Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • Poverty

    Uploaded by

    Ashley Noel
    31 views23 pages

    Original Title

    poverty

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Report this Document

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    31 views23 pages

    Poverty

    Uploaded by

    Ashley Noel

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 23
    POVERTY 4.1 INTRODUCTION if | 4.2 MEANING OF POVERTY | 4.3. WHO ARE POOR? 4.4 MEASURES OF POVERTY: RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE 4.5 CONCEPT OF POVERTY LINE | 4.6 THE NUMBER OF POOR IN INDIA | 4.7 CAUSES OF POVERTY | 4.8 GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO REMOVE POVERTY L 4.9 POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES IN INDIA 4.10 CRITICAL EVALUATION OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES 4.1 INTRODUCTION In the previous chapters, we have studied the economic policies pursued by India after independence and the outcome of these policies, with relation to the various developmental indicators. Providing minimum basic needs to the people and reduction of poverty have been the major aims of independent India. The five year plans have always stressed on upliftment of poor people and achieving a minimum standard of living for all. However, poverty is still one of most serious problem, from which the country is suffering. Poverty is a challenge not only for India, but for the entire world as more than one-fifth of the world’s poor (around 270 million people) live in India alone and are unable to meet even their basic needs. 4.2 MEANING OF POVERTY Poverty is a peculiar problem from which various countries of the world have been suffering There cannot be a common definition of poverty, which can be broadly accepted everywhere. Broadly, it can be said:\Poverty refers to a state in which am individual is unable to fulfill even the basic necessities of life. 44 42 Indian ECONOMIES MeVOOpmen, and health facilities, ly The .g, education en minimum amenities of life of poverty minimum requirements include food, clothing, housin ; : ived of ev a country, where a big mass of the population is deprived © Dar : vicious circ fora very long period, then such a country suffers from a viciow 4.3 WHO ARE POOR? a wretched life as he is unable to enjoy ‘ cannot conduct himself Poverty isa great curse on humanity. A poor person lives EF ‘ 5 degraded. He necessaries of life, which makes him morally degraded’ Me erty is dia has been studied fron the bares as a human being. The treatment, that he gets from the society, de Fa harsh reality for a large section of the Indian population. Poverty in It to points: urban and rural Poor in Urban and Rural Areas * In Urban Areas, poor people include push cart vendors, street cobblers, rag pickers, beggars, etc. > They possess few assets. > They reside in kutcha hutments with walls made of baked mud and roofs made of grass, thatch, bamboo and wood: » The poorest of them do not even have such dwellings. » The urban poor are largely the overflow of the rural poor who had migrated to urban areas in search of alternative employment and livelihood. © In Rural Areas, poor people include landless agricultural labourers, cultivators with very small landholdings, landless labourers engaged in a variety of non-agricultural jobs or tenant cultivators with small land holdings. » Many of the rural people are landless. Even if some of them possess land, it is only dry or waste land. Many rural people do not get to have even two meals a day. Common Characteristics of Poor People 1. Hunger. starvation and malnutrition: Star- inger are the basic problems QgdMReGLGECo cits of the poorest households. Malnutrition is alarmingly high among the poor vation and Cietaseas |+ Hunger, Starvation and Malnutrition ~ Poor Health Poor Health They are generally physically Limited Econor weak due to ill health, disability or serious nic Opportunities illness. Their children are less likely to Debt'Trap survive or be born healthy ~ Lack of Facilities of Electricity and Water 3, | imited Economic Opportunities: They have ~ Gender Inequality verv limited economic opportunities due to ~ Bigger Families aa Poverty lack of literacy and skills. So, they tace unstable employment, They are notable to negotiate their legal wages trom employers and are exploited 4. Debt Trap: They borrow from money lenders, who charge high tates of intere 1 that push them into chronic indebtedness. . Lack of facilities of electricity and water; Mast poor households do not have access to electricity, Their primary cooking fuel is firewood and cow dung cake, A large seetion of poor people do not even have access to sate drinking, water, 6. Gender Inequality: Gender inequality prevails within the family in regard to participation of gainful employment, education and in decision-making, Poor women receive less care on their way to motherhood. x Bigger Families: The poor families are bigger in size, whieh make their economic condition worse. 