Poverty Alleviation Schemes

1. Many poverty alleviation schemes have been launched by the central government for the rural poor, comprising small and marginal farmers, landless labourers and rural artisans. The important programmes currently functioning are:
   • 20 Point Programme: Launched for reducing poverty and economic exploitation and for the uplift of the weaker sections of society. The important goals were: controlling inflation, giving impetus to production, welfare of the rural population, lending help to the urban middle classes and controlling social crimes.
2. The programmes included in the 20 point programme were: increase in irrigational facilities, increase in pogrammes for rural employment, distribution of surplus land minimum wages to landleless labourers, rehabilitation of bonded labour, uplift of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, growth of housing facilities, increasing power production, formulating new programmes of family planning, tree plantation, extension of primary health facilities, programmes for the welfare of the women and children, making primary education measures more effective, strengthening of public distribution system, simplification of industrial policies, control of black money, betterment of drinking water facilities and developing internal resources.
3. The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) was launched by the centre in 20 selected districts, but from October 1982, it was extended to all districts in the country. This programme considers a household as the basic unit of development IRDP is a major instrument of the government to alleviate poverty. Its objective is to enable selected families to cross the poverty line by taking up self-employment ventures in a variety of activities like agriculture, horticulture and animal husbandry in the primary sector, weaving and handicrafts in the secondary sector and service and business activities in the tertiary sector.
   • The aim of the IRDP is to see that a minimum stipulated number of families are enabled to cross the poverty line within the limits of a given investment and in a given time-frame. Thus, the three variables involved are: (a) number of poor households, (b) resources available for investment, and (c) the time-span over which the investment would yield an income which would enable the family to cross the poverty line.
   • A number of institutions have undertaken studies with respect to the implementation of working of the IRDP. They point out flaws in the implementation of the programme. None of these studies have, however, questioned the utility of the programme.The main criticisms against this scheme are:
     • There are leakages in the programme and all assets created under IRDP are not with the poor.Thus is mainly because of three factors: the poor are unable to pay large bribes, fill up complicated forms, influence the. village headman and find ‘guarantors’ for themselves; bank officials are often reluctant to deal with poor borrowers because they believe that giving loans to the poor is risky since recovery is often used as a major indicator of the performance of a particular branch of a rural bank; the poor themselves take inadequate interest in the programme because they are afraid of being cheated or of not being able to repay.
     • There is much corruption, misuse and malpractice in the implementation of the loan programme.The loans are often misallocated with little apparent violation of the guidelines of the schemes.
     • The programme is household- based and is not integrated with the development needs or resource base of the area. Thus, the IRDP loan neither raises the living standards of the beneficiaries nor does it have any impact on rural poverty by raising the poor people above the poverty line. This has been indicated by studies in several districts in Rajasthan, Gujarat, West Bengal Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka. The latest study was conducted in seven districts in Rajasthan under a World Bank project on poverty.
4. The scheme called Training Rural Youth for Self-Employment was started on August 15, 1979 to provide technical skills to the rural youth to enable them to seek employment in the fields of agriculture, industry, services and business activities. Only youth in the age group of 18-35 and belonging to families living below the poverty line are eligible for training. Priority for selection is given to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe persons, ex-servicemen and those who are ninth pass. One-third seats are reserved for women, Stipend to the trainee’s ranges from Rs. 75 to Rs. 200 per month. On completion of training, TRYSEM beneficiaries are assisted under the IRDP.

The main criticisms against this progrmmeare:

Its coverage is verysmall in relation to need; skills provided have not been linked with rural industrialization process.Trainingis provided on the basis of ad hoc considerations and skills imparted are of low level and amount of stipend is rather inadequate to motivate the youth to go for training.

The National Rural Employment Programme (NREP) was planned for creating additional employment
opportunities in the rural areas with the help of surplus foodgrains.

