Poverty in Rural India ? How did it come down?

Poverty in Rural India – How did it come down?

News: A recent World Bank Report has shown that extreme poverty in India more than halved between 2011 and 2019 – from 22.5 per cent to 10.2 per cent. The reduction was higher in rural areas, from 26.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent.

Reasons behind reduction in poverty:
• Poverty has reduced significantly due to government’s efforts on improving ease of living of ordinary Indians through schemes such as Ujjwala Yojana, PM Awas Yojana, Swacch Bharat Mission, Jan Dhan Yojana and Mission Indradhanush.

The contributing Factors include:

Widened Coverage of Women
• The coverage of women under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana and Self Help Groups (SHG) increased from 2.5 crore in 2014 to over 8 crore in 2018 as a result of more than 75 lakh SHGs working closely with over 31 lakh elected panchayati raj representatives, 40 per cent of whom are women.
• The PRI-SHG partnership catalysed changes that increased the pace of poverty reduction and the use of Aadhaar cleaned up corruption at several levels and ensured that the funds reached those whom it was meant for.

Identification of beneficiaries through SECC 2011
• Since deprivation was the key criterion in identifying beneficiaries, SC and ST communities got higher coverage and the erstwhile backward regions in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Rajasthan and rural Maharashtra got a larger share of the benefits.
• Social groups that often used to be left out of government programmes were included and gram sabha validation was taken to ensure that the project reached these groups.

Basic Infrastructure
• Finance Commission transfers were made directly to gram panchayats leading to the creation of basic infrastructure like pucca village roads and drains at a much faster pace in rural areas.
• The high speed of road construction under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadhak Yojana created greater opportunities for employment in nearby larger villages/census towns/kasbas by improving connectivity and enhancing mobility.

Availability of Credit
• The social capital of SHGs ensured the availability of credit through banks, micro-finance institutions and MUDRA loans.
• Livelihood diversification: The NRLM prioritised livelihood diversification and implemented detailed plans for credit disbursement.

Implementation of social sector schemes
• In the two phases of the Gram Swaraj Abhiyan in 2018, benefits such as gas and electricity connections, LED bulbs, accident insurance, life insurance, bank accounts and immunisation were provided to 63974 villages that were selected because of their high SC and ST populations.
• Through efforts such as social and concurrent audits it was accessed whether resources were fully utilized.
• It was observed that high amount of public funds were transferred to rural areas, including from the share of states and, in some cases, through extra-budgetary resources.

All these factors contributed to improved ease of living of deprived households and improving their asset base. A lot has been achieved, much remains to be done.