Measures and Anti-Poverty Programmes in India

7. Measures and Anti-Poverty Programmes in India

Because poverty in India has multiple, reinforcing causes (Section 3) that operate through a

self-perpetuating cycle (Section 4), the government has, over the decades, pursued a mix of

different kinds of anti-poverty measures rather than relying on any single approach. The

MSBSHSE Economics syllabus for Std XI Commerce groups these broadly as follows:

(a) Employment-generation programmes. Directly attacking the unemployment-poverty link

discussed in Section 6, these guarantee or create paid work for the poor, especially in rural

areas:

• The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), 2005, legally guarantees a minimum number of days of unskilled manual work per year to every rural household that demands it, at a statutory minimum wage — one of the largest employment-guarantee programmes of its kind in the world, aimed directly at providing an income floor during lean agricultural seasons.
• Earlier employment-and-poverty programmes, such as the historic Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP), aimed at creating self-employment opportunities and provided credit and subsidies to rural poor households to start small income-generating activities.

(b) Food and nutrition security measures. Aimed directly at the malnutrition consequence

from Section 5:

• The Public Distribution System (PDS), strengthened under the National Food Security Act, 2013, supplies subsidised foodgrain to eligible households through a network of ration shops, aiming to guarantee a basic minimum level of food access regardless of a household's cash income in a given month.

(c) Housing and basic infrastructure measures. Aimed at the poor housing/living-conditions

consequence from Section 5:

• The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) aims to provide pucca (permanent) housing to eligible poor households, in both rural and urban areas.

(d) Financial inclusion measures. Aimed at helping poor households build savings and access

credit — directly targeting the "low savings → low investment" link in the vicious circle from

Section 4:

• The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana aims to give every household access to a basic bank account, insurance, and credit, bringing previously unbanked poor households into the formal financial system.
• Self-Help Group (SHG)-based livelihood programmes, such as the National Rural Livelihood Mission, organise poor rural households (especially women) into groups that can save collectively and access small loans for income-generating activity.

(e) Human capital / skill-development measures. Aimed at breaking the INTER-GENERATIONAL leg

of the vicious circle from Section 4, by protecting the next generation's education, health, and

employability:

• Mid-day meal and school-nutrition schemes support children's nutrition WHILE keeping them enrolled in school, directly countering the child-labour and low-education consequences from Section 5.
• Skill-development programmes aim to make poor and low-skilled workers employable in higher- productivity, better-paid jobs, addressing the low-productivity leg of the vicious circle directly. …