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Poverty Reduction Strategies
I ndia is witnessing a series of changes since the early nineties. The Sensex is touching new heights and simultaneously India is ranked in 94th out of 118 countries in the Global Hunger Index. This indicates the changing economic scenario, increasing population pressure on resources and hence, the livelihoods of the people, especially the poor which has emerged as an important challenge in this process. India’s strong economic growth has consistently sought to include the rural poor, who are concentrated in areas where rain fed agriculture is the main economic activity. However, poverty persists because of:• Limited and inequitable access to productive resources, such as land, water, improved inputs and technologies and microfinance• Vulnerability to drought and other natural disasters• Low levels of literacy and skillsThere is a need to bridge these gaps and this can be done only by enhancing the livelihood conditions of the poor. There have been several attempts to address this issue through various interventions. Initial poverty eradication efforts in India concentrated on supply of agricultural technologies, inputs and services that were often ‘production’ orientated. These were largely inappropriate to the needs of the poor and the benefits were mostly captured by the wealthy. Then the approach changed towards ‘capacity-building’ in sector organizations to equip people and organizations with the skills and resources to do a better job but again this approach was not very successful. There were environment approaches too but being sectoral and supply driven they again were not encouraging. Then, in the mid-nineties emerged the concept of livelihoods and livelihood analysis, which was closely associated with poverty reduction strategies. Livelihoods can be defined as "a set of activities a Household engages in on a regular basis in order to generate adequate cash and non- cash income to maintain a minimum desired standard of living, both on a day-to-day basis and over a longer period of time." Source: State of India’s Livelihoods: The 4 P Report The livelihoods approach puts households of the poor as its central focus. It takes holistic consideration of: • Things that the poor might be vulnerable to • Assets and resources that help them thrive and survive • Policies and institutions that impact their livelihoods • How the poor respond to threats and opportunities • What sort of outcomes the poor aspire for This approach emphasizes that livelihoods of the poor should not be viewed in any one-track logic - be it economic, social, technical, cultural or political. It is important to recognize that the livelihood systems are made up of very diverse elements which - taken together constitute the physical, economic, social and cultural universe wherein the families live. Livelihood status is not stagnant. Livelihood situations change with changes in the market, the institutional context and people’s capital and resources. People are constantly adapting their livelihood strategies to the changing environment. For example in recent years, land based livelihoods of small and marginal farmers are increasingly becoming unsustainable, since their land has not been able to support the family’s food requirements and fodder for their cattle. As a result, rural households are forced to look at alternative means for supplementing their livelihoods. This also forces millions of poor families every year to migrate in search of work. And many a time distressed migrants find themselves with hardly any skills, assets or education. Earnings from migration are survival level and not enough to build assets. Therefore some livelihoods flourish while others diminish, and this flow is the result of the changing livelihood context. The major constraints to livelihoods are: • Environment constraints: the eco-system has to bear the pressure of 1.1 billion humans and 4.7 million cattle living off the 320 million hectare of landmass, which is being used beyond capacity. (Source: Department of Agriculture and Cooperation Ministry of Agriculture) • Manmade constraints: these are disabling policies and inequitable access to the five types of capital which are- • 71% of India’s population is rural, of which 29% (more than 200 million people) is below the national poverty line.• Rural poverty declined at 0.73% per year over the period 1993-2005, down from 0.81% in 1983-94.• 46% of rural children under five, 40% of adult women and 38% of adult men are underweight (compared to 33%, 25% and 26% for urban).• 59% are small and marginal farmers and landless laborers who depend on agriculture. Two-thirds of agricultural laborers are women.• 16% of India’s population is classified as scheduled caste, and 8% as scheduled tribe. These groups are dominantly poor and rural and face particular socio-cultural barriers to development.Source: DFID report on "Transforming Rural Livelihoods in India" i) Natural capital -
Environmental resources (e.g., land, water, biodiversity) • Path dependency: Some of the societies have been perpetually locked into low equilibriums and are unable to break away from the fate line. A relevant example is caste-based societies. This path dependency can be broken by the occurrence of a major change like a revolution or deep-seated reform.There have been several efforts to overcome these constraints and promote livelihoods by various individuals and agencies and these are mainly government, civil societies and increasingly by the corporate sector. The Corporate efforts for promotion of livelihoods have in the recent times gained ground with the increasing need for inclusive growth and restoring the balance. The corporate efforts can be classified as i) Charitable trusts ii) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) iii) Mainstream business activities that involve the poor in the value chain. Of these CSR is really gaining ground because it is an intermediate paradigm that tries to restore the balance between regular business activity and corporate philanthropy and sometimes even gives business benefits. The Civil Societies have played a large role in livelihood promotion. The MFI’s and NGO’s have helped over 10 million households with cumulative loans of over Rs 10,000 crore. They have also worked on building significant multi-faceted livelihood promotion programmes, linking SHG’s with banks, capacity building, encouraging small scale entrepreneurship, building market linkages, awareness generation and many other significant areas. (Source: State of India’s Livelihoods: The 4 P Report) The Government livelihoods programmes have focused on
poverty alleviation and can be classified as: Some of the examples of key Government schemes are:
• Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) - a scheme implemented by the ministry of rural development- aims to help bring the rural poor above the poverty line ensuring a sustained level of income over a period of time. Under the scheme, the rural poor are organized into self- help groups through the process of social mobilization; their training, capacity-building and provision of income-generating assets is taken care of by the government. SGSY is sponsored both by the Union and state governments with a funding ratio of 75:25.• Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA): NREGA promises 100 days of manual work every year to each rural household, when demanded. So far, NREGA has provided employment to 50.6 million households, generating 2.63 billion person days. Women constitute nearly half of the beneficiaries. It received an allocation of Rs 40,100 crore in the Union Budget for 2010-11. It is being considered to link SGSY with NREGA, which could be quite useful since NREGA provides only manual work which requires unskilled labor and it is believed that by training some of the NREGA workers under SGSY, they can be equipped for semi-skilled work. (Source: Livemint.com article "NREGA may be linked to skill development by Ruhi Tewari dated April 14, 2010)Though there are several models to solve the livelihood problems in the country, the best ones would always try to involve multiple stakeholders. There is need to utilize government schemes and promote models that involve corporations, government bodies to reach out to needy people. Civil organizations should be used as a bridge to connect with local people in remote areas. There is a need to start business ventures which can be run by local people. This will not only provide entry of the corporations in unknown markets but also foster community development by enhancing the livelihoods. q Nupur Agrawal Bhagatnbhagat@devalt.org |