1. Initially, this programme was called Food for Work Programme (FWP). Under this scheme, millions of man days of employment were created every year by utilizing lakhs of tonnes of foodgrains.
2. The works undertaken were flood protection, maintenance of existing roads, construction of new link roads, improvement of irrigation facilities, improvement of irrigation facilities, construction of panchayat ghats, school buildings, medical and healthy centres and improvement of sanitation conditions in the rural areas.
3. It took care of those rural poor who largely depended on wage employment and virtually had no source of income in the lean agricultural period These important points on which stress was laid in the implementation of this programme were: 10 per cent allocation was earmarked exclusively for drinking water well in harijans colonies and community irrigation schemes in Harijan areas. Likewise, another 10 per cent was earmarked for social forestry and fuel plantations; only such works were undertaken which had some durability. Allocations were made both at the inter-state and inter-district/block levels. The central government released the state’s share of the NREP allocation in cash every quarter. Maintenance of assets created under this programme was the responsibility of the state governments. PRIs were actively involved in this programme. This programme has now been merged in Jawahar Rozgar Yojana.
4. The Rural Landless Employment Guarantee Programme (RLEGP) aimed at providing supplemental employment to the poor on public works at a very low wage of Rs. 3 per day. Maharashtra was one state which had used the Employment GuaranteeScheme (EGS) for the unemployed in rural areas by levying EGS surcharge or collections land revenue, sales tax, motor vehicles, irrigated holdings and on professionals. The amounts so collected with matching contributions from the state government, were credited to an EGS fund for taking up employment works.This programme too has now been merged into the JRY.
5. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana: Under the scheme, it is expected that at least one member of each poor family would be provided with employment for 50 to 100 days in a year at a work place near his/ her residence. About 30 per cent of the jobs under this scheme are reserved for women. Both the rural wage employment programmes (i.e., the REP and the RLEGP) were merged in this scheme. Central assistance to the scheme is 80 per cent The scheme is implemented through village panchayats. This scheme covers 46 per cent of our population.
6. Antyodaya Programme: Antyodaya’ means development (udaya) of the people at the lowest level that is, the poorest of the poor. This programme for special assistance to the people below the poverty line.The idea was to select five of the poorest families from each village every year and to help them in their economic betterment Initially, a random survey was undertaken in 25 villages situated in different ecological region of the state and information about individual families with regard to indebtedness, dependency ratio, physical assets of land, cattle, occupation, educational level, income and size of the family was collected Thereafter, a detailed scheme of Antyodaya was frown up.
7. The task of identification of the families was entrusted to the village assembly (Gram Sabha). Under this scheme, help was given in the form of allotting land for cultivation, monthly pension, bank loan or help in getting employment. Each selected family was given a pension of Rs. 30-40 per month. A bank loan was sanctioned for purchasing bullocks, carts, animal husbandry (purchasing buffaloes, cows, goats and pigs), basket making, purchasing carpentry tools, operating a tailor’s shop or tea shop or a barber’s shop or a grocer’s shop and for manufacturing activities like soap-making etc.
8. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme:

Salient Features of the Programme :

Right Based Frame work :

1. Adult members of a rural household who are willing to do unskilled manual work may apply for registration to the local Gram Panchayat, in writing, or orally.
2. The Gram Panchayat after the verification will issue a Job Cart The Job Cart will bear the photograph of all adult members of the household and is free of cost
3. A job Card holding household can submit a written application for employment to the Gram Panchayat, stating the time and duration for which work is sought.

Time Bound Guarantee

1. The Gram Panchayat will issue a dated receipt of the written application for employment, against which guarantee of providing employment within 15 days operates. If employment is not provided within 15 days, daily unemployment allowance, in cash has to be paid Liability of payment of unemployment allowance is of the States.
2. Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village or else extra wages of 10% are payable.
3. Wages are to be paid according to minimum wages. Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight.

Women Empowerment

1. At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted, work have to be women.

Work Site Facilities

1. Work site facilities such a creche, drinking water, shade have to be provided

Decentralized Planning

1. The shelf of project has to be prepared by Gram Sabha. At least 50% of works have to be allotted to Gram Panchayats, for execution. Panchayat Raj Institutions (PRIs) have a principle role in planning and implementation.

Labour Intensive Works

1. A 60-40 wage and material ratio has to be contained Contractors and use of labour displacing machinery is prohibited.

Public Accountability

1. Social Adult has to be done by the Gram Sabha.
2. Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation process.

Transparency

1. All accounts and records relating to the Scheme are to be made available to any person desirous of obtaining a copy of such records, on demand and after paying a specified fee.

Evaluation of Programmes

Various studies have shown that programmes have not been able to make a dent in the poverty level of the rural people. A large mass of villagers still live without basic needs.This is because,

1. Policies are guided by ideologies of politicians and bureaucrats whims rather than by compulsions of the ground realities and requirements of the rural people, with the result that the dimensions of rural economy are ignored.
2. Since every programme is launched often with an eye to the next election, the programme is carried out in a piecemeal fashion and many programmes thus wither away after some time.
3. Programmes are designed in such a way that they are in fact imposed on the rural economy without taking into accounting their unique vocational patterns and local requirements. Consequently, the assets created are not durable.
4. Programmes focus more on the agricultural sector. Rural industrialization seems to be getting nowhere near the attention that it deserves.
5. Despite the fact that the government has given top priority to agricultural production and productivity, removal of social and economic disparities and reduction in income inequalities, the fruits of these schemes, have not reached the poorest in all parts of the country. Water resources, credit, subsidy and other facilities have been usurped by a handful of big farmers and the medium and poor farmers have to buy these things at a much higher price.
6. There is no coordination among various programmes. After the merger of various employment pogrammes into the Jawahar Rozgar Yojana, the government is even now not able to pass on funds to the panchayats on time.
7. Officials associated with these programmes do not appear to have much faith in the goals set by the government They lack commitment to the roles assigned to time.As such, they take least pains either in creating necessary awareness among people for the success of these programmes or in getting their cooperation and confidence. No wonder, the government has not been able to use even the available resources in the most effective manner.
8. Central funds in schemes likeJawahar Rozgar Yojna are diverted for party purposes by the states. For example, one study has revealed that money sanctioned by the central government for new irrigation wells in Nalgonda district in Andhra Pradesh were swindled and nota single well was sunk (as shown in the Shyam Senegal’s Film Well Done Abba). Planning by itself is not enough.What really matters is sincere and honest efforts on the part of the implementing agencies to make anti-poverty drive a big success.

The End of the Blog : Poverty Alleviation Schemes