I prepared this term paper project in my third semester of Masters in Political Science. Also, I referred to a number of other philosophers works in order to create a better project. I hope this will be of great help to anyone who views it. Thanks.

1. Poverty Alleviation:
A Challenge for the Indian
Government
Name: Benish Mahajan
Course: MA. Political Science (2nd
year)
Subject: Institution, Development and Poverty
Roll no.: 1708416

2. CONTENTS
➢ Abstract
➢ Introduction
➢ Causes of Poverty
➢ Poverty Alleviation Programmes
➢ Self-Analysis
➢ Criticism
➢ Conclusion
➢ References

3. 1.0 ABSTRACT
The problem of being in the state of poverty is not only a problem of a person but is a
national problem. India is considered as the poorest of country. The estimation rates of the
regions suffering from poverty are very shocking as it is caused by the lack of assets, and
vulnerability of the people. Poor people are lacking the necessities that in turn have a great
negative impact upon their lives. In a simple line, poverty is the violation of basic rights and
fundamental freedoms. It is not because of religion, culture, gender but their poverty can be
choice of the rich in power. Implementation of microfinance, conditional and unconditional
cash transfers, employment guarantee schemes, property rights and governmental reforms can
help to achieve the goal of poverty reduction.
2.0 INTRODUCTION
Poverty is not simply a lack of adequate income. It is a condition of being in the state where
an individual is even deprived of the day to day necessities such as inadequacy of food,
clothes, and shelter. Today poverty in the world is widespread with over 3 billion people
living on less than $2.50 a day. The inequality is visible from the fact that the Gross
Domestic Product of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries is less than the wealth of the
world’s top seven richest people combined. Due to severe hunger and malnutrition, 10.6
million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5.[1]
Poverty is an extremely complex phenomenon, that comes in a range of overlapping and
interwoven economic, political and social deprivations which include lack of assets, hunger,
low income levels, poor health, insecurity, physical and psychological hardship, social
seclusion, degradation and discrimination, and political powerlessness and disarticulation.[2]
Its concept evolved over the last decade in highly different ways. It goes beyond the
dimensions of income and consumption and education and health to include the risk and
vulnerability and voicelessness and powerlessness of the unfortunate. “The Copenhagen
Declaration of the United Nations defines poverty as the condition characterized by severe
deprivation of basic human needs including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities,
health, education, and information.”[3]
However, this condition is widespread in India both in urban as well as rural areas. Different
challenges have been posed by the nature of urban poverty for facilities like housing, health,
education and the special needs of vulnerable groups such as women and children. Due to the
country’s adoption of a mixed economy, the urbanization in India began to increase which
gave rise to the development private sector. As per the statistics, over 25 percent i.e. around
81 million people reside in urban areas on incomes that are below the poverty line. Rural
poverty remains higher than urban poverty at a national level. But somewhere this gap is
closing. It is estimated that by 2030, urbanisation in India will reach 50 percent. According to
a survey done by United Nations State of the World Population report in 2007, by 2030, it is
estimated that 40.76% of country’s population is expected to live in urban areas. As per
World Bank, India, along with China, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States, will lead the
world’s urban population surge by 2050.[4]

4. The situation of poverty is measured by what is known as the poverty ratio or head-count
ratio which is the ratio of total population expressed as percentage. It is measured from a
determined poverty line quantified in terms of per capita consumption expenditure over a
month and the class distribution of persons obtained from a large sample survey of consumer
expenditure data of the National Sample survey office (NSSO).[2]
Poverty is not a static condition rather it is dynamic condition. It differs as the resources rise
and fall and so the people’s ability to meet them. Therefore, it may be temporary, recurrent or
persistent over longer periods. In order to have a lasting and most substantial impact it is
important to have strong emphasis on interventions that will ultimately resolve the global
problem.[5]
For poverty alleviation being the major challenge for the Government of India,
there are two pre-requisites. Firstly, change in the agro-based relations so that the ownership
of land is mutually shared by a larger section of the people. Secondly, no programme of
poverty eradication can succeed in an economy suffering by high rise in the prices. With
these two pre-requisites a strong political will is must needed in the national leadership for
the implementation and introduction of such structural reforms. The government’s major
focus must be on the development of the social sector whose key constituent should be
population control, primary education to all, family welfare, employment opportunities
especially for people living in rural areas.[6]
3.0 CAUSES OF POVERTY
In order to understand the causes or the factors affecting poverty it is important to examine
the dimensions highlighted by the poor people:
3.01 Lack of income and assets
Lack of income and assets to attain the basic necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, health
facilities and quality education is the first cause. As the country grows richer so do the
demand of the poor in accordance to getting better-paid work since this is the only factor for
improving their lives. With the rise in economy, income poverty falls; and with contraction in
the economy, income poverty rises. Over four decades, the GDP growth rates in some
countries in East Asia were 4 to 5 percent with improvements in the living standards and in
health, education for poor people and for everyone else. A negative growth or as equal to no
growth at all was seen in countries mostly in Africa leading to no improvements even in
average living standards. As the economic growth of any country is linked with the poverty
alleviation, it is dependent upon the initial level of inequality in the distribution of income
and how that distribution changes over time. In order to achieve the goal of poverty
reduction, the government must build up institutions keeping in mind those inequalities that
will function in favour of the people who suffer most in this process. [7]
3.02 Voicelessness and Powerlessness—the institutional basis of poverty
The lack of voice, power, and independence among the deprived sections of the society leads
them with the feeling of helplessness that subjects them to rudeness, inhumane treatment and
exploitation at the hands of the institutions of state and society. Due to the absence of rule of

