Q9 · UPSC Civil Services Mains 2016 · GS I · 12 marks · 3 min read

← Q17 Q9 →

"An essential condition to eradicate poverty is to liberate the poor from the process of deprivation." Substantiate this statement with suitable examples.

Topic: Women, Population and Urbanisation. Syllabus: Role of women and women’s organization, population and associated issues, poverty and developmental issues, urbanization, their problems and their remedies. Same official PYQ from year-wise 2016 and Women, Population and Urbanisation.

Revision summary

Poverty lasts because exclusion from land, papers, health, and voice repeats every year. Rural landless, displaced Adivasis, and undocumented slum tenants show the process in concrete lives. Gendered care work passes deprivation to the next generation. MGNREGA, NFSA, FRA, RTE, and SHGs try to break links of that chain. Income support without rights leaves the process standing.

Model answer

Flow diagram

flowchart TD
  D[Deprivation process] --> A[No land papers wage]
  D --> H[Hunger illness no school]
  A --> P[Persistent poverty]
  H --> P
  L[Rights assets voice] --> F[Liberation from trap]

Conclusion

  • Substantiate with a chain: asset, wage, nutrition, school, papers, voice—and name one rural and one urban example.
  • Stress that charity or a one-time subsidy does not end poverty if the process of exclusion stays intact.

Eradicating poverty means stopping the machine of deprivation, not only topping up income for a season. Land, work rights, food, school, identity papers, and panchayat voice are the locks to open, as Indian programmes show when they are actually delivered.

Quick related

Students also ask

PYQ trend

When UPSC asked this

Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.

  1. 2019 · Q9 · GS I · 10 marks

    "Empowering women is the key to control population growth." Discuss.

    View answer →

  2. 2018 · Q9 · GS I · 10 marks

    'Despite implementation of various programmes for eradication of poverty by the government in India, poverty is still existing'. Explain by giving reasons.

    View answer →

  3. 2018 · Q14 · GS I · 15 marks

    "The ideal solution of depleting ground water resources in India is water harvesting system." How can it be made effective in urban areas?

    View answer →

  4. 2018 · Q18 · GS I · 15 marks

    'Women's movement in India has not addressed the issues of women of lower social strata.' Substantiate your view.

    View answer →

  5. 2017 · Q17 · GS I · 15 marks

    What characteristics can be assigned to monsoon climate that succeeds in feeding more than 50 percent of the world population residing in Monsoon Asia? (250 words).

    View answer →

  6. 2015 · Q9 · GS I · 12 marks

    Critically examine whether growing population is the cause of poverty OR poverty is the mains cause of population increase in India.

    View answer →

  7. 2015 · Q10 · GS I · 12 marks

    How do you explain the statistics that show that the sex ratio in Tribes in India is more favourable to women than the sex ratio among Scheduled Castes?

    View answer →

  8. 2015 · Q12 · GS I · 12 marks

    Discuss the positive and negative effects of globalization on women in India?

    View answer →

More from this topic

Q17 · UPSC Mains 2025 · GS I · 15 marks

Discuss the distribution and density of population in the Ganga River Basin with special reference to land, soil and water resources.

Women, Population and Urbanisation

The Ganga plains from western Uttar Pradesh through Bihar to the Bengal delta are among the world’s densest rural regions. Alluvial soil, shallow water and a long growing season explain that density. Himalayan hills and some dry western margins of the basin are thinner. The same water that feeds the field produces flood, and some groundwater is now chemically unsafe. Cities on the corridor are the urban expression of the same fertile strip.

Q19 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS I · 15 marks

Globalization has increased urban migration by skilled, young, unmarried women from various classes. How has this trend impacted upon their personal freedom and relationship with family?

Women, Population and Urbanisation

Globalisation pulled young unmarried women into urban garments, care, hospitality, and IT-enabled work. The stream cuts across classes, from professionals to shop-floor workers. Personal freedom grows through wages, delayed marriage, and city skills. It remains bounded by curfews, street risk, precarious contracts, and digital surveillance by kin. Families often allow the move for remittances while keeping honour and marriage as levers. The relationship is renegotiated. It is not simply broken and not simply liberated.

Q8 · UPSC Mains 2024 · GS I · 10 marks

Distinguish between gender equality, gender equity and women's empowerment. Why is it important to take gender concerns into account in programme design and implementation?

Women, Population and Urbanisation

Gender equality is sameness of rights and opportunities in law and public life. Gender equity uses special measures because starting points and unpaid care are unequal. Women’s empowerment is agency over body, income, voice and movement. Article 15(3) allows special provision for women; CEDAW and SDG 5 frame empowerment as a process. Gender-blind schemes leak through male capture, unsafe access and digital exclusion. Design and implementation need data, safety, childcare and control of the benefit by the woman herself.

Toppers' copies

Toppers' copies for this question will be uploaded soon.