Poverty

In News: The World Bank released the latest “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2022: Correcting Courses” report.

• The Bank’s latest report is the first comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine on global poverty
• SDG 1: goal of limiting extreme poverty to just three per cent of total population.

Context:

• Poverty is getting concentrated and chronic in sub-Saharan Africa, in conflict-affected areas and rural areas.
• Sub-Saharan Africa has the world’s highest poverty rate at 35 per cent and it accounts for 60 per cent of the world’s extreme poor population.
• In 2020, the pandemic pushed 70 million more people into poverty. As a result, some 719 million people lived below the international extreme poverty line of $2.15 per day or a poverty rate of 9.3 per cent in comparison to 8.4 per cent in 2019.
• The world is recovering from the pandemic but the impacts of the war would result in pushing 685 million people below the extreme poverty line by the end of 2022.
• 7 per cent of the world’s population i.e. roughly 574 million people will still struggle in extreme poverty in 2030. This is more than double the SDG1 rate of three per cent.

Concerns:

• Inequality has been widening as a result of the pandemic. The developing and poor countries have added the maximum new poor and the poverty level among the poor have further deepened in these countries.
• The poorest people bore the steepest costs of the pandemic: income losses averaged four per cent for the poorest 40 per cent, double the losses of the wealthiest 20 per cent of the income distribution.
• The rising food and energy prices and the onslaught of the climate emergency — extreme weather events impacting agriculture and also disasters wiping out assets and incomes — have not just made recovery impossible but also pushed the poor to chronic levels of poverty.

Sustainable Development Goals:

• The 17 Goals for People, for Planet were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the Goals.
• In SDG Summit 2019, a call for “Decade of Action” was made to tackle growing poverty, empower women and girls, and address the climate emergency.
• The Addis Ababa Action Agenda provides concrete policies and actions to support the implementation of the new agenda.
• NITI Aayog is responsible for monitoring and reviewed the SDGs using a set of global indicators.
• The SDGs are not legally binding. However, countries are expected to take ownership and establish a national framework for achieving the 17 Goals.
• SDG Report 2022 is an annual report, prepared by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to provide an overview of the world’s implementation efforts to date, highlighting areas of progress and where more action needs to be taken.

Government Initiatives to combat poverty:

• National Food for Work Programme: launched in 2004 in 150 most backward districts of the country with the objective to intensify the generation of supplementary wage employment.
• The programme is open to all rural poor who need wage employment and desire to do manual unskilled work.
• It is implemented as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme and the food grains are provided to States free of cost. However, the transportation cost, handling charges and taxes on foodgrains are the responsibility of the States.

• MGNREGA: launched in 2005, to ensure the security and livelihood of people in rural areas, this act guarantees a minimum of 100 days of wage employment.

• All districts in India are covered.
• It established right to a job and there is provision of unemployment allowance.
• It ensures social inclusion in the form of reservation of 33% of the beneficiaries as women.
• Moreover, the robust institutions for grievance redressal and social auditing guarantee accountability and transparency.

• Integrated Rural Development Program(IRDP): launched in 1978–79 to alleviate rural poverty by providing income-generated assets to the poorest of the poor.

• To create sustainable opportunities for self-employment in the rural sector.
• The program is implemented as a centrally sponsored scheme funded on a 50:50 basis.
• Assistance is given in the form of subsidy by the government and term credit advanced by financial institutions.

• Swaranjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY): launched in 1999, aims at bringing the assisted poor families (Swarozgaris) above the poverty line by organizing them into Self Help Groups (SHGs) through a mix of Bank credit and Government subsidy.
• National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM): launched in 2011, aided by World Bank, it is focused on promoting self-employment, organization of rural poor and access to financial services. SGSY is now remodelled to NRLM.
• Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY): launched in 2000 provides foodgrains at a highly subsidized rate of Rs.2.00 per kg for wheat and Rs.3.00 per kg for rice to the poor families under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS). 35 kg per family per month.
• Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS): launched in June 1997 to manage food scarcity and distributing essential food commodities at affordable prices, to distribute essential food commodities like rice, wheat and kerosene at highly subsidized rates to BPL population. This poverty alleviation scheme helps in addressing the issue of food insecurity in rural areas of India.
• Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY): launched in 2000 as a 100 per cent Centrally Sponsored Scheme, aims at providing rural connectivity to unconnected habitations with population of 500 persons or more in the rural areas. Augmenting and modernising rural roads
• Rural Housing – Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY): 1999-2000 is the major scheme for construction of houses for the poor, free of cost. The Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) provides equity support to the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for this purpose
• Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY): launched in 2001, aims at providing additional wage employment in all rural areas and thereby food security and improve nutritional levels. The SGRY is open to all rural poor who need wage employment and desire to do manual and unskilled work around the village/habitat. The programme is implemented through the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs).
• Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY): launched in 2000-01 envisages allocation of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) to the States and UTs for selected basic services such as primary health, primary education, rural shelter, rural drinking water, nutrition and rural electrification.
• Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY): The Urban Self Employment Programme and the Urban Wage Employment Programme are the two special components of the SJSRY, which, in December 1997, substituted for various extant programmes implemented for urban poverty alleviation. SJSRY is funded on a 75:25 basis between the Centre and the States.
• Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana (VAMBAY): launched in 2001 facilitates the construction and upgradation of dwelling units for the slum dwellers and provides a healthy and enabling urban environment through community toilets under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, a component of the scheme.
• Drought Prone Areas Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP) and Integrated Wastelands Development Programme (IWDP)

Way forward:

To reach the SDG1 level by 2030, each country here needs an annual economic growth of nine per cent for the next eight years.

Source: Down to Earth