5. law, poor people are often prevented from taking advantage of the new economic
opportunities or participate in the new activities. This prevention places a large burden on
them. The reason for the slow progress of the human assets of poor people is due to this
unresponsive nature of the state. Socio-cultural norms and barriers can also contribute to such
voicelessness and powerlessness. Inequality is widespread between men and women. Poor
women are often discriminated against the household and in the land, labour, and credit
markets. [7]
3.03 Vulnerability
As far as the poor and near-poor is concern, vulnerability is a constant companion of material
and human deprivation. They reside in crowded places where rainfall could easily affect their
homes and are at higher risk of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. They are subject to
unstable employment, both in formal and informal sector. They are not treated well by the
local authorities. Women are often the victims of violence and crime. There are number of
causes of such vulnerable condition, the first being the risks faced by the poor people, the
second being the inability to reduce or cope with the negative shocks i.e. low levels of
physical, natural, and financial assets. Taking children out of school to earn money during
economic crisis, making quick sales on land at low prices; all of this worsen their situation in
long term. Another cause of vulnerability is the inability of the state to develop mechanisms
to reduce the risks faced by the poor people. Irrigation, infrastructure, public health
interventions, honest police and a fair legal system, public work schemes in times of stress,
microcredit to tide people through the aftermath of an adverse shock, social networks of
support and insurance, famine relief in extreme circumstances— all reduce vulnerability for
poor people. [7]
In order to experience poverty alleviation, the World Development Report proposed a
framework of action based on three pillars:
• Empowerment: Focusing on enhancing the capacity of the poor to influence the state
institutions and social processes that affect their lives and removing the barriers to
poverty reduction.
• Security: Reducing the repercussions of short-term negative shocks for the poorest,
such as health shocks, unemployment, crises and natural disasters. In other words,
helping them to carry off the risk that they face in their everyday lives.
• Opportunity: Providing them the economic opportunity by building up their assets
and increasing the returns on these assets through market-oriented and non-market
actions.

6. 4.0 POVERTY ALLEVIATION PROGRAMMES
The role national per capita income is mostly discussed topics in poverty reduction. A
number of statistical studies have found a strong relationship between national per capita
income and national poverty indicators with the use of both income as well as non-income
measures of poverty. With the rise in the per capita income, the national poverty indicators
falls. This proves that economic growth is the engine of poverty alleviation.
As there is increase in poverty among the deprived sections, there is an urgent need of
implementation of certain poverty reduction programmes for the betterment of those
individuals. Today, poverty reduction programmes can be found in most developing
countries. They include instruments such as conditional cash transfers, microfinance, and
rural employment guarantee schemes provided to the workers outside the formal economy.
Some of the programmes are discussed below:
4.01 Microfinance:
According to the Nobel Laureate Professor Mohammad Yunus: “Microcredit is not a miracle
cure that can eliminate poverty in one fell swoop. But it can end many and reduce its severity
for others.”[8]
The microcredit movement sought to address the credit needs of the people living in poverty
as during an economic-wide crisis there were situations when they were forced to borrow
from the money lenders who charged exorbitant interest rates. The microfinance institutions
help those low-income people who are not able to acquire loans from normal banks and they
make sure that loans are provided to the applicants at a very low rate. It provides right
amount of capital to either start a small business, or to finance their child’s education. Thus, it
fulfils an important task especially in countries where there is no state-sponsored social
security system. They usually come in the form of non-governmental organizations, credit
unions, cooperatives, banks and non-bank financial institutions or buy medications.[9]
The
2006 Global Microcredit Summit pledged to provide microfinance to 175 million poor
households by 2015. This credit is supported by the governments and development agencies
in order to expand the microfinance.[8]
Critique of Microfinance:
Studies done by Hulme and Mosley found that the poor people did not benefit from
microfinance. It was only the non-poor borrowers whom enjoyed positive impacts. Even
people with starting income as below the poverty line resulted in less incremental income
after getting microloans in comparison to those groups who did not obtain such loans.
Critics also note that in order to obtain its real goal and be successful, the microenterprises
need other complementary services, such as access to decent roads and affordable means for
moving their products to markets. Seasoned advocates of microfinance mutually agree that
microfinance in and of itself cannot remove poverty because it includes a broad array of
empowering interventions. [8]