4.4 MEASURES OF POVERTY: RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE The problem of poverty can be overcome only w hen poor people are identified, Por this, extent of poverty needs to be worked out There are tivo measures to determine the extent of poverty: (i) Relative Poverty (ii) Absolute Poverty CEEEIea t , Relative Poverty Absoluto Poverty (Refers to poverty of people, in comparison to (Rofers to the total number of poople tiving ‘other people, regions or nations) bolow poverty lino) tive Poverty, Relative Poverty refers to poverty of people, in comparison to other people, regions or nations. Example: If Ram has lower income in comparison to Shyam, then we can say that Ram is relatively poor. Importance: It helps in understanding the relative position of different segments of the population Limitation: _ It only reflects the relative position of different segments of the population in the income hierarchy. It does not consider, how poor the poor person is or whether he is deprived of the basic mini num requirements of life or not. 44 Indian Economic Developmen, Absolute Poverty Meaning: Absolute Poverty refers tothe total number of people living below poverty ine, ie, totg number of poor people . Example: According to absolute measure, around 22% of India’s population is below poverty line. Importance: The concept of absolute poverty is relevant for the less developed countries like India, where there is abundance of poverty. It helps to measure the number of poor people. Limitation: The method of “Poverty Line” used to measure absolute poverty does no} differentiate between the very poor and the other poor. Moreover, it does not consider social factors that generate and are responsible for poverty, like illiteracy, ill health, lack of access to resources, discrimination or lack of civil and political freedoms. eA este: ekyey Nc} Poverty? In India, ‘Poverty Line’ is used as a standard to measure the number of poor people. * In poverty line, a standard is fixed in terms of minimum level of consumption. * Absolute poverty refers to a situation when a person fails to reach this minimum consumption level. So, in context of India, proportion of people living below ‘Poverty Line’ gives the abs measure of poverty. In this chapter, we will take poverty in the sense of absolute po lute Measurement of Poverty: Pre and Post Independent India In the Pre-independent India, Dadabhai Naoroji was the first person to discuss the concept of Poverty Line. He used the ‘Jail Cost of Living’ to calculate the poverty line. He used the menu for a prisoner and used appropriate prevailing prices, to arrive at the cost of consumption of an adult prisoner. * He termed this consumption cost as ‘jail cost of living’. As only adults stay in jail, he divided the population into two parts: 2 He assumed that one-third of total population consist of children. One-half of them (ie. 1/2 of 1/3 = 1/6) consumed very little, while the other half (ie. 1/2 of 1/3 = 1/6) consumed half of the adult diet. > Two-third population consisted of adults and they consume full diet, ¢ Weighted Average of consumption of the three segments: The average poverty line comes out to be three-fourth of the adult jail cost of living, 2 - — x Nil Diet + — x Half-Diet + 3 x Full Diet = ." Poverty 45 In Post-independent India, there have been several attempts to identify the number of poor in the country * In 1962, the Planning Commission formed a Study Group. * In 1979, "Task Force on Projections of Minimum Needs and Effective Consumption Demand’ was formed. « In 1989, an “Expert Group’ was constituted for the same purpose, Besides these bodies, many individual economists have also attempted to develop such a mechanism. 4,5 CONCEPT OF POVERTY LINE \ Baverty Line is a cut-off point on the line of distribution, which usually divides the population of the country as poor and. non-poor. }t can be determined in terms of Calorie Intake and Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE),- . * The concept of poverty line is used to measure the extent of poverty in a country. > People having income below the poverty line are called “Poor”; and - » People with income above poverty line are called “Non-Poor”. ¢ Poverty line tries to capture the socially acceptable mis society tries to fulfill. mum living standards, which the Determination of Poverty Line In India, “Monthly Per Capita Expenditure or MPCE” method is used to determine the poverty line, According to this method, monetary value (per capita expenditure) of the minimum calorie intake is calculated. : 7 — Minimum Calorie Intake: ‘The Planning Commission has defined