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Suddenly,
there seems to be a new awakening on poverty alleviation, amid all the
talk of ‘India Shining’, and the ‘India Growth Story’. It does
feel good when fund managers rain lavish praise on the economy, but both
the prospect of polls and recent studies are bringing back into focus
poverty and unemployment. The Arjun Sengupta report argued that 70 per
cent of the population has to live on less than Rs 20 a day, while a
study by the Society for Participatory Research in Asia says that only 6
per cent of the households registered under the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act got the assured 100 days of employment in
2006-07 and a good number did not receive the minimum prescribed wages.
One may recall the debate the job scheme generated when the UPA came to
power, with economists arguing whether this constituted a drain on the
exchequer. The fact is that such schemes and anti-poverty programmes are
administrative measures, and studies and anecdotal evidence reveal a
cocktail of inefficiency and corruption in their implementation. The
late Rajiv Gandhi had stirred a controversy by remarking that only 15
paise out of every rupee spent on anti-poverty programmes reached the
targeted people. It is true that administrative measures involve
challenges, but the alternative is not to abandon administered
programmes for reducing poverty or rural unemployment. The
answers could lie in a combination of measures. Robust economic growth
is a long-term answer as it can trigger urban migration and remittances.
Better prices for farm goods and easier micro-finance could provide a
more market-friendly path to rural prosperity.
(Source: The |
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