7. 4.02 Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT)
Conditional Cash Transfer schemes provides cash to the poor households and disadvantaged
sections on fulfilling certain conditions such as sending their children to schools or regularly
attending health clinics and increase their participation in immunization programmes. This
was first introduced in Latin America in response to the economic crisis of 1990 which
resulted in the decline of the social services. Today it is increasingly widespread among the
low income countries. It was initiated in 1997 in Mexico focusing on nutrition, health, and
education. In 1996 it was initiated in Brazil with child labour as being major focus. Countries
including Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, South Africa and Turkey initiated CCT
programmes. The objective of such programmes is ‘to correct for market failures that are
linked with noninternalized positive externalities’ (Janvry and Sadoulet, 2004, p.1). Its focus
was on addressing demand-side constraints.[10]
CCT schemes have two main objectives- to reduce poverty and to enhance the capabilities of
poor. The CCT programmes also addresses the needs of the vulnerable sections such as the
displaced person in Colombia, physically challenged persons in Jamaica and households
affected by HIV and AIDS virus in Zambia. Scope of the programmes has also extended from
admission in schools to covering aspects like secondary school completion in Mexico and
adult education, microcredit and housing in Brazil. It is also benefitting in empowering the
women, improving accountability, and reducing inequality. [10]
4.03 Unconditional and universal transfers
Unlike conditional cash transfer that was based on a specific condition, unconditional cash
grants aims to reduce poverty without any conditions upon receivers actions.[11]
This cash
transfer is based on the premise that providing the citizens with cash allows them to have
autonomy over their own lives.[12]
This type of cash transfers does not influence individual or
household consumption preferences rather it goes beyond it by enhancing individuals
livelihood and longer-term incomes. They grant protective social security measures to the
deprived sections. For instance, in response to the insufficient rainfall in Ethiopia in 2002 and
2003, the cash for relief programme was launched that provided them with small cash grants
over a period of three to six months directly to the affected households. This was evaluated to
be successful as the grants were used not only for consumption but also for reducing the debts
and improving land productivity.[8]
In an economy, the basic income grant reduces total employment by reducing labour and
increase the acceptable wage floor. This may in turn increase the productivity and provide
smooth consumption.
According to the supporters of targeted anti-poverty policies, the tax payers will criticize the
calls of universal programmes. The supporters feel that the tax payer will financially oppose
universal programmes. They argue the programmes support middle class people. The less
privileged people can receive extra benefits without stigma while the targeted programmes
deliver benefits across different social groups within the framework of universal programmes.

8. 4.04 Employment guarantee schemes
Employment guarantee schemes provide with the employment opportunities in order to help
those people living in poverty that have affected areas after a disaster or when creating
infrastructure which results in enhancing their welfare. Most of such schemes are on transient
basis and only a few of them offer employment guarantee schemes on an ongoing basis,
example, Argentina, China, Indonesia, and Republic of Korea. It is seen that this scheme has
increased the income of the participants while improving the infrastructure. For instance, the
Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme in India found that the participants earned four
times their forgone income (Dutt and Ravallion, 1994). Few of the programmes also provided
with the sustainable employment opportunities. This could also provide those people who and
lost their jobs with new opportunities and social protection provisions.
However, later it was also noticed that it had little evidence of targeting the poor. It was
reported by the United Nations in 2007 that the Maharashtra Employment Guarantee Scheme
somewhere failed to attract the interests of those most in need. Also, in South Africa, an
assessment of seven public works programmes was made which found that districts with very
high poverty and unemployment has no labour-intensive projects as compare to the poverty
low districts as more projects (Adatom and Haddad, 2001).
4.05 Property rights
People of deprived sections not only lack income but also does not have enough assets to
generate the income which implies that there is a clear link between poverty and lack of
property that often calls for land reforms that provide the landless with transfers from the
landlords. Land is a critical asset for the people living in rural areas as it is their means to
provide livelihood and the landless are among the world’s poorest. In India, over 30 percent
of the landless live in poverty and in Bangladesh, there is two thirds of population of the
people living in poverty.
In rural communities, land ownership and land rights are linked with the social standing of
the community. The distribution of property rights within the household is also considered
important as it discriminates women. In many cases, women are given the ownership only
through the male members of the household but are evicted in the death of the man or divorce
or disinheritance. On the other hand, this landownership has given the women their rights and
lead to a decline in the domestic violence.
Land can also be used indirectly in the form of investments or sold to raise capital that has led
to campaigns as popularized by Hernando de Soto. According to Soto, to put an end on
capitalist apartheid, the property rights would ensure those people living in poverty with
credit. For example, countries in Latin America and Africa, to formalize land titles, they have
strongly aided the donors based on Soto’s argument. [8]
4.06 Governance reforms
Governance reforms have been a precondition for poverty alleviation as it has apparently
promoted good that is understood as market-friendly policies to achieve its purpose of

