What is Under-development?

Underdevelopment refers to the low level of development characterized by low real per capita income, wide-spread poverty, lower level of literacy, low life expectancy and underutilisation of resources etc. The state in underdeveloped economy fails to provide acceptable levels of living to a large fraction of its population, thus resulting into misery and material deprivations. Such countries are characterised by relative development gap in comparison to developed countries.

Development Gap

There are wide gaps in the standards of living of the people in different countries. It is so because countries are at different stages of economic development. Development gap refers to the difference between the standards of living of richer and poorer countries of the globe. In other words, it is the difference in the living standards of countries at either end of the income distribution.

There are two main features of underdevelopment as follows:

• Underdevelopment is a relative concept
• Underdevelopment sustains absolute poverty.

Underdevelopment is a Relative Concept

The concept of underdevelopment is a relative one because it is the comparison of quality of life between the economies that differentiates them in underdeveloped and developed.

Underdevelopment Sustains Absolute Poverty

Although, concept of underdevelopment is a relative concept but it sustains absolute poverty. Absolute poverty refers to the state of poverty wherein the people fail to fulfil even their basic needs in terms of food, clothing and shelter. In fact, they are a class of people who are always striving to survive. Thus, underdevelopment and absolute poverty go together or underdevelopment sustains absolute poverty.

Main features of Underdeveloped Economies

It is difficult to find an underdeveloped economy representing all the representative characteristics of underdevelopment. While most of them are poor in nature, they have diverse physical and human resources, socio-political conditions and culture. Some of the common characteristics displayed by most of the underdeveloped countries in the world include low per capita income; low growth in per capita income; economic inequalities; low level of living; low rate of capital formation; old techniques of production; low productivity; high rate of growth of population; higher dependency ratio; underutilization of natural resources; large scale unemployment and underemployment; dominance of agriculture in economy; backwardness in infrastructure and so on.