Sansad TV: IMF Report on India | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

Poverty refers to a lack of material possessions or money (less than $1.25 per day) and includes social, economic, and political aspects. Absolute poverty, as defined by the UN, is a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, such as food, clean drinking water, sanitation facilities, healthcare, shelter, education, and information.

Poverty alleviation programs in India since Independence

• Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP)
• Jawahar Rozgar Yojana/Jawahar Gram Samriddhi Yojana
• Rural Housing – Indira Awaas Yojana: This program aims to provide free housing to Below Poverty Line (BPL) families in rural areas, with a particular focus on households belonging to SC/ST communities.
• Food for Work Programme: Its goal is to improve food security through wage employment. While food grains are supplied to states at no cost, there have been delays in the supply from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns.
• National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS): The central government provides this pension, and its implementation is entrusted to panchayats and municipalities in states and union territories.
• Annapurna: Introduced in 1999–2000, this scheme aims to provide food to senior citizens.
• Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana (SGRY): The scheme focuses on generating wage employment, creating durable economic infrastructure in rural areas, and ensuring food and nutrition security for the poor.
• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) 2005: This Act guarantees 100 days of employment per year to every rural household, with one-third of the jobs reserved for women. The central government also establishes National Employment Guarantee Funds.
• National Rural Livelihood Mission: Ajeevika (2011)
• National Urban Livelihood Mission
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: This scheme targets fresh entrants to the labour market, especially those who dropped out of school after the 10th or 12th grade.
• Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana: The aim is to provide direct benefit transfers of subsidies, pensions, insurance, etc., and the scheme focuses on the unbanked poor. It successfully achieved the target of opening 1.5 crore bank accounts.

Challenges

• India still has a long way to go in achieving SDG 1.
• Extreme poverty is more prevalent in rural areas compared to urban areas.
• Despite rapid growth and development, a significant portion of the population continues to face severe and multidimensional deprivation.
• The resources allocated to anti-poverty programs are insufficient, and there is an implicit understanding that targets will be reduced based on fund availability.
• There is no effective method to ensure that programs reach their intended beneficiaries.
• Lack of proper implementation and targeting.
• Overlapping of multiple schemes.

Way Forward

• Accelerating rural poverty reduction:
  Agricultural growth alone is not sufficient as rural India has economic conditions similar to smaller urban areas.
• Creating more and better jobs:
  The path out of poverty in India depends on the performance of the labor market, as well as rising transfers, remittances, and favorable demographics.
• Focusing on women and Scheduled Tribes:
  Addressing the low participation of women in the labor market and slow progress among scheduled tribes is crucial.
• Creating more equitable locations:
  Where people live significantly impacts their opportunities in life. India's states exhibit substantial differences in poverty levels and basic opportunities.
• Improving human development outcomes for the poor:
  Enhancing their quality of life and income-earning opportunities is central to poverty alleviation.
• Implementing banking and credit sector reforms.
• Shifting towards wealth taxation rather than solely focusing on income.
• While a Universal Basic Income (UBI) might have been easier to implement, it would have come with a higher financial burden, even if excluding the top two income deciles. Developed economies that have experimented with UBI have not been convinced of its effectiveness.

Conclusion

• Rather than aiming for the eradication of poverty, government policies should focus on creating prosperity. 
• Poverty indicators should consider factors like the health and education status of the population, in addition to per capita income, highlighting the importance of income generation in combating poverty. 
• If the absence of essential services is taken into account, poverty in India would be even higher than currently recorded. 
• The budgetary implications of providing public services on a large scale to eliminate multidimensional poverty are substantial. 
• This assessment allows us to evaluate the challenge of effectively ending poverty and consider the potential of income-support schemes proposed by different political parties.