Illiteracy, Poverty, Unemployment and
Population Growth
Lecture 10
Poverty Alleviation Programmes
Remedies for Poverty
Increase
in Saving: In order to get rid of the supply
side vicious circle in these countries,
efforts should be made to increase savings so that investment in productive
channels may be encouraged. To increase saving, expenditure on marriages,
social ceremonies, etc., should be curtailed. In under developed countries, the
possibility of voluntary savings is slim. Thus, in this regard, government
interference is necessary. The government can increase saving, by altering its
fiscal policy. The government can impose heavy taxes on luxury goods. Moreover,
it can increase the role of direct taxes. Thus, the government can curtail
consumption by altering the tax system.
Increase
in Investment: To break the vicious circle of
poverty, apart from increasing savings,
investment of saving in productive channels is also of immense use. The
policies of short run and long run investment should be coordinated. By short
period investment, people can get the necessary goods at fair rates, which will
have a favourable impact on their skill. Moreover, along with short period
investment, investment in the establishment of multipurpose projects, iron and
chemical fertilizers etc should be properly encouraged. In UDCs, proper
monetary and banking policies should be adopted which may provide facilities
and encouragement to small savings.
Balanced
Growth: To resolve the demand side
vicious circle in underdeveloped countries,
the extension of the market is to be done so that people may get inducement to
invest. In this regard, Prof. Nurkse advocated the doctrine of balanced growth.
According to the principle of balanced growth, investment should be made in
every sphere of an economy so that demand of one sector can be fulfilled by
another sector. Thus, an increase in demand will lead to extension of the
market, and would provide inducement to investments. On the other hand,
economists like Hirschman, Singer, and Fleming do not consider the policy of
balanced growth effective. According to them, the policy of unbalanced growth
would be more useful.
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Human
Capital Formation: In underdeveloped countries, the
main obstacle to economic growth is
the backwardness of human capital. Human capital should no longer be neglected.
Many suggestions can be made to increase skill of manpower. For instance, in
these countries, education, technical knowledge, and vocational training should
be enlarged. Health facilities should be enhanced, which may increase the
efficiency of the workers. Transportation and communication should be
developed.
Industrialisation:
Poverty can be eradicated by a self-sustaining
process of industrialisation. All
industries should have linkage to build a powerful process of ancillary
industries and occupations. The percolation effect of industries can be strong
through the establishment of auxiliary industries. Industry should be linked to
agricultural growth. Agro-based industries should grow to provide employment to
village people as they are very much labour intensive. Industrialisation can
contribute to the growth process and bring improvement in the standard of
living of people.
Other Measures for Poverty Reduction
More
employment opportunities: Poverty can be eliminated by
creating more employment
opportunities, so that people may be able to meet their basis needs Minimum
needs programmes: providing minimum needs to the poor people can help to reduce
the problem of poverty.
Social
security programmes: Various social security schemes,
like worker's compensation,
maternity benefit. Provident fund, etc., can make a frontal attack on poverty.
Small
scale industries: Encouraging and establishing
small scale industries can create
jobs in rural areas, which can reduce poverty.
Spread of
education: Education can create awareness
and build confidence among people to
find methods to overcome poverty.
Empowerment
of poor: Poor people are voiceless due to
the ruthless system of development.
So, empowerment of poor people will reduce poverty.
Land
reforms: Land belongs to the absentee
landlords in India. Therefore, land reform
is needed for giving rights to the actual tiller of the soil.
Asset
creation: Productive assets must be created
which will ensure regular income for
the poor people.
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Political
will: Political will and thrust is
needed to face the challenge of poverty. The Government policies should be designed with determination for
having a poverty free country.
Social
change: Social strata and traditional
values should be free from dogmas. The caste
system should not discriminate any people for anything. Social reforms are also
needed to remove poverty among the lower caste and women.
Measures to Reduce Rural Poverty
During different Five Year Plans, the Government of
India has adopted several strategies and devised several schemes to remove
poverty in India. The following are some steps.
IRDP: The Integrated Rural Development Programme was initiated in 1976 in 20 selected districts of India. Then, it
was extended to all blocks in 1980.The objective of this program was to enable
the selected families to cross the poverty line by creating productive assets
for the poor people.
NREP: The National Rural Employment Programme was launched in 1980 in order to generate gainful employment in
rural areas.
RLEGP: The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme was launched in August 1983 to generate additional
employment opportunities for the landless people in the villages.
TRYSEM: The Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment was launched in 1979 with the aim of generating self
employment opportunities for unemployed educated rural youth. It has been laid
down that the coverage of youth from SC and ST communities should be at least
50 per cent of the rural youth trained. Out of the total beneficiaries, at
least 40 per cent should be women.