9. ensuring aid effectiveness. Thus, the concept of good governance identifies capabilities to
protect stable property rights, enforce the rule of law, implementing anti-corruption
properties. The “pro-poor” good governance reforms are supposed to enhance the scale and
efficiency of service delivery to people living in poverty.
Van Arcadia (2005) also notices that the governance discourse is also associated with the
political agendas and objectives keeping in mind the visions of political models. [8]
5.0 SELF-ANALYSIS
Poverty is widespread in many developing countries and India is one of the poorest countries
in the world. Around half of the population is living a miserable life because of poverty. Any
person is subject to be in the state of poverty when he/she is deprived of the basic essential
needs like food, clothing, shelter, better health facilities etc. It has its impact both on rural as
well as urban areas. Of the rural population around 48.5 percent of rural households are
deprived according to the caste census of 2011. Nearly 51 percent of all the households are
economically involved in manual labour and 30 percent of them are engaged in cultivation.
The poor people who reside in rural areas often migrate to the cities and towns in search of
better employment opportunities. It is analysed that the income is highly unstable as more
than 8 crore urban people is falling below the poverty line. Many them are either casual
workers or self-employed. Around 40% of all urban poor people of India are living in Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh and 35 percent of the total
population consists of slum population in the metropolitan cities.
As for the reasons as why, there is a rapid growth of poverty in India, several causes have
been brought forth; the first been the poor agriculture. Farmers working in the fields are
deprived of the good irrigation facilities and seeds and fertilizers that results in poor
agriculture. Also, as the farmers are uneducated, they are not aware of the modern method of
farming. Secondly, as the resources are limited and there is a rapid increase in the population.
As the population increases, we must spend more on development projects. Such growth
creates a problem. Another major cause of poverty in India is the widening gap between the
rich and poor. As the rich people are growing richer, the poor people are growing poorer.
This calls for a changed social system. Lastly, the reason is corruption that leads inefficiency
in offices.
Therefore, poverty effects greatly on the lives of the poor individuals. As the poor people are
deprived of the necessities, it becomes difficult for them to get the education services. Today,
when children are at an age to pursue their academic studies, they are subjected to child
labour. It has also an effect on the nutrition and diet routine, unemployment that result in the
poor people to live in unfulfilled life. Poverty has a direct impact upon health hygiene and
sanitation of the poor as they lack knowledge about it. It is observed that the government is
taking initiatives in providing them with clean and safe water, and proper sanitation system. It
has been analysed that the state of poverty has widely affected the lives of the women as they

