Poverty

In News: A recent World Bank Report has shown that extreme poverty in India more than halved between 2011 and 2019 – from 22.5 per cent to 10.2 per cent.

• The reduction was higher in rural areas, from 26.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent.

Reasons for reduction

• Identification of deprived households on the basis of the Socioeconomic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 across welfare programmes was a game-changer in the efforts to ensure balanced development, socially as well as across regions.

Participation of Women:

• Coverage of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Self Help Groups (SHG) increased from 2.5 crore in 2014 to over 8 crore in 2018
• This provided a robust framework to connect with communities and created a social capital that helped every programme.

Financial Decentralization

• Finance Commission transfers were made directly to gram panchayats leading to the creation of basic infrastructure
• The high speed of road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana created greater opportunities for employment by improving connectivity and enhancing mobility.

Credit Access

• The social capital of SHGs ensured the availability of credit through banks, micro-finance institutions and MUDRA loans

Basic Needs

• Thrust on universal coverage for individual household latrines, LPG connections and pucca houses improved standard of living

Co operative federalism

• The competition among states to improve basic needs helped in development
• Example: NITI Aayog SDG index

Monitoring

• Through processes like social and concurrent audits, efforts were made to ensure that resources were fully utilized.
• Still Poverty persists in India
• Pandemic and pandemic induced lockdown – loss of livelihood
• Population Explosion
• Low Agricultural Productivity
• Inefficient Resource utilisation
• Inflation
• Social Factors – Caste system, communal vilolence etc
• Climatic Factors – Extreme Weather events – disasters like cyclone, landslides etc

Way forward

• Realistic Assessment of the present situation of poverty in the country in need of the hour
• Improving social infrastructure and job opportunities in rural areas
• Investment in Agriculture by the government is necessary to decrease rural poverty
• Access to credit, financial inclusion and DBT
• Adoption of ICT to fight corruption
• Involvement of citizen in developmental plans, adoption of bottom-up approach etc

A lot has been achieved, much remains to be done. Strong political will and proper implementation of existing schemes is the need of an hour.

Source: Indian Express