poverty line on the basis of recommended nutritional requirements of 2400 calories per person per day for rural areas and 2100 calories per person per day in urban areas. Higher calorie intake has been fixed for rural areas because the rural worker has to do greater physical work as compared to the urban worker. * Monetary value of minimum calorie intake: According to the Planning Commission (Tendulkar Methodology), the minimum Monthly Per Capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) in 2011-12 is worked out to be € 816 per person in rural areas and @ 1,000 in urban areas. * Poverty Line Divides the Poor from thw Non-Poor: There aré many kinds of poor; the absolutely ~ poor, the very poor and the poor. Similarly there are various kinds of non-poor; the middle class, the upper middle class, the rich, the very rich and the absolutely rich. The poverty line divides the poor from the non-poor. i ie Not | syigate] UPPET] the | THE | Absolutely | Very! poor fl So | MISA widaie| TP | Very| Milionaires| Bilionaires Poor | Poor] Poor! #55 | Glass | °°) ich . pean Non-Poor , POVERTY LINE Indian Economic Developmen, 46 f take care of change, d over time, to chang * This method of determining Poverty Line is update in price levels. Categorising Poverty There are many ways to categorise poverty: ho are usually poor se Ww) . 1. Chronic Poor: It includes people who are always poor and thos , i who regularly move 2. Transient Poor: Transient poor may be classified as churning, ane es in and out of poverty, like small farmers) and occasionally poor time and poor sometimes). 3. Non-Poor: They are never poor. | Poverty / Line | i ‘Always Poor Usually Poor Churning Poor Occasionally Poor Never Poor Chronic Poor Trasient Poor Non-Poor Chronic Poor, Transient Poor and Non-Poor Crit cism of Poverty Line The method (Monthly Per Ca due to following reasons: (The method groups all the poor to poor and the other poor. (#) This mechanism is helpful in identifying the poor as a group to be taken care of by the government. However, it is very difficult to identify the Poor, who need help the most. ii) There are many factors, other than income and assets, which are as: like accessibility to basic education, health care, ignored. pita Expenditure or MPCE) of determining Poverty Lines criticized gether and does not differentiate between the very sociated with poverty, drinking water, etc. which have been (iv) This method does not: consider social factors that gen like illiteracy, ill health, lack of access to resourc political freedoms. erate and are responsible for poverty, €s, discrimination or lack of civil and Due to various limitations in the official estimation of poverty Scholars have attempted to find alternative methods. For instance, Amartya Sen (noted Nobe ! Laureate) developed an index known as Sen Index. There are other tools such as Poverty Gap Index and Squared Poverty Gap, poverty 47 Is There any decrease in the Poverty Levels? According to the government, higher rate of economic growth, increase in agricultural production, providing employment in rural areas and economic reform of 1991 have resulted ina decline in poverty levels, » However, itis argued by the economists that methodology followed to estimate the poverty line and number of poor, are manipulated to arrive at the reduced figures of the number of poor in India ° Moreover, according to them, the poverty alleviation schemes of the government should aim to improve human lives by reducing obstacles like illiteracy, ill health, lack of access to resources, lack of civil and political freedoms. A person should be healthy, well-nourished, knowledgeable and able to participate in the life of a community. The incidence of poverty has declined over the years, especially in 80s, but poverty still remains a problem of considerable magnitude. Let us now determine the number of poor in India. 4.6 THE NUMBER OF POOR IN INDIA When the number of poor is estimated as the proportion of people below the poverty line, it is known as “Head Count Ratio’. In other words, Head count ratio is calculated by dividing the number of people below the poverty line by the total population. 