10. are deprived of the major health facilities, proper diet. However, the government of India has
initiated programmes in to generate the wage employment for the poor unskilled people
living in rural areas such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act
(MNREGA) that aims at enhancing the livelihood security of the rural people by
guaranteeing 100 days of wage employment in a financial year, other are Jawahar Gram
Sarahi Yojana, National Old Age Pension, Integrated Rural Development programme,
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana. All these programmes have helped improve the lives
of the poor people living in rural areas.
6.0 CRITICISM
Despite the various successful strategies implemented to reduce the poverty it has not yet
undergone any radical transformation i.e. none of the schemes resulted in change in the
ownership of assets, process of production or improvement of basic amenities to the poor
people. There is insufficiency of the resources as compare to the magnitude of poverty and
due to the unequal distribution of land, these benefited only the non-poor. These programmes
depended upon the government and bank officials for their implementation who are
motivated, corruption prone and result in wastage or inefficient use of resources. The
government does not assure through the schemes to support the individual or household for
getting minimum level of subsistence. For instance, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act scheme (MNREGA) does not provide the guaranteed 100 days
of work in many states. Even the old age pension varied by the place where you live, in some
places it is Rs 200 per month and in some states, it is 1500 or more. To have a positive impact
of the schemes, people who formulate alleviation programmes need to have knowledge and
understand chronic poverty and its dynamics. As poverty is especially known among the
occupational groups, the casual agricultural labour is the largest group stuck in poverty.
The situation of poverty can only be reduced when the poor people themselves start
contributing to growth by their active involvement in the growth process which is only
plausible through a process of social mobilisation and encouraging the poor people to take
part and get them empowered. This will in turn result in creating employment opportunities
which will ultimately lead to increase in the income, skill development, literacy and health.
Also, to fix the issue, it is essential to identify the poverty-stricken areas and accordingly
provide infrastructure for their enhancement.

11. 7.0 CONCLUSION
As we can conclude from the above research, that poverty has affected clear majority of
people both on national as well as global basis. It is a condition where an individual is not
able to fulfil his or her daily basic needs which include lack of assets, hunger, low income
levels, poor health, insecurity, physical. This becomes an invisible problem as their lives are
in great danger and put their lives into risk. It goes beyond the dimensions of income and
consumption and education and health to include the risk and vulnerability and voicelessness
and powerlessness of the unfortunate.
The causes of poverty include the lack of income and assets to attain the basic necessities
such as food, shelter, clothing, health facilities. With the rise in economy, income poverty
falls; and with contraction in the economy, income poverty rises. In order to achieve the goal
of poverty reduction, the government must build up institutions keeping in mind those
inequalities that will function in favour of the people who suffer most in this process. The
second being the lack of voice, power, among the deprived sections of the society leads them
with the feeling of helplessness that subjects them to rudeness, inhumane treatment and
exploitation at the hands of the institutions of state and society. Socio-cultural norms and
barriers can also contribute to such voicelessness and powerlessness. Lastly, poor people are
subject to unstable employment, both in formal and informal sector that results in their
vulnerability. The World Development Report proposed a framework of action in order to
experience poverty alleviation based on empowerment, security and opportunities provide to
the poor people in order to fulfil their needs.
Alleviation of poverty would ensure a sustainable and inclusive growth of economy and the
deprived sections of the society. There are certain measures that help to reduce poverty and
affect the lives of poor people in a good way. The microfinance institutions have helped those
low-income people who are not able to acquire loans from normal banks and they make sure
that loans are provided to the applicants at a very low rate. It provides right amount of capital
to either start a small business, or to finance their child’s education. The Conditional Cash
Transfer schemes and unconditional cash grants. The former provides cash to the poor
disadvantaged sections on fulfilling certain conditions and the latter that provided cash
unconditionally. Also, there were employment as well as government schemes that would
grant the people well paid employment opportunities. It also aims to provide the individuals
with property rights for poverty reduction.

12. 8.0 REFERENCES
1. Junofy Anto Rozarina. N., 2013. A Study on Poverty and Hunger in India.
Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences.
2. More Sachin Sudhakarrao and Narendra Singh, 2014. Poverty in India: concepts,
measurement and status.
3. The Copenhagen Declaration and Programme of Action 1995, 1995. World Summit
for Social Development. New York: United Nations Department of Public
Information.
4. Akanksha Sharma, 2017. Cities of the Poor: A View on Urban Poverty in India, In the
Name of Development, Times of India.
5. Chris Goilden and Conor D’Arcy, 2014. A Definition of Poverty, The Joseph
Rowntree Foundation.
6. Puja Mondal, Your Article Library.
7. World Development Report 1990-2000/1, causes of Poverty and Framework of
Action
8. Poverty Reduction Programmes.
9. Manish Kumar, Narendra Singh Bohra, Amar Johari, 2010. Micro-Finance as an Anti-
Poverty Vaccine for Rural India, Research India Publications.
10. United Nations Development Programme, India, 2009. Conditional Cash Transfer
Schemes for Alleviating Human Poverty: Relevance for India.
11. Frank Pega, Stefan Walter, Sze Yan Liu, Roman Pabayo, Stefan K Lhachimi, Ruhi
Saith, 2014. Unconditional cash transfers for reducing poverty and vulnerabilities:
effect on use of health services and health outcomes in low and middle income
countries, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
12. Katherine Gan, 2016. The Benefits and Drawbacks of Unconditional Cash Transfer,
The Atlas Business Journal.