Poverty Alleviation Programmes aim to reduce the rate of poverty in a country, by providing essentials to households and families living below the poverty line. These supplies include proper access to food and water, monetary help, and other essentials products. India is a developing nation – although its economy is growing, poverty is still a major challenge. However, poverty is on the decline in India. As of 2021, approximately 6% of its population live in extreme poverty. According to United Nations Development Programme Administrator Achim Steiner, India lifted 271 million people out of extreme poverty in a 10-year time period from 2005/06 to 2015/16. The Government of India has launched various poverty alleviation schemes to address poverty in rural areas and to ensure rural development.
National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM)
This mission was launched by the Ministry of Rural Development, aided by the World Bank. The NRLM aims to create an efficient and effective system to allow the people in rural poverty to access financial services. The objective is to create sustainable opportunities by empowering and giving opportunities to the poor to increase their household income. Additionally, these households are also facilitated to increase their access rights, including to entitlements and public services, and diversified risk, and can then participate in the growing economy of the country. The institutional platforms, with the support of their built-up human and social capital, offer a variety of livelihoods services to their members across the value-chains of key products and services of the poor.
In June 2011, NRLM began with the agenda to cover 7 Crore rural poor households, across 600 districts, 6000 blocks, 2.5 Panchayats (village councils) and 6 villages through self-managed Self Help Groups (SHGs) which support them for livelihoods collectives for a period of 8-10 years.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MNREGA)
To ensure the security and livelihood of people in rural areas, this act was passed to guarantee a minimum of 100 days of wage employment. All households with adults who volunteer to do unskilled, manual work are now eligible for employment. All districts in India are covered. If the state is unable to provide a job within 15 days of application, the worker receives a daily unemployment allowance. To ensure social inclusion and equality, women gain priority, 33% of the beneficiaries under the scheme are women.
The social security measure is hailed by the government as "the largest and most ambitious social security and public works programme in the world". Additionally, the World Bank termed it a "stellar example of rural development".
Public Distribution System (PDS)
This system aims to manage food scarcity and to distribute essential food commodities at affordable prices. Launched in 1997, to allocate food resources to the poor, the primary goal is to distribute essential food commodities such as rice and wheat. Under the PDS scheme, each family below the poverty line is eligible for 35 kg of rice or wheat every month, while a household above the poverty line is entitled to 15 kg of food grain on a monthly basis.
The PDS is considered to be the most important food security network in India, however the food grains supplied are not enough to meet the consumption needs of households in poverty. The PDS has been criticised for its urban bias and its failure to serve the poorer sections of the population effectively. The targeted PDS is costly and can give rise to corruption.
According to the 2019 U.N. Human Development Report, 27.9% of the population in India is multidimensionally poor. With proper implementation of the poverty alleviation schemes, India can reduce poverty by empowering the rural poor with optimal use and management of resources. These schemes focus on targeting the multidimensional deprivations the poor face by providing them with food security, employment, housing and wages. Finally, the driver of these schemes is the objective to create sustainable mechanisms leading to rural development.
– Anandita Bardia
REFERENCES
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Livelihood_Mission
https://aajeevika.gov.in/
https://borgenproject.org/poverty-alleviation-schemes-in-india/
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_distribution_system
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Rural_Employment_Guarantee_Act,_2005