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 —e— Rural —— Urban Total % of Total Population 1973-74 1977-78 1983 1987-88 2004-2005 2009-2010 2011-2012 1993-94 1999-2000 r Head Count Ratio in India (in %), 1973-2012 icial data on poverty is made available to the public by the (Planning Commission) It is estimated on the basis of consumption expenditure data collected by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO). On this basis, comparable estimates of poverty are available at National and State Level from 1973-74 to 2011-12 (Refer the following diagram). indian Economic Developme, 48 8888 —~— Pua —— Urban Total No. of Poor in Millions sas 8sss e 3 ‘"T eg @ g@ € € 2 & 2 g = 5 2 g a 3 =z = 8 Fe F 8 &€ 8 & Year ~ -2012 Number of Poor (in Millions) in India, 4973-201 Number and Proportion of People Below Poverty Line _ ; Number of P. low Poverty Line: In 1973-74, more than 320 million people were beloy © Number of People Below Pove a 7 a the poverty line. In 2011-12, this number has come down to about 270 milli : # Proportion of Poope Below Poverty Lore. In terms of proportion, in 1973-74, about 55% of the total population was below the poverty line. In 2011-12, it has fallen to 22%. From 1973-74 to 2011-12, there has been a considerable decline in the number of Peat and their proportion, but the nature of decline in the two parameters is not encouraging. The rato is declining much slower than the absolute number of poor in the country. Extent of Urban-Rural Poverty * In 1973-74, more than 80% of the poor resided in rural areas and this situation has not changed even in 2011-12, It means, ** of the poor in India still reside in Villages. Also poverty, which was prevailing predominantly in rural areas, has shifted to urban areas * In the 1990s, the absolute number of poor in rural areas had declined, whereas the number of their urban counterparts increased marginally. The poverty ratio declined continuoush for both urban and rural areas. © The gap between the absolute number of poor in rural and urban areas got reduced, wheres in the case of ratio, the gap has remained the same until 1999-2000 and has widened in 2011-12. State Level Trends in Poverty The state level trends in poverty are shown in the following diagram: * Five states (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha) account for about 70% of India’s poor. During 1973-74, about 4 of the Population in most of these large states was living below the poverty line. Poverty 49 * The diagram reveals that six states (Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Orissa) contained a large section of poor in 1973-74. ° During 1973-2012, many Indian states (like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu) reduced the poverty levels to a considerable extent. * Yet, the poverty levels in four states (Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh) are still far above the national poverty level. 70 60 ] 62 62 i 63 50 - 49 40 30 23 20 10 1973-74 2011-2012 Andhra Pradesh Bihar Gujarat Karnataka Madhya Pradesh Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu “Uttar Pradesh West Bengal Population Below Poverty Line in Some Large States, 1973-2012 (%) “For the year 1973, Uttar Pradesh includes the present Uttarakhand; Madhya Pradesh includes Chhattisgarh and Bihar includes Jharkhand, British Rule: Adverse Effect on Living Standard of Indians There is no doubt that British rule had a substantial negative impact on the Indian economy and standard of living of the people. N wo . British Government systematically destroyed Indian industries. Their primary motive behind the de-industrialisation was two-fold: (a) To get raw materials (like cotton, jute, etc) from India at cheap rates to be used by upcoming modern industries in Britain. (b) To sell finished products (ike cotton cloth) of British industries in Indian market at higher prices. .. More than 70% of Indians were engaged in agriculture throughout the British Raj period. British policies raised rural taxes, which enabled merchants and moneylenders to become large land owners. . Under the British rule, India began to export food grains, It was responsible for frequent famines and as many as 26 million people died in famines between 1875 and 1900. indian Econore Vevelopry,, 4.10 ‘as to air main goal was Provig sin India, Theit ™ In short British Raj made miserable condition of PeOPIE 49 Britain, and For India, & market for British exports, to have India service its deP! P y provide manpower for the British imperial armies. Agriculture: Still the Principal Means of Livelihood and land is the primary asset y : ood is still the principal means of livelily material well-being a, In India, agriculture tant determinant of rural people. The ownership of land is an impor! those who own some land have better living conditions: ene er, ss rate of Land Ceiling: Since independence, the 8 ; eiling refer: ' d the specified limit, t and will be allotted to th, © Low redistribute land through land ceiling. Land C land, which could be owned by an individual. Beyon toa particular person would be taken over by the Governmen landless cultivators and small farmers. ; However, this move was successful only toa limited extent because: ; A ble to farm the small holdings due iy > Large sections of agricultural workers were not al lack of money or skills; and » Land holdings were too small to be viable. 7 2 Most of the Indian states failed to implement land redistribution policies. © Majority of small and marginal farmers: A large section of the rural poor in India are the small farmers. 