website.

Key Topics Covered in NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3

The tabular representation below covers the topics under this chapter.

Introduction

Every 5th person in India is poor. Poverty is prevalent in our day-to-day lives, where we come across many less privileged people, beggars, daily wage workers, landless farm labour, and children employed in tea shops or hotels. From the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3, we learn that poverty breeds unemployment, malnutrition, illness, illiteracy, and child labour. Their extensive family size does not help the situation any further. According to Mahatma Gandhi, India can be truly independent if we eradicate this human suffering from society. 

Scientific outlook on poverty

In the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3, we often learn that the poor are exploited, ill-treated, and shunned by society. Deprived of basic amenities like food, shelter, drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, electricity and job opportunities, the poor people develop a sense of vulnerability and helplessness, which form the social indicators of human poverty. Social exclusion is  double sworded as it is both a cause and an outcome of poverty. 

In the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3, adverse conditions like a drastic drop in the economy and lack of job opportunities affect the poor as they are the least educated or trained in skilled labour. Moreover, natural calamities like floods, tsunamis, earthquakes etc., also affect the less privileged. With no alternative living conditions, the poor are vulnerable to meeting similar risks repeatedly and in danger of remaining poor in the coming years. 

Definition of the poverty line and poverty estimate

Poverty can be broadly determined by the access to an individual to essential needs of life like food, shelter, fuel, electricity, clothing, footwear, health, and education, as per the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3. When calculated in local currency, we arrive at the minimum income an individual or the family should earn for their sustenance. Each country decides on an imaginary line based on these calculations, called the poverty line, which satisfies the social norms and is in line with its economic development. The poverty line is a dynamic target and varies from country to country and even regions within the same country, based on the culture, traditions, and economic development. In India, too, the cost of living in towns and cities is higher than in rural areas, so the poverty line value is higher as we move from rural to urban regions. These deductions are made based on census data created by the National Sample Survey Organisation. The table below will help students to understand the concept better. 

Estimates of poverty in India

These statistics show that the poverty rate has steadily declined from 45% in 1993-94 to 22% in 2011-12. However, the absolute numbers between 1993-94 and 2004-05 have increased even though the poverty ratio has reduced. These dynamics of poverty reduction are taken up further in this chapter.

Groups most affected by poverty.

The traditional division of society based on caste puts the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribe at the bottom. Economic status-wise, the landless farm labour family in the villages and the casual labour family in the cities are the most poverty-stricken. However, recent studies mentioned in the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 say that other than scheduled tribe families, the remaining three socio groups have improved in their living conditions. But even there, the women, old-aged and the female infants are allowed a lesser share of the resources.

Poverty trend in the world

Considering the World Bank’s reference of $1.90 for minimum living, the ratio of people before this poverty line has reduced from 36% in 1990 to 10% in 2015. The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 describes the more pronounced differential change in China and Southeast Asian countries. The economy grew by leaps and bounds due to massive investments in human resources. Latin America and the Indian subcontinent have also shown a reduction in the poverty ratio. However, the Sub-Saharan region has not shown much progress compared to the rest of the world. In some cases, like in Russia, poverty is a new phenomenon. The United Nations aims to eradicate all kinds of poverty, across the globe, by 2030.

Disparities in poverty

The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 brings out the disparity in the number of poor people across the states of India. Though there has been a substantial improvement in all India level poverty reduction, some states like Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh report a proportion of the poor higher than all of India’s Head Count Ratio of 21.9 %. On the other hand, high farm yields in Punjab and Haryana, investment in human resources in Kerala, land reforms in West Bengal and free food grain distribution in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have combated poverty to a large extent.

Reasons attributed to poverty.

British colonialism clamped down on historical and traditional industries like handicrafts and textiles and created unemployment. Population growing unabated further affected the income of the people. Other factors like insufficient employment through the green revolution and industrialisation, inequality in income and land distribution and non-implementation of land reforms worsened the suffering of the poor. The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 also draws attention to the traditional practices, social obligations and economic conditions that have forced the poor into the vicious cycle of indebtedness, which happens to be both cause and effect of poverty. 

Steps to eradicate poverty

The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 tells us that 60% of India’s population still depends on farming, an industry not growing at the expected rate. Therefore, economic development by investing in human resources and target-oriented anti-poverty programmes are the two focus points for eradicating poverty. Multiple initiatives like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, state-wise revision of daily wages to unskilled manual labour, Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana, Rural Employment Generation Programme, Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, Antyodaya Anna Yojana etc. address the variety of problems associated with poverty.

Futuristic vision and challenges

As per the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3, we can dream of complete poverty eradication by further economic development and effective implementation of the various schemes and initiatives by the government. The immediate target is to provide each citizen with the minimum necessary income and the essential amenities to live a respectable life. Poverty being a moving target, the next step for India is to bring dignity to the poor and provide education, health care, job opportunities, and equal social and gender status in society to the economically backward population.

NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 Exercises &  Solutions

Children are advised to revise notes and go through the Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 questions and answers from Extramarks. The syllabus includes many typical scenarios prevalent in India to make it easy for the children to understand the subject and apply it in their examinations. 

Please click on this link below for important questions and answers from the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 

Apart from this chapter, students may refer to the links given below to access NCERT Solutions for all other classes. 

NCERT solutions class 12

NCERT solutions class 11

NCERT solutions class 10

NCERT solutions class 9

NCERT solutions class 8

NCERT solutions class 7

NCERT solutions class 6

NCERT solutions class 5

NCERT solutions class 4

NCERT solutions class 3

NCERT solutions class 2

NCERT solutions class 1

Key Features of NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3

Extramarks NCERT Solutions provide detailed and authentic answers to all the textbook questions. Through those, the students can understand, remember and retain answers to NCERT questions and thus, perform well in exams

We understand that poverty is the foremost challenge in India today. Some of the critical aspects discussed are:

• Using the poverty line, we can create poverty trends in India and abroad, and it varies between countries based on culture, tradition, urban and rural regions etc.
• The NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 discusses the many issues associated with poverty, like landlessness, malnutrition, unemployment, illiteracy, health problems etc.
• There are certain groups within India where poverty is rampant, and there is a tendency for these socio-economically backward groups to remain poor. For example, the NCERT Solutions for Class 9 Economics Chapter 3 counts the scheduled tribe, scheduled caste, farm labour and casual labour as the poorest of the poor.
• The social outlook on poverty or human poverty is what the government of India is working towards addressing through its many schemes and programmes. With the targeted implementation and close monitoring, the measures should help uplift the poor.