Poverty Alleviation : An outlook

1. Poverty Alleviation : An outlook SiddharthKharat Deputy Secretary to Govt of Maharastra and Private Secretary to Dr. NitinRaut Minister for EGS and Water Conservation

2. Words from Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore…. Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high Where knowledge is freeWhere the world has not been broken up into fragments By narrow domestic wallsWhere words come out from the depth of truthWhere tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfectionWhere the clear stream of reason has not lost its way Into the dreary desert sand of dead habitWhere the mind is led forward by thee Into ever-widening thought and actionInto that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

3. The Dream • It was a dream of our forefathers who struggled hard to get independence for the country to eradicate poverty, bring all the classes together and march ahead towards prosperity with pride. • It is a dream of Shri APJ Abdul Kalam, Ex President of India that “India will become super power by the year 2020” • It is our constitutional provision in fundamental right to work where all have a freedom of work

5. Poverty is the shortest common thing such as food clothing,shelter and safe drinking water,all of which determine our quality of life.it may also include the lack of access to opportunities such as education and employment which aid the escape

7. Facts & Figures …. As of 2005, 85.7% of the population lives on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day. the Planning Commission of India has estimated that 27.5% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2004–2005. Between 1999 and 2008, the annualized growth rates for Gujarat (8.8%), Haryana (8.7%), or Delhi (7.4%) were much higher than for Bihar (5.1%), Uttar Pradesh (4.4%), or Madhya Pradesh (3.5%).Poverty rates in rural Orissa (43%) and rural Bihar (41%) are higher than in the world's poorest countries such as Malawi. A 2007 report by the state-run National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector (NCEUS) found that 25% of Indians, or 236 million people, lived on less than 20 rupees per day

8. Causes Of Poverty • British policies in India exacerbated weather conditions to lead to mass famines which, when taken together, led to between 30 to 60 million deaths from starvation in the Indian colonies. Community grain banks were forcibly disabled, land was converted from food crops for local consumption to cotton, opium, tea, and grain for export, largely for animal feed. • Unemployment and underemployment , arising in part from protectionist policies pursued till 1991 that prevented high foreign investment. About 60% of the population depends on agriculture whereas the contribution of agriculture to the GDP is about 18%. High population growth rate, although demographers generally agree that this is a symptom rather than cause of poverty. The caste system , under which hundreds of millions of Indians were kept away from educational, ownership, and employment opportunities, and subjected to violence for "getting out of line." British rulers encouraged caste privileges and customs, at least before the 20th century. General Causes…

9. Effects of poverty Health/Well-being Children born into poverty are more likely to havea lower birth weight, high infant mortality andpoorer health than better off children Housing and Homelessness Conditions such as homelessness and chronic over-crowding significantly impact upon a child’sphysical, mental and social development and well-being. Dampness, mould and condensation cancause a range of illnesses such as asthma andallergies.

10. Debt People on low incomes often experience debt. Athird of households with incomes of less thanRs2,00,000 a year have problems with debt. Costsof debt repayments often result in families going without essential items. Other costs of debt arethose incurred on health, relationships and qualityof life. Educational attainment The correlations between poverty, social class andpoor educational experience and attainment havebeen clearly established. Poverty affects thelikelihood of progressing through school to attainformal educational qualifications.

11. Crime • The areas most affected by crime and poor investment in infrastructure are the very areaswhere the poorest children live and are broughtup.  • Participation • Poverty impacts • The opportunities for children and young peopleto participate fully in their communities toengage in social activities • Their education and training and transitions toindependence. • Children and young people living in poor households and their families often experiencedifficulties in accessing and benefiting from services.

12. Relevance of poverty alleviation programmes • The modern economy is not generating enough employment often it Displacesand Replaceslabour with machines and tools. The period of 1999-2000 to 2004- 2005 saw rapid economic growth in the country but it failed to impact the unemployment problem of the country • Further, poverty is not uniformly spread in the country and the levels have not come down significantly in the post-economic reform era. • It is evident that the economic reforms did bring in prosperity to the country, the benefits are not evenly distributed and some are even deprived of the benefits. • Least benefited were the one’s who are below the poverty line (BPL) or the poorest among the poor need more government help.