2 The land that they have is generally less fertile and dependent on rains. > Their survival depends on subsistence crops like wheat and sometimes on livestock. Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families. s to fixing the specified limit g, all lands belongin © Fragmentation of land holdings: With the rapid growth of population and without alternative sources of employment, the per-head availability of land for cultivation has steadily declined > It has led to fragmentation of land holdings. 2. The income from these small land holdings is not sufficient to meet the family’s basi requirements. It has led to distress among the farmers. Distress Among Farmers: High production costs, low and unstable yields, decline in world prices, global surplus in production due to subsidies by foreign countries and opening up of the domestic marke! due to globalisation have increased the exposure of farmers and led to agrarian distress and suicides) ey, In view of the large magnitude and serious nature of the Problem of poverty in India, it important to analyse the causes of poverty in the country. Poverty cannot be attributed to any singl cause ora single set of causes. Itis a complex phenomenon and is the outcome of the interact! of diverse economic and non-economic factors. Poverty eal 4.7 CAUSES OF POVERTY The causes of poverty lie in the institutional and social factors that mark the life of the poor. The poor are deprived of quality education and are unable to acquire skills which enable them to earn better incomes. Moreover, access to health care is denied to the poor. The main victims of caste, religious and other discriminatory practices are poor, The important causes of poverty are 1. Population Explosion: Rapid growth of population, particularly among the poor, is responsible for the problem of poverty in the country. It is obvious that when total national income is thinly spread over a large number of people, the per capita income is bound to be low. - Low level of economic development: The Indian economy ishighly underdeveloped due to relative backwardness of agricultural and industrial sectors. Due to widespread bottlenecks in infrastructural facilities and slow pace of development, nearly 25% of population is still living below the poverty line. The gains of economic growth have been grabbed by the rich. ‘one of the basic reason for widespread poverty p » Poor state of Agriculture: Agriculture in India has continued to be backward due to use of primitive methods of production and fragmented small land holdings. As a result, labour and land productivity continue to be low in India. Consequently, most of the farmers live in a state of poverty. The Green Revolution has increased the regional disparity and also the gap between the rich and the poor farmers. High Illiteracy Rate: The weaker sections of society have to take up low paid jobs due to lack of knowledge. Most members of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes are not able to participate in the emerging employment opportunities in different sectors of the urban and rural economy as they do not have the necessary knowledge and skills to do so. . High level of Unemployment: Unemployment and underemployment (i.e. underutilization of person employed) is one of the major reason responsible for poverty in India. © Majority of the rural poor either suffer from disguised unemployment or from seasonal unemployment. > s © Disguised Unemployment refers to a state in which more people are engaged in work than are really needed ¥Seasonal Unemployment refers to an unemployment that occurs at certain seasons of the yearAs agriculture is a seasonal occupation, many rural poor fail to get work all the year round. ° A large section of urban poor in India are largely the overflow of the rural poor who migrate to urban areas in search of employment and a livelihood. Industrialisation has not been able to absorb all these people. Most of the urban poor are either unemployed or temporarily employed as casual labourers. oo 412 Indian Economic Developm, ‘ they have | » Such casual labourers are among the most vulnerable in aa So, certy cae Skills, with no job security, no assets and no surplus to sustain oy related to nature of employment. 6 High level of Indebtedness. Unemployment or under em| work compels people to borrow money, that too at higher is one of the significant factors of poverty. 