Poverty, Unemployment and Human Development
This domain tests poverty measurement, the types of unemployment, the idea of human development and the major welfare schemes.
Measuring poverty
The official poverty line was historically based on calorie norms - 2,400 calories in rural and 2,100 in urban areas. The Tendulkar Committee (2009) moved to a mixed reference period and a wider basket; the Rangarajan Committee reported in 2014. NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index follows the Alkire-Foster method, using three dimensions and twelve indicators covering health, education and living standards.
Types of unemployment
Structural (skills and jobs mismatch), seasonal (farm and construction work in slack months), disguised (more workers on a job than needed, typical of family farms), frictional (between jobs), cyclical (recession-driven) and educated unemployment (qualified people without suitable work).
Human development
The Human Development Index has been published by UNDP since 1990, shaped by Amartya Sen and Mahbub ul Haq. It combines life expectancy (health), expected and mean years of schooling (education) and GNI per capita (income). Income alone is not the measure.
Schemes
MGNREGA (2005) guarantees 100 days of rural work; NFSA (2013) provides subsidised food; PMAY addresses housing; Ayushman Bharat (2018) offers health cover; Skill India tackles employability.
Worked example
Classify: (a) five workers on a farm where three would suffice - disguised unemployment; (b) a mason idle during the July rains - seasonal; (c) a graduate jobless for two years - educated unemployment; (d) job losses during a slump - cyclical. Reasoning: identify the cause each time - surplus labour, season, skill mismatch or deficient demand - before naming the category.
Traps that cost marks
Equating disguised unemployment with no work at all; treating HDI as an income-only index; confusing the poverty line with the MPI deprivation threshold.