Previous Year Question
Given below are two statements, one is labelled as Assertion (A) and the other as Reason (R).
Assertion (A): During the 20th century, poverty and poor people have become the subject of our concern and duty.
Reason (R): Strategically there was lack of targeted actions due to which this issue got momentum.
Select the correct answer from the code given below:
Both (A) and (R) are true and (R) is the correct explanation of (A)
(A) is true but (R) is false
Both (A) and (R) are true but (R) is not the correct explanation of (A)
(A) is false but (R) is true
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
Assertion (A) is correct. During the twentieth century, poverty gradually came to be viewed not merely as a private economic condition of individuals but as an important social, economic and public-policy issue.
Governments and international institutions increasingly linked poverty reduction with development policy, social welfare and public responsibility.
Reason (R) is also correct in the context of the question. For a considerable period, there was an absence of sufficiently targeted and systematic interventions to tackle poverty. Consequently, poverty persisted, and its scale made it an increasingly serious policy concern.
During the later part of the twentieth century, clearer and more targeted approaches to poverty eradication emerged, including social protection, employment programmes, basic services, education, health and poverty-specific development programmes.
Poverty reduction subsequently became a major part of the international development agenda. Today, SDG 1 — No Poverty aims to end poverty in all its forms.
Thus, in the logic of the question, the lack of targeted action allowed poverty to persist and gain importance, making poverty and poor people a major subject of public concern and responsibility.