7. Inequalities of Income: The unequal distribution of income Persistence of poverty in India. i lution: The steep and continuous rise in prices, particularly of esse et like food grains, has added to the miseries oft the poor. Sharp rise in prices and negligiy, change in monetary income has decreased the purchasing power of low-income eamey, and resulted in lower standard of living. ployment and the casual nature, interest rates. Such indebtednes, and assets has also led toy, sential commodit, Population Explosion — High level of Unemployment Low Level of Economic Development High level of Indebtedness We Yelg essing Poor state of Agriculture Inequalities of Income High literacy Rate Inflation Conclusion All these factors have created two distinct groups in society: ©) Those who possess the means of production and earn good incomes (ice. rich section); ani (1) Those who have only their labour to trade for survival (i.e. poor section). Over the years, the gap between the rich and the poor in India has widened. Poverty is a multi-dimensioni challenge for India that needs to be addressed on a war footing. For “Measures to Remove Poverty’, reler Power Booster Section, 4.8 GOVERNMENT APPROACH TO REMOVE POVERTY The Indian Constitution and five year plans have always stated ‘Social Justice’ as the primary objective of the developmental strategies of the government. In alll the five year plans and policies, the maximum emphasis has been given on poverty alleviation and government ha stressed the need for various strategies for the same. The government's approach to poverty reduction has three dimensions: GOVERNMENT'S APPROACH TO POVERTY REDUCTION Growth-Oriented Approach Poverty Alleviation Programmes Minimum Needs Programme (Based on an expectation that (Government introduced a (Aims to provide minimum basic effects of economic growth would variety of programme) amenities to the people) spread to all sections of society) overty 4.13 1, Growth-oriented approach: This approach was initiated from the First Five Year Plan. This approach is based on an expectation that effects of economic growth (rapid increase in GDP and per capita income) would spread to all sections of the society and will trickle down to the poor sections algo. It was felt that rapid industrial development and transformation of agriculture through green revolution in select regions, would benefit the underdeveloped regions and more backward sections of the community. However, Growth-oriented approach proved to be ineffective because: (i) Population growth resulted in a very low growth in per capita incomes. (ii) Green Revolution intensified the disparities regionally and between large and small farmers. (iii) There was unwillingness and inability to redistribute land. (iv) The benefits of economic growth did\not trickle down to the poor. Due to ineffectiveness of the Growth approach\policy makers started thinking that income and employment for the poor could be raised through'specitic “Poverty Alleviation Programmes”. 2. Poverty Alleviation Programmes: This second approach has been initiated from the Third Five Year Plan and progressively enlarged since then. The government has introduced a variety of programmes for reduction of poverty (Refer Section 4.9). 3. Minimum Needs Programme: This approach has been initiated from the Fifth Five Year Plan. It aims to provide minimum basic amenities to the people. _s/India was among the pioneers in the world to visualize that people's living standard could be improved through public expenditure on social consumption needs (food grains at subsidised rates, education, health, water supply and sanitation). * Programmes under this approach are expected to supplement the consumption of the poor, create employment opportunities and bring improvements in health and education. © Three major programmes that aim at improving the food and nutritional status of the poor are: d (i) Public Distribution System (PD: Security System established to commodities (like wheat, rice, sugar, kerosene, etc.) at affordable prices. PDS operates under the joint responsibility of the Central and the State Governments. The Central Government, through Food Corporation of India (FCI), has assumed the responsibility for Itis an Indian Food istribute essential procurement, storage, transportation and bulk | pubtic Distribution System Is location of food grains to the State Governments. a system of management of 1 scarcity and for distribution (indian Government launched Pradhan MantriGario Kalyan ot Fal aioe oranordable ‘Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)’, under which eligible beneficiaries prices to eltizens, jeceived 5 kg of food grains and 1 kg Gram free per month during the coronavirus crisis. \) 4.14 Indian Economic Developme, (1) Integrated Child Development Scheme: This scheme Was launched on 2" October, 1975 by Government of India and represents one of the world’s largest and unique programmes for early childhood care and development. The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant Women and feeding mothers. Objectives of the Scheme are: » To improve nutritional and health status of children