Poverty alleviation programmes in India

Introduction 

India is a developing country. Even if there is growth in its economy, the nation faces many challenges that act as an impediment in its development process. One such challenge is the existence of widespread poverty in India. Although there is a reduction in the percentage of people residing below the poverty line, the digits aren’t favourable after that either. As of May 2021, about 84 million people were found dwelling in severe deprivation which makes up about 6% of the total population of the country. However, the Government has been attempting hard to raise aloft these individuals out of the clutches of poverty through various poverty alleviation programmes, but that has some contradicting perspectives in India.

Poverty alleviation programmes in India

Poverty alleviation is described as the set of ways framed by the government to deal with the issue of poverty. The main intention is to hoist people out of the grasps of poverty. Various schemes have been undertaken by the government to eliminate this evil of poverty from our country. Moreover, due to the lack of infrastructure and other basic facilities in the rural areas, the extent of poverty in rural households is more than the metropolitan ones. Some of the poverty alleviation programmes launched by the Indian government are: 

1. Integrated Rural Development Programme(IRDP)

IRDP is one of the driving schemes of poverty alleviation programmes that has bestowed a lot in ridding the evil of deprivation to some extent. Introduced in 1978-79, the major objective of the scheme stands as providing self-employment to the target audience that exists below the poverty line. This target group includes agricultural labourers, small and marginal farmers and rural artisans. In addition, inclusions are compelled where 50% is allotted to the scheduled castes and tribes. 

2. Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana

The above scheme is the reformation of the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana. Currently, this programme is known by the name of Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana. Under this, the matter-of-fact is generating demand-driven communities in the rural areas with the rationale of employing the people. Employment is provided to those living below the poverty line defined by the government.  Furthermore, 3% has been allocated to providing barrier-free infrastructure to those people who are disabled. 

3. Pradhan Mantri Grameen Awaas Yojana

Launched in the year 2015, the above programme is one of the most flourishing schemes under the poverty alleviation programmes initiated by the government. The main aim is to provide free houses for the people living in the rural areas that are considered BPL. Here, the advancement is made through the subsidy process, involvement of the private sector and reasonable housing to the people at subsidized rates. 

4. National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP)

The programme was launched in the year 1995, with its main objective of giving social security to the neglected categories of the society i.e., widows, disabled persons, aged persons belonging to the BPL section of the society. There are three schemes under this particular programme: 

• National Old Age Pension Scheme

This provides pensions to the people who are contemplated as destitute. The main purpose of this scheme is to bestow social security to the eligible beneficiaries. In this, the beneficiaries don’t have to contribute at the first phase to receive this pension under the National Old Age Pension Scheme. 

• National Maternity Benefit Scheme

The government provides funds under this scheme to the women for their prenatal and postnatal sustenance. This financial grant is given to those women belonging to families that aren’t well financially. The person gets cash-based aid directly from the government.

• National Family Benefit Scheme 

The funds are provided to those families whose main wage earner dies due to any reason. Under this, a sum of 10,000 is provided to the household. 

5. Annapurna

The scheme had its initial enactment in 1999-2000 where its main aim has always been to provide a nutritional diet to the senior citizens who are unable to do that for themselves. This scheme under the poverty alleviation programme provides 10 kg of free nutritional diet every month for the aged citizens of the above classification. 

Critical evaluation of poverty alleviation programmes

There are conflicting views about the success and failure of the poverty alleviation programme in India. Some think that it succeeded in alleviating poverty to some extent, and some think that this didn’t help. Here is a critical evaluation of poverty alleviation programmes in India during the pre-reform and post-reform periods.  

Pre-reform phase (1947-1990)

After the independence of the country, there was no such concentration on the economic strategies for the alleviation of poverty from the country for straight two decades.  The scholars were of the view that industrialization will have a prolonged effect on the economy and will help in alleviating poverty in India. But sadly this did not happen in the economy. However, the evils of low per capita income, high population growth rate and demand-supply mismatch generated more difficulties in the country. The government after all this took some steps and started plenty of programmes like IRDP, NREP, RLEGP and TRYSEM. Failingly, the government languished in classifying poor people.  

Post-reform Period (1991 onwards)

During the eighth 5-year plan (after the economic reforms), the creation of employment reliefs and strengthening productivity were the two tasks focused on by the government. But the main issue was its result could only be visible in the medium and long-term phases. The high growth rate during this period generated income for the government which was further used to finance the poverty alleviation programmes. Succeeding five-year plans also did a great job in alleviating poverty from India to some extent where they highlighted faster, sustainable and comprehensive growth as their central objective. To, this plethora of poverty alleviation programmes are availing basic facilities so that our country could get rid of poverty. 

Conclusion 

In India, poverty has certainly been reduced, but the result is not that widespread or to that aimed level with the poverty alleviation programmes. The increasing gaps between the rural and urban parts create complicated challenges for the government as well as the society as a whole. However, the government cannot only work in this aspect. We should also do our parts at the individual levels to focus on education, empowerment of the weaker sections of the society, helping weaker sections financially, etc. The country has to go an extended way for the complete alleviation of poverty from India.