Poverty Alleviation in India

Despite the corruption involved in dispersing of funds in poverty alleviating programs, the Government, the World Bank and the U.S. are helping India eradicate poverty through dispersing funds to build the economy, battle disease and also improve infrastructure. Corruption can occur through bribes and red tape from low level government levels to high levels. Even though there is corruption detected by politicians and bureaucrats. The Government of India has presented strategies to alleviate poverty through subsidies and other programs to help the rural poor. The Government offered programs like the Integrated Rural Development Program (IRDP), Training of Rural Youth for Self Employment and Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas (DWCRA) has helped the rural population below the poverty line to get training and reach out of poverty and also increase their source of income. Also the U.S. has made priorities in partnership to help form economic and social policy. Initiatives like removal of tariffs and other non tariff barriers and promoting technology exchange, in agriculture, biotechnology and nanotechnology can help shape and improve both the U.S. and Indian economies. Another initiative that can help Indian labour force is skills development. By training and educating people in the right fields this can have both countries exchange people for contract work. A major helper to India is another external entity known as the World Bank. The World Bank has 6 development regimes it wants to focus in helping India and they are hydropower, malnutrition, women’s and children’s health, water, transportation and the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). The Government of India, the World Bank and U.S. are giving a hand to the poor so they can work and try to get out of poverty and also receive basic healthcare needs.

Corruption in Government in a democratic nation can highly be a problem. When funds are granted to fight poverty and improve the lives of the poor, there are also downsides with the handling of these funds. In wage labour, contractors are finding others that will work for less pay that is a violation of material labour. Also only 5 to 10 rupees are being given to the poor worker and the rest out of the 100 goes to the politicians and bureaucrats. The poor are given a house on a 20,000 rupee rural housing program. The corrupt tend to take 5 to 8,000 out of that 20,000 which is needed to build the house for each beneficiary. Tribal communities who are basically illiterate and uneducated are isolated from the economic, social and political aspects of the Indian nation. The tribal communities were affected after independence of India, in which dams, mines, industries and roads were created. This resulted these tribal communities to be displaced, indebtedness and also relations with forests. Programs have done nothing to help these tribal communities cope with these problems. Transparency and corruption can be changed by making information more transparent. The government of India has taken measures to implement programs to fight poverty.

The Government of India has presented innovative policies and governance trying to alleviate poverty. Under agriculture, the state has given subsidies in the 90s. Income is not distributed and has a shortage on labour as well. “The boost in output from subsidy stimulated use of fertilizer, pesticides, and water deteriorates the aquifers and soil – an environmentally unsustainable approach that may partly explain the rising costs and slowing growth and productivity in agriculture” (Saxena) This massive amount of subsidy has given less importance on fixing roads, irrigation, canals, technological upgrading and this amounts to most of the poorer states. The Watershed development program are dispersed to many states but each state is offered a different sum than others. Once money is granted it is believed results will automatically come. The problem is that there needs to be evaluation and monitoring done. Another strategy the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India and the National Remote Sensing Agency came up is with wasteland mapping with GIS technology. These wasteland maps can provide information to NGOS and State Forest and Agriculture Departments. This can generate employment in rural areas and also in other rural development programmes. Desert Development Programme and Drought Prone Areas Programme can benefit from wasteland mapping. “Driven by public policies and institutional interventions, economic and spatial integration of markets occurs and several new marginal income-earning opportunities become available in the informal sector of the economy. Consequently, the dependence of the poor on the natural resource base for livelihood may actually get reduced.” (Srivastava) Better education followed by improving infrastructure can shift the poor to non farm activities.