13. Poverty alleviation programmes The programmes have been broadly classified into: • Self-Employment Programme, • Wage Employment Programme, • Food Safety Programme and • Social Security Programme The focus is on the central government schemes only • There were 244 million rural poor (37 per cent of the rural population) in the country in 1993-94 • In order to enhance their efficacy/ impact on the poor and improve their sustainability anti-poverty programmes for generation of both self-employment and Wage-employment in rural areas have been redesigned and restructured in 1999-2000

14. Self-employment programmes • This programme was started in 1970's in rural areas of the country in the name of Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) to increase the source of income of small farmers and landless labourers. The beneficiaries were given, so that they could find new sources of earning. In this scheme, agricultural labourers and small farmers received new skills to involve in vocations other than cultivating land. • One important factor is the attempt to develop an entrepreneur out of the unskilled landless labourer, who has no experience in managing an enterprise. • But looking within the programme, various studies showed that only one-eighth of the beneficiaries belonged to below poverty line. On the whole, the richest among the poor benefited most and they have the capacity to use credit and technology to their advantage.

15. Swarnjayanti Gram SwarozgarYojana (SGSY) Objective- • To provide sustainable incomes through Micro Enterprises • Focused approach to poverty alleviation • Capitalise on the advantages of group lending • Overcoming the problems associated with multiplicity of programmes • SGSY is a holistic programme of micro enterprises covering all aspects of self employment such as, organisation of the rural poor into self help groups (SHGs) and their capacity building planning of activity clusters, infrastructure build up, technology, credit and marketing the focus is on vulnerable sections among the rural poor with SCs/ STs accounting for 50 per cent, women 40 per cent and the disabled 3 per cent of the beneficiaries

16. Jawahar Gram SamridhiYojana (JGSY) Objective- • The JawaharRozgarYojana (JRY) was restructured to JGSY to impart a thrust to creation of rural infrastructure • creation of demand driven community village infrastructure & durable assets at the village level to enable the rural poor a sustained employment opportunities • The Gram Panchayats can determine their infrastructure needs and implement the programme

17. Mahatma Gandhi-National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MG-NREGA) The UPA-I pioneered the landmark bill for National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005. Central Government is spending over Rs.30,000 crores on this programme. Objective- • Provideslivelihood security in rural areas for 100 days. It was a great boon for the weaker sections, particularly the landless, SC & ST who used to migrate in distress when there was no work in the village. • Empowers the Gram Panchayats to plan and decide how to develop the village using MG-NREGA. • Creates durable assets in the village, leading to improvement in quality of life. • Provides equal opportunities to women and help supply crucially needed flow of funds to rural areas. • Successfully checks migration, increased negotiating ability of farm labourers (due to alternate work available in MG-NREGA)

18. Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) Objective- • The primary objective of the EAS is creation of additional wage employment opportunities during the period of acute shortage of wage employment through manual work for the rural poor living below the poverty line. • The secondary objective is the creation of durable COMMUNITY, SOCIAL and ECONOMIC assets for sustained employment and development. • A maximum of two adults per family are provided wage employment with preference to SC’s/ ST’s and parents of child labour withdrawn from hazardous occupations who are below poverty line.

19. National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) Objective- • A 100 per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme to provide social assistance benefit to poor households in the case of old age, death of primary breadwinner and maternity The three main components of the NSAP are: • National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS) • National Family Benefit Scheme (NFBS) • National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS)

20. Annapurna Objective- • Annapurna to provide Food Security to the senior citizens who are not covered under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and are without income of their own. • Annapurna will provide 10 kg. of food grains per month free of cost to the persons eligible for old age pensions but are not receiving it and whose children are not residing in the same village.

21. DRDA Administration • The District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) is the principal organ at the district level to oversee the implementation of different anti-poverty programmes. • the DRDAs have been conceived to emerge as a specilised agency for managing the Anti-poverty Programmes of the Ministry of Rural Development aimed towards poverty eradication in the district.

