In order to combat the issue of poverty, the Government of India has launched

various poverty alleviation programmes. Some of them worth mentioning are

 Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, 1999, to provide sustainable income to

the poorest people living in rural and urban areas of the country.
 Employment Assurance Scheme, 1993, to create 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.
 Food for Work Programme, 2004, to generate supplementary wage
employment.
 Integrated Watershed Management Programme to restore the ecological
balance by harnessing, conserving and developing degraded natural resources.
 Prime Minister Rozgar Yojana, to provide employment to the educated youth
who are not having a job.
 Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA),
2005, to enhance livelihood security by providing at least 100 days of
guaranteed ways employment in a financial year to every rural household whose
adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
Apart from these government initiatives, several steps can be taken to stop or
eradicate poverty in India. To control the increasing poverty, the growth of food
production has to be more than population growth. An increase in per capita food
production would ensure steady supply and stable price. Poverty cans be eliminated
if the poor people are given the jobs according to their needs and talents. Self
employment can also be provided to them. Much of the problem of poverty can be
solved if the population of the country can be reduced to an average level.

Resources of the country should be utilised properly so that we can have the
benefits of those free gifts of nature. Government should take steps to spread
awareness for education so that the people do not have to depend on others for their
income. Agriculture is the backbone of our country. It provides income to vast
number of people. Hence, there must be upliftment of agriculture. Inflation tends to
make poor people poorer and rich people richer. There should be stability in the
price level of the country.

Government should develop cottage, handicrafts and other small scale industries in
the backward regions of the country. Moreover, this will transfer resources from the
areas of surplus to the deficit areas, which would help in reducing the relentless
migration from rural areas to the urban areas – the problem of urbanisation.
Therefore, one has to keep this in the mind that poverty is a menace and need to be
checked. The above steps would be helpful to reduce poverty in India. It is a national
problem and must be solved on a war footing. Eradication of poverty would ensure a
sustainable and inclusive growth of economy and society.

According to a 2011 poverty Development Goals Report, as many as 320 million

people in India and China are expected to come out of extreme poverty in the next
four years, with India’s poverty rate projected to drop from 51% in 1990 to about 22%
in 2015. The report also indicates that in Southern Asia, only India is on track to cut
poverty by half by the 2015 target date. In 2015, according to United Nation’s
Millennium Development Goals (MGD) programme, India has already achieved the
target of reducing poverty by half, with 24.7% of its 1.2 billion people in 2011 living
below the poverty line or having income of less than $1.25 a day, the U.N. report
said. Even though India has achieved its millennium development goal of eradicating
extreme poverty and hunger to halve between 1990 and 2015, steps should be taken
to achieve the goal of eradicating extreme poverty by 2030. We all should do
everything possible and within our limits to help eradicate poverty from our country.