in the age-group 0-6 years; > To lay foundation for proper psychological, physical and social development of the child; > Toreduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition and school dropoyy, ? To achieve effective co-ordination of policy and implementation amongst the various departments to promote child development; and ° To enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health ang nutritional needs of the child through proper nutrition and health education, (iii) Mid day Meal Scheme: This scheme has been initiated by the Government of India to increase the enrollment, retention, attendance and to simultaneously improve the nutritional levels among children. Under this Programme, free lunch is supplied on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government, government aided, local body, Education Guarantee Scheme and alternate innovative education centres, Madarsa and Magtabs. This scheme covers approximately 12,00,00,000 children in over 12,65,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, which is the largest of its kind in the world, 4.9 POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES IN INDIA : Alleviation (reduction) of poverty remains a major challenge before the nation. While there has been a steady decline in poverty over the last two decades, the total number of poor people has remained constant because of growth in population. The government has specifically designed anti-poverty programmes for generation of both self-employment and wa ge employment. [FEmployment Programmes” and “Wage Employment Progrants Let us discuss the various “! initiated by the government. roveny POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES IN INDIA aay Self-Employment aaa Wage Employment Programmes Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP) L Sampooma Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGA, Prime Minister's Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) | National Food for Work Programme (NFFWP) ‘Swamna Jayanti Shahi Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) ‘Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY) 1 fi) Self-Employment Programmes. Some of the self-employment programmes initiated by the Government are: 1, Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP): This programme was started by the government to create self-employment opportunities in the rural areas and small towns. * It was implemented by Khadi and Village Industries Commission. ° Under this programme, one could get financial assistance in the form of bank loans to set up small industries. 2, Paime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY): Under this programme, the educated unemployed from low income families in rural and urban areas were given financial help to set up any kind of enterprise that generates employment. * PMRY attempted to generate employment by setting up 7 lakh micro-enterprises during the Eighth Plan (1992-97). * By 2003-04, 3 million people got employment under this scheme. Fae eae soa ae) The Indian Government merged ‘Rural Employment Generation Programme (REGP)’ with ‘Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana (PMRY)' and introduced a new scheme called ‘Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP)' with effect from 01.04.2008. The main objectives of PMEGP are: (i) To generate employment opportunities in rural and urban areas through setting up of new self-employment ventures; and (ii) To bring together widely dispersed traditional artisans and unemployed youth and to give them self-employment opportunities at their place. 3, Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY): SJSRY mainly aims at creating employment opportunities for both self- employment and wage employment in urban areas. This programme seeks to provide gainful employment through encouraging the setting up of self-employment ventures or provision of wage employment. © It is a centrally sponsored scheme, which is funded on | Sea ere eat Pozar | 75:25 basis, between the Centre and the States. urban unemployed and —_ underemployed poor to set up | self-employment ventures. inalian Economic Deyeig, inder the selt-employ, jaividuals U" Men Earlier, financial assistance was given 10 eae ‘approach since the 19908 throug, the 6 programmes, However, the government changé na”. . Programme “Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yolal 5cSY aims at promoting Micro enter, SY) 4. Swarjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SCS ove the poverty line, BY Organizing and to bring the assisted poor families (Swarozgaris) @ into Self-Help Groups (SHGs). » People who wish to benefit from this scheme, (SHG). ey and lend * Initially they are encouraged to save some money are encouraged t0 form sel-help gra, among themselves 8 sm loans.

    You might also like