22. Rural Housing– Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) Objective- • Action Plan for Social Infrastructure has identified ‘Housing’ as one of the priority areas. It aims at providing `Housing for All’ and facilitates construction of 20 lakh additional dwelling units, of which 13 lakh dwelling units are to be constructed in rural areas.

23. Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) Objective- • DPAP aims at to minimise the adverse effects of drought on production of Crops, Livestock & Productivity Of Land, Water and Human Resourcesultimately leading to the drought proofing of the affected area

24. Desert Development Programme (DDP) Objective- • Combating drought and desertification • Encouraging restoration of ecological balance • Mitigating the adverse effects of drought and adverse edapho- climatic conditions on crops & livestock, productivity of land, water and human resources • Promoting economic development of village community • Improving socio economic conditions of the resource poor and disadvantaged sections of village community such as, assetlessand women

25. Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP) Objective- • Wastelands are being developed with the active Participation User Groups, Self Help Groupsand PRIs. • The projects are sanctioned to DRDAs/ ZPs for five years. • The projects are implemented through the Project Implementing Agencies (PIAs), which can be a Line Department or a reputed NGO having sufficient experience in the field of watershed development.

26. Land Reforms Land reforms have been viewed both as: • A means for achieving redistributive justice and • As means for attaining higher levels of agricultural production and income in the rural areas. • Access to land is still a major source of employment and income in rural areas.

27. Panchayati Raj Institutions Objective- • The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 has given impetus to democratic decentralisation by conferring Constitutional status on the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs). • The Provisions of the Panchayats Act 1996 has extend Panchayats to the tribal areas of eight States, viz; Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Rajasthan. It intends to enable tribal society to assume control over its own destiny, preserve its cultural ethos and conserve its traditional rights over natural resources.

28. Challenges • The Government can make policy and programs for the poor • Adequate support and infrastructure to implement these schemes in 6,40,867 villages across 640 Districts pan India • Provide Training to the implementing agency • Propagate information to the beneficiaries • Participation of people must for poverty alleviation • Provision of funds from time to time for the scheme to reach the last man in chain

29. Key Initiatives for Poverty Alleviation • Involvement of the local communities is key to the success of poverty alleviation programmes. In the absence of community involvement, the programmes are plagued with bureaucratic muddle and corruption at every level. Wage employment is an example to show how too much of administrative interference has led to Underutilization Of Funds, High Administrative Cost, Corruption and Poor Employment Generation. Contrary to the wage employment programme, self-employment programmes like Micro-Credit is successful because of people’s participation in the form of SHGs. • Apart from decentralization and community involvement, participation of the poor in the programme that affects their welfare, is important. • In an era of rapid economic growth, public funding for the social sector has come down drastically.

30. Key Initiatives for Poverty Alleviation • The NGO’s should come forward and perform active role in implementing Government Schemes at grass root level. • People should take initiative to sensitize the potential beneficiaries about various schemes aimed for their betterment • There is a need for the citizens to fundamentally understand Poverty Alleviation as a social need and imbibe sense of pride in uplifting people who are below poverty line. Government alone cannot implement such programs without active participation of the people.

31. Outlook for Poverty alleviation • Poverty alleviation is expected to make better progress in the next 50 years than in the past, as a trickle-down effect of the growing middle class. Increasing stress on education, reservation of seats in government jobs and the increasing empowerment of women and the economically weaker sections of society, are also expected to contribute to the alleviation of poverty. It is incorrect to say that all poverty reduction programmes have failed. The growth of the middle class indicates that economic prosperity has indeed been very impressive in India, but the distribution of wealth is not at all even. After the liberalization process and moving away from the socialist model, India is adding 60-70 million people to its middle class every year. At the current rate of growth, a majority of Indians will be middle-class by 2025.

32. strengthening existing livelihoods • Critical livelihoods are: agriculture, livestock, forestry and non-timber forest produce • Promote institutions around livelihoods • Promote end-to-end solutions, covering the entire value chain • Key – knowledge dissemination. Development of community professionals in a large number

33. The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep. Robert Frost

34. End of Presentation Thank You