DWCAR: The Programme of Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) aims to improve the
socio-economic status of the poor women in the rural areas through creation of
group of women for income generating activities on a self-sustaining basis.
JRY: Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY) is a wage employment programme with its main objective of generation of employment
in the lean agriculture season to the unemployed and underemployed rural people
both men and women living below the poverty line. The significant aspect of the
scheme is that it is implemented by the
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Panchayats at the village, block and district
levels in the ratio of 70:15:15 respectively.
DPAP: The Drought Prone Area Programme was started in 1970 for drought areas with a view to create jobs through
labour intensive schemes.
DDP: The Desert Development Programme was started in 1977 to control the expansion of deserts and raise local
productivity of desert areas.
MNP: The Minimum Needs Programme was introduced in the Fifth Plan, in order
to achieve growth with justice.
PMRY: The Prime Ministers Rozgar Yojana was implemented in 1993 for providing self-employment to educated unemployed
youth had been designed to provide employment to more than a million persons by
setting up of seven lakh micro enterprises in Eighth Plan. During the Eighth
Plan, loan in 7.70 lakh cases were sanctioned and 5.76 lakh cases disbursed.
SGSY: The Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana was launched with effects from April 1999 as a result of amalgamating
certain erstwhile programmes viz. IRDP, DWCRA, TRYSEM, MWS into single
integrated programme. It is aiming to promote micro-enterprise through SHGs
Scheme is being implemented on cost sharing basis in ratio of 75:25 between
Center and State.
PMIUPEP: The Prime Ministers Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Programme was implemented in 1995 to reduce
urban poverty.
EAS: The Employment Assurance Scheme (EAS) has been universalised so as to make it applicable to all the rural
blocks of the country. It aims at providing 100 days of unskilled manual work
up to two members of a family in the age group of 18 to 60 years normally
residing in villages in the lean agriculture season, on demand, within the
blocks covered under EAS. A sum of Rs.1990 crore has been provided during
1998-99 (BE). During 1998-99, a total of 237.61 million man-days have been
generated under the scheme with an expenditure of Rs.1572 crore up to November
1998.
MSW: The Million Wells Scheme (MWS), which was earlier a sub-scheme of JRY, is funded by the Centre and states in
the ratio of 80:20. The objective of the MWS is to provide open irrigation
wells free of cost to poor, small and marginal farmers belonging to SCs/STs and
freed bonded labour.
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SJRY: The Swama .Jyanti Rozgar Yojana was launched in 1997 for the urban poor. JGSY: The Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana
is the new name of Jawahar Rozgar Yojana
with effect from 1999.
PMGY: Pradhan Mantri Grarnodaya Yojana.
AAY: Antyodaya Anna Yojana.
JPRGY: Jai Prakash Rozgar Guarantee
Yojana.
VAMBAY: Valmiki Ambedkar Awas Yojana.
SJSRY: The Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) which came into operation from 1.12.1997, sub-summing
the earlier urban poverty alleviation programmes viz., Nehru Rozgar Yojana
(NRY), Urban Basic Services Programme (UBSP) and Prime Minister’s Integrated
Urban Poverty Eradication Programme (PMIUPEP). The scheme aims to provide
gainful employment to the urban unemployed or underemployed poor by encouraging
the setting up of self-employment ventures or provision of wage employment. It
is being funded on a 75:25 basis between Centre and the states. It comprises
two special schemes i.e. The Urban Self-Employment Programme (USEP) and the
Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP). The scheme gives a special impetus to
empowering and uplifting the poor women and launches a special programme,
namely, Development of Women and Children in urban areas under which groups of
urban poor women setting up self-employment ventures are eligible for subsidy
up to 50% of the project cost.
MGNREGA: The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) of 2005 is perhaps the most significant social
policy initiative in India in the last decade. The NREGA states that,[its main
objective is] to provide enhancement of livelihood security of the households
in rural areas of the country by providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage
employment to every household in unskilled manual work. During 2006–07, NREGP
involved an expenditure of Rs 88 billion and generated a little less than one
billion person days of employment. A controversial aspect of NREGP is the
provision of employment on demand at the minimum wage rate. As argued
elsewhere, given that the slack season agricultural wage rates are typically
way below the minimum wage rates, there is a strong incentive for the
(relatively) affluent to masquerade as poor. As a result, the self-selection
mechanism of workfare is weakened and the poor are crowded out.
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References
http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/annualplan/ap2021pdf/ap2021ch4-1.pdf http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2004-05/chapt2005/chap103.pdf
Questions
1. Discuss
the remedies for poverty in India.
2.
Discuss various poverty
alleviation programmes adopted by the Government of India.
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